Christmas

Celebrating Christmas in Guatemala was a new experience for me, but it was good. My host family is very nice, and they are embracing me into the family.

Here Christmas Eve is the center of all Christmas celebrations. Even still, we had class that morning. At noon I had to rush to Antigua to buy yarn to finish my 6th and final scarf to give to my host family for Christmas. Then my current teacher had invited me and Corey, my friend who is her former student, to visit her house. She had us pose for a picture and then sit in the living room and eat warm banana bread. She also gave us each a card with a nice note. (She is the one who is studying the Bible now.) It was a very sweet gesture.

My host family hung out, visited family, etc through the evening. I've already posted about the midnight experience, then we opened gifts at 2 am. As you will notice in the picture below, the tree and nativity are outside because each room opens to the outdoor courtyard area. Since it was very cold, the gifts were opened in record time! The primary gift was a bike for the 11 year old girl. She was very excited, but the rest of the family was just as excited for her as she was for herself. That was very touching for me to witness.

Christmas Eve

Surrounded by the cacophony of fireworks piercing the frigid air and the ensuing haze of smoke that engulfed the entire town at midnight on Christmas Eve, I was struck by the contrast between this night and that night so long ago when Christ was born. In the traditional Guatemalan Christmas celebration, two events take place at midnight: the baby Jesus is finally placed in the manger of nativity sets, and fireworks are ignited. As I reflected on the humble birth of our Savior amidst the cold fog last night, I began to wonder if the fireworks might somehow be an attempt to compensate for the lack of pomp and circumstance on the first Christmas. May His name be proclaimed as boldly as the fireworks resound throughout the nation.

La Esperanza

Last night we were able to host an event in town and invite our host families to come watch the movie ¨La Esperanza¨(The Hope). We took a break and served a snack with a hot drink in the middle of the movie, which was good because it was cold enough to see our breath. I was concerned about being outside in such weather as I am still trying to overcome a sinus infection, but I felt compelled to invite my family, and it doesn´t work to invite someone if you aren´t going yourself. So, I went with 5 of the 6 people in my family and trusted God for the outcome.

My family is STILL talking about the movie today, and my host dad wants a copy for himself. We had a good turnout, and everyone seemed to appreciate the movie. It is essentially a Creation to Christ story.

And . . . not only is my health not worse than before, it is actually better than yesterday! Praying that God will continue to bring the contents of the movie to the minds of the people and to stir their hearts.

Not Without Risk

I debated at great length about whether or not to share this story with anyone, especially my family, because I didn't want to cause any unnecessary worry or anxiety. However, I keep thinking that the best way to arm my prayer supporters is by giving them an accurate picture of the situation.

A little over a week ago, 5 of my fellow language students (4 guys and 1 girl, all in their early 20s) decided to climb a nearby volcano. They thought they had a local man going with them, but he had to back out at the last minute. We have been warned multiple times that such an outing is only safe with a guide or with security. They went anyway, alone.

They had a great day until they were most of the way back down the volcano. Then 3 guys with machetes and masks jumped out from behind cover and robbed them. From the stories we hear, God really protected my friends because most robberies are far worse than this. These robbers must have been novices because they only took watches, money, cameras, and sunglasses. They even allowed my friends to retrieve their memory cards from the cameras. When my biggest, strongest friend held out his wallet, they opted not to risk getting close enough to him to take it. When they were searching my female friend's bag, they encountered her Bible and stopped searching, thereby missing the camera that was in the same compartment as the Bible.

I think my friends learned about security risks, but please pray for us all to be wise. Life is never completely without risks. The reality is that anything can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. We can't live in a bubble, and we certainly cannot fulfill our mission inside a bubble. However, I am praying that the Holy Spirit will guide each one of us to make wise choices. I am also praying for the three guys who seem to be just beginning a life of crime.

A Weekend of Change

Our supervisor in Guatemala is a woman who lives in Guatemala City, and she invited us "girls" to spend the weekend in the city with her. We went to church with her Sunday morning and got to see the "end of Bible School" presentations by 3 different groups of kids. It was precious! Due to several factors in my living situation, my supervisor decided that it would be best if the school moved me to a different home. I wanted to wait until the group who are here for 3 months left so that it would seem like a more natural transition and be less likely to offend my host family. However, the change was made very abruptly. I found out on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend praying that the family would not be offended and that the transition would be as smooth as possible. I was moved on Sunday evening, and God definitely answered my prayers. The transition was pretty smooth, and the first family didn't appear to be offended.

My new host family consists of the dad Damian, the mom Oralia, and 4 kids. The dad teaches elementary school here in San Juan and also teaches teenagers in the evenings. (Of course, right now they are out of school as the break between school years in Guatemala is mid-October through mid-January.) The only son is 21 year old Samuel, who is a PE teacher. Then there is 19 year old Monica, who teaches preschool. I think Barbara is 14-15 years old, and Fatima is 11.

Since they are all off work/school now, the entire family usually eats lunch and dinner together. I love observing and being part of this family time! They seem to truly enjoy one another's company, laughing and joking together.

Here is a picture of my new room from the door. I was excited to have a dresser and tile floor, and I am also enjoying the small desk at the foot of the bed.

It is fun that they have decorated for Christmas. The balcony has Christmas lights, and there is a Christmas tree near the kitchen.

The family also has pets. There is a dog named Butch and a cat named Misha. In addition, Fatima showed me her TINY new turtle that lives in a coffee pot with rocks and water on the bottom. She named it Splash, and all of the girls seem pretty amused by this funny English name.

In this picture, the door to my room is the first on the left. You can see a little of our Christmas lights on the balcony. Butch likes to escort me to my room.

Last night when I returned to my room after dinner I was surprised to find a new roommate waiting for me, even though the door was not ajar.

Fortunately for Misha, I loved having her there as I really miss having a cat!

Please pray for both my original host family and my new one. Pray for opportunities to share and for God to reveal Himself to them.

One more change . . . Monday morning it was time to start working with a new teacher again. My new teacher is one who has been attending our Bible studies, and she is definitely seeking. It is so clear that God wants to work in her life. Please pray for my new teacher Lesbia!

Thanksgiving

We were so blessed to spend Thanksgiving with our IMB family here in Guatemala. We met some great individuals, couples, and families and just enjoyed sharing the time with them. We met at a house in a town called Panajachel, which is located on beautiful Lago Atitlan.


Before anyone gets too jealous, let me add that this lake is currently extremely toxic and is therefore unsafe for recreation or any other use except enjoying the view. We spent most of our time inside the house. A total of 30 of us spent the night. (The house has 24 beds, mostly bunk beds, and some slept on couches or in hammocks.) In addition to eating Thanksgiving dinner, we sang, shared stories, prayed, played games, etc. (Some of you will appreciate hearing that I even experienced my only 5 minutes of hot water in a shower at the beginning of my shower at the lake!) We also felt tremors from an earthquake that struck off the coast of El Salvador.

Friday when people were gradually heading to their various homes, violence erupted in the nearby town of Solola, blocking the road that led away from the lake. It was a type of violence that is becoming more common in Guatemala than the locals seem willing to admit. A gunman entered a bus and demanded that the driver give him money. When the driver refused, the gunman shot and killed him and fled with accomplices. Because of the corruption that exists in the police force, the indigenous people of that area wanted their own justice. Something like two thousand people joined the mob that blocked all of the streets for hours, promising not to let traffic through until the suspects who had been arrested were handed over to them. Meanwhile, a carload of our colleagues were in the midst of the blocked traffic, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible. Eventually the mob stormed the jail and set fire to it, thereby obtaining access to the 3 suspects. They burned them alive on the spot. No trial. No innocence until proven guilty. Sounds a bit more like the justice of the old west, but less humane.

I was initially unsure if I would share any of these details, but I feel compelled to paint a realistic picture as a call to prayer. Please pray for safety for all of my colleagues, and please pray for the people to come to an understanding of the value of human life, God's creation.

Torti the Turtle

My host family had been telling me for weeks that they have a pet turtle but that it is hard to find because the house and garden are big enough that the turtle doesn't have much trouble finding palces to hide. The Spanish word for turtle is tortuga, so they said that they had named it "Torti."

Eventually I started teasing 10 year old Juan Pablo that there really wasn't a turtle. That was all it took to make him start hunting for it! A couple of days later when I was in my room both came to my door and knocked. They had Torti in hand and were very excited to show him to me. I had to spend quite a bit of time watching the turtle to satisfy Juan Pablo. It was fun to have that kind of teasing connection with the boys, like I have always enjoyed having with my nephews.

Note: I haven't seen the turtle again since that day, either!

A Long Short Week

Even though Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in Guatemala, our school is generously allowing us to miss classes Thursday and Friday without having to make up the hours. So, we are meeting up with a bunch of other IMB people at a house near Lago Atitlan. (I understand this lake is beautiful but toxic, so I guess I won't be packing my swimsuit for this trip.) So, that makes this a 3-day school week. In reality, though, the week has been pretty long for me.

Sunday my friend Audra and I attended a baptism with my host family. My host dad's sister's daughter's baby was being baptized in a Catholic mass in Antigua. After the mass, well over a hundred friends and family squeezed into a rented bus for the drive up the mountain to the indigenous village of Santa Maria de Jesus for the fiesta. The family has very little, but they went to great effort to host a nice party. They had emptied out one of their 2 rooms to fill it with tables for serving dinner and had set up a bunch of plastic chairs outside for the rest of the guests. They had even fixed up walls of sagebrush to provide shade around the yard. I can't imagine the hours the women must have spent preparing the special dish of pepian and making thousands of torillas. They also served rum and Coke. Every time another round of rum was offered and Audra and I politely declined, my host mom felt the need to explain that our religion didn't allow us to drink. Of all of the party guests, I had the honor of being seated next to an elderly drunk man who kept pulling on my arm and talking to me. The fact that I couldn't understand a word he said didn't deter him from continuing to try. It was definitely an experience!

Last week ended with plans for me to take a test this Tuesday afternoon. (Our school has 2 books that they use for teaching Spanish, and to move from the first to the second you have to pass a 2 hour written test.) Imagine my surprise Monday morning when I get to school and our director Benjamin tells me that my test has been arranged for THAT afternoon! Monday morning my tutor Miguel worked hard to help me review and then encouraged me to be calm as I entered the test that afternoon. Then he read Phil. 4:13 to me and promised to pray for me at 2:00. I had to rush home after class ended at noon and tell my host mom that I couldn't wait until our normal 1 pm lunch time because I had to be in Antigua at 2 for the test. She hurried to cook and I ate quickly and ran off to catch a bus.

At that point, my stomach was beginning to feel a little upset. By the time my test ended at 4, I had cold chills and was extremely sick to my stomach. I didn't eat anything for the next 24 hours, and then my host mom kindly prepared very mild food for me (like vegetables WITHOUT fat added! and then soup for the next meal). My stomach is still unsteady but improving. Hopefully it won't be a problem on the 2-3 hour drive to the lake tomorrow morning or during our Thanksgiving dinner.

The good news is that I passed my test and officially started book 2 this morning!

Have a great Thanksgiving with family/friends, and remember to truly give thanks to the One who gave us everything!

Tikal Trip, Part Two

By the time we left Tikal (around noon), I'd had plenty of exercise and had definitely used muscles that weren't accustomed to being used. We stopped at a nearby 30 minute canopy tour of which several members of our group took advantage. On another day, I would have enjoyed that. Then we went back to our hotel for a quick lunch and refreshing minute in the pool before hitting the road to return to Rio Dulce. By the time we reached Rio Dulce, it was already dark. The only way to reach our destination for the night, a town called Livingston, is by taking a boat down the river for about an hour. There are no roads that go there. So, there we were, piling into this little motorized boat called a lancha. We were going pretty fast in spite of the dark, and a couple of times we had to swerve or slow down abruptly to avoid obstacles such as another boat, fishing nets, etc. By the time we docked at our hotel, my hair was thoroughly ratted and plastered back. Quite a site! We stayed in little cabins with mosquito nets over our beds. We had to take the boat a few more miles down and across the river to reach the main part of Livingston, where we had a less than exciting seafood dinner. We explored the town a little in the dark, and it was very interesting. It was like being in a different country because it is so remote. It is on the banks of the Caribbean Sea and was therefore settled by people from Africa. Even the language there is different. The atmosphere is very laid back, kind of like a mix of reggae and hippie environment.

Sunday morning we road the boat down the Rio Dulce and into the Caribbean to reach a place called 7 Altares. On the way, we actually got to see dolphins in the sea! Seven Altars is comprised of a series of small waterfalls leading into small pools of water. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't right to see much in the way of waterfalls as they haven't had a lot of rain lately. It was still very pretty, though.

We had to do a lot of climbing on rocks beside the water, which was a bit challenging for me, but I made it. Finally, we reached the last pool, where we swam. I think I am the only person in our group who didn't jump from the big rock down to the water, but I was convinced that I would have slid off the edge if I had tried.

After we cleaned up a bit, it was time to begin our journey home. Of course, the first leg of the journey was the hour long boat ride up the river to Fronterra. This time, though, we could actually see to enjoy the beauty of the river and all of nature surrounding it.

This is not the most flattering picture of me, but I am going out on a limb to post it because it is my only picture with our new friend, Cecilie. She is from Norway and is currently studying at the same school as us.

She was the only person outside of our group on this trip, and we all had various opportunities to discuss God and beliefs with her throughout the journey. She asked a lot of good questions and is very open to hearing from us. She told us that she wants to read the Bible because she thinks it is a good model for how to live a good life but that she doesn't believe in God. At one point, she commented that she wished she believed because she thinks it would be better. The previous weekend, she went on a trip with a group of European non-believers. She continuously tells us how much she prefers our company. We love her very much and are praying for her. She asked us if we have really every experienced God in a way that made us know that He is real, because she said she hasn't. That is my prayer for her. Please pray that God will reveal Himself to Cecilie in such a way that there can be no doubt in her mind.

Tikal Trip, Part One

This past weekend we took an incredible 3 day vacation to visit some Mayan ruins and see some other parts of Guatemala. It was all so amazing that I want to share some of it with you. First, the 9 of us plus our guide and our driver met to leave at 4 am Friday morning. We stopped once for breakfast and once to see a Chiquita banana plantation. By noon, we had made it to our first destination. We looked down at Rio Dulce from a bridge in Fronterra and then visited an old castle, called El Castillo de San Felipe.


We really enjoyed exploring this castle. It is located where Rio Dulce and Lago Izabel meet, so it is very beautiful. After we explored, we had a picnic lunch beside the lake and then some people swam a bit.

At one point I was walking through a short, narrow passageway when a friend snuck up behind me, causing me to jump just enough to hit my head on the top. Oops! It is finally not hurting anymore.

After the castle, we headed north. It was dark before we finally made it to the island city of Flores, where we looked in shops and ate dinner. We drove another half hour out of Flores before stopping for the night. We were pleasantly surprised by our hotel. It was on another lake, had a pool, and was a very pretty place in every way. The only thing it lacked was hot water, but at least it wasn't very cold. We went out on the dock to look at the stars a bit before getting some sleep. We were supposed to head out at 5;40 the following morning. As we stepped outside, we were caught off guard by the sound of fireworks exploding and a band beginning to play. Once we realized what it was, we had to laugh at ourselves for jumping back around the corner! From there, we went to visit the Tikal Mayan ruins. There are 3-4 thousand structures there, but only around 800 have been excavated. (Because they are made of limestone, moss and plants and grow over them, making them look like hills instead of the ancient structures they really are.) Here is the first one we climbed. The steps were FAR steeper than I had expected.

The whole area is jungle, and the beaut of God's creation was breathtaking. I particularly enjoyed the sun rays that managed to burst through the trees.

We also climbed the tallest temple, but for this one they built wooden stairs with handrails. I think there were a couple hundred of these steps to reach the top.

Here I am standing on the top, with some of the other temples visible in the background.

We did a lot of walking, and in places it was somewhat difficult terrain. Most of the group climbed to the top of the steepest temple, but I was one of the ones who stayed on the ground because you had to climb a series of ladders to reach the top.


This area was essentially once "downtown" Tikal. Many kings and important people were buried inside these structures.

I found it very interesting to explore inside the dwellings.

I'm going to have to stop for today, but I will add another post soon to cover the remainder of our trip.

Refreshing Sunday

Sunday we went to a curch near Guatemala City with an IMB couple who live in Antigua. On the way there, they told us the story of the pastor of this church. He grew up in El Salvador and was very active in a guerilla organization. By age 17, he had already suffered a gunshot wound. Because he was so valuable to the logistics operations of the organization, he was assigned a bodyguard. He later married that bodyguard (they assigned a tough 15 year old girl who carried a very big gun). Eventually, he was caught holding hostages and sent out of the country. He was shuffled around quite a bit, but at some point he had a coworker in a sanitation job who witnessed to him. He is now a wonderful pastor and a testimony to the power of God to change lives.

It is hard to explain, but I was captivated by this congregation. I don't know how or when, but I believe that I will return there.

The IMB couple took us to their house in Antigua after church and encouraged us to make ourselves at home. The house was very similar to a US house, so it was an oasis to us! They fed us a wonderful meal with American food (roast beef, green beans, cheesy potatoes, bread, fresh veggies, brownies, and ice cream). It was such a refreshing afternoon.

This morning we were assigned new teachers for the next 4 weeks. Mine is a man names Miguel. His style is very different from that of Rosario, and I think the change will be good for me. Miguel seems to be very devout to the traditions of his Catholic heritage. Please pray for him to recognize the need for a personal relationship with Christ.

Tuesday Afternoon

Tuesday afternoon we went to a small daycare/school in our town to do an activity with the kids there. First, let me just say that we met 18 precious children there! One of the guys in our group had planned an activity, and it went really well. He told the creation story one day at a time. After hearing about each day, the kids drew a picture to represent that day. The rest of us were spread out among the kids to help them know what to do, etc. I was helping a little girl named Kimberly and a little boy named Mario. After my experiences with kids in Manzanillo, I am not surprised by how much I enjoyed this time with the kids. Right now our plan is to return there for more activities every Tuesday afternoon. I suspect at some time in my near future I will be singing some of those great songs I learned to do with the kids in Manzanillo, like "Padre Abraham!"