Lent

Lent... lint... lend... Lindt truffles?!  (these are thoughts that come across my mind)

Honestly, for the longest time I thought lent was this “Catholic” thing and therefore never explored the topic that much---it was not in the Baptist vocabulary that has been forever implanted into my mind.

However the past couple of years I have been challenged to take a look a look at my relationship with Christ during this time…to maybe commit to reading the Bible more, praying more, or maybe even memorizing verses.  Pretty much I understood it as a time to refocus on the most important relationship that anyone could ever imagine.

We have a new chaplain/counselor at our school, whose name is Kylie.  She recently sent us an email about lent and what she/people often desire… here’s a paragraph from it.

I am looking for a relationship that goes both ways. I am looking to connect again with the God I once fell in love with. I need to hit reset. I want to erase years I have pushed Him away. I want to know that He still loves me despite confusion, question marks, doubt, stupidity and my distraction. I want to be a little kid around God again, not caring what the world around me thinks, trusting him, being joyful and knowing I can curl up in His arms. I want to be able to vent to Him and scream and complain and be honest and cry and know that He hears me. I want to sense Him leading me, comforting me, healing me, giving me joy. I want to start seeing all the gifts He’s been giving me all along that I have become blind to… or even ungrateful for.

This really resonated with me.  I do want this.  I want to be renewed.  I want to fall in love all over again.  I want to grow.  I want to be more like Jesus, and less like a sinner. I want my faith to be so strong, that no small doubt is able to enter my mind… defeat truth… and then take over.    

I love Guatemala.  I love teaching high school science.  I love living in the same city as my fiancé and working with him. However, there are others things that I love that are not within reach right now…physically speaking.  I love my parents. I love my family.  I love my best friend that I met when I was 5.  I love my grandma that lives 5 houses down from me. I love my church. 

But God has me here.  I say that right now in this moment as I write this with 100% confidence, but I will be honest and say that sometimes I doubt that.  When I start to miss my family, Satan enters my mind and tells me how easy it would be for me to change where I am.  He also makes me question… am I right by being here? I am thankful for new friends here, but I miss those friends that are pretty much like family… who just know everything about you. And between you and them…. you have like a million inside jokes.

I miss my church.  I miss the familiarity of Summit and all the awesome people I met there.  I miss Powerpoints and studyguides to go with the sermon…. a sermon that always had some kind of organization to it.  I miss not having to translate and then “digest” thoughts and then apply.

But God has me here.  And even though to some that doesn’t sound logical to all… He does.  Not only has He given me a desire for the country and culture of Guatemala, He has given me a passion for my students to know Christ.  He has for some reason, placed me in the odd world of high school education…. but I love it and I am beginning to understand more of why He has me there.

I know God doesn’t need me to change lives, but gratefully, I have seen how He has led me to a place where He is changing lives.  He tells me He can use me to help in this plan.  He tells me over and over that my weakness is perfect for His power---it will be least expected and therefore a clear sign of Him. He tells me just to wait and see what else He has up His sleeves. He tells me I can’t even fathom it.  He tells me He is the Way and Truth, even though others may disagree. He whispers to me all day, “Trust me” even though it seems like so many other things are yelling at me trying to get me to believe lies and to doubt.

So what does this have to do with lent?

I have decided that for lent… I am going to give myself a little challenge.  A little challenge that will help me in these times of doubts.  A little challenge that will help me see God and re-fall in love with Him.

Starting March 5^th, I want to take a picture everyday of my life here in Guatemala.  The picture must be something that makes me smile and say, “I am so glad God has called me to serve Him here.”  The pictures might be of “small things” but I believe God is in the small and big.  So it might be my favorite Guatemalan snack, my favorite class at school (just kidding! I don’t have a favorite class… I’m not suppose to right? ), or my favorite tienda….. but reminders of why I am thankful to be here. Reminders of why God does have me here in Guatemala this year. Reminders for those times when His whispers of truth seem to be drowned out with lies.  

I am not doing this to “prove to myself” that God has called me here. God doesn’t need to prove Himself to me.  He calls, I answer.  That’s faith.  But because He is such a gracious God, He has left little reminders.  He doesn’t have to prove why I should follow His plan… it’s enough that He is God and Creator.

When I was younger, my mom use to leave little notes in my lunchbox telling me she loved me.  Did she have to do that?  No, but she just wanted to remind me—just like God wants to remind us of His love and plans for us.

I know God loves me.  I know God has called me here.  Sometimes I don’t believe both of these things 100%, because my faith is the process of getting deeper and deeper.

Doing this picture thing is just a way for me to focus on God around me… to focus on how clear it is that He is alive and active all around me.  A way for me to just enjoy Him.  A way for me to be more grateful.  A way for me to focus on truth, and defeat lies and doubt.

Pictures to come soon. 

  

October!!? Where did you come from?!! (Oooops... wrote this but never published :/)

It’s so hard to believe that we are in October!!! Crazy!!! This is the last week of the quarter. One sure sign of this is that ALL my students have been asking what their grade is in my class.

 

In a nutshell, things have been going great!  I still love teaching high school, and I feel that I am very acostumbre to everything here in Xela.  I now that it rains just about everyday, I know where to get good hot chocolate, I know the “normal” sounds of my apartment from the “not so normal”,I figured out how to light our oven, I know where to buy tortillas, I now what I’m suppose to do during an earthquake (that doesn’t mean I’ll do it… but I do now know :D)… all these things and more. Yep. I’m pretty use to everything.

Here are the big events that have happened since the last time I wrote:

1.       I felt my first real earthquake.

I have felt tremors before, while being here. But NOTHING like I had experience.  It was a Friday evening. I had come home from school, and was just relaxing before going out to meet Devin and our friend Rafael from Toto for pizza. I thought I would catch up on some guitar playing.  I was sitting on the couch in my apartmento located on the fourth nivel just strumming and singing away.  Minding my own business… And then it happened.  Everything started shaking, even me.  CDs and candles fell from a bookshelf, our TV and other things came closer and closer to the edges of their locations.  For the first 7 seconds I just froze, holding onto my guitar for dear life. Watching everything shake.  At second 8 I put my guitar on the ground, because I thought maybe I should do something.  Run? Jump? Lay on the ground? Crouch under a table? Try to catch the microwave, TV, or water container… each getting closer and closer to destruction…..

 

But I just sat there.  And then it was over.  And then there were a lot of aftershocks. 

2.       We finished the story of Tamar in my elective class.

The girls LOVED this story.  I was very encouraged by their essays on what they had learned.  Many girls wrote things like :

                “I learned that God has a plan for everyone, including women.”

                “I learned that God really hears our prayers.”

                “I learned that I don’t need anything or anyone..including a man. I just need   God.”

Here’s an excerpt from one girl’s essay J

 

We are about to finish Rahab.  The girls don’t like  her as much because she is older. But they still love the love story associated with that.

 

3.       Student Fair

Student Council hosted a fair to raise money for Spiritual Emphasis Week in the Spring. I took participated in 2 events.  I originally signed Devin & I up to put our faces in pie to find M&Ms. Upon learning this, he then signed us both up to be pied.  J 

Students paid Q5 to play the find the M&Ms in the pie game against various teachers.  Devin & I never one. I lost my focus the second round because of the taste of the whip cream… It was literally whipped cream. No sugar L 

There was also a fundraising competition where everyone was to give money. When certain amounts were reached, certain teachers were pied.  I really thought I got out of this one, as the “money” thermometer was not rising.  I was priced at Q600, but was then put on sale for Q500.  (But we all know I’m worth way more than that.) One of my seniors, somehow, was awarded the honor of pieing me.  He thoroughly enjoyed doing so.

 

4.       Regresamos a Llano Largo!

Devin and I journeyed back to the hot side of the country, to visit our host families we met during the summer of 2010.  It is so cool that we can just go and visit them J  Though it was hot, I loved our time there.  Even though I haven’t seen my “Guatemalan sister & brother” in a year, it’s like we never skipped a beat.  We were back to goofin’ around, being loud and obnoxious, and acting like true brothers an sisters.

We had churrascos… Oh. So. Good.

 

5.       Mexico.

This past weekend, a group of teachers took a trip to Mexico.  We do not have our 2 year visas yet, so we only have 90 days in the country.  Therefore we left, and then got another 90 J  It was a fun trip! I had some yummy enchiladas that made me think of Las Palmas.

6.       Toto

Devin and I have still been going to Toto on Sundays for church.  It has been so awesome to see Lucia and kids every week! 

 

Sorry for being soooooo late on the update J  I’ll try to do better next time!