Well, things are starting to calm down around here a bit. We are taking these next few weeks to rest a little and focus on the baby coming. Olga goes in for a C-Section on Saturday (the 27th) in the morning. We are all very excited but praying very hard because sometimes the conditions here are not always the greatest for giving birth. Also, my friend Jasmine, who was here with me in the spring, is coming down a week from today and she’ll be staying for a month! She’s coming down for a visit, to help with the ministry and to accompany me on my English adventures. Which is perfect timing because on November 4th, Carol, the lady that I live with is going to Ghana, Africa for a little over a month. While she’s gone I will be in charge of preparing all the materials we need for the seminars and taking care of the daily house hold runnings.
Last week we went to the prison. The prison is called Canada. And we taught in the Bible school they have there for the prisoners. We taught about 35 students how to lead someone to the Lord and Diving Healing. The students in the prison are always so receptive and so we always like going there.
Yesterday we went to Erik and Olga’s house to paint their daughter’s room. Olga wanted to do something special for them because the baby was coming. So we painted their room pink and then Olga is going to make new curtains with Disney princesses on them. So the girls are very excited! After painting we went down to the river (to pray!! Ha ha ha….) that is behind their house and did a little swimming. It was so fun and it’s very pretty down there, almost like right in the middle of the jungle.
I have still been teaching English. I go to Casa Samuel, an orphanage, twice a week and teach around 35 kids. They are very excitable and sometimes classes can get chaotic but it is still super fun. They are so entranced by my blonde hair and always ask me if I dye it. And the other day, Oscar, who just turned 6 told me I have eyes like honey. They are very sweet kids! They always ask me too, “When are you coming back? When are you coming again?” and I say to them “oh you only like me because I give you candy”. It does get a little frustrating because sometimes you think that they are not learning the way you want them to but I keep reminding myself that a lot of the kids there have learning problems and the amount that they have already learned is astounding!
On top of that, I teach 3 adult students once a week. We have had one class so far and I can’t wait to teach them more. They are so eager to learn! I love preparing lessons for them because I remember what it was like learning Spanish and what was fun and helpful and what wasn’t. So it’s fun taking that and turning into lessons for them.
Well, that’s about it for now. I will be sure to send pictures of the baby!! And we finally have sun!! We’ve had two tropical depressions which means A LOT of rain! We had not had sun in like 9-10 days. Well we haven’t had sun since my last update. And let me tell you it made me so tired and I had no energy the whole time. It’s amazing what the sun can do! But yeah we are now moving into the hot season so I’m pretty excited about that.
Oh and one more thing, I have had a personal need come up in this past week and one thing that would really help me with ministry and English is having my own laptop. Right now I am using Carol’s and we are both trying to use it. So if anyone has a laptop that supports Windows XP and are looking to get rid of it, I know a nice missionary in Guatemala who could use it….
Thanks again for reading my update and your prayers!!
Dios les bendiga!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Guatemala Update #3: Thanksgivings
Since my last update we have been keeping very busy here at Operation Jabez. We are constantly being reminded that here in Guatemala, there’s never a dull moment!
We’ve had at least 9-10 seminars since the last update, teaching mainly Why Evangelism is Important, How to lead someone to the Lord, How to Share your Testimony and Divine Healing. We’ve been blessed with very receptive students who love hearing what we have to say and plus everyone gets copies of everything we teach so they won’t forget. And we get to go to some really cool churches- in the countryside, by the beach, on top of mountains, there is no where we don’t go!
Other than having seminars we have gone into 2 schools to teach the teachers how to do Children’s ministry. As part of the lesson we give each teacher a CD with over 500 Bible Lessons from levels kindergarten to adults and a CD with kid’s songs. The teachers love getting this stuff because they don’t often get a lot of material to work with and they love participating in our model class and getting to act like the kids!
Other than going out, we also host events here in our home. A week and a half ago we joined up with Casa de Refugio (a rehab centre for drug and alcohol addicts) and hosted a breakfast at our house for some of the prostitutes who work in the area. We had 16 prostitutes show up and we fed them a hearty Guatemalan breakfast (Tamales- which are usually only served at special occasions), there was a message and then we prayed for them. They were given paper and pens to write down any prayer requests they might have and we found out that 2 of them are pregnant and quite a few of them want to get out of this lifestyle. They all left with huge smiles on their faces.
Another event that we hosted here was this past Wednesday ( the 3rd) and we invited people from 2 or 3 churches who were interested in learning how to make puppets. We were blessed by the visit of Carol’s good friend Annie who came from the States to help us out with this day and with many other things! And get this, we figured we had enough supplies here to make about 5 puppets, so we invited one person from each of these churches so they could learn and go back and teach others how to make the puppets. Well…we had 14 people show up and we were able to make…14 puppets!! By the grace of God all our materials multiplied and everyone got to make a puppet!! And the people who came loved it!! Not only did they get to make a puppet but they got to keep the pattern and they got a CD with puppet shows and songs recorded on it and a few scripts for other puppet shows. Oh yeah…and it is all free.
Also this past week, Annie and I started teaching English classes at Casa Samuel. At first the kids weren’t too sure why we were there, but they enjoyed participating anyways. At one point one of the boys said “why are we doing this all English?” So I had to tell him. But they love playing the games and learning new songs and new English words, and then showing you the next time how much they remember. And then today, I received 2 new students, who are in their 20’s and who want to learn English, so I will be teaching them and our cook Irsa as well!! It’s amazing how God is really enlarging my territory, just like Jabez’s prayer.
October 1st is Children’s Day here in Guatemala and it is a VERY big deal. All the kids get presents and piñatas. So on the Saturday before we had a really big kids program held at Fe Viva World Missions with over 200 kids coming from around the neighbourhood. There were songs and dances and a puppet skit and 3 piñatas! Plus all the kids got a tostada, cake and juice as a snack.
As for other holidays, this past weekend was Thanksgiving and I was invited by my Fe Viva family for an entire thanksgiving meal! There was turkey, scalloped potatoes, stuffing, asparagus, peas, carrots, salad, fruit salad, jell-O and PUMPKIN PIE!! The food was absolutely delicious and we had an amazing time of fellowship afterward- well mainly because we all ate so much we couldn’t get up! It was a huge blessing!
And last Friday Carol treated all her Operation Jabez workers to a day at the beach. We were really blessed to have beautiful weather and everyone stayed safe in the ocean. So I guess we’re not all work here…
In lieu of this festive season, I just wanted to thank you all again for your prayers and for reading my updates. I love being able to recap everything that’s going on and going back through pictures…I hope you enjoy them too!
Dios les bendiga!!
P.S 76 Days until Christmas!
We’ve had at least 9-10 seminars since the last update, teaching mainly Why Evangelism is Important, How to lead someone to the Lord, How to Share your Testimony and Divine Healing. We’ve been blessed with very receptive students who love hearing what we have to say and plus everyone gets copies of everything we teach so they won’t forget. And we get to go to some really cool churches- in the countryside, by the beach, on top of mountains, there is no where we don’t go!
Other than having seminars we have gone into 2 schools to teach the teachers how to do Children’s ministry. As part of the lesson we give each teacher a CD with over 500 Bible Lessons from levels kindergarten to adults and a CD with kid’s songs. The teachers love getting this stuff because they don’t often get a lot of material to work with and they love participating in our model class and getting to act like the kids!
Other than going out, we also host events here in our home. A week and a half ago we joined up with Casa de Refugio (a rehab centre for drug and alcohol addicts) and hosted a breakfast at our house for some of the prostitutes who work in the area. We had 16 prostitutes show up and we fed them a hearty Guatemalan breakfast (Tamales- which are usually only served at special occasions), there was a message and then we prayed for them. They were given paper and pens to write down any prayer requests they might have and we found out that 2 of them are pregnant and quite a few of them want to get out of this lifestyle. They all left with huge smiles on their faces.
Another event that we hosted here was this past Wednesday ( the 3rd) and we invited people from 2 or 3 churches who were interested in learning how to make puppets. We were blessed by the visit of Carol’s good friend Annie who came from the States to help us out with this day and with many other things! And get this, we figured we had enough supplies here to make about 5 puppets, so we invited one person from each of these churches so they could learn and go back and teach others how to make the puppets. Well…we had 14 people show up and we were able to make…14 puppets!! By the grace of God all our materials multiplied and everyone got to make a puppet!! And the people who came loved it!! Not only did they get to make a puppet but they got to keep the pattern and they got a CD with puppet shows and songs recorded on it and a few scripts for other puppet shows. Oh yeah…and it is all free.
Also this past week, Annie and I started teaching English classes at Casa Samuel. At first the kids weren’t too sure why we were there, but they enjoyed participating anyways. At one point one of the boys said “why are we doing this all English?” So I had to tell him. But they love playing the games and learning new songs and new English words, and then showing you the next time how much they remember. And then today, I received 2 new students, who are in their 20’s and who want to learn English, so I will be teaching them and our cook Irsa as well!! It’s amazing how God is really enlarging my territory, just like Jabez’s prayer.
October 1st is Children’s Day here in Guatemala and it is a VERY big deal. All the kids get presents and piñatas. So on the Saturday before we had a really big kids program held at Fe Viva World Missions with over 200 kids coming from around the neighbourhood. There were songs and dances and a puppet skit and 3 piñatas! Plus all the kids got a tostada, cake and juice as a snack.
As for other holidays, this past weekend was Thanksgiving and I was invited by my Fe Viva family for an entire thanksgiving meal! There was turkey, scalloped potatoes, stuffing, asparagus, peas, carrots, salad, fruit salad, jell-O and PUMPKIN PIE!! The food was absolutely delicious and we had an amazing time of fellowship afterward- well mainly because we all ate so much we couldn’t get up! It was a huge blessing!
And last Friday Carol treated all her Operation Jabez workers to a day at the beach. We were really blessed to have beautiful weather and everyone stayed safe in the ocean. So I guess we’re not all work here…
In lieu of this festive season, I just wanted to thank you all again for your prayers and for reading my updates. I love being able to recap everything that’s going on and going back through pictures…I hope you enjoy them too!
Dios les bendiga!!
P.S 76 Days until Christmas!
Guatemala Update #2
Well, I have been here in Guatemala now for about 3 weeks!! Time has gone by so fast!! I have survived the elections and Independence Day. Not that there was anything remotely dangerous about them…
To start off I’d like to share some updates from my last update…
I finally did get my luggage on the Monday after I arrived- so it only took 7 days which is unusually long and we figured it was because we don’t really have an exact address. But it turns out they had everything except our town name. Which I CLEARLY remember writing down and telling them but oh well… my luggage is here!
We did end up buying a car. It’s red Isuzu Rodeo 4x4.
We ended up saving money because of the exchange rate and the guy we bought it from not knowing what it was…However, we’ve been having problems with the gears (being shaky and hard to maneuver) and problems getting it started. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. So we are hoping to have it looked at tomorrow!
My washing skills are slowly improving as we still don’t have a washing machine.
And finally Olga, if you remember she is pregnant, has a scheduled C-Section for the 28th of October and will be having it done in a nice hospital here in Chiquimulilla.
So after my last update we have now had 4 seminars.
Some highlights include going to a “turicentro” (which is like a park with a pool and river) and teaching the women from Erik and Olga’s church and then being able to go out with them a few days later to minister to their neighbourhood. We were able to encourage some people who have stopped going to church and saw 3 people saved!!
To start off I’d like to share some updates from my last update…
I finally did get my luggage on the Monday after I arrived- so it only took 7 days which is unusually long and we figured it was because we don’t really have an exact address. But it turns out they had everything except our town name. Which I CLEARLY remember writing down and telling them but oh well… my luggage is here!
We did end up buying a car. It’s red Isuzu Rodeo 4x4.
We ended up saving money because of the exchange rate and the guy we bought it from not knowing what it was…However, we’ve been having problems with the gears (being shaky and hard to maneuver) and problems getting it started. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. So we are hoping to have it looked at tomorrow!
My washing skills are slowly improving as we still don’t have a washing machine.
And finally Olga, if you remember she is pregnant, has a scheduled C-Section for the 28th of October and will be having it done in a nice hospital here in Chiquimulilla.
So after my last update we have now had 4 seminars.
Some highlights include going to a “turicentro” (which is like a park with a pool and river) and teaching the women from Erik and Olga’s church and then being able to go out with them a few days later to minister to their neighbourhood. We were able to encourage some people who have stopped going to church and saw 3 people saved!!
Another seminar was held in a church called Isletta and this is a small church on the way to the beach that you have to cross a river and then ride horse-back to get to. For those of you who know me…I am extremely allergic to horses however, I was able to ride a horse twice without any effect! Praise God! We had 5 pastors show up and then we were able to sit down and have lunch with them.Other than having seminars, we’ve been having a lot of dinner parties. Friday night, we had 7 pastors and their wives come over for dinner so we could introduce ourselves and our ministry and get some more seminar dates set up. We got 9 new ones,all in November because that’s when the kids have their holidays from school and a lot of these pastors want us to teach their young people. And we are now starting up more Children’s ministry stuff. This week we are going to a public school somewhere (I’m not really sure where) and teaching the teachers (who are not Christians) how to teach Bible lessons to their students. Apparently there weren’t enough teachers at this school who are Christians so they had to hire non-Christians to teach the religion and Bible classes. So we are helping them out and bringing Childrens Ministry material to give to them as well.
On another note, one of the things that have been on my heart while being here is teaching english. So hopefully as of this week I will be going to Casa Samuel (which is another orphanage in the area) and teaching some of the children there english! Another idea was teaching english to some of the Guatemalan staff, if they wanted to do it.
So I just want to say thank you for your prayers and support once again!
Dios les bendiga!
God Bless!!
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