A Little Random...

The Phillies are in the World Series! Thanks to ESPN Vivo, I got to watch the last 3 games on TV at my host family's house - so exciting!


I graduated from language school today! We got diplomas and everything! 6 weeks and 159 hours later, I am DONE. It feels great! All in all, my experience here in Guatemala was a good one, but I am soooo ready to get to the DR! I have really experienced God as my sustainer here, which has been a huge, though sometimes overlooked, blessing.

I think I might be addicted to the new tv show "Glee." It might be the choir nerd in me... I also really love the song "Sweet Caroline" which was featured in this week's episode. That song makes me think of Skytop because the band (which is always the same - Lexington?) plays/sings that song during the Saturday night dance every year.

In 12 hours I will be awake and getting ready to leave for the airport (yes, that's right. 12 hours from 4:15 pm. Gross). We have a 5 hour layover in Miami, so I hope to make lots of phone calls and drink enough apple cider and pumpkin spice lattes to hold me til Christmas! I am grateful to be traveling with Kyle, a fellow Wheatie who will be working at a different site in the DR. We will spend a few days in Jarabacoa, including (for me, not him!) a sleepover with Molly!!!!! Then Tuesday I will go to Montellano where my wonderful roommate Lauren awaits me in our new apartment!

Finally: I can send and receive texts on my American phone in the DR as if I were in the states. That means you can text me and I can text you without any extra charges!

Thank you for your prayers during my journey thus far - it feels like I have been gone for a long time, but I am just now actually going to the DR! Keep praying for me as I transition to life on the (hot) island, faster Spanish, and working at the Park Care Center. Please pray for guidance for the Kids Alive staff and for me as I figure out what my role at the care center is and how soon I will start different jobs/projects. I am really excited about doing sponsorship work and starting a choir (think a little bit like Jubilee Singers in Spanish!?!) but I want to fill whatever needs are greatest and serve where I fit best. So be praying for wisdom. Thank you!

To close: Part of the Catholic Catechism that talks about God the Sustainer

God Upholds and Sustains Creation (#301)
With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence.

Adventures with Paige

This Saturday I took the bus to Panajachel, a town on Lake Atitlan, about 2 hours from Antigua. I met up with Paige, one of Katy's housemates from Discipleship Year. We took my first tuc-tuc ride (like a little soft-sided taxi for 2 people) out to the nature preserve. There we hiked the main nature trail for about an hour and a half. Here's the recap:

1 waterfall
2 monkeys (yes, monkeys!)
3 umm I don't know what there were 3 of...
4 coatis
5 suspension bridges (a little sketch in a 3rd world country...)

After our hike we had a nice lunch at a restaurant that had hummus, tibuli, and pad thai (Guatemalan style, of course). It also had hot apple cider! We ended our few hours together with delicious ice cream cones. All in all, it was a wonderful and much needed visit for both of us!

In the tuc-tuc

Check out the monkey! Video farther down.

It was a looooong suspension bridge. I was scared, I'm not going to lie!

A coati. I don't really know what they are... a little like racoons I think.

The waterfall - many suspension bridges later!

Check out this monkey's trick!

To finish (because I would hate to leave you without anything profound)... an interesting quote by Harold Best about the problems and imperfections of the world:

In spite of the degree to which the image of God in us was tarnished and twisted in the Fall, and in spite of the way the entire creation shows the ravages of Satan in ways that go deeper than murders, hurricanes and pestilence, we are created in God's image and the creation continues to declare his glory. No one, not even a Shakespeare, a Bach or a Monet, can ever outimagine, outcraft or outwork the Creator of heaven and earth, who through the Word of his power continues to spin wonder after wonder in endless variety. This stream of loveliness will stop only when an even lovelier creation, unscarred by sin and Satan, will unroll in an eternity of glory and beauty. But for now I revel even in the scars and gashes of this creation, for surrounding them and shining through them is a work that could only have been authored by the uncreated Creator and the unimagined Imaginer. – Harold Best

When the going gets rough...

Lest you think that missionary training is always easy and fun... last week was not. I experienced the closest thing to burnout that I maybe have ever experienced. I didn't want to go to school, I didn't want to do my homework, I didn't really want to do anything! I sent out an SOS email on Thursday night and was unbelievably encouraged by the responses I received. THANK YOU! Thanks to lots of prayer and a wonderful visit with Paige on Saturday (pictures and stories coming soon!), I am doing much better now. The end is near! I leave Antigua Saturday at 5:00 a.m., spend 5 hours in Miami (Pumpkin Spice Lattes, anyone?!), and then head to the DR. I am confident that God will get me through this week as He has sustained me through these past 5 weeks. I am determined to enjoy my last week of fall temperatures, jeans and hoodies, and hot water. And I look forward to seeing Molly on Sunday and being reunited with my roommate Lauren Tuesday night!

Some things I have been pondering these past few days...

"Love your solitude and try to sing out from the pain it causes you." - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

"We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You." - 2 Chronicles 20:12

I'm going to leave you with a song (you probably guessed that, right?) that has sustained me through the last week, and really through the past two months, "Always Been Faithful" by Sara Groves.

Morning by morning, I wake up to find the power and comfort of God's hand in mine.
Season by season, I watch him, amazed, in awe of the mystery of his perfect ways.
All I have need of, his hand will provide. He's always been faithful to me.

I can't remember a trial or a pain he did not recycle to bring me gain.
I can't remember a single regret in serving God only, and trusting his hand.
All I have need of, his hand will provide. He's always been faithful to me.

This is my anthem, this is my song, the theme of the stories I've heard for so long:
God has been faithful, he will be again. His loving compassion, it knows no end.
All I have need of, his hand will provide. He's always been faithful to me.

Firsts, Last, and More

Even though I have been here for over a month, this week I experienced several Guatemalan "firsts."

• My first power outage! (I studied by the light of my trusty Coleman lantern!)
• My first glimpse of the Volcan de Fuego from my roof! (an active volcano near Antigua)
• My first time actually seeing fireworks here! (Guatemalans LOVE fireworks and are always setting them off. They also set off cannons. Don't know why, but I always think a war is breaking out!)
• My first earthquake! (More like a 5 second tremor, but still cool!)
• My first Caramal Frappuccino in Guatemala, made by a YWAM staff member at their cafe.
• And to top it off, my first 3-way sister Skype call from 3 different countries!

Today's photo is actually from a few weeks ago, as in our first week in Guate! We like to go to McDonald's for Sunday breakfast. Now before you start laughing, just look at this picture and the VIEW you get at McDonald's - you get to sit on the patio and see the fountain, the ruins, and the volcano. Awesome.

Sunday Kyle and I went to The Oasis, the Kids Alive girls' orphanage between Antigua and Guatemala City. An American team was there and they threw a Princess Party for the girls. Think 50 mostly elementary school aged girls with hair colors, nails done, lots of makeup, and pizza! Then add a power outage and the Americans bringing them a Wii, and you can start to get the idea!

I also experienced a "last" this week: I took my last Spanish test! (Ever, hopefully!) Now I practice translating (being able to translate a story about reforestation in Turkey is going to be really helpful teaching music in the DR...), talk with my teacher, and review grammar that I still mess up. It's exciting to be done with workbooks and tests, though!

Please keep praying for motivation to study/practice these last 7 days of classes. Also pray for my apartment in the DR - my roommate Lauren is trying to sign the lease and get the landlord to let her move in without me being there or paying my deposit, and there will be a lot of logistical things when I first get to the DR with money, lease, reimbursements, bank accounts... yep. So pray that God will show me that He is going before me, because even though I know He is, sometimes I forget.

Fin de Semana!

(That's Spanish for "weekend")

Another week down. Only 2 weeks, 50 hours of class left before I hit the DR! I have to admit I'm a little jealous of Brian, who finished classes today, but I now have a hilarious, wonderful teacher named Olga who makes my classes mostly fun.

This week was game week here at CSA for Kids Alivers... we played SkipBo, a slapping the cards that match game (of course I got a little injured, but it was well worth it!), Guatemala Trivial Pursuit, and Pictionary. All in Spanish. We only got in trouble once for making too much noise - it probably should have been a lot more often! The games were a good break from grammar, though.

This weekend is homecoming at Wheaton, which makes it a prime weekend for reminiscing and hopefully watching the homecoming concert online. I may be a music nerd, but I'm excited to hear this year's concert choir! In honor of that, the QuadForce at Christmas Festival '07:


In other news, I have a plane ticket home for Christmas! It's a little crazy to think about leaving when I haven't even gotten to the DR, but I am excited that I will get to spend 3 weeks at home and that I will get to go to Skytop (family reunion in the snow at an elegant resort... wonderful/culture shock!)

I am also EXCITED EXCITED EXCITED to see Molly in two weeks! The weekend I arrive in the DR is her last free weekend before she leaves for Costa Rica on DTS Outreach, so we will get to spend a little time together - for her birthday and just for life!

Ok I know you probably would rather see pictures of Guatemala/me, but here is a fun sequence of pictures of Molly and Dad at Skytop this January: (I told you it was reminiscing time...)

Pictures! (Finally)

A beautiful sunset from my bedroom door. I have incredible views of flowers, sky, ruins, and volcanoes from my room!

As much as I loved the fall background I originally had, it was a little too hard to read, and I want people to read my blog! So I have chosen a new fall background - hope you like it!

I also decided it was time to put up a few pictures here. If you want to see more, you can see them on my facebook page! Today I am writing from Pollo Campero, the Guatemalan fried chicken chain where we like to eat Sunday lunch and use free wireless! We just found out that there are Pollo Campero's across the US, including Chicago, DC, and New York - delicious!

The group of students who climbed up the "Cerro de la Cruz" (Hill of the Cross) our first Friday in Antigua. Brian, a fellow Kids Aliver, is the guy next to me. The city of Antigua is behind the cross, and behind that is the Volcan del Agua (Water Volcano).

This is the view I wake up to every morning when I open my bedroom door! The flowers are called "Queen's Necklace."

Brian and I hiked up the Volcan Pacaya (see previous post). Here is a little sample of the lava rivers we saw - these are active, hot, flowing rivers of lava about 10 yards from us!
Here I am on the way up the volcano!
The marimba is the national instrument of Guatemala; one Wednesday I went with my teacher Gladis to a Mayan culture museum and coffee plantation and they had lots of displays of marimbas!

October!

Happy fall! Today is the first day of October, which is the month in which I go to the Dominican Republic! (Finally!) Although there are no deciduous trees in Antigua, the weather is fall-like - cool, a little rainy, but still warm enough for flip flops! I also decided my blog could use a little fall makeover...

As of tomorrow I will be halfway done language school! That means 84 hours of Spanish tutoring. Crazy. The good news is that for the rest of my time here I will be taking only 5 hours a day, which means I have 75 hours to go. I also am switching teachers this coming week. They recommend switching teachers every so often so that we hear different people speaking and different vocabulary.

Fewer hours of Spanish also means I have more time to watch the Phillies... Katy says it's called self-care. They actually put stories about the Phillies in the Guatemalan newspaper, which is fun.

Another news of the week: Paige came to visit on Saturday, and it was WONDERFUL to see her and spend the day with her! We climbed the hill with the cross on top in the rain, then walked around Antigua in the rain and ate a delicious lunch and had a great time!

Keep praying, please - I need lots of prayer that I will keep a positive attitude about my studies here and that preparations for the DR will continue to go smoothly. Thank you!

Finally, I will leave you with the verse I have been meditating on this week:

2 Cor. 1:20: For no matter how many promises God has made, they are YES in Christ.