Wow I can't believe I have been here one week already. It has been the same as last time in that I go to school in the morning (although a different kind of school) and then I seem to be very busy the rest of the day. The difference being all the things I stay busy doing now are what I want to do not what someone else has planned for me to do. Susy has been a real blessing to me and helped me with lots of different things getting oriented to being here again and then not only that but being here by myself. I have been doing a "home stay" with a family in Antigua. I have a small room and then I eat breakfast and dinner there. It has been fine but certainly not fancy. My two favorite classmates from the DTS were Alicia and Olga and I have been able to spend time with both of them. Alicia came to Antigua for a couple of days so we met last Wednesday after u got done with class and went to the base and was able to see several people we know which was good. Then again on Thursday it was a holiday here so no school so Alicia and I met in the morning and went to the base. Olga goes to school in the afternoon but she had no school that day so she met us at the base and it was so good to finally see her again. We are lunch at the base then the three of us came back to Antigua and went to McDonalds for coffee which was great. Then they
Both took buses and went their seperate ways and I went back to my room.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
This Fox Is Back On The Move
Here I am back at the same place I was at the end on July 2013, sitting in the Salt Lake Airport at midnight waiting to catch a flight to Atlanta and then on to Guatemala. The difference being last time I was headed out for a 5 month stay and this time it will be 5 weeks.
Last time I went as a student and this time I am going as a student again but to learn Spanish (or that is what I will try and do). The flight is about to board so I will keep you posted as things unfold.
Last time I went as a student and this time I am going as a student again but to learn Spanish (or that is what I will try and do). The flight is about to board so I will keep you posted as things unfold.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
FROM BARILLAS TO THE BASE
We made it back to Barillas, checked into the hotel and headed into town to do a little shopping and have lunch. Lela and Andrea stayed with us to show us around the market to find the things we were looking for and to show us a place for lunch. This is a pretty "rustic" town and there was nothing like a McDonalds to eat at so them showing us around was very helpful.
Back at the hotel we had worship and intercession time together and then tuna sandwiches for dinner. We were all pretty exhausted so I for one went to bed early.
We left the next morning for Huehuetenango in the bus ride from hell that I described in an earlier blog. The bus we were on did not know what a "shock absorber" was so our bodies absorbed the shock all the bumps along the way.
So we were back to Huehuetenango which is a fairly large city, if you have a McDonalds and a mall you have to be a large city, right? The drive to get there from Barillas is about 7 hours so we got to town about 4 in the afternoon and went after settling in we all walked down to Pollo Campero for dinner.
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, mine was good, then we went up on the roof for intercessary prayer. After that we took taxis and went to the mall, had lunch and then spent an hour walking around finding people we could talk to or pray with and then we got to shop. Most of us went to the MegaPaca which I think is fun. I didn't have anything warm to wear home so I found a sweater to wear. We had dinner at the hotel which again I thought was good and then I had some time to relax in my room that I really enjoyed.
The following morning we were off to the bus station to catch the bus back to the base. The bus left at 07:15 and dropped us off in a town called Chimaltenango which was closer for us to get to the base than going all the way back to Guatemala City. A couple of vans came to get us and we were back to the base about noon. It felt so good to be back.
I will finish my tale with one more blog about our happenings after getting back to the base.
Back at the hotel we had worship and intercession time together and then tuna sandwiches for dinner. We were all pretty exhausted so I for one went to bed early.
We left the next morning for Huehuetenango in the bus ride from hell that I described in an earlier blog. The bus we were on did not know what a "shock absorber" was so our bodies absorbed the shock all the bumps along the way.
So we were back to Huehuetenango which is a fairly large city, if you have a McDonalds and a mall you have to be a large city, right? The drive to get there from Barillas is about 7 hours so we got to town about 4 in the afternoon and went after settling in we all walked down to Pollo Campero for dinner.
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, mine was good, then we went up on the roof for intercessary prayer. After that we took taxis and went to the mall, had lunch and then spent an hour walking around finding people we could talk to or pray with and then we got to shop. Most of us went to the MegaPaca which I think is fun. I didn't have anything warm to wear home so I found a sweater to wear. We had dinner at the hotel which again I thought was good and then I had some time to relax in my room that I really enjoyed.
The following morning we were off to the bus station to catch the bus back to the base. The bus left at 07:15 and dropped us off in a town called Chimaltenango which was closer for us to get to the base than going all the way back to Guatemala City. A couple of vans came to get us and we were back to the base about noon. It felt so good to be back.
I will finish my tale with one more blog about our happenings after getting back to the base.
MINISTRY @ YULMACAP & I'm Home
I'm home! ! ! Today is Wednesday December 17th and I am just finding the the time and energy to catch up on my blog. It is great to be home safely.
Ministry at Yulmacap was busy. We would have breakfast at 8:00, we had a variety from cold cereal to French toast and pancakes. Afterwards we would meet for ministry like going to visit a family. Lunch at noon followed by intercession or worship then ministry preparation for the afternoon kids ministry. That would be from 3:00 - 4:30. We would do a variety of kids songs, games, testimonies and then each day we shared from the bible an a bible verse. We did the kids program every day Tueaday thru Saturday. There were always lots of kids, they enjoyed the program and they enjoyed us being there. Whether it was the kids ministry or the evening family ministry it seemed the whole town loved is and would all come out to watch.
Then at 5:00 we would meet again to plan the evening family ministry. We would hang a sheet on the fence at the basketball court and Bruce would show a movie (a Christian movie of course). We would do a drama and have a testimony also. We did this ministry Tuesday -Friday and then on Satursay night we went to church.
Going to church was quite interesting, walking through a jungle like landscape in the dark by flashlight. The town was in the middle of nowhere so you can imagine where the church was, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of freaky and scary walking there. There was a lady who had a mentally retarded three year old son who came to town and wanted us to pray for her, she was at the church service that night and we prayed for her and others.
It was interesting doing our ministry there and I believe very powerful. I don't think I mentioned before that the people there speak a different indigenous language, the kids do learn Spanish in school but many of the people don't so we had a 16 year old girl named Andrea with us to translate. So if an English speaker was talking we would have someone translate into Spanish, usually Emma would, and then Andrea would translate into their language.
Everyone who could come out would come out to watch us for one because we were the only entertainment in town and I believe God will mightly use all He called us there to do to touch the lives of the people He loves there.
For all of us the sights, cement floors, cold showers, and busy schedule, will somewhat fade as time passes but not the powerful ministry God called us to at Yulmacap, I know that will be forever etched in our hearts and minds.
Sunday morning after having rained off and on the previous day and causing some worry that if the rain kept up we would never get out of there, the pickup trucks arrived bright and early to take us back to semi-civilization.
Ministry at Yulmacap was busy. We would have breakfast at 8:00, we had a variety from cold cereal to French toast and pancakes. Afterwards we would meet for ministry like going to visit a family. Lunch at noon followed by intercession or worship then ministry preparation for the afternoon kids ministry. That would be from 3:00 - 4:30. We would do a variety of kids songs, games, testimonies and then each day we shared from the bible an a bible verse. We did the kids program every day Tueaday thru Saturday. There were always lots of kids, they enjoyed the program and they enjoyed us being there. Whether it was the kids ministry or the evening family ministry it seemed the whole town loved is and would all come out to watch.
Then at 5:00 we would meet again to plan the evening family ministry. We would hang a sheet on the fence at the basketball court and Bruce would show a movie (a Christian movie of course). We would do a drama and have a testimony also. We did this ministry Tuesday -Friday and then on Satursay night we went to church.
Going to church was quite interesting, walking through a jungle like landscape in the dark by flashlight. The town was in the middle of nowhere so you can imagine where the church was, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of freaky and scary walking there. There was a lady who had a mentally retarded three year old son who came to town and wanted us to pray for her, she was at the church service that night and we prayed for her and others.
It was interesting doing our ministry there and I believe very powerful. I don't think I mentioned before that the people there speak a different indigenous language, the kids do learn Spanish in school but many of the people don't so we had a 16 year old girl named Andrea with us to translate. So if an English speaker was talking we would have someone translate into Spanish, usually Emma would, and then Andrea would translate into their language.
Everyone who could come out would come out to watch us for one because we were the only entertainment in town and I believe God will mightly use all He called us there to do to touch the lives of the people He loves there.
For all of us the sights, cement floors, cold showers, and busy schedule, will somewhat fade as time passes but not the powerful ministry God called us to at Yulmacap, I know that will be forever etched in our hearts and minds.
Sunday morning after having rained off and on the previous day and causing some worry that if the rain kept up we would never get out of there, the pickup trucks arrived bright and early to take us back to semi-civilization.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
WHERE IN THE HECK AM I
Well I was not looking forward to our trip to Yulmacap. From what I had been able to discern about the place I thought what in the heck are we going to do there for a week, please oh Lord let them cut the trip shorter. I continued to think those same thoughts for several days after arriving, or more or less the whole time I was there.
We slept in two of the rooms of the school, boys in one room and girls in the other. It was bug infested, no power, cement floors, and certainly no bathrooms anywhere in sight. This was not what I was looking forward to to finish off our outreach experience.
A man who lived not too far from the school was the one who kind of hosted us being there. He had a very unpleasant outhouse but had built a small building with a shower and toilette that although was a little questionable with it's pieces of black plastic for doors but was inviting with it's running water although the water in the shower was freezing cold and took your breath away when you stood under it.
There were 14 in our group and he had a wife and 8 children with a random variety of other people that lived there we shared these facilities with.
Also they had a room that I think used to be there house that they now used for a kitchen with a wood burning stove to cook on, that is how all the cooking is done by the people there is a wood burning stove. A lady came with us and another girl who helped us with the things we were doing and they cooked our meals for us. We would sit on the stairs going up into the house to eat our meals. Bruce and Kalissa are thoughtful in the food they buy and bring for us so we did eat pretty good even in these somewhat primitive conditions. Also there is no refrigeration so a couple of times they killed chickens which we ate and one day someone in town was slaughtering a cow so we had beef that day.
I will tell of our ministry there next.
We slept in two of the rooms of the school, boys in one room and girls in the other. It was bug infested, no power, cement floors, and certainly no bathrooms anywhere in sight. This was not what I was looking forward to to finish off our outreach experience.
A man who lived not too far from the school was the one who kind of hosted us being there. He had a very unpleasant outhouse but had built a small building with a shower and toilette that although was a little questionable with it's pieces of black plastic for doors but was inviting with it's running water although the water in the shower was freezing cold and took your breath away when you stood under it.
There were 14 in our group and he had a wife and 8 children with a random variety of other people that lived there we shared these facilities with.
Also they had a room that I think used to be there house that they now used for a kitchen with a wood burning stove to cook on, that is how all the cooking is done by the people there is a wood burning stove. A lady came with us and another girl who helped us with the things we were doing and they cooked our meals for us. We would sit on the stairs going up into the house to eat our meals. Bruce and Kalissa are thoughtful in the food they buy and bring for us so we did eat pretty good even in these somewhat primitive conditions. Also there is no refrigeration so a couple of times they killed chickens which we ate and one day someone in town was slaughtering a cow so we had beef that day.
I will tell of our ministry there next.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
YULMACAP
Yulmacap is a village in a remote not easy to get to place in Northern Guatemala. From Barillas on to Yulmacap the only people who live there or go there are the indigenous people from the area, it is not a vacation destination, white people do not go there so we were more than noticeable when we showed up. The whole area around Yulmacap only has around 400 people. They are very poor people and grow crops on the mountain sides to survive.
The area is very beautiful, it is in a valley surrounded by mountains lush with vegetation. The drive there was spectacular, driving high up in incredibly beautiful mountains with amazing views. For all it's beauty there is a very sad thing there that touches the lives of many of the people. It is a horrible, ugly, painful genetic disease called "XP". It is a very rare disease except for in this particular place in the world. I don't know how many kids have it but one family had four daughters who had it and another three of there eight children had it. They start to notice it when the babies are a few months old. If the kids go outside in the sun it speeds up the effects of the disease and many die in there teens after having suffered terribly for years. It affects there eyes where it is painful to be in the light and they eventually go blind. They get a rash all over there skin and then tumors begin to grow mainly on their face and head which are very painful.
That is the downside to this very beautiful place that The Lord allowed us to go to and share His love with the people there. A "good time" was not to be had by all but a powerful time of ministry was. I think all of us were challenged by the difficulty and hardship of being there but we were all thankful God allowed us to be there.
Bruce and Kalissa had gone there two years ago and that was the first time a group like ours had ever gone there to share Jesus with them and we were the second time. Besides us, some medical teams have been there and other than that it is not the kind of place people go to.
In my next blog I will share what it was like staying there and what we did during our week there.
The area is very beautiful, it is in a valley surrounded by mountains lush with vegetation. The drive there was spectacular, driving high up in incredibly beautiful mountains with amazing views. For all it's beauty there is a very sad thing there that touches the lives of many of the people. It is a horrible, ugly, painful genetic disease called "XP". It is a very rare disease except for in this particular place in the world. I don't know how many kids have it but one family had four daughters who had it and another three of there eight children had it. They start to notice it when the babies are a few months old. If the kids go outside in the sun it speeds up the effects of the disease and many die in there teens after having suffered terribly for years. It affects there eyes where it is painful to be in the light and they eventually go blind. They get a rash all over there skin and then tumors begin to grow mainly on their face and head which are very painful.
That is the downside to this very beautiful place that The Lord allowed us to go to and share His love with the people there. A "good time" was not to be had by all but a powerful time of ministry was. I think all of us were challenged by the difficulty and hardship of being there but we were all thankful God allowed us to be there.
Bruce and Kalissa had gone there two years ago and that was the first time a group like ours had ever gone there to share Jesus with them and we were the second time. Besides us, some medical teams have been there and other than that it is not the kind of place people go to.
In my next blog I will share what it was like staying there and what we did during our week there.
THE ENDS OF THE EARTH - THE BEGINNING
We arrived back in Huehuetenango yesterday after a long, rough ride from Barillas. The 20 passenger bus we were on was not as nice as the one we had taken on our way there. This bus was lacking any kind of shock absorbers. The first 2 hours of the drive is on a bad dirt road and the next 5 hours is bad paved road and that bus would bounce and jar you around with every bump in the road. It was so nice to get here and checked into the Hotel we are staying in called 'The Conquistador'. We are going to be here for two nights and one of the great things about this place is the free wi-fi. We left civilization for the great unknown back on December 1st and yesterday was the 9th so we have had no contact wih the outside world during that time.
God calls us to go into all the world, even to the ends of the earth and that is what I feel we have done this past week. Since I have over a week to catch up on I will just begin with some of my tale.
Last Sunday Morning we went to Guatemala City to catch a bus (like a big Greyhound bus) for the first part of our journey. That took us to Huehuetenango. We had lunch at McDonalds and then we continued on our way on a smaller shuttle bus, the bigger buses don't go any further in the direction we we going. We continued to travel another 7 hours, the last 2 hours were on a dirt & rocky road to a town called Barillas. There we spent the night in one of the two hotels in that town. It was a pretty nice place by local standards (certainly not somewhere you would stay in the states).
The next morning 2 old Toyota Land Rover pick up trucks arrive and we load in our gear along with ourselves in the back of the pickups to continue on the final leg of our journey. Oh yes, I got to ride in the cab of the pickup instead of the back which was a real blessing. We drove for just over 2 hours on an incredibly bad, rough, rocky, muddy, road to arrive at the town of Yulmacap, our destination, which was "the ends of the earth".
God calls us to go into all the world, even to the ends of the earth and that is what I feel we have done this past week. Since I have over a week to catch up on I will just begin with some of my tale.
Last Sunday Morning we went to Guatemala City to catch a bus (like a big Greyhound bus) for the first part of our journey. That took us to Huehuetenango. We had lunch at McDonalds and then we continued on our way on a smaller shuttle bus, the bigger buses don't go any further in the direction we we going. We continued to travel another 7 hours, the last 2 hours were on a dirt & rocky road to a town called Barillas. There we spent the night in one of the two hotels in that town. It was a pretty nice place by local standards (certainly not somewhere you would stay in the states).
The next morning 2 old Toyota Land Rover pick up trucks arrive and we load in our gear along with ourselves in the back of the pickups to continue on the final leg of our journey. Oh yes, I got to ride in the cab of the pickup instead of the back which was a real blessing. We drove for just over 2 hours on an incredibly bad, rough, rocky, muddy, road to arrive at the town of Yulmacap, our destination, which was "the ends of the earth".
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