Work and Play

These are the beautiful women of Nabaj proudly displaying their new business. This is a new experience for them as they develop into small business owners and their families become sustained on their God given talents.   David and I have the privilege of walking them through the development of their business and teaching them to recognize this , the fruit of their labor and most importantly their talent,  as the work of the Lord . 

Candles being made by the women. It is a group effort and everyone contributes.

David spending a day with these ladies teaching them biblical and practical principles of small bussiness.

This is a display that the women made to store the candles before shipping them to markets here in Guatemala and your homes.

Our friends, Matt, Beth and little Eli were able to travel and see the ladies recieve their first income from their hard work. It was wonderful to see their reaction when they realized that not only had they made a profit but they had also paid for their equipment and now own it....free and clear. They sounded like birds chirping..everyone talking at once

Then we were off to the zoo for spotting ( no pun intended) really cool animals. We love the zoo here. It is so clean and the animals are really healthy.

Next, we traveled to a birthday party where we cooked meat over coals and had rice with cheese. 

And lastly, we traveled to Panajachel. We jumped in a boat and headed across the lake for a 30 min ride.  This is one of my favorite things to do.

The lake is very dangerous to swim in but completely beautiful to look at and to ride across. You head

straight for a volcano and then.....

 

a wonderful little village where all kinds of goodies are sold ...you have to be in the spirit of being shark bait though... EVERYONE has a great item and a special price that day...

Thanks for a great day Matt and Beth. Also, we couldn't have found our way without the kids friend Dan. This was a really special day. 

Enjoying the breeze from inside the boat. 

David , lovin' the sun...hanging out with our little guys...precious. Days like this gear us up to get back in the grind of things and we are grateful for the chance to see other parts of the beautiful country that we serve the Lord in.... taking others with us is always a huge perk too.

Scrambled Thoughts Leading to Perspective

It is humbling to be serving in a world relief ministry while standing side by side with countries such as Haiti and now Chile enduring such difficulties by way of natural disaster. I don't even know myself how to fully process the numbers that I hear and the photos that I see...the children .... The hungry and discouraged.... Due to the processing still going on in my brain , my thoughts are simple... today is today and God is God... simplicity is a sweet gift. When you peel all of the tragedy away, the Christ follower is left with the tangible.. God's truths in his word and the love of brothers and sisters, the hope that we have in the second coming of our Lord and that all of this is temporary.

Watching the theologically sound ( NOT) movie Kung Fu Panda with my children the other night, I was struck by a profound statement that they make...it's a quote I assume... the past is HISTORY, Tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift...that's why it's called the PRESENT. There are so many walking out their "present" with a foggy perspective of enduring tomorrow... in light of what they are seeing today...who could blame them? What would I do ? What would it look like in my life? ... On Monday morning of this past week, David and I woke up to our bed swaying like a hammock for what seemed like 10 seconds or more.... Then we had a second tremor at aprx. 9 am. This one was more aggressive as the children and I watched the books moving about on the book case ,the couch thumping around and feeling literally our house swaying back and forth. I think the scale ended up being a 5.4 .  I called my mom and checked in... did all of the wrong earthquake evacuation things with my children... thought swiftly of my children that are away in a school building realizing quickly that if my house goes down what will that look like? How do I get to our children , assist my expecting neighbor, what do I want to grab if we are evacuated? ........ still processing ...and grateful for my salvation and the honesty that our organization here proclaims :

Food for the Hungry embraces an intensely personal and biblical response to God's call to end physical and spiritual hungers worldwide. This intentional walk with the poor mirrors God's walk with each of us, recognizing our own brokenness and His transforming grace that brings out our God given potential...

Praying today that the foggy and brokenhearted will be fed with physical and biblical food that will expose their God given potential and therefore children and families will begin to flourish like never before in these hurting places of the world today..... Haiti and Chili ,  you are in our prayers today. To our financial supporters and prayer partners... you are AMAZING and what God is doing through you is ...difficult for me to express....You are VERY loved !

Peace,
m