Less Guatemala More Christianity

Hey everybody! It has been awhile since I typed and because it is so very close to the half way mark, I thought I would fill you all in on what has been happening down here. I believe I left off talking about my first day talking about school. The past week I decided to take a week off from teaching because Wendy was back and ready to teach all of the classes. I felt really called to learn Spanish and became very worried when I realized that it was week three and I was still wondering what the heck was being said around me. I felt like I was wasting a great opportunity by not buckling down and studying my Spanish. In the week off I took from teaching I attended Professor Victor´s natural science classes. During these classes I would write down every single word that I didn´t know and at the end of three classes a day I would go back home to look up the definition and study them. This combined with doing the same while watching movies in Spanish and attending the Bible study every morning at the center at 8 I have obtained many new words that I am trying to learn. I have memorized about a hundred new ones and am working on about 60 more. I have cut them out of my notebook and turned them into tiny flashcards.

My day begins at 6:30 now and some days it is easy to get up while others are quite hard. The hot nights make it hard to fall asleep but not impossible. I have more time to read at night because turning off the lights and trying to sleep would be futile and that calms me down a good amount. Purpose Driven Life has been wonderfully challenging and each day I am excited to live for the glory of God. Every chapter of that book is thought provoking and life changing.  I am now going to talk about a couple of things that have really spoken to me. Ready?

One of them is that a relationship with God is much more than a master/servant relationship. God wants us to be a good friend to Him and He wants us to be one of His great friends. He wants us to exhibit qualities towards Him that are the same qualities we display to our close friends. The book talks about how many prophets from the Old testament would argue with God. They would be honest with Him and show their true feelings. They had the freedom to yell at God and ask Him why things were happening. God does not want us to be fake with Him and hide our true emotions from Him by not expressing them. I also enjoyed the chapters on worship and how everything we do can be considered worship to God. As long as we are praying for His will and act accordingly we can be worshipping Him. From driving a school bus full of kids to assessing risk management for large companies, wherever you are you can be worshipping God. The author also talks about how worship is not made for us to feel emotional. It is to praise the almighty, awesome and wonderful God who sent His only son to die for us so that we may have eternal life. Worship is not meant to bring tears to our eyes or feel His presence. One popular form of worship, through music and singing, is so many times regarded as ¨not so great today¨ or ¨really good, I couldn´t stop smiling¨ but this is not the way we should think about worshipping the creator of everything living and dead. I do not want to be selfish in worship anymore. I always thought it was weird when people would put their hands in the air while singing in church and it was hard for me not to judge them thinking that they were showing off to other people. I now get that they are just offering themselves and praising an all knowing and all powerful God regardless of how emotional they feel.  People are going to worship God in a thousand different ways, and it is not in my ability to say what pleases and what doesn’t please God except for what the Bible has said about it.

I am obviously not using any scripture to back this up, but the book thoroughly supports these claims with scripture and makes them much more clear than I could ever hope to.  I mentioned judgment earlier and that is another chapter in the book. It does a good job of saying that there will be denominations and people will follow things very strictly that others will not. The Bible clearly states this and it also says to not judge people on their denomination. There are over 21 denominations of Christianity in the Petén (the state I am in, in Guatemala). Some are very charismatic and others are very reserved. At some it would be faux paus for a women to wear anything but a dress and at others blue jeans and an affliction t-shirt are just fine. And yet, in 99% of the Churches here it would be absurd for someone to dress in shorts. The extent to what makes these churches different is so insignificant compared to what unites them. The Ochaeta´s try to go to different churches as to not seem like they belong to one denomination because if they did, the clinics they put on would have very small turnouts due to the discrimination.  They put on a clinic for special needs training a week ago and it went swimmingly. I was not there because I was teaching English, but they said that (I might be ten or twenty off) 130 people came who were all members of one of the 21 denominations here in Petén and many of them were the wives of the pastors of those churches.

Last week was a lot of fun because I got to hang out a lot with Jessie and Franklin. Jessie is home from college because he had to have his appendix taken out. The hospital here is very small and laden with shotgun carrying guards. Barbed wire, mango vendors and foliage surround the compound which is home to five or six scattered buildings. I didn´t enter the hospitals, so I won´t tell you what they are like. I really didn´t want to go into the hospital because I am sure it would have been depressing. Instead, me and Franklin brought some food to Ismael and Orfa from a local eatery, dropped it off with them and went to our appointment with Ovidio to work out. On top of hanging out with Jessie and Franklin, I also got to hang out with their very cute and spunky 4 year old cousin Francisco. He was a blast and was at the house from Thursday to Saturday and was gone by the time I got back from the Ochaeta´s on Monday morning. Jessie, Franklin and I have played two rounds of their version of Monopoly, which highlights the states of Guatemala. The board is a little different, but the rules are the same. They had not played it yet so it was my responsibility to teach them the rules and then sweep the floor with them using my superior knowledge of the game. It reminded me of the nights staying up late at our good friends, the Kochs, house in Wisconsin being too young to fully understand the rules. Except this time I was more prepared and excited to play. It was very hard to explain the idea of mortgaging properties when they had to pay me thousands of dollars from landing on my orange properties. I´m sounding like a bully, but we had fun and now they don´t want to not play it.

I have been trying to seek God in every decision I make and there have been a few instances where I have really had strong urges to do and not do certain things. At the risk of sounding insane to those who don´t believe in the God and Christ that I do and even to those who do, I will now explain. I have been praying throughout my days asking for guidance in everything from what I should eat to when I should get up to what I should read next or if I should start studying my words. I get strong urges to do things like read my Bible or study and even at times wake up. One morning last week I woke up about ten minutes before my alarm on my phone went off at about 6:20. I closed my eyes to go back to sleep but kept repeating to myself in my head, no, you need to get up now. I prayed whether or not I needed to get up right then and could not finish the prayer because I just kept thinking get up, get up. I ignored this even though I could knew it was something different and laid awake in my bed until my alarm went off. I went through my daily routine of reading some Bible, eating breakfast and brushing my teeth, but felt a little guilty for not getting up through all of it.  I went to the bathroom and when I was getting out I noticed that my host family was about to leave. I saw them outside and said goodbye to them. I assumed Jessie was still in the house since he has nothing to do in the mornings so I was not bugged that they left the guard dog in the front. I normally would be and would ask them to lock him up in case I want to leave the house, but did not because Jessie could have just done it. I got on my clothes and five minutes later was ready to leave for the center for the Bible study. I looked around the house for Jessie when he realized that he was not in the house.  If I would have been ready 5 minutes earlier I would have left when the rest of the family did and would have been able to go to the center, but because the dog was not locked up, I couldn´t leave the house.  I disobeyed and order to get up and the consequences were obvious. The next day I learned that Ovi led that bible study (it is usually his buddy that works with him) and I could tell that he was bummed out that I wasn´t there. My selfishness led to Ovi being hurt.

 Another example is that I was hungry one afternoon and went into the kitchen to get a mango to eat it. I had the mango in my hand and I thought to myself, ¨Don’t eat it.¨ I thought, okay God, why would you not want me to eat this? It is healthy and delicious and I am hungry and will fulfill my hunger until dinner. I put the mango down reluctantly and went back outside to read. A couple of minutes later Franklin came back with a bag of chocolate covered mangos for everyone in the house including myself. I am sure that it would have disappointed Franklin to see me already eating a mango when he returned. I thanked God for telling me not to eat it and thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate covered one.

I have acted on some other impulses that I feel have been from God and I am much happier when I do. I know that this will not last for long and I know that there will be times when God feels absolutely absent in my life (he won´t be, but I will feel as if he is). I know that both of these situations are and will be tests of my character and want to take advantage of the time I have feeling God´s presence.

This is another reality of a Christian walk that I have learned through the Purpose Driven Life.  And I am glad that I brought this up because there is one more that was really convicting. I have been very lazy when it comes to keeping my Christian brothers and sisters accountable for their actions. This does not mean yelling at them or being rude, but it means me caring enough about our relationship and their relationship with God to bring up areas in their life that hurts both of those relationships. I have probably not done this because it would have made me feel hypocritical because I was participating in many of the same things that my family in Christ were participating in. Why do we as believers not exercise our freedom to keep others accountable for their actions? We are a family. We need to talk to eachother and bring up stuff that is unbiblical. One thing that I did was ignore the fact that God hates it when we get drunk. I  ignored that and willingly became drunk once in a while to have a good time or be more comfortable. If I was reading this blog three months ago I would be making fun of me and saying that I was having some grand Guatemala experience that I would soon go back to my same self a couple of months from returning. I don´t want that to happen and know that while drinking alcohol is biblically okay, God really does find it disgusting when we become drunk.  So, when I get back to the states I will be trying to live a righteous life and will strive to have fellowship with a core of believers. I´m still fun, ridiculous Keaton who enjoys blurring the lines of ¨too soon¨-ness, but I want to be using my God given personality to reflect his love and awesome power.

This past weekend I went up to the Ochaeta´s house and it was very relaxing and fun. Their air conditioning is greatly appreciated as is Derida´s wonderful cooking. One of my favorite things that she makes is a Mediterranean fruit and veggie dish. Ovi was studying hard for an oral exam that he took this Monday (and passed WOO!), so I did not see a lot of him. I played a healthy amount of Wii Resort Sports with Albana and she destroyed me in most of them. It never feels good to get beat by a pre-teen girl in anything. I later accidentally punched her in the mouth while we were playing in a very clean and refreshing community pool on Sunday. The pool is in an area where there are many plots of land one of which is owned by their friend who is a dentist in Flores. She drove Albana and I down to the pool where we enjoyed Coca-Colas, swung in hammocks and played with a football in the pool. It was a blast and was thoroughly worn out by the time we got to church. I prayed that I would understand it and I understood a good amount of it. I cannot, however, tell you what it was about now. When we got back to the  Ochaeta´s house Ovi and I watched the beginning of a PBS documentary on WWII that he has on DVD.

Ovi likes the history of wars a lot and wants very badly to become a pilot. He has many thousands of hours logged in his flight simulator and about an hour in an actual plane. The actual plane belongs to a friend of his who took him up and let him fly. He says that maybe one day he will be called to pursue his license, but does not have the money or calling to do so now.  Am I allowed to go back and talk about the DVD even though it is a new paragraph? I think I will. It was really interesting and we watched a good amount of it. After skyping Katelyn I went to bed. I am sleeping downstairs on a mattress in their living room area because the sound of rats in the upstairs attic keeps me up at night. It was very comfortable and I slept well.

Today I skipped attending Victor´s class to go to a different hospital that Ovi and the boys at the center will be building cabinets and work tables for. It is called Hospital Shalom and is a Christian ministry. There were guards at the front of the hospital and I learned later that this was strange for this particular hospital. They had a patient right now that had rolled his tractor while cutting the grass of his employer. He had torn his shoulder badly and needed surgery and also lost the lives of his wife and child who were sitting on the tractor with him. He was being charged for homicide and the guards were there to make sure he would stay in the hospital. I thought that that was one of the saddest stories I had heard. Ovi took measurements for everything and he dropped me off at the Martinez´house. The Martinez´are the actual last name of my host family. Guerra is the maiden name of Orfa and Martinez is the last name of Ismael. I took a nap, had some lunch, read and went back to the center to workout with Ovi. When I got back to the house I helped Orfa with her statistics homework . It is fun relearning it and challenging to explain it, but I enjoy it. I am now sitting at the computer while the Martinez´are at  Orfa´s sisters house. I was invited but figured I would stay back and write. It has taken me a solid two and a half hours to get this all out and there is more to write but will leave it for next time. Reminder-Tuk Tuks and fumigation.

Jesus Christ, thank you for listening to our Father in heaven and giving up your life to free me of my sin. I know that You had every power to take yourself off of that cross and leave that terrible blood-letting ritual, but instead You endured. Help me to have Your strength when I am wrestling with the orders of God. You said ¨My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?¨I know that at that point you could not feel the presence of your Father. I admire Your love and long to understand how you got through that pain. I pray, dear God, that you would not make Yourself feel distant from me. I pray that You would keep whispering in my ear and stay close, but I know that you like to make yourself feel distant to us to test and judge our character. I know that there is no obstacle that You will put in my way that You have not given me the tools to get over. I pray that I can remember this in times of trouble. I praise You Oh God because of Your absolute might and creativity. I pray that You would bless me with the wisdom that comes from You and thank You for calling me to an eternity spent with you. I humbly come to Your feet and commit myself to loving Your people and following Your word. I love You my Lord and pray that the people I come in contact with would experience that love and acceptance. Thank you Jesus.

Amen

EDIT:  I wrote this post on Microsoft word because Orfa has the mobile internet right now. I finished writing and went to study. I felt the spirit telling me not to study so I decided to read my Bible. I started reading where I had left off in 2 corintheans but could not concentrate. I asked God what was up and told him that I guess I should read Isaiah, the book of the Bible that I am studying. I then loudly thought ¨Read James.¨ I thought, “Are you kidding me?” Why James?” I prayed to make sure that He wanted me to read James and I felt pretty positive of it. I even tested it and thought “read Galatians” on purpose. But I prayed and was told that it was James for sure. I wanted to know why and thought I was smart by asking “Which James, aren´t there like three?”  While looking for James I realized that there was only one and that there were three Johns.  So, I started reading it and immediately I knew why God wanted me too. There are a plethora of verses in James that relate to what I have said in this post. I am now going to write everything that I underlined, some of which pertains to what I wrote and some that does not. I put the stuff that does not pertain at the end:

1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1:5-6 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach…But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

1:9-10a  But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position: and the rich man is glory in his humiliation.

1:13-14 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be temted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

1:19-20 But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God

1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

1:25-26 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man´s religion is worthless.

1:27b: and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

2:8b-9: …“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

2:14a What use is it my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?

2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

2:18b I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well, the demons also believe, and shudder.

2:20b: faith without works is useless

2:22b: as a result of the works, faith was perfected.

2:23b: and he was called the friend of God.

2:26b: faith without works is dead.

3:2b if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man

      Me:   I know that there are things that I have written that might not be accurate, but I believe now that they are. This verse gives me freedom to say those things I feel.

3:5: So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.

3:6: .. and the tongue is a fire…which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life…

3:8-9a: But no one can tame the tongue, it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men.

3:12: Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh

3:13b: Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy. And the seen whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

4:2 You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4:4b: Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

4:6b: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

4:8a: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

 Me:       This is comforting when it comes to God testing us by feeling distant. It is a reminder that just because he feels distant to us, does not mean he is distant.

4:10: Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

4:12b: but who are you who judge your neighbor?

                Me: There are a lot of these that talk about judging, we really are nobody to judge.

4:14b-15a: You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills,…

                Me: Why waste our lives trying to please anyone but God. Pleasing others in a holy way is pleasing God.

4:17: Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

                Me: I do this all the time, even when I see the awesome results of following his voice.

5:6: You have condemned and put to death the righteous man, he does not resist you.

                Me: This is why we need fellowship, it is so hard to resist sin.

5:8b-9a: strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another…

                Me: We are a family, how is complaining useful in any situation?

5:11b: You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord´s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

                Me: So crazy that I was talking about Job and then God leads me to this verse on him. Job cried out to God and, because of his humility, God was faithful to Job

5:16: Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

5:17-19: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

5:19: My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sin.

                Me: It should be our joy to turn people from sin. But instead, we are afraid that it might hurt someone’s feelings by confronting them. That is simply Satan deceiving us.

Does not really deal with what I wrote in the post:

1:11b So too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

1:17a Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above

2:5 did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

2:16b and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

3:1: Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

5:12b: but your yes is to be yes and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgement.

5:14b: anointing him with oil in the name of the lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick

                Me: This reminds me that I have a really bad cough that I have had for like two weeks, so pray that the sucker goes away. Thanks!

Schewl

            Wendy had told me the topics we were going to be going over for the week and Monday was supposed to be conversational phrases  in English. I knew that I had a sixth grade class at 10:00 and a fourth and sixth grade class after that. After talking to Wendy I thought that I was simply going to be helping her and the kids with pronouncing things but she would still be teaching the class. I was very wrong. She told me a couple of things and I feigned comprehension. She handed me the white board markers and eraser and walked to the back of the classroom. I realized at this point that I should have prepared something as I was going to be teaching the whole class. I wasn't that worried though because it was in my native tongue.

           I started with sayings like "Hi, how are you?" "What is your name?" "I am thirsty" and most importantly "Where is the bathroom?" I would say a word or syllable and then have everyone repeat it. I would call on kids and ask them their name and then to repeat the phrase. A big thing that I was very focused on was getting them to be confident in what they were saying. I would offer them a big smile after words and say "very good" which they would often repeat. When I ran out of phrases, because it is much harder to think of fifty minutes of phrases off the top of your head, I asked the kids what they wanted to learn. As the day went on I ran out of things earlier and earlier because I already knew what I was going to say and didn't need to spend as much time thinking about it.
It went well and I asked Wendy how I should manage the tine of the class better. She is very shy and told me that what I did was perfect. I decided to come with lesson plans for the rest of the week. I use the word lesson plan very loosely.

             Each morning before going to school I would look to see what the days topic would be and I would write things down on a piece of paper that I would later write on the board. One day was emotional states, one was prepositions, opposites, and Friday was emotional states again because Wednesday I only taught the six grade. On opposites day I ended the class with a competition by splitting the room up into two teams and had then compete to see which team could come up with the opposite first.
Ovidio built a little gym in the center so we have been working out in the gym after school. I have really enjoyed that and is nice to be able to relieve a little stress.

        Today was the second day of teaching without Wendy. It came to me as a surprise yesterday morning as I walked into school. One of the other teachers told me she couldn't make it and to just work on the stuff from last week. I taught the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes and twinkle twinkle little star. The kids really enjoyed that so that was good. We also played the opposites game which they like. The fifth and sixth grade classes were very behaved and I really appreciated that. Some of the fourth grade boys were terribly rambunctious and it was hard to get them to do anything. It is very hard to chastise someone in a foreign language. Sorry to my teachers throughout the years that had to put up with me and thanks for not giving up. I would say I was worse than my worst, but it's hard to tell. They are all awesome fun and funny kids but to get them to not wrestle is hard.

            Today Wendy came by the house early to ask if I could go to school at 8am every day to teach the whole day for her. She said that she was very busy studying for exams and needed the time to study. I said of course, quickly got dressed, had a bowl of choco krispies and went to school. I was told to just have the kids do two pages out of their workbook and to help them and explain the directions. It went well and I love the first through third graders. They are just sweet and want to do the work. The fourth grade boys kept fighting for dictionaries even tho they barely knew how to use them. I sat down with them and tried to teach them and I feel like they know a little bit better now. They actually ended up doing the work and that made me very happy.

            I am now sitting across an arm chair in the living room watching Franklin play some farmville Facebook game and writing this on my phone. The rain patters on the tin roof making it sound like a downpour. This is the third night it has rained since I have been here and I absolutely love it.
Sunday was fun as we went to one of the Ochaetas friends big lake gazeebos and had a cookout. There was chicken and beef cooked over a wood fire on a grill which turned out excellent. Blended beans, tortillas, tostadas, and seafood soop. There was also paella with plenty of saffron which was killer. Albana and I went swimming along with little Valeria, one of the friends daughters who is good at walking and a bit at talking and Marcello, one of their friends four or five year old grandson. It was fun wrestling Marcello in the shallow part of the lake and playing with his slingshot. I had an awesome and very relaxing time as I watched the sunset while in a chair in the water while drinking a beer.

            I am reading the purpose driven life with Katelyn right now and am enjoying it. Even before reading the book I have felt much more ready to start real life. I have been postponing it and didn't really want to do much but have fun after I graduated. But now I am getting more and more excited about finding some sort of job that will lead into a career. I know that I love working with people and I love helping people. Whether I end up getting a masters in social work, go the counseling route or go full time Young Life, I am excited to start the search for Gods plan for my life. I also set a goal to read from Acts to the end of Revelations by the time I get out of Guatemala. The pelican brief was 300 pages and I read that in three days, so I figured I could do this. I have realized 300 Bible pages is much more than 300 Grisham pages but will still try to make it. I have gone through phases where I read the Bible to solely please God and phases where I will read until I find something I can dwell on and do it for personal knowledge. I am dwelling on Isaiah and is taking very long to get through it so I decided to add the  new goal. I am learning so much and loving it. I don't know if I have ever read the Bible as a story (still nonfiction) but I am doing that now. It is so awesome. I love the part in Acts where they ask God to show them who will be the replacement Apostle. They pray to Him and ask Him and I expect a dove to land on the shoulder of one of the men standing around. But no, they then draw lots! That would be like praying who God wants and then picking names out of a hat. It is something that I would think is chance, but no, it is completely God ordained.  One of my favorite inspirational verses is Acts 5:41 and 42
It is after the apostles are whipped for proclaiming Christ:

So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. NASB

Lord, Forgive us of the times we don´t take into consideration the fact that everything is because of You and is for You. Allow us to live each day dependant on Your love and grace and never think that we are capable of living without You. I pray that you can show me the purpose that You have for my life and place my feet upon the path to glorify You. I thank You for each day that You have given me and repent of the decisions I make against You. Lord, fill me with Your spirit and allow me to find joy in living for You. The happiest times of my life are when I am in Your presence and worshipping You, O Lord. Show me the areas in my life that need to change and allow me to show Your grace, love, and caring attributes to the lost of the world. God, I pray for Your church that You would unite it and bring about a revival. I pray that when You test my fellow Christians, I can be there for them and be a rock on which they can gain a foothold. I pray for the myself and the Christians that are in my life to be living for You alone and not for worldly pleasures or materials. Keep us strong as one body and remind us that each gift You have given us can and should be used for You.

I love You and strive to understand Your love,
Amen

Part II

Preface: I really have not felt like writing lately and have almost felt like it was a chore. I talked to Sue and she said to just be myself and not worry about pleasing people. That was very helpful and so here is the second part of the weekend. The majority of this is written to please you and am not sure if it conveyes my emotion or not. The last couple of paragraphs was written after I talked to Sue and was much easier to write and it flowed more natural. So, here it is.

I got back from getting ice cream at around 11:20 and Ovidio was waiting at the house for me. We drove in his black xterra for about ten minutes and arrived at the Maxi Bodega, the large walmarty store right outside of Flores after picking up a couple of Cokes. We were greeted by two shotgun totting security guards and went to get bird feed for the birds at the center and a lollipop for his daughter, Albana. We drove back to the center and hung out with the two German shepherds and fed his two parakeets. We changed and cleaned out the water containers  then went into an office that is inside the large and well equipped carpentry and wielding warehouse. The office was complete with a couch, a desk and picture frames on the wall all made by the boys that work in the center.

Ovidio picked up his scoped pellet gun and we went outside to shoot at a melon on a stick. We could not hit it for our lives and decided to calibrate the scope some other day. We got back in the car and Ovidio asked if I was racist. I looked at him and squinted and said that I was not. He said “good, because I like the hip-hop”. I laughed and we cruised to Flores listening to Christian hip-hop.  We drove over the isthmus separating the island with the mainland and the view of the city was beautiful.

I could see how the island was snuggly nestled into the lake and how the worn colors of the wind whipped and sun burnt buildings were stacked haphazardly on a hill. We drove a little bit around the island and took a turn inward. Ovidio slowed down and peaked the nose of his car around a tight corner to see if any traffic was coming down the steep ramp that was his street. We started to climb the old hill made of in-lain stone and parallel parked in front of his house. Ovidio takes a lot of pride in his parallel parking which I must admit is pretty impressive. The door to the house was opened with a greeting of “What took you guys so long?” by Albana. Ovi presented the sucker and she said that it no longer mattered.

We ate sandwiches complete with Frank´s red hot sauce. We talked in English and I felt very at home. Ovidioo´s jokes about me being racist were relentless and he enjoyed saying that my English was bad. He is not a native speaker and there is a clear accent in his English. I hope that made the previous sentence funnier. When I got up to try to do the dishes Derida said that I was a full guest for the first 24 hours and she would clean up later. I insisted but she insisted harder. Her slight eastern European accent sounded very sincere and I sat down.

I had the opportunity then to skype my parents and girlfriend and I very much enjoyed that. We talked for an hour or more and it was time to take the Labradors down to the lake. We walked from the beautifully furnished and air conditioned house down the steep and skinny road to a road that was under construction. The Ochaetas informed me that whenever there was construction the dirt that mounted almost always had pieces of mayan pottery in it. This is because the island of Flores was originally used solely as a burial ground for the Mayans. It was the tradition to bury people with pieces of pottery which is now mostly broken and up for grabs. We stopped and dug through a mound which was becoming increasingly difficult as the dogs wanted nothing more than to pull us to the lakefront. We obliged and were soon standing on a group of rocks looking out into the vast serenity.

We threw empty waterbottles into the lake and watched the yellow and black lab fight to return them to us. There were many locals washing clothes, hanging out and waiting for tourist to accept an offer on a small motorboat ride across the lake. One of the water bottles floated away and the dogs were not getting it. I offered to retrieve it and before the Ochaetas could say anything I was off. When I returned with the prize the let me know that my skin would soon be falling off. I must have looked confused because after a slight hesitation they told me that they don´t swim in this part of the lake as it is littered with trash and who knows what else. I thanked them for that knowledge and we were on our way to take the dogs back.

We walked along the boardwalk gawking at tourist with SLRs slung around their necks and locals participating in a dance lesson put on by the ever so present Catholic Church. The dogs would not stop pulling so we walked down a broad set of stairs to another part of the lake. We played with the dogs some more and just examined the beauty of God´s hand. There was a group of tourists and locals enjoying the last of the day´s Sun sitting on the edge of a pier. Their legs swung in unison like children in chairs too large for them. They were watching strong swimmers on their journey back to the pier from a much smaller island in the distance. It was time to go home as the lasagna was almost done.

We got home and after a few jokes from Ovidio it was time to eat lasagna and have a glass of wine. We relaxed and watched the Pink Panther 2 on DVD. We walked outside and I watched the Ochaetas one by one take a step up on a ledge, swing a leg over and start climbing the cement stairs up to the apartment above their house. As I climbed I looked around and saw the rooftops of tightly packed houses and the narrow alleyway below. They explained to me that they hadn´t been into the apartment for some time and were going to probably have to do some cleaning when we got in. The apartment was hot and sticky but after the windows were opened and fans turned on it was just as comfortable as the main house.  There were three rooms and a bathroom leading out to a kitchen with a wonderful cabinet and counter top made by the boys from the center. The small counter looked into the living room which was occupied by wooden chairs whose cushions were still in the packaging. Ovidio´s aunt is expected to move into the apartment and some of her furniture has arrived. One of the rooms was blocked off and was opened to the attic. I was later happy that it was closed as the sound of bats is unmistakable and I was not ready to have a run in.

I thanked them for everything and they left. I wandered out onto the balcony after loading up with bug repellant and examined the beautiful night scene that was before me while talking with Katelyn. I wished that my friends and family could have been there as it was very relaxing and peaceful.

I fell asleep and awoke early the next day to astonishingly loud church bells at six thirty in the morning. I went outside and it was hot and the large Moorish looking Catholic Church not 50 yards from the house was reminding all; today is the Lord´s day. I went downstairs and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a papaya shake.

The morning was slow and relaxing and we watched a couple of episodes of Little House on the Prairie. We got ready for a day on the shore and piled into the car. We drove off of the island to another part of the lake. On the country roads leading to the city we were going there were a couple of small fires on the side of the road. I asked about them and was informed that the easiest way to clear a field to cultivate it was to burn everything. This is the way the Mayans had done it for thousands of years and the people kind of held onto it. Obviously though, the fires spread out of control and can cause serious problems. We got to the town we were going to which was a small town complete with a waterpark and many public grills, basketball courts and soccer courts. We parked along the road and walked down  some stairs leading to the water. We swam around for a bit and some of the Ochaeta´s friends joined us. We enjoyed mango and had fun feeding the minnows Goldfish. We finished swimming after a couple of hours and went to a local restaurant to eat.

After  our smorgasbord of chicken, sausage, beef, white bass, tortillas and blended beans we headed to a lakefront house owned by the Director of Tourism and the Ochaetas good friend. We walked down a long stair set leading to three cascading grassy knolls filled with small shrubberies and palm trees. T the bottom was a gazebo looking over the quiet lake. We were fed cantaloupe and coffee and a sense of welcomeness. After passing some time with the group under the  gazebo we got in our respective cars and went home. We all showered and went to their church, Rey de Reyes.

The service was in one story white building  with fans mounted on the side walls. I wish I could remember what the service was about, but I caught less than half of it because my Spanish still isn´t super duper. I also wish I could worship because I really like to worship, but it is hard to do in a different language when you don´t know what is being said. It is also hard to concentrate on a message and listen to every word when it is a struggle to understand. I caught myself just people watching a lot. 

After church we went back to the Ochaetas and had dinner and watched Voyage of the Don Treader.  It was a fun movie and Albana was very excited to watch it. She had read the book and reminded us of that throughout the movie by telling us which parts she remembered. It took the suspense out of the whole thing, but it didn´t matter as I could tell she was enjoying it.

Off to bed and an early wake up at 6:30. Breakfast was light and we were off to the center by 7:45. When we were close to the Guerras Ismael called and said that they were not home so I had to hang out at the center until school started. I was very smelly because I had forgotten to bring deodorant to the Ochaetas. I said hi to some of the kids and took a paper towel shower in the bathroom sink. I used the restroom and much to my dismay the water was not working so I could not flush. I took one of the “trash” cans to the sink and filled it with water to try and fill the reservoir. After I dumped it, and it didn´t work, I noticed that there was some “residue” from the “trash” can on my fingers. (You get where I´m going with this?) I took a deep breath and washed my hands thoroughly. The rest of the time was spent with me making a target to zero-out the scope on the pellet gun.

I arrived to the front gates of school…

Dear God,

Thank You for knowing us before we existed and having a plan for our lives. Please open our eyes to the path You have selected for us and make us willing to accept where You want us to go. Allow us to make the decisions that bring You joy and take into consideration that every decision is because of you. Give us strength in times of darkness and may Your presence be known in times of prosperity and joy. Help us not only to cling to You in times of our need and selfishness, but also when our worldly minds tell us we don´t need You. Remind both young and old that it is neither too early or too late to find our path. I love you Lord and help me to love You more and understand just how much You love us.

Amen

The weekend part 1

I do not even know where to start this entry. I thought it would be a good idea to not blog everyday or even every other day because I didn´t want people to feel overwhelmed or obligated to read what I wrote. But know I have to write about so many wonderful things that happened over the past weekend and today, my first day of school. So please, do not feel obligated to read this because you know me or because you have said that you will pray for me. Okay, this sounds way more conceited than I meant it to be. Crap.

I left off on Thursday afternoon and so much has happened since then. I am very sticky right now and feel uncomfortable because I have loaded up on deet and just spent half an hour assembling my mosquito net.  Friday started off with me being very tired because of an incessant fear of mosquitoes I had the night before. I have not worried too much about mosquitoes or the other bugs really, but I stayed up reading and my room was the only one with a light on. I figured that I had made a mistake and that bugs were going to be attracted to the light and then attracted to my wonderful blood. I was staying up trying to catch mosquitoes and other fliers that were too fast and too little to be seen from more than two feet away. I was very worried and then decided to give it up to the lord. I decided to calm down and read the bible. When I did that one of the mosquitoes I was chasing landed on my bible and I quickly killed him. Then another one landed on the wall beside me and I killed him.  A third landed not too far away and he quickly perished as well. I thanked God and knew that if he wanted me to get bit and spend the next week using porcelain as a pillow then that is exactly what would happen. This calmed me down and I slept til daybreak. I came into the kitchen and had breakfast then went back to bed and fell fast asleep. The boisterous noise of foul calms down around the time breakfast is usually consumed which is perfect for those who fall victim to food comas.

I woke up to the sound of Ovidio calling from the front gate. I went outside and let him in. He greeted me with a large smile and a gift that he had bought me. It was a pay-as-you-go cell phone so that I could get in contact with him whenever I needed to. He said goodbye and that he would see me the next day at eleven o’clock. I got dressed just in time for Ismael to come home. He was about to drive up to pick up his other two sons, Jesse, 16, and Hansel, 14, from the Universidad in Poptun. I hopped in the Tourismo and we were off. I saw a painting on a building that said ¨Yo soy patriota¨I am a patriot. I asked him what the significance of that was and he told me it was a political party. He went on to tell me how there are currently 22 political parties. I suggested that this was good and how much choice there was but he said it was very bad for the country. Ismael talked about the division it has caused among the people and how  corrupt the system is. He said that about 15 years ago there used to be only eight political parties, but since the corruption has really exploded anyone with a name and money has a chance of becoming the President. The current president is an auto mechanic with no experience and the governor of Peten won because he pretty much bought votes with bags of rice and chicken. The majority of his votes came from small groups outside of the main city who are very poor.

We arrived at Franklin´s school and waited to pick him up. The streets of Peten are lawless and traffic can come from almost any direction. The streets are a dangerous mixture of high occupancy motorcycles (I have seen many occasions with four passengers),  large vans, and three wheeled Indian taxis called Tuk-Tuks. The vans are faster than both the motorcycles and the tuk-tuks, but the motorcycles and tuk-tuks can go over speed pumps better and sneak past cars at the traffic light better. Because of this, vans are constantly passing motorcycles who are constantly swerving around tuk-tuks who are constantly cutting off vans at stop lights. It is a deadly game of rock, paper, scissors. I say lawless, but there are traffic lights that are obeyed.

Franklin got in the car and we were off on our 1.5 hour long journey to Poptun to pick up the other boys. We made a stop in the town that Orfa (orphelias nickname) works in to pick her up on the way. The ride up was absolutely stunning. The only thing that interrupted the flow of rolling hills and palm trees were plots of farmland occupied by starving cows and muscle-less horses. There were many straw huts where the families lived and plots of corn stalks that were two meters high and half dead.  We arrived at the University after veering from the paved road onto a dirt path less than two van widths wide. The skill of the driver is important for these drives as the road is very uneven and the shoulder is prone to cause rollovers. The University consists of just a couple of buildings that were built decades ago. There are two identical buildings on opposite sides of the land which are the boy´s and girl´s dormitories. In the middle is a hall for dining and two large buildings that act as classrooms. The rest of the land is filled with chicken coops and other non distinct buildings. We parked the car on some grass under a tree which felt very darhma initiative-esque. I went to see the boys dorms and they were much like ours in the states. There were three to a room with the normal boy smell and clothes were hung from the ceiling and windows to dry. A pair of underwear was hanging out the window and as one of the students in uniform came up he flung it at a friend of his and missed. A war of underwear throwing lasted for about 2 minutes until they grew bored of it. There were many parents to pick up their children who all had casual talks with the teachers regarding their child´s performance and then the teenagers were signed out.

Jesse drove the car opposite from the front gate down a very steep and skinny broken dirt road past all sorts of foliage to a lakefront. They asked me if I wanted to ¨bañar and me thinking that meant urinate I said yea, sure. I walked down to the lake and looked back to see the other boys putting on shorts. I was very confused for a second until I realized that ¨bañar¨ meant to swim. The water was brisk but not unbearable and we walked down  the river and it got deep enough for us to swim. There was a tree coming off of the side of a cliff about five meters off the surface of the water with a thick branch that jutted out over the water. We climbed onto it and took turns jumping off of it into the water.  The branch had a type of cactus growing on it which I forgot to avoid once and had some spines in my hand and pants.  We swam back, changed, and piled back into the Tourismo for the hour and a half trip back home. It was about five o´clock at this time and the shadows were long and beautiful.

Saturday started bright and early at 7 am and after breakfast Fran, (franklins nickname) Jessie and I played soccer in the front area between the house and the cast-iron gate. It made me very happy to see Fran enjoying the company of his brothers. There was a lot of laughter  and after a couple of hours we piled into the van to go and get ice cream. We passed many of the little shops that lined the street and instead went to the large shopping center in town. I saw two men in uniform with shotguns and asked if they were the police. I was informed that they were actually just run of the mill security guards. After having some very typical but refreshing ice cream we went to the arcade to play some air hockey and other arcade games.

I think that is enough writing for now and will post about going to the Ochaetas and my first day of school tomorrow.

Thank You for showing Your beauty in everything; from the flowing hills of the Guatemalan campo to the hearts of reunited brothers. There is nothing as wonderful or powerful as You.

Amen

Fireworks

I love to eat here. The food is absolutely wonderful. I don´t want to try to remember what I had for each meal, but the staples at the table are hand made tortillas better than any tortilla you have ever had and black beans blended into a paste and have way more flavor than I would think. The black bean paste looks like chocolate sauce and it is fun to imaging putting chocolate sauce on most of my meals. I usually smile while looking at it as I don´t want to laugh audibally and try to explain why I am laughing. Nothing is put in or on the tortilla. Instead the diner must roll his tortilla into a tight cylinder and use it as a utensil to push food onto your fork. One eats the food on the fork and takes a bite of their edible utensil. I have had eggs and hotdogs which was great and a kind of mashed potato with mango puree in it. Everything is made on the stove and leftovers are heated on the stove. This morning there was fried banana. Oh boy that was rico!

I can not tell you all how much your encouraging emails and comments have helped me. It is so encouraging to know that I have a whole community of people asking the God of the Universe to help me, protect me, and give me strength. I thank you all for caring and encouraging me, I love you all deeply.

Last night after I posted I took a nap and woke up to find my host family back from work. They were going to a Bible study and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I said yes and walked two blocks away from the house to a member of the Church´s house. We arrived and walked to the backyard of the house. It was a concrete floor between two houses. One of the houses and two blankets as doors and the other was just open. There were about four very old, wrinkled, and lovely people sitting near the open doorway, another older woman with a mentally handicapped son (who I could not stop looking at because the joy on his face was absolutely overwhelming and addicting) of about 14 years sitting next to her and two other women in their thirties one with a son who was about 8 years old. There were about 5 other empty plastic chairs that helped create the oval. The service began with a reading out of the Psalms and then acapella worship which was very moving. I immediately became choked up and felt the spirit of God in that meeting. The lesson was on worship and how we do it for nobody else but Jesus Christ. Ismael led the study which took about an hour, and an offering was taken at the end for the Fanta and sweet bread that was enjoyed afterwards. After worship at the beginning and end there was communal prayer where the members thanked God for whatever was on their heart aloud at the same time as everyone else. I enjoyed it. We left and went back to the host familys house where we had dinner and watched the news.

Today I woke up at around 7 to the sound of delicious sounding birds but also to Katy Perry´s Firework blasting from a couple of houses down. I laughed to myself and wondered to myself if she ever thought she would have her music playing in a small town in Guatemala. Another thing I wondered is if it would be possible for a swarm of mosquitos to consume the five or seven or however many litres of blood are in your body. I thought about how you are making more blood and how much they could suck up and the persons surface area and how much area each mosquito could safely take up. All this vanished with the smell of breakfast and I got up and showered. There is no hot water which is good because it makes my showers short and it very much cools me down and wakes me up. I ate breakfast, read the word, and read various emails and comments to encourage me.

I put on my khakis and button up shirt went and started to walk to the bathroom. It was the first time I pooped and I´m sorry if that is TMI but there is more to it than you get right now. I had heard stories from friends who went to Guatemala that when people poop they throw the used toilet paper in the garbage instead of into the toilet. I had seen the toilet work and it looked pretty powerful so I put it in the toilet. There was other toilet paper in the wastebin but I saw no poop on it. I also thought about what they could have possibly used the toilet paper for and decided that it just might be for wiping. So I wiped again but this time put it in the trash. I haven´t asked about proper edicit (spelling?) yet. Auto correct is off, so errors in my writing will not be seen and I´m not a big fan of editing.

I got to school at ten oclock and heard the kids saying It is the gringo, it is the gringo. So I walked in to the gate after a kid let me in and I said to him, Yo soy El Gringo. He smiled and I asked him where Senora Wendy is. He told me she was not at school yet  and so I just sat on a ledge and talked to some kids. A door next to me opened and some of the kids motioned me in. I went in to the classroom and there was no teacher so I asked what time Wendy came in and they said usually now. They also call me Senor Andres because Keaton is pretty hard to pronounce for a Spanish speaker. I told them I did not know how to start and I would wait for Wendy. They were the fourth grade class and asked me if they could play games and I said yes. One boy in the front row lifted his sleeve and flexed his bicep. I laughed and asked him if his name was muscles and if people called him muscles. He said no and put his face in his arms. I asked what they wanted to play and they said Football. One of the kids pulled out a GREEN BAY PACKERS football and threw it to me. That really made me smile. I told them a little bit about the Packers and taught them some english words like bee and fly and asked what they knew. It was great. This lasted for about ten minutes and Wendy never came.

One of them pointed at the clock and said they had recess now and I asked the quiter girls if this was true. They said yes and pointed at a schedule on the wall. I let them go and Wendy was sitting in the principals office when I left. It turned out that today was another day of just test taking and real school does not start up again until Monday. We  talked about the schedule and she asked me to talk to another teacher who is studying psychology. I said of course and we went up to meet her. This is how school works in Guatemala. There is gradeschool;  preschool through sixth grade
Then a general school (not military): seventh to ninth grade
Then there is a school where you choose a specefic path such as teaching: tenth to twelfth grade
After that if you chose teacher you can now teach in a school. Then you go to University while you are teaching. If you choose psychology in four years you have the credentials to be a liscensed psychologist and work in a clinic.

The lady I talked to was a year from graduating University. I tried to explain this to her that I am not nearly as close to her, but if she still had questions I would hear them. Just then Derida walked into the room and I explained this all to her and she translated it back to that lady. It was nice. Me and Derida left the room and she asked me how I was doing. I said great and that I felt a little overwhelmed with all of the talk yesterday. She said to not feel that way and that when I feel comfortable and ready I can do whatever I feel called to. It made me feel wonderfully at ease.

I came home, went on a jog and did some excercises but it was blisteringly hot. I took a washcloth shower and stood in front of the fan. Me and Franklin heated up some left overs on the stove and I asked him if he wanted to go over to the carpentry slash welding center for the teenagers and he said sure. We went there and it was closed so we walked back. I read some of The Pelican Brief and fell asleep. Now I am here on the computer.

A couple of things I forgot to write is that there are termites on most things wood in this house including the kitchen table. It was a bit odd to see termites on my plate, but decided to ignore it and a enjoy the needed protein. I honestly never noticed if I ate any, but if I did it wasn´t that bad. Ismael is finishing business school and I am not sure what the Mother is in school for but I helped her with her math homework last night. It was statistics. Franklin´s favorite television station is the Discovery Channel. Derida asked if I wanted to stay at their house for the weekend on the island of flores and I said absolutely yes. She said we could go swimming and do other fun things so I am quite excited for that. I am not sure what I will do tomorrow. I might go to the school to talk to people and practice Spanish. That is all. Thank you once again for all of your prayers and comments, I needed them.

Jesus Christ, I thank You for the community that you guide and use. Thank you so much for your presence in every corner of the world and for how the holy spirit has such control over all things. Thank you for the strength and encouragement and confidence you have given me and I pray that continues. I ask that You help me not turn from You when things become sour and help me to view those times as tests of my faith. I love you and pray that your love is reflected off of me and the other Christians here into the eyes of the unbelieving. Help me not to become prideful but stay humble knowing that all things are because of You.

Amen

It´s a Long One

My eleven hour lay over in the Guatemala city airport was relatively painless. They had wifi in the airport and I was able to skype Katelyn, my girlfriend, and Sue. It was lovely outside the airport but pretty warm inside as they did not have the air conditioning turned on. When I got too hot I would simply go outside and listen to music. On one of my adventures outside a guatemalan boy approached me and asked if I had some Money for him to get a wáter. I told him that I would give it to him if he talked to me and helped me practice Spanish. He obliged and I got to talk to him for about an hour. I then got him some chicken and got to talk to him for another hour or so. He wanted very badly to buy a radio. The lay over ended with an hour long flight to Flores, Guatemala on a 40 passanger prop plane.

I landed in Flores and the Ochaeta´s were there with my host family to pick me up. I do not know the last name of the family I am staying with, but there is the wife, Orphelia, Ishmael, the husband, and Franklin is their child who is still at home. He is thirteen and is in seventh grade. He is currently sitting behind me watching motorcycle drag racing on the speed network.  After they picked me up we went to a pizza hut where the employees opened the doors for you and Cee-Lo is blasting over the radio. It was very nice and we had pizza, horchata and a delicious sweet drink made out of dried habiscus flowers. 

 I left with my host family who drive a Toyota tourismo from what looks like the early eighties. I arrived at the house of my host family which is in a neighborhood about five kilometers south west of Flores. It is in a large grouping of houses and has a large cast iron gate that must be manually slid to get into the compounds of the house. After the gate is a german shephard which is absolutely not a part of the family. He is a security investment that keeps robbers out. I learned this after I offered my hand for him to sniff and if it weren´t for my cat-like reflexes would have been much bloodier than normal. I set up my ten by ten by twelve room which has a dresser for my clothes, a bed and a chair.

I fell asleep after a fan was put in my doorway by a member of their family. I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to the sound of hens, rosters,l turkeys next door and pidgeons walking on the tin roof. I got up and washed my face and read a bit of Isaiah. I was called into the kitchen which consists of a refridgerator, table, counter and stove for breakfast. We had leftover pizza and pancakes.

Derida Ochaeta, the woman running the missions in this town, picked me up at 9:30 and took me to a small clinic . We had to knock and tell one of the nurses le tus in because of the fear of being robbed. The clinic was empty except for two nurses. Derida told me that the clinic used to be filled with people but has dwindled in the past couple of months. This is a result of a lack of doctors. There have been multiple doctors from the United States who will stay for a year or so, but they must rely on a guatemalan doctor who lives an hour away and can only come in the afternoons.  She told me that people would come from 3 hours away just to see the doctor but no longer can because if they come in the afternoon they can not catch the last bus to the cities they come from. After seeing the clinic we went to the center for underpriveleged teenagers. It is a carpentry and welding workshop where teens can come and make furniture for families. The furniture is sold and a portion of the Money goes to the kids and a portion to the upkeep of the facility. They have clases in the morning that are taught by a member of Elmbrook church on DVD. Then in the afternoon they build. Derida told me that it is a battle to get the kids to work in the center because being in a gang is much more profitable and easy. She says to many of them the labor is not worth the Money and that selling drugs is much easier.

Up next was the school. Derida introduced me to the principal and the English teacher, Wendy. I was then introduced to the students of the fourth, fifth and sixth grade. I met with Wendy and she asked me what I wanted to do in the school. I explained that she can use me for anything and she was greatful for that. She wants me to help out with the pronounciation of words because her English is really not that great as she studied for three years in Guatemala City. She also wants me to help out with fun things. She asked me if I could sing english songs and I said I would be happy doing that.

I walked home which is about a five minute walk from all of these places and contemplated the day. The smell of fires is everywhere as that is how the trash is disposed of. Derida said that she would love for me to be a sort of counselor for the teens in the work shop and help them work through their troubles. This would be very challenging would would love to help as much as I could as son as I am more comfortable speaking Spanish. I got a lot of practice today, but only understand about half of what is being said and can say a quarter of what I want to say. Derida said that I could even talk to the teenagers parents and that was a Little intimidating for me. I would feel weird coming in to a cultural situation that I barely understand and tell the parents how to treat their kids.

 She also suggested that I could give talks in public schools about the dangers of drug use or how to choose a career path or pretty much whatever I wanted to talk about. I told her that I would think and pray about it but would want to wait a couple of more weeks before doing any of that. Derida also suggested that I could be a counselor to some of the problema children in the school. Pretty much I just feel completely in over my head and feel like she is giving me too much respect. I just need to pray about all of this and try to think of ways  I can help or topics to talk on. I also need to improve my spanish.

I just had a lunch with milanesa, bell peppers, onions and tortillas. It was wonderful and I tried to nap afterward but it was too hot. The family has internet in their house so that makes things nice. I start teaching tomorrow at ten oclock.

Adios

God, I thank You for this opportunity to serve a community that is in dire need. Please give me the strength and courage and wisdom to be able to talk to these kids. Please help my understanding of the culture here and the language to grow significantly. I pray that You can make me feel comfortable around my host family and the people I will be working with. I pray for the safety of myself and the rest of the community as gang violence is always something that is in the back of their minds. Give wisdom to the youth to make a decision to not get into drugs and violence. Thank you for everything you have blessed me with and just give me the wisdom to be able to fulfill some needs in the community. 

Amen