Lisa goes to Central America

It is amazing what a joyful heart can do. I wrote a while ago about Pedro. I young man I have never met. He struggles with Down Syndrome. I mentioned he made a big impact on me and others on that missions trip and others in our church. Anyway he continues to make an impact. LWI recently had an article about Pedro. It is pretty cool that this man from humble beginnings can make such an impact on our culture.

http://www.water.cc/pdfs/fall2007.pdf

Our God is so big! So strong, so mighty.  He uses the unexpected.

If you haven’t heard or read, staying on the beach was cleansing to my soul in a way I can’t describe. It was beautiful to wake up every morning and spend time with God on the beach and follow that by a devotion with the group.

The community we went to in El Salvador was the poorest community I have been to. It had about 200 people. It was a fairly young community it had only been around 10 years or so.

Monday morning we went around met the community and invited the women and children to the hygiene lessons. We didn’t have a school to work with so we taught everyone at once. We taught many lessons that day and promised a gift the next day (a toothbrush).

Tuesday we spent the morning playing with the kids as the guys continued to drill. The kids were precious. They were young because the older ones were in school and more girls than guys for the same reasons.  One kid started throwing rocks at us. We learned that he does that to a lot of people we said we wanted to be friends but he kept doing it. It was a bit scary. We sat down for lunch and the kid sat next to stanley (see previous blog). Stanley started playing with him throughout the day he started to bond with us. IT was cool to see him change during the week. He covered his face when we left.  During the lessons it rained and poor liz had to continue to teach three legged stool (how to eat healthy). The lessons overall went fairly well especially with the crazy circumstances.

Wednesday - Wednesday was amazing - Mi Dios es tan grande!

We began wednesday with breakfast at 630 then went to the community for devotions(we normally did devotions at 630 breakfast at 700) . We started with prayer and then sang this is the day that the lord has made in english and spanish. I love singing with the community it is beautiful. Then Stu led a devotion on clean and dirty water and spiritual living water and empty words. He did a real good job of using object lessons.

We then got down to normal business. We played with the kids for a while. I started throwing 9 year old Juan around. He was a tough guy quit school becaue he didn’t want to, but hd also lost his mother and it was only him and his father. Juan and I had bonded by the end of the  day he would lean on me some.  Then we had lunch and prepped for the final day of lessons.

We got to the top of the hill to teach and there were about 15 kids and one adult (a little disappointing compared to the other to days) we brought our hands in and prayed. During the first two lessons not many there. During wordless book people started to trickle in. (it was kinda funny a chicken had fallen asleep on our wordless book, Emily, sister-in-law had to jump at it to wake it up to get the book).  By the time I did my last lesson there were 100 people there (part do to the fact that dinner was about to be served). When I was doing ORS - the importance of being hydrated and how to make a simple gatorade solution- I had the attention of all the women. IT was amazing to see them focused - I was in the zone (thanks be to God). They really listened!

After the lessons we were to have dinner with the community 200 or so people showed up. The women of the community didn’t expect this turn out. They had three relatively small pots with them. One of a read bean puree (which was soooo good), One of sour cream and one of plantains. The girls and I looked at each other and thought no way is this feeding everyone.  Somehow it did. EMily madea comment to one of the cooks it was like when jesus fed teh 5000. The cook’s response was I was thinking the same thing and look we have leftovers too! God did something there!

WE left the community that night seeing God’s provision and God’s work!

Thursday:

Thursday mornign we had a pretty chill morning as the guys capped the well. We played with the kids adn much to our surprise the kids had a half day of school and got out at 9:30 or so. So we did arts and crafts with everyone! WE taught them duck duck squirt as well - duck duck goose with a squirt bottle. We had lunch back at the compound. Then returned to the community to dedicate the well. It was a beautiful ceremony focused o n what God had done that week. Then it was time to make tippy taps! A tippy tap is a  bottle that is filled with clean water that conserves waters but can be made into a tap to wash hands. They used have to use a container with a handle. We have since learned to make them with 2 liter bottle (something much more common in Third world areas) We made about 10 tippy taps adn probably 20 during the week. Unitl then I had been on one trip where a tippy tap was requested. IT was AMAZING.

Earlier that morning a girl wanted to show EMily her house. When emily got there. Someone was using the tippy tap at her house and the neighbor was brushing teeth from the toothbrush that we gave them yesterday. It was a blessing to see people practicing what had been taught!

IT was great to end a strong positive note. I feel truely blessed! It is awesome to see God work!

I will probably write one or two more blogs about prayer requests etc. That’s about it.

So I am not really sure what people have told you about because yet again I am blogging from the airport with a little too much time on my hands. (not too much because I need lunch before I board) I wanted to just mention something I learned about. I always encouarged people to get to know the in-country reps. I want to make sure you know about them too.

First is our fearless hygiene rep beatriz! She is amazing. She desires missions greatly. She had a job in fiance a well paying job but realized it wasn´t right. So she quit without backup. She randomly had run into a friend who worked for LWI. At that point he offered her the job as cook. She soon became hygiene guru. She is quiet and humble. She laughs a lot and is a lot fun. But she always seeks God´s will. Her faith is overwhelming and always called us to prayer. She is moving to VA in a year because her fiance is studying at regents so we are all hoping that we can adopt her from afar. I think the hygiene will not forget her calm manner and fantastic ideas (or levanta mi casa or mi dio es tan grande) Second is

Stanley- It is hard not to love Stanley. I sat at the spanish table at during dinner. The first think he said to me is I don´t talk I was like ok. Whatever. Of course this is not true. We did have many head knodding conversations. He is still quite quiet and quite strong. He is pretty funny - it seems like the silent types always have the best one liners. He wants to be a missionary as well. Again he was very patient with us and displayed humility to a T. I think life was just a little happier and sometimes more interesting to have him around.

Finally Estuardo (Stuart, Stu) he is 23 but his leadership abilities stem far beyond that age. he is well accomplished. He graduated the university at age 20 with a degree in Electrical engineering. About six months into work making quite a bit of money for there he felt God´s call to give up all the money and work as a volunteer or missionary. His attitude toward money is amazing. he trusts God completely. He has the abilities to do whatever but chooses to live a life that requires a ton of faith. Another thing at Stuart is that he loves music. I often sat in the front because I get car sick. If i wasn´t singing there was a problem. He is always singing to God and worshipping. Music is part of his very soul - his passion is contagious. (He is also a bit of a jokster - I currently have Senor Jabon written on my arm in permanent marker) 

One thing that was interesting about all of them is that they were all quite educated and gave up lucrative careers to serve God. They are joyous in serving God and passionate. It´s contagious!

I will try to write reflections over the next couple of days i have quite a bit to tell you, I honestly am looking forward to blogging more - I know a bit scary- but eric would be proud. I will be home in less than 12hours, i can}t say i am overjoyed but I know it is God´s timing (another cool thing about talking to these guys is seeing God´s timing in there lives - their stories reflect that). However when i beg for plantanos con crema y azucar be patient. Thanks for all your prayers. We were truely blessed here.

how are you all? So we are currently ending a day of rest. It has been a much needed a beautiful day of rest. We walked the beach today and played in the water a little. For me the beach is a Holy place. It is a beautiful mix of power strength and peace. - The verse that says Be still and know that I am God always pops in mind here. It is beautiful here. i have joked several times that i am going to stay here. i have a similar feeling like Nicaragua - it feels like home.
We are blessed to have an in country host who loves hygiene and acts as a guide similiar to Ronald in Nicaragua. Beatriz is great. She is really good at answering questions and is patient with my many questions. The schedule is very different than the schedule in Nicaragua or Guatemala. I am quite excited about it. We have plans to do all the lessons which i am very excited about. I am really looking forward to this week.
Right now Liz, Larry, Estuardo (one of hosts) and i are having a kicking sweet worship session. So it is pretty hard to sing and type at the same time. Speaking of the team leader. He is very relaxed and very into hygiene. It is such a different world to have supportive team leader. he is good at leading and lets others participate. He is really encouraging and knowledgable.

I feel overwhelmingly blessed to be here. It is so wonderful to see IBC people and a blessing to see Emily. it is so refreshing here. i can’t explain it.
So my challenge for the week. I was goofing around with Estuardo and opened my big mouth. (what else is new). I told him I would eat anything that he would. We pinky swore. So Today i have had cereal with crema and hot sauce for breakfast, soy sauce with bread for lunch, and ketchup on a banana and ketchup on salad for dinner. However he can’t mess with plantains with crema and sugar. We are also promised Iguana later in the week ( I have tried that already - not bad really)

Prayers:

unity between our team especially IBC and the others.

unity with the community. That we build relationships and show God love and we would learn from them.

That hygiene will go well and the community will become healthier because of hygiene teachings.

That we will have water.

Good health and safety for the team
That the well will be a blessing to the community, that it willl give the community the room to flourish and a place that will give a way for the gospel to be spread

That it will be protected from quarreling and selfish interest - that it will be a blessing for all

So this will be brief! But i am in the airport in El Salvador. I am at an internet terminal where you have to stand and I have all my books in my backport.

Anyways Antigua was great. It was relaxing. i didn´t have much of a schedule I got to rest, I got sick (not stomach God has been gracious with no stomach illness), am more or less better now. I am very excited because in about 3 hours i get to see the Immanuel team. I am excited about meeting a new team along with seeing old faces. It will be quite cool. It also nice to know that I won´t have too many more stops. i counted I have slept in at least 10 different beds in five weeks. It gets exhausting. i wish I was staying in one place but it is fun to see all the different countries see how LWI works there.

El Salvador looks beautiful from where we flew in. (the tune in the airport right now is great is thy faithfulness how beautiful).  He has been faithful he has kept me secure and safe.  Brought people in my life that i am forever greatful. i am hoping to write a better update when I get to where we are staying.

Will be home soon! 

So i promised that i would write a little about what God was/is teaching me. ç

So as I mentioned the skits and hygiene didn´t go as smoothly as in previous trips their are many reasons for this. I think on of the things that I began to do was question why I was there and what was my purpose especially since LWI was paying the trip I had a lot of questions. From this experience I saw God use me in unexpected ways but I had to be open to it. At first I was frustrated and confused to be honest. I started to see how much I was used for my ability to speak spanish. I never thought that would be a gift yet it was.  I translated for people on the team many times. I understood what was going on more and was able to spend time with people.  i guess it boils down to a trust issue. God has purposes beyond what we expect and sometimes he wants to use us in ways that are unexpected and at points not what we want. I had to humble myself to follow him which was hard and I definitely was not perfect at it (ask my team).  But to see a picture of how God used me with my team and the community and used my team with the community was a blessing. 

As I decompress throughout the week. I will write more. I also will write more about the team. There are so many of them. It is taking me a while to get to the point of wanting to write that much and be able to write intricacies of there personalities.

I am still really tired so I hope to rest tonight. Please pray for the new village. Pray for unity within our team. Pray for unity between the community and our team. That God´s light will show. Pray for water and that the community will be ready to recieve hygiene instructions. That people will know Christ.

Pray for the last village and the village before. Pray that the well will bring health and a place for the gospel to be spread. Pray specifically for Surama´s family and community leader Jose Juan. Pray for the pastor of the community.  If you want more good prayer requests for the community than see the devotion blog that has Jorge´s devotion.

Thanks for your prayers.

It is really tough to sum up a whole week.  So I will do my best but no promises. So I guess you read we didn´t have an translator.  Our in country rep Jaime ended up translating for us on Tuesday and wednesday so those were the days that we did lessons. It was a big and at points very frustrating thing for me and I am sure my team because things kept changing so I kept changing plans. Nothing seemed solid for me for the week.

Anyway from the beginning. i met my team in Antigua- there were 16 of them from Grace. I was a bit overwhelmed. But they made me feel like family even when I was very hesitant. Which at points I was. We went shopping and chilled on Saturday and then on sunday headed down to the coast.

I learned the schedule was a little different in Guatemala than Nicaragua. WE wake up at 5:00 and leave no later than 6:00.  As Jenn Hurst said “do they know you don´t speak yet at that time in the morning” so the early mornings were a bit of an adjustment. Especially since I couldn´t be lazy since I was in charge of some things.  When we got to the coast we unpacked ate and commenced on out nightly game of spades (I didn´t play all nights - but never lost).

When we got there I had some chill time while the team started on the drill. Around 10 amish we walked around the village and invited people to the hygiene sessions on Tuesday and Wednesdays. I was shocked. It was very different than Nicaragua. Some was very poor some not as much. A lot I learned have family in the US which is why they seemed to have more. It is an interesting conversation but will refrain for now.  Since we didn´t have a translator I had to do all the talking. I tried to encourage the girls to talk and I translate but most refrained a couple did I really appreciated it because it seemed like they were my posse.  I also began to realize my spanish is really improving.

Monday was a bit boring without hygiene and the community was still warming up to us and us to the community.

Tuesday we went to the school. The first lesson as usual was pretty rough. It seems to be the case many many times (ok so I almost wrote muchas veces).  But after that the girls were phenomenal. We then played with the kids ate lunch and taught the adults. The youger women played with the kids while the older women wanted to teach the women which was a good split. Judy took over and did a phenomenal job. She was very expressive and very encouraging throughout the trip.

We stayed in the community late that day. It was beautiful to watch everyone interacting. A lot were playing others were chillin´and others were bonding. I was blessed to be a part of a conversation with the pastor of the church I was with and one of women of the community. She was a new convert to Jehovah´s witness and it was fascinating. I pray that she will seek God´s grace. Watching everyone hang out and bond was a piece of heaven.

Wednesday. So wednesday went well. The lessons were difficult and frustrating at points but went well. Again the girls were great. They had patience through the many changes that occurred.  It was a good day to deepen relations with the community. I especially bonded with a girl named Surama. She was adorable we played many different hand games such as thumb wars and hand clapping and slapping games. She beat me many times with thumb war. I have learned to play two games of thumb wars at the same time one with my left and one with my right. It is fun having a kid on each arm playing thumb war. I got in one game of juggling the soccer game with some of the boys and sort of held my own. They think i can actually play the sport. Ha! little do they know I have no skill. WE had to rush the women´s lesson because the huge rain and thunderstorm. But that night in spite of the rain they showed the  Jesus film. 150 people showed up for that.  

Thursday was the well dedication. They threw a party for us it was insane a live band and everything. It was a great ceremony. i think I got a thousand and one hugs before I left.  One cool thing we get to do is give a bible to each family in the community. We gave a Bible to Surama´s father he said he wasn´t a Christian but was going to read it and be a Christian in the next year. Again my prayers are with him.  One thing I learned this trip is the focus on Christ and how much he is apart of what we do. We don´t always realize the picture we are giving people but our actions speak so much when we are there.  They saw Christ in us (or at least Surama´s father did) and some want to pursue what we have. It is a blessing to see a glimpse of that. To see how God uses us. Many times I am not sure we have a clue when people are watching.

We had a free day on friday were we kicked around antigua. And this morning I had to say good bye to the team at about three. Then the in country reps at about 10. I have a lot of respect for the in country rep here. He is great at what he does and is passionate about serving his country. He has an awesome life story.  There are a lot who have very interesting lives here. Saying goodbye to him and Albaro was harder then I thought it would.

Some closing notes.

The mayor of the entire linea has been very involved in getting all his people wells. Which is very impressive. He really cares about improving his communities. He seems to take his job very seriously.

The community leader is only 28 years old he has had a rough life. Doesn´t smile a lot. My prayers go out to him and pray that he knows Jesus.  My spanish enabled me to have a conversation with him and many others which I would not have been able to have when I left. I also had to play translator a lot for small talk here and there. There was times where it was very tough because I don´t know it all but encouraging that people are beginning to rely on me that way.  I also was able to talk to the Albaro the non English speaking in contry rep a lot which was fun. I was able to goof around and be silly in Spanish with him(when you reach that point in a language it is pretty cool).  

I will write about the team more tomorrow and about what I learned. Thank you for all your prayers.

Hey everyone, this is Mike Lisa’s brother.  I am posting for Lisa because she has a prayer request and is not sure when she will have internet access.  She is in Gautemala about to start a Living Water Mission Trip where she is the hygiene leader.  The team she is with has not had any hygiene training and they do not know any Spanish.  In addition, the translater quit.  Lisa has very little time to train the team and learn how to teach in Spanish.  Living Water is looking for a new translater but for now she is it.  Please keep her in your prayers.  Thanks, hope you all are having a nice summer.

Mike

I can´t say I will miss this place. I have had ups and downs here. I have had so much grammar the past two days my head may actually explode. I think I have gone through most of my high school career of verb conjugations in two weeks. I have finished with my weeks plan a day early. My head hurts. Yet my teacher wanted to cram more into my brain. She wanted me past my Zone of Proximal Development.  It is kinda the idea here. I think sometimes the teachers loose balance and go one step too far because after talking to people, it has happened to a lot of us. Where we just need a break. It is interesting. I think as a teacher I analyze the teachers here more than maybe someone who isn´t. 

Anyway, today is a nice day. I am going out with Jenny one last time before I leave. Which I am looking forward to. Tomorrow I travel. Pray for safety I meet the in country host tomorrow as well.  Which I am looking forward to doing.  It will be nice to leave here. I don´t think I will miss it too much. It was never home.

I have gotten to know my family better. They are actually fairly cool. They are Jehoviah´s witnesses. The grandma just likes having people around. So she always engages in conversation. The mayan Students are funny. They are all a bit shy at first. I will miss hanging out with them even if they laugh at me all the time. They are pretty cool kids.  At least they are not shy around me anymore.  Last night I stayed up talking with Grandma and the oldest about really random things it was nice. I also followed most of it. Which is encouraging.

There was definitely a big change when I got to spend time with a family I already knew. It is amazing how many random contacts I have or have been given in this country. I am pretty exhausted now. I hope to sleep well tonight.  God has blessed me beyond what I deserve.  Ready for the next task!

So it is monday. It looks like it is about to downpour. It does that almost everyday here in Xela but for a very short period of time. It often is incredibly hard yet beautiful. It happens in nicaragua too.

This weekend was pretty sweet. I went to a friend´s house for Saturday night and Sunday. Her family was a blessing. We talked at night and just chilled out. I went to there church as well which was a bit pentecostal however they were a modern church with technology and all which was wierd but interesting. On Sunday afternoon we ate dinner and ciesta! After that I helped her brother in math. Really it is like an addiction for me to teach. He said he struggled with algebra. So I started to help him. I also learned some spanish math words kinda cool. I got back to my house at like 9:30, read some and went to bed. Yet still I am tired and a bit sick  (so probably will nap before homework time) - which is to write about my trip to Hawaii so i can practice my tenses. I was blessed to be able stay at their house I got to practice spanish and chill some - it was like a retreat. Jorge says on the trips when there are anxious moments and difficult times often times they are followed by something good. For instance: on the trip in June to Abangasca Sur we weren´t sure about water and we were all nervous and praying about it. When we found water we had a huge water fight which bonded us with the community. Here when I had a particularly rough week. I got to spend the weekend with a family that felt like family.

So today: I went to class and have a new teacher. She is more relaxed and encouraging yet still corrective and helpful. WE spent a lot of time conversing and we will work on my pronunciation. Sometimes I think I just need to slow down my thoughts etc. so I can communicate more clearly - same in English. 

This week seems to have a brighter future than last. 

Lisa