The other day as I was driving to Fundaninos I caught myself thinking about other children in other parts of Guatemala; those that aren’t being loved or cared for, those that are striving for their basic needs.  My heart broke for them and while I know that I could never meet all the needs for all the children of Guatemala, my prayer is that God will allow me to take part in meeting some of the needs of some of the children here.  I have no idea what that looks like in the future, but for now I will be where I am and do what I have been asked to do.  I will love.  I will pray.  I will teach.  I will hug, wipe tears, rock to sleep, help make lunch, push a swing, help with homework, brush the hair on little heads, wipe runny noses, and so much more.  Perhaps one day there will be more, there will be others, be it here or somewhere else I do not know yet.  I just pray that regardless the Father will lead and guide me to where I’m suppose to be,  that I will be obedient to His voice and go where His calls.       

I knew a long time ago that anytime I was asked to teach it was an opportunity for me to be stretched.  Come to find out this season lasts a lot long than I had planned…but it’s in His perfect timing. It started a few years ago when shortly after joining the preschool staff at The Village, my boss (and friend) Charissa came up to me and said that she wanted me to be added to the teaching rotation because she thought it would be good for me and that I would be in ministry long enough that I would need to know how to teach.  I reluctantly agreed after a year or so and learning a ton, I thought I was done.

Then about 2.5 years ago, when I was starting to feel called to move to Guatemala, I was offered a teaching position at a preschool and felt like the Spirit told me that it would prepare me for Guatemala.  Over the 2 years that I worked there, there were good days and days I was certain that I was such a horrible teacher that I was surprised I wasn’t fired on the spot.  Once again the Lord knew how to prepare me and I did in fact learn a lot and it did help to prepare me in many ways for my time here in Guatemala. 

Of course even in moving here I thought I had learned what I needed to learn, but at last I was wrong.  I have found myself once again in situations where I have needed to teach and while I continue to learn a lot through it, it is still stretching me.  It really makes me wonder what my future holds, but for now that’s not mine to know.  I’ll have to confess that there have been days where my attitude has been better than others.  My prayer as of lately has been that God would grant me joy in teaching always.  Today I took joy in teaching.  Casa de Libertad is in the middle of a Daniel Fast – 21 days of seeking the Lord – and so we talked about prayer.  I really do want these kids to know that God wants to talk with them and that they can talk to God about any and everything.  I don’t know all of their stories, but I do know a few and many of them have already had harder lives than I can imagine.  I can’t relate to their problems, only God can. 

Often the director’s of Fundaninos will bring several of the kids from Fundaninos to Casa de Libertad and I’ll get to have a mixture of kids from the church, some wealthy, others not; most cared well for and others with a history of abuse.  Prayer is something that everyone needs to know.  It made teaching a little easier.  We talked about the Lord’s Prayer and after discussing many ways of praying; I give everyone a piece of paper and asked them to write a letter to God.  It was interesting to watch.  Some of the kids immediately started writing and knew exactly what they wanted to tell God, others took their time to think about it.  Some proudly showed me theirs when they finished, others tucked it away so that no one could see it.  I’ll have to admit I’ve been really curious as to what they wrote, but I didn’t ask to see any of the letters.  I want them to know that they can have a personal relationship with God and that no one is going to be looking over their shoulder to make sure that they are praying the right prayer.  It’s personal.  It’s intimate. 

My prayer for these children both those from Fundaninos and those from the families at Casa de Libertad, is that they would KNOW God and have deep, personal, intimate relationships with Him.

To plan for 2011 at Casa de Libertad, we all headed out to the Coffee Plantation to focus all our attention on 2011.  While we were there, Francisco gave us a tour of the plantation and we just happened to be there for the processing of the coffee. 

Enjoy a few pictures!

Thursday is one of the days each week that we spend out at Fundaninos with the kids and staff there.  The past two weeks Thursday has had a new theme of learning to cook something new.  A two weeks ago, Carol, the director gave me an amazing Guatemalan twist on Chow Mein and this week, Maria the cook taught me how to make tortillas.  Needless to say I’m having fun in the kitchen these days helping out wherever I can. 

Yesterday (Sunday) I taught the 7-12 year olds during their Sunday School time.  I won’t lie, normally when I’m teaching I get super nervous, stumble over all my words and later think of all the ways that I should have done better.  Over the years I can definitely see areas that I have improved, and still to this day I don’t consider myself a teacher.  I teach because I have learned how and I am reminded that scripture tells us to be ready in season and out.  This time I knew it would have it’s added challenges in that not only was I teaching, but I would be using a translator, so I prayed specifically for those things and saw God act faithfully! Now granted there’s always room for improvement and I can easily look back and see things that could have gone better, but I can also say that it went much smoother than I planned or expected.  I’m grateful to a Loving Father who pushes me out of my comfort zone and remains faithful to be strong in my weaknesses. 

Ways to Pray with me this week:

• for the children at Fundaninos that have court dates coming up that will decide if they remain at Fundaninos or if they will be sent home to potentially abusive situations.
• my future, whether God would have me stay here in Guatemala, return to the States or go somewhere else.     
• grace as I continue to learn Spanish,culture and make good friends. 

Last week we got an email from the director of Fundaninos letting us know of about 19-20 kids that will be most likely be headed home sometime over the next month or two.  A few of the kids I really didn’t know that well, not to say that I want them to go, but others I have really spent a lot of time with, some of which were here the first time I visited Fundaninos. 

In talking to the director’s daughter, she basically told us that the government is corrupt (which we knew) and that it looks bad for them to have so many children in homes or orphanages, so to make themselves look good after a child has been placed somewhere for a while they send them somewhere else (back home to an abusive situation, to the person who found them, or a relative that may or may not want them).  For example, the father of one of the sweet little boys is being told that he has to take his son (from a mistress and one that the father doesn’t want) and was dragged to the court hearing by the police to be told this; another is being sent to the lady they found them who was overheard outside the courtroom saying that she was only taking them because the father didn’t want them and he was paying her to care for them so he didn’t have to.  A few of the kids have told the court that they don’t want to go home – we’re told that they may or may not make a difference in what happens to them.  It absolutely breaks my heart.  It would be much easier to say good-bye if I was confident that they would be going to a good place where they would be loved and cared for. 

As much as I don’t want them to go and do want the absolute best for these children, I must trust that God loves them far more than I ever could (ever though, let’s be honest I would take several of them home in a heartbeat).  And because He loves them He knows what’s best for them and will take care of them.  My only prayer is that they would know the Father and understand the love He has for them, and how He loves them so much He sent His Son to die on the Cross so that they might be reconciled to Him. 

If you would, please take time to pray for the sweet children at Fundaninos and that God’s will would be done in their lives, that they would be cared for, and that they would know Him and His love.

           (The children pictured above are not necessarily the ones being sent home, just a few of the pictures I have)

So far in our time in Guatemala it has seemed as though there is a new holiday every couple of weeks… Guatemala doesn’t really celebrate Thanksgiving, so I’m told our next holiday is Christmas.  It’s been fun to experience the culture as we go out into the city and surrounding towns to see the activities that are involved.  Last Monday we celebrated the Day of the Dead.  It was interesting.  I was told that we would see HUGE kites, but never fully understood what “HUGE” was until I saw a kite the size of a 2 story house.  While it was fun experience the day it also made me a little sad in trying to understand where it came from. 

So far I’ve understood that it is a day to communicate with the spirits of friends and family that have already passed away.  I still need to do a little research, but the thought is that you can put a message on the kite and fly it in a grave yard and the message is sent to the spirit of the person you want to communicate with.  It is always a reminder of our need for grace and the Cross.   

Here are a few pictures.    

Kites!

The Town was ready for the celebration….

Building the Kites….

Flying the kites.  I was amazed at how many there were!

Our friends Carol and Ana, sisterly love.

Baby Graves

Friend and Co-Worker, Quique

Our friend, Rebekah got stuck under a kite as they moved it to set up for take off.

Getting ready for take off

Raising the HUGE kite and the kite set up….

Here’s the pulley system they used to pull it up after building it.

Grave decorated for the weekend

So I forgot to mention in my last blog that while we were at the Rojos game there were several guys with camera going around and recording the game and the crowds there.  I suppose having gringas at the game was a big deal, because we all ended up on TV. Here’s proof.

The week that followed we lovingly refer to as Birthday Week.  Here’s why… Tuesday was our friend Eddy’s birthday, Wednesday was a holiday, Thursday was the actual anniversary of Casa de Libertad (yay for 3 years!  Here’s to many more!), Friday was Alisha’s 29th birthday, Saturday was my 26th birthday and Sunday was an anniversary celebration day! It was such a fun week! 

Here’s a picture of the birthday kids…. Eddy, myself and Alisha

All the girls at dinner on Friday night! Myself, Alisha, Susan, Carol and Annie

Saturday morning I woke up to find this fun surprise!

Saturday night we went to a fun restaurant with an aquarium in the middle.  

And finally the anniversary celebration!  The gospel was preached and fun was had by all!