Life has taken on a new rhythm with my move and ministry change.  I started at the women's shelter last week, and also started attending Spanish classes in Antigua everyday, for 4 hours every morning.  And then I work at the shelter 4 afternoons a week.  It's very busy, but the routine is nice.  As with any new thing, figuring out the ins and outs and what my role is has been challenging, but a good kind of challenging.  I'm also learning to make jewelry with the women, which is so fun.  On Monday I led group for the women and we talked about self esteem.  It went so well, and I was so encouraged by their receptiveness to it.  I come home everyday really tired...I haven't worked such a full day, including school and everything, without being able to squeeze a nap in, in practically a year!  :)  I guess it's good for me. 

This past weekend I went to Mazatenango, about 3 hours away, with one of the staff at the shelter to visit her family.  It was so much fun.  I got to ride through town on a moped, play Bancopoly (the Guatemalan version of Monopoly) with a bunch of little kids, and we went to Guatemala's Disney World.  My friend's nephew has a pet squirrel!  Apparently squirrels are very rare here, and they found one and took it into captivity!  They also had pet ducks!  I laughed my head off when I saw the squirrel.  And the town we were in does not see many gringas (white people), so I was quite a novelty and got a lot of attention. 

And counting my blessings....but I can't remember what number I left off at!

-new friends
-pet squirrels
-grace
-the ability to learn new things
-a community of support
-laughter
-Bancopoly

Thoughts and pictures and contrasts

 Shirley, Sandra, Jorge Junior, and Pablito on the kiddie coaster at the zoo

 Phase 2 of making choco-bananos (chocolate covered bananas)

 Pablito enjoying this fine Guatemalan delicacy.  And we're teaching him to smile with his teeth. It's a work in progress!

At 6:30 on New Year's Day. Clockwise from the front left corner is Jorge Junior, Gerson (Pastor Jorge's youngest son, home for the holidays from El Salvador), Cesar, Hermano Eric, and Mario (our watchdog neighbor from across the street--he literally sees everything. It's kind of creepy if you think about it for too long.)   Junior and Gerson hadn't slept at all yet, and I don't think the others had slept much either, but they came over at 6:30 in the morning, for whatever reason.  Gerson made the comment that the only places open at that hour were the bar down the road and the Cerritos' house.  While for a lot of my time there it kind of bugged me that the doors to the house were so open all the time and so many people were around all the time, for the last few weeks, the hospitality and openness was pretty cool.  I want to be that hospitable with my home, and with my heart, offering people the love of God, hope in Christ, the knowing that there's another option, another place open other than the bar or whatever.  I know Gerson said that to be funny but I thought it was pretty cool.  If I had still been asleep like the other girls in my bedroom, not so cool, but hey, everyone got to take naps that day. 

And continuing my list of one thousand gifts
#10. giraffes--we went to the zoo one day and saw Guatemalan giraffes. These giraffes were born in Guatemala! And they were beautiful. I got lots of pictures and it was a very beautiful day.
#11. Pablito--he turned two on Saturday and I had so much fun at his birthday party
#12. piñatas
#13. church service in English
#14. ipods with recorded sermons and really good music
#15. moms who get it
#16. God speaking
#17. Megapaca


Guatemala is certainly a country of contrasts.  Last week I spent my last "official" Sunday at Pastor Jorge's church in Linda Vista.  Maybe I haven't explained much about the church.  It meets in a garage, we sit in plastic chairs, and it has a tin roof.  It's a small community, usually about 40 people or so come, quite a few children.  Jorge Junior leads worship, Sandra sings, along with Hermana Lety sometimes, and Bryan (14 years old) plays piano (he's sooo good!) and a couple teens take turns playing drums.  It's a pretty good worship band.  And after we sing for awhile Pastor Jorge gives the sermon.  Yesterday, I went to church at Mega Frater, about a half hour drive from Pastor Jorge's church.  Mega Frater, as you might guess from the name, is ginormous.  It is put on like a production, with videos and ushers in fancy black suits and drive thru communion. Heaven forbid you try to actually experience communion and have some meaning to it.  Granted, what was said before it may have been meaningful and I just didn't understand it, but the actual action of taking it was very hurried.  Holy culture shock from my church in a garage to Mega Frater.   Interesting contrast between the "rich" and the "poor."  Of course there's always more than what meets the eye, with the mega church and the small church.  And I think I'll just leave this at that. 

A new year

The past week has been a busy one, a good one, thankfully not giving me much time to reflect on the past year.  I suppose I should, and maybe I will take some time to do that.  I would name 2010 as the Year of the Cleansing.  God took me apart and is putting me back together again, cleansing me of all the crap I thought I needed and unhealthy thought patterns and parasites, both literally and figuratively.  It's been the most difficult year of my life, from heartbreak, to job loss, to depression, to moving to a different country, to culture shock and continued adjustment.  That's a lot of stuff in one year.  But through it all God is faithful. And it is through the hard times that we grow. The "cleansing" hurts like crazy and I didn't know I could cry so many tears, but I'll be a better person for it, more like Him every day, and He's doing immeasurably more than I can imagine.  I think of all the people who have supported me, been there for me. Blessings.  So many happy moments and new experiences...feeding giraffes, laughing my head off with my LifeGroup girls at Mars Hill, driving an hour for amazing ice cream, hanging out for hours at quiet coffee shops, spending the day at the best place on earth--Pentwater MI, baking Christmas cookies on New Years Eve with my Guatemalan brothers, going to the zoo with my Guatemalan family, sewing a quilt by hand (not gonna lie, some of it is by machine, but a lot of it was by hand!), having entire conversations in Spanish with amazing men, women, teenagers, children and realizing that these people are my family, just the same as you all in the United States are my family. 

And, what better way to start the new year than with a new experience?!  Tomorrow I will be moving to TJ and Dina's house to live with them and their 5 children in San Cristobal, about 20 minutes from here and is a suburb of Guatemala City.  They are the American missionary family that I met my second week here and have taken me in a number of times and been a great source of support.  They live very close to the women's shelter where I will be working for my last two months here.  The women's shelter provides housing and services for women who are victims of domestic violence.  I'm not entirely sure what my role will be yet, but it is an awesome ministry and I'm so excited to be a part of it.  The women make jewelry out of coffee beans and sell it in order to earn money to help themselves get on their feet again.  The jewelry is beautiful and they are so creative.  It will be so fun to be a part of it.  I have built great relationships here and I am going to miss everyone so much.  I hope to be able to visit a lot.  My family is so great and I have been so blessed.