March was a full month for sure. March 1st
was our first day of our feeding center and we were expecting 14 kids to come,
so we let the moms eat with their kids so they could see what we were doing and
feel more comfortable leaving their kids with us. Well we ended up feeding more
than 50 people our first day and we could not have made it through that day
without all the help from good friends. It was a crazy first day, but a good
crazy and exciting to see kids just keep showing up. We are now blessed to have
40 kids that come to the feeding center.
The mom of the family we live
with, Sister Neli, one night as we were discussing our feeding center she had a
great idea that they could bring their misioneritas(missionary group of young girls)
from their church, Asamblea de Dios Galilea, to our feeding center for a day.
They came and had great day full of prayer, singing, dancing, dramas, and
snacks for the kids. The kids loved it and by the end were up dancing with them
and asking for the group to sing more songs and to teach them. It was such a
blessing to have them with us and wanting to invest in our kids. I am used to
seeing foreigners come and help Guatemalans and have seen the love and care
that they have toward our people. However, I have not seen many Guatemalans
helping other Guatemalans, I have known my culture as the strongest one will
survive and not the weak, and the rich are going to stay rich and the poor are
going to stay poor. By seeing this church helping their own people it filled my
heart with joy and my eyes with tears because I am wrong, there are good people
here that want to serve their people.
We have also had the opportunity
of having our first team from America come and spend two days with our kids at
the feeding center. This team consisted
of college students and one teacher from Grace University. During their time with us this team was able
to visit 20 families in their homes and present them with a gift of rice,
beans, oil, and coffee. This whole group
had been trained in bible storytelling and majority of the team played soccer.
So the team was able to use their training in telling/acting out bible stories
and playing a lot of soccer with the kids. We were blessed by this team that
left us jerseys, soccer balls, and toothpaste/toothbrushes. Yes toothpaste and brushes! Our kids always
brush their teeth after their meal because pastor Hilmar had donated some
toothpaste and brushes our first day. However, we had run out of toothbrushes
and were running low on toothpaste. I
had been thinking the week before the team came how are we going to be able to replenish
the toothpaste and keep buying more toothbrushes as we have more kids because we
did not have that is the budget to do. Well, the leader of the Grace University
team after seeing the kids brush their teeth was laughing and said, you will not
believe it but people as I was preparing for this trip kept coming to me and
giving me toothpaste, and I have been on many trips and never had people give
me toothpaste, but I said yes if they fit in our luggage I will bring them because I
know God has a reason for this. OH I was
almost in tears and laughing too about how good a God we serve that He would
send us toothpaste and that he cared about the little things! WE love seeing
more of the Lord and we definitely got to see that in this team and their
gifts!
For Holy
week(week before easter) in Guatemala everything gets busy so we went to visit
my big brother and his family. We were
able to spend time with him, his three kids, and wife and get to just relax
with them even though I was sick the whole week. Also, we met a wonderful
couple from Texas, Jim and Leslie, that hosted us as we were there. The loved on us and made amazing food for us
and treated us as family. We were truly able to relax because of them and their
kindness. We also met a strong willed
women, Bonnie, that came on her first mission trip to Guatemala at the age of
80 years old, but age doesn’t matter when you are doing the work of God. In
addition to all this we met a retired pastor and evangelist, Clifford Neal, a
wise man and strong Christian that was a pleasure getting to know.
God blessed
us a month ago with an offering from a team of $200 and in our needs God told me to wait... HE had a better plan. When
we were going to see my brother God told me this was the time to use what He had
blessed us with and so we bought 100lbs of beans, 100lbs of rice, and 100lbs of
corn. My brother took us to the mountains to bless 50 families more than 100
people with this food. We have seen the multiplication of the Lord in finances,
in food, in blessings, and in people that surround us.
As we
returned the devil attacked our minds and hearts as we came back to frustrations.
I had a bad discussion with a missionary here that at the time seemed important. Our house that we will eventually rent and
should have been ready a month ago was far behind schedule and had nothing done
while we were gone. Adding to this Yanci, a girl that through our ministry is being
helped (she is in kidney failure) was very sick because of her compromised
immune system, and she thought she was going to die. By now I was frustrated and mad so I had an
idea that sounded good at the time. The idea was to leave the feeding center
for a month and take a break, so I would not affect the ministry and family
with my bad attitude, so basically time to release stress. But guess what I was wrong. After two months I
was ready to run without noticing it, and running away sounded so good, but a good
family friend gave me some wisdom and told me what I needed to hear not what I
wanted to hear. Basically what she said was suck it up, and God will bless you
when you have and when you do not because that is what I said before I came
here, and she was right. The devil will attach you any second he can, but
thanks to the people of God we are able to persevere.
P.S. Please
continue to pray for health over our bodies as it seems to be a huge area of
attack the devil is still using.
