H-E-L-L-O !!!!

Wow !!!! If you are reading this please take a moment and thank the Lord for your internet connection -smile- I am right now! 

Seriously, I am sooo sorry that it has been so long since we've updated anyone on anything. Our connection at home is non existant now and I am up to my collar bone in Spanish trying to finish up my first book in language school by the end of next week. Yes, collar bone is a strange analogy but that's where I'm at. I have a tiny bit more space until I'm up to my neck in work for Spanish....at that point I may truely stop breathing from the weight of my vocabulary cards...( laugh if you must but you'll really crack up when I am able to post the photos of ONLY my voc. cards) not to mention the book work.... So, moving on ....

I must say that the emails and PRECIOUS notes left for us on our blog were a beautiful gift today. This morning AT THE CRACK OF DAWN I was standing in front of my kitchen sink looking out at our flowers in the back "space" - calling it a yard is a stretch (smile) ... but it is very beautiful. I struggled to not have tears. We are moving again at the end of next week. Although I am thrilled at the chance to FINALLY unpack ( we still have ALL of our stuff packed in tubs because our rental home is furnished) it is ONE MORE adjustment that we are having to make and it's hard. Getting off of the plane and "landing " in Guatemala caused us to cling tightly to our new surroundings in an attempt to figure out "home" and now we will do it again. The difference between living here and living in the city is almost like getting on the plane again and re- landing. Here is a quick list of the things that my heart will greive when we say goodbye to Antigua : the sound of horse carriages, the reality of poverty lived out in very approachable people, children running through the city park giggling at the top of their lungs, greetings of "hola " and "Buenas Dias" on my way to school at 6:30 in the morning, motorcycles, busses stuffed with people flying by , the smells of bread baking (it's everywhere here), the butcher shop that makes me gag every morning because of the naked meat hanging in the doorway, the man who has no legs and sits in the breesway cleaning the bricks everyday, the women who sits with her daughter painting with her feet because she has tiny, tiny, arms that almost don't extend from her shoulders, the little boys who dress to a "T" in the park shining shoes, my friend Mary who sells necklaces made from beans and sits with me every morning teaching me new Spanish words when she could be selling her goods, my sweet friend Florie who is only 12 and makes an income selling hair weaving and braclets for her family each morning...she sits with us too. We are all quite a sight in the park at 7 am ... one gringo and 3 women from the village who are clearly outcasted from the "social " scene ...we hug and kiss like we've known each other forever.... I LOVE it... I feel like the Lord himself hugs and kisses me through them each morning. They embrace me like they are clinging on for life. I LOVE it and need it so much.I will miss our security guard who watches over us closely, the cobblestone streets that kill my knees, the volcanoes that are either errupting or smoking quite often.... Ahhhhh, how can a life so strange feel so comfortable so soon? I can't help but wonder how the Lord will make the "city" feel like "home".  How will a billion people everywhere, tons of busses, crime, smoke and smog, no walking , very little "fresh" air ever be home? .... only because the same Lord that we followed to Antigua will carry us to the city. After all ...home will always be where your heart is right? .... King Jesus, I ask that today you would hold our hearts in your hand, carress them Lord that we might know that in this foreign land your have us tightly. Amen

Thank you for reading the thoughts of this teary eyed missionary - tears of great expectation for things not yet to be known or seen but CONFINDENT that it will ALL be good and well used, 

Mel