Lisa goes to Central America

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

So since I wrote. It has been pretty good until today. But Wednesday was the fourth I felt your prayers. I went to a cafe to study and then prayed in the cathedral which by the way was not nearly as pretty as Leon´s but quiet and worshipful. The time with God was a blessing because it was worshipful there it was nice to be able to sit in God´s presence. I have learned that if I don´t have time with God my days here are worse than they normal. Anyway I appreciate your prayers.

On Thursday after class i went to Fuentes Georginas a hot springs. It was really nice there. it was a break from here. I only went with two other people which was nice to not be in this wierd group of people. Lets just admit it. It is a wierd group of people.  People are in groups and travelling solo. They are from all different views. They are fun to a point but their defintion of fun may not be mine.  I enjoy there company but have not met someone that I have that bond with. Which honestly is fine The girl I went with to Fuentes Geoginas is a seminary student. She is really cool.  I enjoy her she is a seventh day advetnist and loves her faith. She is going to have Dianna Warden´s job in a church in California. She is probably the only one so far that I feel any connection with. I am glad I went with her. The pictures are good especially on the road up and down from the pools. We got to stand up in the back of a pickup and feel the cool breeze. Oh it was beautiful. We went with her cousin who was visiting. He is about to start his phd in bio physics. He is only nineteen. A fascinating guy.

However staying out all day posed a problem. i didn´t do my homework in a timely manner. So i tried to do it at night. Well my one and only pen died so I decided to wake up early to do it with a marker from the hygiene trunk (which most people think I really brought that much clothes) To bad my suitcase has hygiene stuff too so really I brought much less than they think.  It is very interesting to see people´s reaction to the trunk because who actually travels with a huge trunk. Anyway since I was exhausted and spanish is hard for me i made too many errors. I think sometimes my dyslexia gets in the way and I get soooo frustrated with it especially since it doesn´t show up as much with teaching math.  So the way my teacher grades is frustrating. 

Today

i woke up early did my homework very half heartedly.  Probably should have said ahh well I was out all day the day before and left it undone but determined to be good I did it. I went to take a shower (noone is ever in the shower at this point) and some one was there and taking thier time. So I ate breakfast it wasn´t something that I particularly enjoy (microwaved plantains).  So started out tired frustrated ready to leave Xela. I think I just want to leave.  It is not home like Nicaragua. It is not comfortable. My house is not comfortable. (they talk really loud to everyone not just those who struggle with the language- everyone).

i went to school. My teacher whips out worksheets. At this point I think if I wanted worksheets I could have grabbed four levels of them from school and toured during my breaks. The exhaustion of the day the frustration with my teacher the frustration with my house I started to tear up. I left. I don´t do that. But I did.  I feel pretty stupid and a bit frustrtated. I don´t feel like I am getting a better education than what Lydia and my 501 verbs book were giving me and she isn´t trained and I got to play with David when she helped me.  I also genuinely enjoy her company (richardsons if you read this i really have been blessed by you this year). So that is the rough part. Really not the end of the world. I have a weekend to rest and prepare for a new teacher.   

Good part of the day. I got a phone it was like 45 dollars with 100 minutes or so to the US and I can add more as I go. That wasn´t even the cheapest phone possible. They were out of those. I just wanted a phone so I spent 7 bucks extra. After that I called Jenny a friend mine from the US sister and she invited me to spend the night on Saturday and go to church with her.  I am looking forward to it :) It will be nice to get away from my family.

I made reservations for a hotel in Antigua for Thursday July 12 and things are coming together for that . I am ready to see living water again. I am nervous about meeting a whole new team and the work involved with them. I am excited about meeting a new community.

 IF you can remember. Pray for unity within the team. Pray for bonding between communities. Pray that everyone will be safe. Pray for safety in travel. Praise God that he is so big and generous and loving. Praise him for taking care of me and of things so far. PRay the gospel will be known especially in the community that we go to. Pray that they will except the hygiene and the well and the hygiene will help them to become healthier. Pray that we will be able to bond with the women of the community.

Also pray for abangasca sur. see Jorge blog for detailed pray requests. He said it better than me. Pray for Jorge adn his family as they get ready for a new team in a week or two. That his sons will adjust to having saying goodbye to people more often than they like. Pray for my heart because I desparately want to return to nicaragua. If I could for several years. pray for guidance and trust and joy in my frustrations.

I don´t know if I have more now.

So ther first couple days in Xela have honestly been very tough.  i miss the fellowship i had in Nicaragua and that I have at home. I have been blessed with a great number of strong believers around me in those places but here I feel alone. In part because i have been overwhelmingly exhausted. I need rest but am not doing a great job of it.  I actually think I am getting sick. Which is hard because I feel alone here.

I have met my host family. There are five other people living here. The first is another student at Celas Maya.  he is a college student.  He is a nice guy very much a college student. Then there are four mayan students living with us. They seem very nice but i haven´t gotten to know them much. The parents have two children.  Miguel who is 7 i think and Abigail is 2. The father has green eyes. They are interesting. I am not quite comfortable there. However my room has a beautiful view of a volcanoe and some mountains.  

I went to a town with a painted church. It was interesting but not the way people talked about it. It was my first experience on a chicken bus. Esta bien. The town also had a statue of San Simon. he is the bad saint yet brings good luck. He is a mixture of catholic and mayan saint. it is interesting to begin to see the syncretisic worship here. There was definitely an alter where they laid sacrifices in front of the cross.  It was a little uncomfortable because i wanted to talk more openly than I could with out being rude about the theological implications of such worship. Worship of things that are not God and letting other things be the power of God.

My teacher. Her name is Astrid. At first it was rough because we were doing worksheets. If you know me. I don´t learn from those well.  Today was pretty cool. I told her about the tippy tap and she gave me a jug to make the next one. She also seemed very into it which was pretty cool. We talked a lot about her life. She has had an interesting life. We are very different.  I think we are finally getting along.

The guatemalan accent is much easier to understand than the nica accent.  I think I am learning but obviously not as fast as I would like. my level of spanish is wierd because i am missing some basics but i have some more intermediate stuff. Sometimes I get frustrated with myself and sometimes I get frustrated with program.  i hope I adjust better however I am only here 9 days until I go for another project

The climate here is cool and rainy. I didn´t bring enough warm clothes but as I mentioned i am only here nine more days. It is kinda funny most look at my big hygiene trunk and think I brought a ton of clothes. Ha! that is completely full of hygiene stuff and my suitcase has hygiene materials as well. so it is a bit funny. It will be nice because when I leave guatemala I will have less stuff.

I have a lot of homework to do now.

Will write again as life unfolds

So I went to my brother´s blog today. He posted my blog about pedro and then a guy who drilled in Abangasca Norte on the second well commented about meeting Pedro.  It is amazing how God can bring people together. It is amazing that a man with down symdrome in Nicaragua can have such a big impact on people here in the united states. God often uses the people who we least expect to impact others.

other thoughts news.

I will miss the Alvarado family. They let me play with their kids. Those kids are wonderful and adorable. I am looking forward to seeing them again. That is a cool thing about hygiene anchor, it is a definite possibility.  

It is interesting being here in Guatemala. Where i am is a different world than Leon. It is in the mountains so it is cooler adn fairly crisp. It is nice. The cars are nicer as are the roads. The streets are fairly narrow and i haven´t seen any bikes with 5 people on them yet or ox carts come to think of it. It is beautiful here but the past few days have been exhausting. I am looking forward to meeting my host family and resting. (I know rest, What is that?). School starts tomorrow – it will be wierd to be back in school. I don´t know if I am mentally ready.  I am glad I am here two weeks because I am sick of travelling, it will be nice to stay for a while.

I guess some prayers of mine are

Pray for the community and the well we just put in. PRay that it will allow the church to become more involed with the community and pray that they will use teh hygiene we taught them.

Pray for those who just returned from the trip and there adjustment back to the states.

Pray for the Alvardos especially the kids as they become used to people and then people leave.

Pray for school that i will be awake and rested and ready to learn and that I will learn a lot.

Pray for the upcoming community.  PRay they will be prepared for us. That they will be ready for hygiene and that we will find water.

 Pray for team unity

Pray that I will be able to connect with the community here and I wont be stand offish.