After a classic guatemalan dinner of soup and hen we hung out and watched some television. I saw the kids playing outside on the large front porch and decided to go see what they were up to. They were all playing a very organized game of school. The older girls were pretending to be the teachers while the younger boys were making drawing and colorings. When the boys would finish they would hand them in for their teacher to sign and grade. This went on for a while and I was getting bored so I decided to fake punch one of the kids. The next couple of hours were filled with fake fights, pretending to be robots, and screaching little children. It was a blast and I was very content.When night had fallen the Martinez`and I piled back into the Tourismo for the twenty minute ride back home.
The next night I had made plans to hang out with Ovi`s brother from Guatemala City because he was in town for holy week. I got to Flores at about five o`clock and just hung out playing tourist around town. He called me at about 7 and we went to a restaurant called Terrazzo. We entered the establishment and walked up the stairs to the balcony over looking the lake. Juancho said hi to everyone that was working there and we sat down with our menus. It would become clear to me in a matter of hours that Juancho knew everybody in Flores. After one of the chefs and his brother came over and sat at our table to chat for a bit we ordered. The chef left and the brother stayed and it was fun listening to the conversation of the two. They were both really nice and had the ability to speak in English but instead spoke in Spanish so that I could practice. When they would notice my eyes locked and mouth slightly open they would restate what they had just said so that I would understand it. I thoroughly enjoyed my excellently seasoned and moist steak sandwhich served on a torpedo roll and felt very sluggish afterwards. Juancho and I left the brother in the restaurant and went over to a different restaurant to meet Juanchos chino friends. We arrived at los raices where there was a large table of people about to get up and go for the night. These were Juanchos friends and after a bit of talking they decided that they were just going to go to bed for the night. It was around 9 o`clock and I wanted to go to bed too.
I had rented out a hammock at Los Amigos and was eager to go back and sleep as I had promised the Martinez` that I would be back by five thirty in the morning to go to the river at six. Instead Juancho and I went back to Terrazzo to find out the place had already closed. Juancho shouted up for the Chef`s sister to come open the door and she did so. We went upstairs and hung out for a bit with the chef, his mother, his sister, and a couple of other girls that Juancho had hollered down to the street to come up. We had a couple of beers on the house and by this time I was supremely tired. I got up and said goodnight to the gang and headed back to Los Amigos. I laid down in my hammock and was wide awake. Hammocks are not comfortable. And on top of their blatant uncomfortableness there was absolutely no breeze where I was. I very much regretted the whole situation and decided to walk around for a bit. I got up and walked outside to the shady streets of Flores and felt less than safe. I walked over to the Ochaeta`s place hoping to see a light on in their living room. I saw nothing and contemplated spending the night curled up under some bench. I thought how anything would be more comfortable that the hammock. I looked at the buildings lining the street and thought how easy it would be to climb them and sleep on the roofs. I then thought about the potentioal danger of things crawling on my face and the police finding me and sending me to prison for things I didn´t do. It was late and my imagination was running full force.
I finally went back to the hostel and slept in the fetal position after a couple of minutes figuring out the best position to try to sleep in a hammock. I ended up sleeping a couple of hours and when my alarm went off at 4:45 in the morning I quickly got up, made sure I had all of my things, and went to walk around the island to look for coffee. Unfortunately, if the sun is not up, the stores are not open. I then began to look for a Tuk Tuk but remembered that they also do not run as long as the sun is down. I said a quick prayer worried that I would not be able to get to the Martinez´in time when just then a taxi pulled up and asked if I needed a lift. I said for shizzle and hopped in. I arrived at the house at around 5:20 and saw that no lights were on and the house was completely quiet. The tourismo was still there so I knew that they had not left and decided not to wake them up. I waited until I heard movement about thirty minutes later and then knocked on the front door. When Ismael opened the door he told me that they had decided to leave at 7 rather than 6. I imagined how wonderful it would have been to have slept another hour in the hammock and then started getting ready for the day.
I contemplated whether or not I should look like a complete tourist and bring my goofy vibram toe shoes and thought that the benefits of not having to feel the rock, muk, and dead fish of the river absolutely outweighed the costs of being made fun of and looked at differently. I put them on, got my towel and some other things and then waited on the couch for the rest of the crew to get ready. We drove to the sister´s house in Santa Elena where I was greeted with being punched and demands to do the robot. I told them that it was way to early for any of that said I would do it at the river. We picked up the kids and aunts and uncles and who knows what else and all headed up to Poptun for the day. After about two hours of mostly sleeping on my part we arrived to the town where we stocked up on goodies and stretched our legs out. A man stuck his head through the back window and asked what our plans were for the afternoon. Ismael told him that we had planned on going to the river and he informed us of an excellent spot called "profe". The man gave us directions and after little discussion we were off to "profe". After another 45 minutes of unpaved dirt roads we arrived at a little house with a homemade sign that said profe with an arrow pointing to the right. We pulled up and paid the lady who lived at the house as the man who told us about it pulled in behind us. He showed us the way from the house and after a couple of farms we were overlooking a small river, about 15 yards wide. Surrounding the lake were places to cook, a suspension bridge and a small field where people could play soccer and volleyball.
We enjoyed a full day of rope swinging, climbing vines of large trees, soccer, and delicious meat and vegetables until the rain started to come. We hurredly packed up and were about to head back. Hansel and a bunch of the cousins and I piled on top of the tourismo and rode the forty-five minutes back into town being pelted my rain but enjoying the view.
I went back to the Ochaeta´s to spend the weekend. On Saturday I went to a park with Albana and Juancho called Ixpanpajul. It is very close to Flores and I had heard it was a good place to do a canopy tour. It was a relatively low canopy and was a little disappointed when I realised that if I fell I would probably just shatter a leg and not die. I think the whole thrill of those things is the thought in the back of your head that if one of the zip-lines snapped your life would be over before you even knew it. I did however get to see a butt-ton of howler monkeys that were in one of the trees next to me. They are cute and I was happy I got to see them so close. I had forgotten to bring my camera and was bummed when I saw all of the monkeys. It was a fun day though and I was glad that I went. The next day was Easter which was undoubtedly the best Easter service I had attended.
It was held at the Ochaeta´s house and the attendees included two other missionary couples and an older womam all from the United States who did work in the Petén. We started out by singing some worship sons along with a cd while looking at cue cards that Derida had made which held the lyrics. It was nice and was good to be able to sing with other people in English to God. I hadn´t done it in a while and it was good for me to feel that fellowship. The man that Derida had asked to give the message started out by saying it was going to be a little different than a classic Easter message since the families were all full time missionaries and I was excited about this. There were a couple of things that really stuck out about the message and these are they:
1. He started out by saying that when the Bible was formed we were the ones who had numbered it and back in Jesus´ times the scriptures were not numbered. He said that when people wanted to referance scripture they would say the first couple of lines to the scripture that they wanted to quote or bring to attention. He then read the scripture of when Jesus said "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" He told us to imagen Jesus Christ on the cross shouting this out and I had always wondered why Jesus had said this. Jesus was not simply crying out to God, but he was in his dying breaths referencing prophecy about himself. Isaiah 22 starts out with these same words and it is a prophecy about Jesus´ bones being out of place and his hands and feet being pierced among other things. For the knowledgeable Jewish person to hear this in His day must have been absolutely eye-opening.
The second was John 20:11-18
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
These verses show just how much Jesus cares about us and wants to comfort us. He described how Jesus was in the process of ascending to the Father to claim His seat in glory when He heard the cries of one of his beloved. Jesus stopped in the middle of His greatest achievement to go be with His father to comfort her. This absolutely blew me away and was a crying a good amount at this point. His words were beautifully chosen and I was honored to be able to hear him talk.
After this, we all prayed for eachothers missions and that felt very good too. We had a large lunch which was excellent and returned to the living room to share stories of what it was like to mission in the Petén. It was really good for one of the couples as they had not had a lot of contact with the other two. I could see how wonderfully therapeutic it was for the couples to share stories and be able to comfort one another. A lot of the stories had to do with how gossip would tear apart their missions every couple of months and how it was difficult to restart after this gossip had died down. Another reoccuring theme was the inability to help people when they saw violence. One man recanted how he had seen a man gunned down in a semi truck and when he ran to help, was horse collared back and held down so that he would not be involved. If there is a gringo on site at an accident they are assumed guilty and they would spend either a long time in prison or a lot of money to get out. It really was beautiful to see just how wonderfully the couples interacted together and had listening ears and good suggestions towards everyones problems and st backs. It was a wonderful example of community and what church out of a building looks like. I thought of how many missions probably break down because they have nobody to comfort them in times of trouble. The last thing that caught my attention was how the missionaries yearned to be viewed as just another Christian. It seemed they hated the stigma that comes with being a full time missionary and they wished that other Christians would understand that it is just another calling that would be equivalent to the calling to be a buisnissman living devoted to Christ. They truly were wonderful down to earth people that didn´t stayed away from "Christian-ese" and acted like everyday Christians.
One last story that the man giving the lesson told was about a man who was in prison for preaching Christianity in Soviet Russia. He said how the man would give up his food and blankets for the prisoner next to him when it was cold. The man had been preaching the word of God to him for a while and when it was immenent that he would soon die, the preacher begged him to accept Christ into his life. The man said that he would accept it if only he knew and could see the type of person that Jesus Christ was. The preacher through tears told the man that Jesus acted like himself. I thought what an awesome way to live as an example of Christ to the world to say that Christ acted like you did.
On Monday I went back to school at 10:00 ready to sit in on Victors natural science class. He started talking about people with epilepsy and asked if I knew what caused the seizures. I said I did and spent the next 45 minutes talking about neurons, sodium-pottassium pumps, neurotransmittors and the corpus collosum to a bunch of half interested fifth graders. It was awesome practice for my Spanish and thanked Victor afterwards. We then went into the sixth grade where he asked me to talk about anorexia and proper diet and I was delighted to do so. I spent the next hour or so talking about the power behind words and was grateful for my extensive learning in these subjects. I spent too long talking and there was about four minutes left of school when we got to the fourth grade. I left happy and Victor said that I could talk in his classes the rest of the week if I would like. I said that I would love too and was excited for the next day.
Tuesday arrived and when I walked in to Victors class ready to knowledge vomit all over the children and was a bit bummed when he started teaching math. I asked the kids what was going on and they told me that it was testing week which meant they were not going to have science class until Friday. I asked Victor about it and he said he forgot and that he was sorry. I was bummed, and went back to Flores to hang out for a bit because I was bored at home. I went to Rauls travel agency and had an excellent opportunity to talk more with him. He asked me if I was a Christian and told him that I was and was happy when I told him that I was didn´t belong to a denomination. He told me that he was baptized on venice beach more than 20 years ago through a church in California. He said that he had fallen off his walk and was trying to get back and be right with God. He told me some problems that his family was having and I told him that I would pray for him and his walk and everything that was going on. He thanked me and I began to walk away when I felt like I should pray for him there. I told him I was going to pray for him now and I got to lay hands on Raul and pray with him. It felt good and I am feeling hopeful for Rauls return to his all loving all knowing heavenly Father.
On Wednesday, yesterday, I had an great opportunity to talk to Nelson which was really given to me by God. I went to the center to hang out for the day since testing was still going on at the school. At around 10:30 I was asked if I wanted to help the guys cut down some branches and palm fronds in the forest to help build some shade for the papapya trees. I said I would and got into the back of the pick up truck with Nelson. It was just Nelson and I in the back, with another kid and Angel in the cab. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that this was my time to challenge Nelson and spent the whole ride to the forest praying that God would give me the right words for the return trip. After loading all of the Triangle Palm fronds into the bed of the truck It was time to talk. I told Nelson that I had been watching the guys for a while and had seen that he was a natural born leader. I told him that when I saw the kids in the neighborhood on the soccer field they looked to Nelson to see how to act. I asked him if he believed what the Bible said about Jesus and he said he did. I told him he had an awesome opportunity to show these guys what it means to live like Christ and said that because he was a leader he had a responsibility to show what it meant. I asked if he had a Bible and he said yea and said that he understood what I was saying. I think I may have come off a little strong and put some pressure on him, but I know that he can really affect his community.
Nelson later asked me if I wanted to go swimming with him and two other guys in the afternoon and I said that I would love to. I went to his house at 2:30 and five guys rode on three bikes to the lake front in San Benito. There was a pier where a bunch of locals were jumping off of and we had a good time skipping rocks and just hanging out. I saw a series of two islands that led to Flores and asked if I swam to Flores if they would take a Tuk-Tuk to come pick me up. They said that they would and after a bit of contemplating and figuring plans out, I told them to meet me in Flores in an hour and a half. This is a map of the swim http://tinyurl.com/66g2822 I got pretty scared halfway between the first and second island and prayed a bunch that I would make it. I had no idea how far it was but told God that I would give him glory if I survived. I had plenty of energy, but the sun was going down and I had not swam for distance in a while. He got me through and thanked Him when I got out of the water. It was a lot of fun and was grateful when I finally made it to Flores. The worst part about the whole thing was walking through the half-calf deep much surrounding the two small islands. I made it in an hour and twenty minutes and waited for the guys to come in the Tuk Tuk. They came about 20 minutes later and I was ready to go home and eat. I thanked them for an awesome day and told them I wasn´t going to play soccer today.
When I got back to the Martinez´ house I rested for a bit and took a shower. When I got out I was reminded by Franklin that it was wednesday and we were going to the church to pray for the community. It was a really uplifting time and a handful of youth showed up and I was happy to see that. There was a youth leader and was happy to see him hanging out with the kids afterwards. It was encouraging to see that there was a youth group and prayed a lot that the kids in it would be a good light in their communities.
After the Bible study at the center today I came to Flores to write and reflect. After writing for awhile I went back to cool beans for a coffee and Nachos and reflection time. The Purpose Driven Life outlines five parts on your life to look into to see what you should do with your future. They are spiritual gifts, heart, activities, personality, and experience. I am going to write what I wrote down for these and would absolutely love insight from whoever reads this to tell me what they think my strengths and weaknesses are. I am in an honest search of what makes me me and need the input of fellow Christians.
Gifts: Gentleness, compassionate, patient, funny, good listener, meeting new people.
Heart: Youth/Young Adults/High Schoolers, acting, physical activity, the Truth of Christ
Abilities: Leading, encouraging, physical sports, music, making people smile, swimming, soccer, teaching swim lessons, acting, climbing, writing, taling, spanish?, organizing events, making decisions, trusting God, having a good attitude, mimicking, and lying...which I think good can be brought from that one.
Personality- Outgoing and unreserved.
Weaknesses: Selfish, vain, and bad at following up were the three big ones I thought of.
I haven´t gone through experience, but I will. If you would like to tell me if I am not good at some of the things I said or if you think there are other things I missed I would love to hear. Thanks a bunch!
Dear God, Thank you for the opportunities You give me to be Your worker. I pray that I can constantly keep in mind that every interaction with anyone is to show what kind of a person You were. I pray for Raul and his family and that You can heal pain that is going on there as well as Raul´s personal walk with You. I pray that He sees You waiting with arms wide open waiting to accept Your lost son. God, I pray that You can give me a specific dirrection with my life and that I can walk faithfully next to You. I pray for Nelson and ask that You can work in His life and build him into a leader for his people. Thank You for this time and opportunity You have given me in Guatemala and I pray that my time here was not wasted. I love you God and I thank You profusely for having grace on me, a rebellious and sinful being. Thank You for all of the people who are praying and supporting me and I pray that you reward their diligence to You.
Amen.
I finally went back to the hostel and slept in the fetal position after a couple of minutes figuring out the best position to try to sleep in a hammock. I ended up sleeping a couple of hours and when my alarm went off at 4:45 in the morning I quickly got up, made sure I had all of my things, and went to walk around the island to look for coffee. Unfortunately, if the sun is not up, the stores are not open. I then began to look for a Tuk Tuk but remembered that they also do not run as long as the sun is down. I said a quick prayer worried that I would not be able to get to the Martinez´in time when just then a taxi pulled up and asked if I needed a lift. I said for shizzle and hopped in. I arrived at the house at around 5:20 and saw that no lights were on and the house was completely quiet. The tourismo was still there so I knew that they had not left and decided not to wake them up. I waited until I heard movement about thirty minutes later and then knocked on the front door. When Ismael opened the door he told me that they had decided to leave at 7 rather than 6. I imagined how wonderful it would have been to have slept another hour in the hammock and then started getting ready for the day.
I contemplated whether or not I should look like a complete tourist and bring my goofy vibram toe shoes and thought that the benefits of not having to feel the rock, muk, and dead fish of the river absolutely outweighed the costs of being made fun of and looked at differently. I put them on, got my towel and some other things and then waited on the couch for the rest of the crew to get ready. We drove to the sister´s house in Santa Elena where I was greeted with being punched and demands to do the robot. I told them that it was way to early for any of that said I would do it at the river. We picked up the kids and aunts and uncles and who knows what else and all headed up to Poptun for the day. After about two hours of mostly sleeping on my part we arrived to the town where we stocked up on goodies and stretched our legs out. A man stuck his head through the back window and asked what our plans were for the afternoon. Ismael told him that we had planned on going to the river and he informed us of an excellent spot called "profe". The man gave us directions and after little discussion we were off to "profe". After another 45 minutes of unpaved dirt roads we arrived at a little house with a homemade sign that said profe with an arrow pointing to the right. We pulled up and paid the lady who lived at the house as the man who told us about it pulled in behind us. He showed us the way from the house and after a couple of farms we were overlooking a small river, about 15 yards wide. Surrounding the lake were places to cook, a suspension bridge and a small field where people could play soccer and volleyball.
We enjoyed a full day of rope swinging, climbing vines of large trees, soccer, and delicious meat and vegetables until the rain started to come. We hurredly packed up and were about to head back. Hansel and a bunch of the cousins and I piled on top of the tourismo and rode the forty-five minutes back into town being pelted my rain but enjoying the view.
I went back to the Ochaeta´s to spend the weekend. On Saturday I went to a park with Albana and Juancho called Ixpanpajul. It is very close to Flores and I had heard it was a good place to do a canopy tour. It was a relatively low canopy and was a little disappointed when I realised that if I fell I would probably just shatter a leg and not die. I think the whole thrill of those things is the thought in the back of your head that if one of the zip-lines snapped your life would be over before you even knew it. I did however get to see a butt-ton of howler monkeys that were in one of the trees next to me. They are cute and I was happy I got to see them so close. I had forgotten to bring my camera and was bummed when I saw all of the monkeys. It was a fun day though and I was glad that I went. The next day was Easter which was undoubtedly the best Easter service I had attended.
It was held at the Ochaeta´s house and the attendees included two other missionary couples and an older womam all from the United States who did work in the Petén. We started out by singing some worship sons along with a cd while looking at cue cards that Derida had made which held the lyrics. It was nice and was good to be able to sing with other people in English to God. I hadn´t done it in a while and it was good for me to feel that fellowship. The man that Derida had asked to give the message started out by saying it was going to be a little different than a classic Easter message since the families were all full time missionaries and I was excited about this. There were a couple of things that really stuck out about the message and these are they:
1. He started out by saying that when the Bible was formed we were the ones who had numbered it and back in Jesus´ times the scriptures were not numbered. He said that when people wanted to referance scripture they would say the first couple of lines to the scripture that they wanted to quote or bring to attention. He then read the scripture of when Jesus said "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" He told us to imagen Jesus Christ on the cross shouting this out and I had always wondered why Jesus had said this. Jesus was not simply crying out to God, but he was in his dying breaths referencing prophecy about himself. Isaiah 22 starts out with these same words and it is a prophecy about Jesus´ bones being out of place and his hands and feet being pierced among other things. For the knowledgeable Jewish person to hear this in His day must have been absolutely eye-opening.
The second was John 20:11-18
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
These verses show just how much Jesus cares about us and wants to comfort us. He described how Jesus was in the process of ascending to the Father to claim His seat in glory when He heard the cries of one of his beloved. Jesus stopped in the middle of His greatest achievement to go be with His father to comfort her. This absolutely blew me away and was a crying a good amount at this point. His words were beautifully chosen and I was honored to be able to hear him talk.
After this, we all prayed for eachothers missions and that felt very good too. We had a large lunch which was excellent and returned to the living room to share stories of what it was like to mission in the Petén. It was really good for one of the couples as they had not had a lot of contact with the other two. I could see how wonderfully therapeutic it was for the couples to share stories and be able to comfort one another. A lot of the stories had to do with how gossip would tear apart their missions every couple of months and how it was difficult to restart after this gossip had died down. Another reoccuring theme was the inability to help people when they saw violence. One man recanted how he had seen a man gunned down in a semi truck and when he ran to help, was horse collared back and held down so that he would not be involved. If there is a gringo on site at an accident they are assumed guilty and they would spend either a long time in prison or a lot of money to get out. It really was beautiful to see just how wonderfully the couples interacted together and had listening ears and good suggestions towards everyones problems and st backs. It was a wonderful example of community and what church out of a building looks like. I thought of how many missions probably break down because they have nobody to comfort them in times of trouble. The last thing that caught my attention was how the missionaries yearned to be viewed as just another Christian. It seemed they hated the stigma that comes with being a full time missionary and they wished that other Christians would understand that it is just another calling that would be equivalent to the calling to be a buisnissman living devoted to Christ. They truly were wonderful down to earth people that didn´t stayed away from "Christian-ese" and acted like everyday Christians.
One last story that the man giving the lesson told was about a man who was in prison for preaching Christianity in Soviet Russia. He said how the man would give up his food and blankets for the prisoner next to him when it was cold. The man had been preaching the word of God to him for a while and when it was immenent that he would soon die, the preacher begged him to accept Christ into his life. The man said that he would accept it if only he knew and could see the type of person that Jesus Christ was. The preacher through tears told the man that Jesus acted like himself. I thought what an awesome way to live as an example of Christ to the world to say that Christ acted like you did.
On Monday I went back to school at 10:00 ready to sit in on Victors natural science class. He started talking about people with epilepsy and asked if I knew what caused the seizures. I said I did and spent the next 45 minutes talking about neurons, sodium-pottassium pumps, neurotransmittors and the corpus collosum to a bunch of half interested fifth graders. It was awesome practice for my Spanish and thanked Victor afterwards. We then went into the sixth grade where he asked me to talk about anorexia and proper diet and I was delighted to do so. I spent the next hour or so talking about the power behind words and was grateful for my extensive learning in these subjects. I spent too long talking and there was about four minutes left of school when we got to the fourth grade. I left happy and Victor said that I could talk in his classes the rest of the week if I would like. I said that I would love too and was excited for the next day.
Tuesday arrived and when I walked in to Victors class ready to knowledge vomit all over the children and was a bit bummed when he started teaching math. I asked the kids what was going on and they told me that it was testing week which meant they were not going to have science class until Friday. I asked Victor about it and he said he forgot and that he was sorry. I was bummed, and went back to Flores to hang out for a bit because I was bored at home. I went to Rauls travel agency and had an excellent opportunity to talk more with him. He asked me if I was a Christian and told him that I was and was happy when I told him that I was didn´t belong to a denomination. He told me that he was baptized on venice beach more than 20 years ago through a church in California. He said that he had fallen off his walk and was trying to get back and be right with God. He told me some problems that his family was having and I told him that I would pray for him and his walk and everything that was going on. He thanked me and I began to walk away when I felt like I should pray for him there. I told him I was going to pray for him now and I got to lay hands on Raul and pray with him. It felt good and I am feeling hopeful for Rauls return to his all loving all knowing heavenly Father.
On Wednesday, yesterday, I had an great opportunity to talk to Nelson which was really given to me by God. I went to the center to hang out for the day since testing was still going on at the school. At around 10:30 I was asked if I wanted to help the guys cut down some branches and palm fronds in the forest to help build some shade for the papapya trees. I said I would and got into the back of the pick up truck with Nelson. It was just Nelson and I in the back, with another kid and Angel in the cab. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that this was my time to challenge Nelson and spent the whole ride to the forest praying that God would give me the right words for the return trip. After loading all of the Triangle Palm fronds into the bed of the truck It was time to talk. I told Nelson that I had been watching the guys for a while and had seen that he was a natural born leader. I told him that when I saw the kids in the neighborhood on the soccer field they looked to Nelson to see how to act. I asked him if he believed what the Bible said about Jesus and he said he did. I told him he had an awesome opportunity to show these guys what it means to live like Christ and said that because he was a leader he had a responsibility to show what it meant. I asked if he had a Bible and he said yea and said that he understood what I was saying. I think I may have come off a little strong and put some pressure on him, but I know that he can really affect his community.
Nelson later asked me if I wanted to go swimming with him and two other guys in the afternoon and I said that I would love to. I went to his house at 2:30 and five guys rode on three bikes to the lake front in San Benito. There was a pier where a bunch of locals were jumping off of and we had a good time skipping rocks and just hanging out. I saw a series of two islands that led to Flores and asked if I swam to Flores if they would take a Tuk-Tuk to come pick me up. They said that they would and after a bit of contemplating and figuring plans out, I told them to meet me in Flores in an hour and a half. This is a map of the swim http://tinyurl.com/66g2822 I got pretty scared halfway between the first and second island and prayed a bunch that I would make it. I had no idea how far it was but told God that I would give him glory if I survived. I had plenty of energy, but the sun was going down and I had not swam for distance in a while. He got me through and thanked Him when I got out of the water. It was a lot of fun and was grateful when I finally made it to Flores. The worst part about the whole thing was walking through the half-calf deep much surrounding the two small islands. I made it in an hour and twenty minutes and waited for the guys to come in the Tuk Tuk. They came about 20 minutes later and I was ready to go home and eat. I thanked them for an awesome day and told them I wasn´t going to play soccer today.
When I got back to the Martinez´ house I rested for a bit and took a shower. When I got out I was reminded by Franklin that it was wednesday and we were going to the church to pray for the community. It was a really uplifting time and a handful of youth showed up and I was happy to see that. There was a youth leader and was happy to see him hanging out with the kids afterwards. It was encouraging to see that there was a youth group and prayed a lot that the kids in it would be a good light in their communities.
After the Bible study at the center today I came to Flores to write and reflect. After writing for awhile I went back to cool beans for a coffee and Nachos and reflection time. The Purpose Driven Life outlines five parts on your life to look into to see what you should do with your future. They are spiritual gifts, heart, activities, personality, and experience. I am going to write what I wrote down for these and would absolutely love insight from whoever reads this to tell me what they think my strengths and weaknesses are. I am in an honest search of what makes me me and need the input of fellow Christians.
Gifts: Gentleness, compassionate, patient, funny, good listener, meeting new people.
Heart: Youth/Young Adults/High Schoolers, acting, physical activity, the Truth of Christ
Abilities: Leading, encouraging, physical sports, music, making people smile, swimming, soccer, teaching swim lessons, acting, climbing, writing, taling, spanish?, organizing events, making decisions, trusting God, having a good attitude, mimicking, and lying...which I think good can be brought from that one.
Personality- Outgoing and unreserved.
Weaknesses: Selfish, vain, and bad at following up were the three big ones I thought of.
I haven´t gone through experience, but I will. If you would like to tell me if I am not good at some of the things I said or if you think there are other things I missed I would love to hear. Thanks a bunch!
Dear God, Thank you for the opportunities You give me to be Your worker. I pray that I can constantly keep in mind that every interaction with anyone is to show what kind of a person You were. I pray for Raul and his family and that You can heal pain that is going on there as well as Raul´s personal walk with You. I pray that He sees You waiting with arms wide open waiting to accept Your lost son. God, I pray that You can give me a specific dirrection with my life and that I can walk faithfully next to You. I pray for Nelson and ask that You can work in His life and build him into a leader for his people. Thank You for this time and opportunity You have given me in Guatemala and I pray that my time here was not wasted. I love you God and I thank You profusely for having grace on me, a rebellious and sinful being. Thank You for all of the people who are praying and supporting me and I pray that you reward their diligence to You.
Amen.
Hey Keat, It's fascinating to read and hear how God is answering prayer in your last weeks. Glad you had a chance to talk to Nelson and I loved hearing about your Easter and the fellowship you shared with the missionaries and the great message. I looked at the map of where you swam and will be so glad to have you home safe and sound! YIKES! Thank you, Lord! So much more to comment on, but will talk & ask more when I see you next week! Can't wait. xo
ReplyDeleteYou've done so many awesome things, Keat. Your day at the river sounds perfect, and although " I was getting bored so I decided to fake punch one of the kids" didn't surprise me, it did make me laugh. If Mom is scared about your swim, I won't tell her about the motorbike from a few posts ago...
ReplyDeleteYou definitely have expereience. Every trip you've taken and job you've worked has been an experience. Don't sell those short.
Dang son! Nice, lengthy swim! Glad u made it!
ReplyDeleteI think ur back in los EEUU so holla at me some time! I'd love to chat and help you process your time in Guatemala. It will be an odd and hard transition back to American life. Ur the man!