Mother's Day Celebration 2014

Mother's Day here in Guatemala is really big.  It is a major holiday and celebrated as such.  Which the United States should adopt in my opinion as Moms have a big impact on our lives!  I know my Mom has been the single greatest influence in many ways on my life!  Every school celebrates with parties, it is a national holiday here and many places are closed as everyone celebrates with their Moms.

It was not different for us at Love Guatemala.  We had a couple of celebrations with the Moms of our students.  One of the things we did was have every student make a gift for their Moms and present it to them.  Several of them got up to courage to honor and speak words of thanks to their Moms.  One of the big things we emphasize and teach in the school is respect for other people especially your parents.  Many of them have difficult relationships with their parents, especially their dads.  It was great to see them show respect and love to their Moms.  Slowly with time we are seeing God change the hearts and lives of our students and that is why we are here!  Thank you for continuing to pray for our students and staff that God would continue to change lives!  Enjoy a few pictures below of our celebration.

 The gifts the carpentry school students made for their moms.

 Of course, we had lots of good food made by the Cooking School!

 So cute!

We of course played some fun and embarrassing games with the Moms!

It was a great day!  We need to celebrate Moms more often and the 24/7 work they do for us!  Thank You Moms everywhere!  

I don't deserve this!

I sometimes sit and think about how good God has been to me.  About how much I have and how rich I am.  Not physically necessarily although I have much in perspective to all my neighbors, but more relationally.  Life when we boil it down to the basics is all about relationships and people.  We can not take much with us after this life, but we can take people with us.

I was reading this prayer of thanksgiving with the kids tonight after dinner from King David in 2 Samuel 7:18-19.  He kind of had this same feeling after the Lord revealed to him that his kingdom would be established forever. Check it out:

"Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said:“Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign Lord, is for a mere human!"

King David is overwhelmed by God's goodness in his life and recognizes that we are yet mere humans and deserve nothing and yet God in his goodness, kindness and mercy gives us so much!  David recognizes God as the Sovereign Lord, the one who is control of it all, the one above it all and yet he desires to have a relationship with us and bless us as he does.

I can think of many things that God has given me that are gifts that I don't deserve.  Most of all is the gift of salvation God has given me through his son Jesus.  I don't deserve the wife and kids he has given me.  He has blessed us our family.  He has blessed the ministry we are blessed to be a part of.  I could go on and on.

But what about when we go through trials and difficulties?  So is God still good when we go through difficult times.  What about when we lose a loved one or lose our job?  What about....?  He is good and he is faithful even through the tragedy.  Often times we cannot see it and we forget it during these difficult times and the truth is we don't know why some of these things happen, but God doesn't cease to be good.  He is faithful and desires to help use through these difficult time as well.  He walks with us and never leaves us to go it alone.

I don't deserve it but He is so good to me!  

Worrying, God's Control and Our Part...

Anybody ever struggle with worry?  If you answered no you have other problems you need to deal with :-)  It is something everyone struggles with from time to time.  Life is hard.  There are lots of challenges.  How do we handle them?  Our natural reaction is to worry.  We are prone to think about every angle, every possible outcome and sometimes only the possible bad outcomes.  Worrying however natural it may be does us no good.  And yet I often find myself there time and time again.

Most of the time the biggest thing I worry about is money and I don't think I am alone in this.  Even though God has proven himself faithful to provide time and time again yet I still worry.  We just had to buy a new pump for our hot water heater and our car is in the shop so what did I do?  Of course worried about where the money would come from to pay for these things even though God had already provided for them!  God has provided in some miraculous ways over the last few years for our family and for our ministry!  He just provided $565,000 for the Love Guatemala Vocational Training Center!

Jesus has a lot to say about worry.  Especially in Matthew 6:25-34.  You should go here and read the whole passage.  But I love especially what he says in verse 34.  He tells us that we should not worry about tomorrow because we have enough going on today!  We don't need to spend time worry about anything in the future especially.  Most of us have plenty to deal with today so why spend time worrying about tomorrow?  He also tells us in this passage that he's got it.  He's in control not us! He reminds how he takes care of everything else in this universe and so he will take care of us even more.  We are much more valuable to God then the animals, flowers and other things in this world.  No need to worry because God's got it!

So what is our part?  We know we shouldn't worry but we still have a responsibility to face those issues and challenges head on right?  Our first response should be to pray as Philippians 4:6 reminds us.  After asking God for peace and wisdom we have to face the issue at hand and move forward in confidence that God is leading us.  God is in control and is all-powerful but God often works through his people.  We don't need to worry, but we need to work and do what God has called us to.  And what God called us to is not a mystery!  Sometimes we find ourselves wondering what does God want for me in my life. What job should I take? Who should I marry? How many kids should I have? What house and neighborhood should we live in? etc. etc. But God only calls us to glorify Him! Whatever job, spouse, or if your single and no matter the house or neighborhood you live in.  Bring glory to Him.   Part of that means not worrying and bringing those cares, concerns and worries to Him! "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I Corinthians 10:31

We have a God the rose from the dead. Nothing is impossible for him so let's not worry.  Let's remind ourselves we have a risen Jesus and nothing is so big that we need to worry!

The Risky Journey of Faith...

Carlos praying after the ground-breaking ceremony.

We have been on an amazing journey over the last several months.  Highs and lows. Excitement and disappointment.   Lacking in faith and full of faith.  Many of you have read about the things happening with the ministry of Love Guatemala.

I love how God works.  Not always, because sometimes it means I have to wait and struggle and be uncomfortable.  That's always part of the journey.  It's hard, difficult and yet beautiful and glorious.  As they say "no pain, no gain."  The biggest growth in our lives is often a result of the most painful times that we have gone through.  Beauty from ashes.  Only God can do this.  It is backwards from we learn in this world.  The world and its affairs will tell us to take the easy road and when things get tough to quit.  You don' t deserve difficulties it says.  God does work in mysterious ways.

The past several months, and actually the last 3 years or so have been full of lots of prayer, excitement and at times, discouragement.  We have been seeking and praying for guidance in this journey we've been on as is at times has seemed impossible.  It began with the impossibility of moving a family of seven from a large American city with all the niceties of American life to a third-world country with many challenges.  That seemed impossible and was full of many challenges and yet God somehow and someway made a way for us to be here.  Little did we know the journey of this would prepare us for the biggest step of faith we would ever take...

God is so gentle with us.  He prepares us and yet pushes ever so gently, not forcing anything but lovingly encouraging us to step out in faith.  Faith that He will come through, faith that He will provide, faith that He will guide, sustain and work.  Just as a good earthly father will encourage their kids to take it step by step to prepare for the one day when they leave the home, God is doing the same with us.  Take this step of faith and watch Me work.  Take this step of faith and let Me prove yet again that I am here and I will provide.

We can look back over the last several years and see just how God was preparing us and we know that in the future He will continue to grow us step by step. God was preparing us to step out in believing Him for a bigger vision for the community where we work.  We know and have seen the impact Love Guatemala is making here through vocational training, but sometimes we are content with how things are and we don't want to take steps forward in faith and so God once again gently nudges us forward.

We sensed God nudging us forward as a ministry to take the next step and so that is what we did.  We purchased a piece of property.  We thought this was a pretty big step as we needed $25,000 to take this step and as always God provided.  As we purchased this piece of property we knew that we would eventually, someday have to do something with it.  Our thinking was in the future...sometime, somewhere down the road.

Then God once again gently nudged us to move forward with planning a facility that would house the current schools and maybe a few more along with a feeding center.  As we began to plan and dream God once again pushed us forward and expanded our limited to vision to one of planning a facility to house up to 10 trade schools, feeding center, church, Bible training center and so much more!  It would look something like this:

We finished planning and designing by the end of last year.  We had the cost and all the plans finished.  The final number came in at $565,000!  What?  Yes that is A LOT of money but we knew God was leading us down this journey so we stepped out in faith.  Thoughts came such as, "What if we never get enough money"?  "What if we look stupid because we planned all this and now we don't have any money"?  "What if, what if?"  We prayed and asked God to provide these funds over the next few years.

We started 2014 committing the first 21 days of January praying, fasting and believing that God was going to do some big things this year.  As we finished our time of focused prayer I was a little discouraged.  Not much had come in for the facility.  

Then not too long after this we were contacted by a couple who had adopted from Guatemala and their daughter, named Magdalena (the name of the town we work in), wanted to get involved.  They had found out about Love Guatemala through an article that was written in the newspaper by someone from our home church.

They wanted to give a gift towards the facility but wanted to meet with someone first.  So, they met with our Pastor and at that meeting they indicated that they might be interested in funding the entire project!  They got back with us a few days later and said they indeed wanted to give the entire $565,000 to fund the Love Guatemala Vocational Training Center!  Incredible! Faith once again lifted, challenged and shattered!

We are so in awe of how God continues to provide each step of the way!  The journey of faith is always risky and never over.  Its always fun but never easy.  Scary but we are never alone.

The journey continues as we begin to pray for God to provide more teachers, more support stateside for continued growth, more resources for ongoing costs for the school etc etc.  Each step more scary, yet more exciting.  Each day more faith-building and faith-challenging.

You can see above the picture of the ground-breaking ceremony that happened on March 27th, 2014.  Construction began the following Monday March 31st. About 3 months earlier than anticipated because God doesn't work on our time tables!  The goal is to have the facility finished by end of 2014 or early 2015.  Much sooner than planned!  What a powerful, generous, good God we have!

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

From Dust to Dust...

We made a visit to a good friend's this last Sunday.  His name is Cesar and his wife on the left is Andrea.  Bruce our friend was visiting with us.  So I took him to visit with Cesar.  We had a great time hanging out with them.  I always leave after visiting with him so challenged.  As I sit writing this, I think of the pain that he is enduring.  I am thinking about how he has been bound to his bed for 9 years.  I think about how he has not been able to go outside, go on a walk, go to his kid's school activities or even eat a decent meal.  And yet I have not once heard him complain about any of these things.  He has been battling a debilitating, terminal disease for 12 years.  His bones are fusing together and degenerating.  His faculties are shutting down.  He has ulcers from all the pain medicine he has to take and yet still has tremendous pain.  Yet he remains focused.

Cesar is a man on a mission.  He is living on mission while bound to his bed.  He often tells us how he use to go door to door share Jesus with people and people use to shoot the door in his face or say they didn't want to hear about it.  And now people come to him and not once has anyone said he couldn't share.  He takes every opportunity with ever visitor to testify of Jesus Christ!  

He challenges me and many who visit him.  He challenges us to remain focused and to live for what is important and not complain when life gets tough.  Not many of us if any will ever face the pain and suffering he has and is going through.  

He oftens share this verse from Ecclesiastes 3:20 "All go to the same place; all comes from dust, and to dust all return."  He shares this as he talks about how what we can see is temporal but what we can't see is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)  It is so easy to get focused on what does not matter and lose sight of what does matter.  100 years from now what will matter?  That is what we should spend our time, resources and energy on!  

From dust we came and to dust we will return...what are doing that will last beyond the dust?

A Weekend Away!

We were glad to be able to get away last weekend to a missionary conference here in Guatemala.  It is a big blessing as they serve us missionaries in many different ways and make it really affordable.  We have realized the importance of getting away every once in a while even though it is a lot of work to do so with 5 kids :-)

The conference was held at Lake Aitilan in a city called Panajachel.  It is the most beautiful place I think I have ever been!  Enjoy some pics of our time there:

Waiting Patiently?!?!?!

If there is one thing God has been teaching us as a family it is how to pray.  We are still in the process and we will be for all of our lives.  But there is something about feeling way over your head that forces you to be on your knees more!  There are so many things to be in prayer for sometimes it is overwhelming.  There are sick people, a young girl who we don't even know that fell 30 feet and just had a major surgery, there are our schools, the students involved in the schools, the teachers, our family.  We just found out that Levi will soon need another surgery (bone graft) for his continued cleft lip and palate process.  Of course we are praying big for our Love Guatemala Vocational Training Center. And so much more to be praying for!

Here is one thing specifically God was teaching me as I have been praying the last few days: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cray." Psalm 40:1 Before the second part can happen, the part we like and want we have to learn to wait patiently.  Patience is not a strong suite of mine.  But the Lord keeps bringing me back to that living here in Guatemala.  Nothing happens fast here!  No one is on time and not many people are in a huge hurry.  One of the biggest frustrations is driving!  The many speed bumps, the people walking in the streets, the cows in the streets, the dogs, the random security stops along the sides of the roads, and the randomly closed streets for any and every celebration.  (The road was closed this morning as we were leaving for Levi's dental appointment which caused us to be late.)  I could go on and on!

So back to patience. Sometimes we need to wait patiently in prayer, in fact most times we need to wait patiently in prayer.  But why can't we just ask for something and we get it as soon as we ask.  I am more and more convinced that God uses prayer and even the missions he has called us to draw us deeper in love and relationship with him.  God's biggest goal for our lives always involves us drawing nearer and nearer to Jesus.

I just finished reading a book on George Mueller's life.  He was a missionary in Bristol, England who ran several orphanages and never asked a person for money but just prayed and asked God and God always provided.  His life is a great challenge to truly learn to live a life of prayer.  I leave you with this quote from this book challenging us to continue in prayer and expect the blessing: "It's not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright, nor it is enough to continue for a time in prayer; but we must patiently, believingly continue in prayer until we have obtained an answer; and further, we have not only to continue in prayer until the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing.