Oh the heat....

It is friggin' hot.

So this is the last update before Belize. I hope you enjoy and feel free to e-mail or leave messages while I"m gone. I'll get them eventually.

My Birthday- so yesterday (the 17th) was my 20th birthday. It was actually like the best birthday ever. I am so blessed by knowing the people here. They treat us very good. Anyways so I was woken up at 5am with firecrackers outside our room and they brought my ice cream with an oreo on top that I could eat in bed. It was so yummy! And then at 7 am they threw rocks and mangoes on our tin roof and it was very loud. Then after lunch they surprised me with a pinata and cake and the tradition is that you have to take a bite of the cake without your hands and you just used your face, but then they smash your face into the cake and whatever you touched is your piece. And they had all signed a card and Jasmine made me a journal. Then later that night we went out for pupusas.

Las Lisas- This morning we went to another island called Las Lisas and we went to the school to present a children's program to over 300 kids. If you can imagine. We took another boat and we did our puppets, clowns, Jasmine did her kids testimony and sang some songs and then we handed out some tracts and pencils and crayons to all the kids. It was blaring hot and we had to walk around in our clown stuff. My face was pretty much melting off. But it was super fun and the kids just loved us and wanted to show us around their school and play with us. Then they served us lunch after- fried fish and tortillas that we ate with our hands but it was so good. And this was a little challenging because alot of the kids probably don't go to church and it's not a christian school so alot of these kids were hearing the Gospel for the first time. So we had to be very choosy in the words we used and how we presented things and we had to do the wordless book and tell them the entire story of salvation. But they seemed very enthusiastic. Course it was probably also the first time they have seen white people.

Agua Dulce- Last sunday we put on a church service on an island called Agua Dulce (sweet water) and we had to take a boat to get there and then the chapel was someone's house with a palm treee roof and everyone just kinda sat around. But it was soo fun and the island was beautiful. We did our drama, puppets, the evangecube and Jasmine preached and I gave my testimony. After the service we took our boat over to a family who runs a salt plantation and I know you're thinking like big factory but it's this little hut and they run the water up and do something and then there's salt. I wasn't entirely paying attention because it was hot and I was watching some kid torture a dog. Plus, we had to go through all these mangroves and like through the jungle to get there. It was like the Jungle Safari ride at Disneyland. I was waiting for some hippo to come bursting out of the water. But here's some pictures from there: (sorry that they are all scattered and not nice looking, This is my first time putting pics on here and you will have to tip your head sideways. I hope you don't mind! )

1) This is Jasmine preaching at Agua Dulce.

2) This is a picture of the congregation that morning (mostly kids)

3) This is our boat and with the pastors grandchildren inside.

4) this is one of the pastors grandchildren. She is just so cute I couldn't resist putting her on here.

5) These are some of the mangroves we had to go through. Sometimes they were so low you had to duck.

Off to Belize!!

Hey everyone!!
We are going to be going to Belize for 7-9 days. I'll make sure to update as soon as we get back and hopefully I"ll have figured out how to get the pictures on here!!

Dios le bendiga!

Guatemala Update 04-11-07

Well...I hope you have not all forgotten about me

Anyways so time for another update and I feel like alot of stuff happened since I last wrote, but I can't remember it all off the top of my head. Time is going by super fast. But 2 sundays ago we put on a church service for a church fundraiser and they had this huge like church BBQ and there was a pool and a beautiful river that we walked down and we got to swim in it because it wasn't contaminated and we had fried fish with rice and refried beans and tortillas and there were no utensils and so you had to use the tortillas and scoop everthing up in a big handful. It was awesome. We have been working very hard on our puppet shows and bible skits and clown skits so when we leave for Belize next week (WA hoo!!) we can have a program for the places we go.
So more adventurous things...last week we had a work day and we did odd jobs around the compound because it was Holy Week for the Guatemalans and they had 4 days off. So we had to take over the cooking and maintenance. So me and Jasmine got to cut down a banana tree with Machetes. Much to the criticism we got about how bad we were at it. And yesterday we had the day off and so we went into town to get a few things and me and another girl, Alison, was late getting back to the vehicle so we had to take a microbus back. A microbus is like a miniature version of a minivan and they put benches in there and there was 25 people all crowded in this little bus- including 2 people hanging out the door.
It was different being down here for easter though. Guatemalans don't celebrate Easter really, they have Holy Week and its the week before Easter and like everything shuts down and they all go and hang out on the beach. And there are no church services on Easter Sunday! Well some do but mostly not. In Antigua, which is a big touristy towns, they have these big processions and they're like parades and they put car parts so its very heavy and the people where purple gowns to symbolize repentance and you have to pay and then you can help carry this float down the streets. And they have a Jesus figure and a Mary figure on them. It's the Catholic church that puts them on. And then people make these beautiful carpets out on the streets made out of sawdust and they are so colourful and beautiful with like birds and flowers on them all made out of sawdustand it takes them hours to make. And then the procession walks right through them and destroys them. So we got to go see that last week.
Well, I have a huge spanish test tomorrow and so I need to go study. But I hope you guys all had great easter weekends and some time off! Don't hesitate to write back and let me know how things are going for you!

Dios le bendiga!

Guatemala Update-03-28-07

Hello everyone!
So I know it's been a while, but our internet has not been working. So yeah time for update!

So since I last updated, our MTS group has formed a little band and we have been practicing spanish worship songs so we can lead worship at the churches that we visit and when we go on out outreach trips. We have also prepared a drama as well to present at churches. Right now we have our teacher Carol's friend from the States, Annie down here and she is teaching us how to make puppets. She is so amazing. She brought down sewing machines and all these supplies and paid for extra weight for luggage and she wore all her clothes on the airplane because she had no room!
We have also been swamped by Spanish homework but it's good because I can now go out and understand what people are saying and this is especially good for church on sunday morning because they preach without a translator. And for a few hours each week we hang out with the orphanage kids and it's amazing how much spanish you learn when you talk to them. And they like it to because they can practice their english. But the kids here are absolutely adorable. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and hopefully send them to you.
We have been hanging out alot at the compound and its actually starting to get boring. So small things like going into town for the afternoon is very exciting. Or going to the pool for a few hours. But yesterday was our first real mission day. We went to a big town about an hour away from here and we hooked up with a pastor there and we went door to door and visited some families that have really been struck by poverty. But they are so nice and they let us come in and tell them about Jesus. And yeah the kids are just soo cute! And then we put on a service for that church and we did our songs and drama and our MTS boy gave his testimony and the people were just really receptive and thankful that we came.
Other than that, it's super hot here, it's 41 degrees celsius in the shade. But I'm actually getting pretty used to it now. At night we don't even turn our air conditioner on and I sleep in pants and long sleeves. So this is long and I'm going to go.

Dios le bendiga!

Guatemala Update- 03-11-07

Buenos tardes a todos el mundo!! (good afternoon to everyone!)

Well I've been here for almost a week already. After a full day of traveling on monday we arrived in Guatemala approx. 8:30pm and it turned out that only one of my bags didn't make it with us. But luckily I had the other one and Jasmine got both of hers. I didn't end up getting my other bag until friday, which is an unusually long time.

The week has actually been pretty slack. We've had some work projects to do around the compound, my tasks are helping out with extra dishes on monday nights after supper, cleaning the prayer room tuesday mornings and watering the plants wednesday afternoons. We also have classes during the week. So far we have started our spanish classes, and funny story...so we had to take a spanish placement test before we started the class because they are dividing our group into smaller groups depending on spanish abilities. There is a beginner class and a middle class and somehow I ended up in the middle class with one of the other people in my program. One of our leaders, Anthony, teaches the class and it's pretty intense but I'm learning lots. And the other class we've had so far is cultural differences, where we learnt about the difference between hot and cold climate cultures. There was also a team down here from B.C and they were a pretty big team, about 20, so it's been loud and chaotic and they had kids who ate alot of sugar. You can imagine....On friday night they put on a concert/banquet for the people involved with Fe Viva (the missions place) and it was awesome. Saturday was the kids program and all the Casa Esperanza kids (the orphanage kids) were there, plus all the neighbourhood kids came as well. They are all so cute! You can really tell that alot of these kids are poor because they come with tattered clothes and shoes that are too small, or worn out. But they are still enthusiastic and it's awesome. Today after church in the morning we went to the "Hotel Baru" which is a hotel down the street that has a pool and the Casa kids go there every sunday and so we joined them today and it was stinking hot and I got a little bit of a sunburn-which will turn into a wicked awesome tan! I'm pretty excited.

Guatemala Update

Buenos tardes a todos el mundo!! (good afternoon to everyone!)

Well I've been here for almost a week already. After a full day of traveling on monday we arrived in Guatemala approx. 8:30pm and it turned out that only one of my bags didn't make it with us. But luckily I had the other one and Jasmine got both of hers. I didn't end up getting my other bag until friday, which is an unusually long time.

The week has actually been pretty slack. We've had some work projects to do around the compound, my tasks are helping out with extra dishes on monday nights after supper, cleaning the prayer room tuesday mornings and watering the plants wednesday afternoons. We also have classes during the week. So far we have started our spanish classes, and funny story...so we had to take a spanish placement test before we started the class because they are dividing our group into smaller groups depending on spanish abilities. There is a beginner class and a middle class and somehow I ended up in the middle class with one of the other people in my program. One of our leaders, Anthony, teaches the class and it's pretty intense but I'm learning lots. And the other class we've had so far is cultural differences, where we learnt about the difference between hot and cold climate cultures. There was also a team down here from B.C and they were a pretty big team, about 20, so it's been loud and chaotic and they had kids who ate alot of sugar. You can imagine....On friday night they put on a concert/banquet for the people involved with Fe Viva (the missions place) and it was awesome. Saturday was the kids program and all the Casa Esperanza kids (the orphanage kids) were there, plus all the neighbourhood kids came as well. They are all so cute! You can really tell that alot of these kids are poor because they come with tattered clothes and shoes that are too small, or worn out. But they are still enthusiastic and it's awesome. Today after church in the morning we went to the "Hotel Baru" which is a hotel down the street that has a pool and the Casa kids go there every sunday and so we joined them today and it was stinking hot and I got a little bit of a sunburn-which will turn into a wicked awesome tan! I'm pretty excited.