Okay…so we left Panajachel and now we are in Antigua. We made it here last night without too much excitement. Although, there was the fact that the place where we are staying has cobblestone streets and they have barriers so only small vehicles can get through, so getting Orange through those barriers onto the cobble streets was pretty interesting…but we made it, would you expect anything less.
The guy that we are going to be ministering with looks after a coffee house, so he has graciously offered to let us stay there. With us having to leave Panajachel so quickly because we no longer had a place to stay, we called him desperate and asked if it would be okay if we came her to Antigua a day or 2 early. He said yes, but he is not actually here and will not be back in town until this afternoon, so he called and told his friend that we were coming and to let us in and stay there.
When we arrived I forgot that I was in the middle of Guatemala. I thought I was back in the States. Everyone spoke English, the coffee house reminds me so much of Cups, everything was even written in English, and they even have an English church service on Thursday nights. This was the best surprise that we could get.
Though it was a nice surprise there were many people in the coffee house that were looking at us a bit crazy when we explained we were traveling around the world for a year and then when they found out that that’s where we were sleeping. We very easily were able to overlook that, since we know that we are crazy for doing what we are doing.
An angel named Carol came out of nowhere. Well…she was our angel at least. She is the baker for the coffee house. She is in her late 60s and lost her husband a couple of years ago. She is from the States and a year or two ago she came on a mission trip here and the Lord told her to move here, so here she is. We were very tired and didn’t know what to do to get food or where anything was, so she offered us some soup that she had fixed earlier in the day. She even offered to take us to the market wit her today so that we could get us some food. She has taken such good care of us in the short time that we have been here. You can definitely see the grandma in her and see that taking care of us is just as much a blessing to her as it is to us.
So…let me get to the funny part. (At least it’s funny to us and I will try to make it funny for you.) Here we are at this coffee house where the people that are in it don’t really know why we are there and think we are crazy for doing what we are doing (and many of them are Christians…so they say). Abner (the guy we are working with) is out of town, so we have NO clue of anything. The place we are sleeping is in the back of the coffee house, where they have the English church service… so we are sleeping on the stage of the church. The church has a roof but the top of the sides are completely open to the outside, so we are pretty much sleeping outside in the freezing cold. The guy (Alex) that lives there with Abner has a room off to the side and is having to put up with us sleeping at his house. We go to sleep and are woken up by this banging. Come to find out it were bells ringing and they do not stop ringing. There is no pattern to the bells. They just ring them at random times for however long they feel like. We ate sleeping in a room that is very much opened to the public, so as we are asleep I feel like we are being watched. While we were all getting ready this morning a man comes in, sits down and just starts working on his computer…in the room we are dressing in. Its crazy. I definitely have to say it is the most random thing I have ever done in my life. Though after all we have been through in the past several days, I’ve come to the point where nothing surprises me.
Okay…as random as all that is…I almost felt like I was in heaven this morning. After freezing all night long, waking up to the bells, and having some random guy in the room we were getting ready in, I walk out into the coffee house to get some coffee and chill. I was thinking I was going to have to stick to a normal boring Cappuccino that I have been drinking since I left the States and what do I find out…they have White Chocolate Mochas AND Dr Pepper. Okay…those of you that know me, know how much of a big deal this is. These have got to be my two most favorite things in the world. It was almost like the Lord was letti8ng me know He really has not forgotten about me.
I sat down with my Mocha and played a game of cards and chilled out for the first time in days. It was awesome!!!! I can’t wait until this afternoon when I get to have a Dr Pepper…I can already almost taste it.
Though I am not doing perfect. Slowly, but surely the Lord is showing me how faithful He is if I just trust in Him. I know that Satan is defeated and in the end…we WIN, but sometimes we have to be reminded when we get to the lowest point…that I was at.
So…we are in Antigua. We are not sure of the logistics on what we will be doing while we are here, but we are very excited and can not wait to see what the Lord does this month. We will keep you posted.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are still under attack, because we are doing EXACTLY what the Lord wants and the enemy does NOT like it.
…Since my computer was stolen I have not been able to get the pictures off my camera and the Internet Cafe I am at now does not have an USB hub on there computers, so I apologize. Pictures will be coming soon… I promise.
