This is my life….
So we just completed our first week in the Guatemalan jungle in a village of about 250 people called Tabacal. We are back in civilization for the day to stock up on necessary supplies, such as food, water, and insect repellent and then we´re back out there for at least another week. In the past week, I´ve taken one shower, if you could call using an outdoor spicket while wearing your swimsuit with approximately 17 Guatemalans watching you a shower, gotten more bug bites than I have in my entire life up until this point, so many that it looks like chicken pox, used an outdoor ¨bathroom¨ that consists of four wooden posts with black plastic covering 3 sides and part of the roof, which also usually includes an audience, and finally truly experienced what we thought the ¨World Race¨ would be like when we signed up. We are sleeping on cement floors in our tents in a church building, cooking over open fires with mess kits, and having a blast! I have never sweat more or been dirtier or smellier but I am absolutely loving my life right now! I´m pretty sure I could officially go anywhere and do anything now (with the Lord´s strength of course, not my own!). God has been showing us more each day just how His heart loves and reaches out to these people and how they are not forgotten by Him. All of the people in the community used to be living in the jungle with no houses or food for over a year when the government found them a couple years ago. Since then, they have loaned land to the people to build homes and grow crops,etc. They have also built a pond for tilapia and allow the people to raise and sell it to support their families. It has been a such a blessing to serve here and I´m already in love with the people too, especially our host family. The pictures below are just a taste of the different ministries we´ve been able to serve, some of which I never would have pictured myself doing, but which makes it all the better!
Some of the girls whose fingernails and toenails we painted about 20 minutes after arriving in the village.
Our host family´s new home that we´re helping to finish.
The mother, Juana, and 3 of her 4 daughters on a hike through the jungle to pick beans. One entire day of our ministry was devoted to hiking an hour and a half to pick beans in a corn field on a steep incline, carry back the heavy bags on our backs, and then the rest of the afternoon shelling all the beans. And usually Juana does that with just the little girls… I will never take grocery shopping or supermarkets for granted again!
Ingrid and Lucrecia helping us shell the 3 feed bags full of beans that we picked. They are such hard workers!
Lucrecia holding up dinner before it enters the pot! No, this is not a rubber chicken, I wish it were! Nothing phases them!
The youngest daughter, Haide Marisola, whom we´ve nicknamed ¨Cheeky¨. She´s a fiesty one but really hard to get angry with because she knows how to turn on the charm!
Our team with Martin, Juana, and their four beautiful daughters in their new house. Don´t mind the dirt and sweat…
Well that´s all for now! Thanks for all the prayers and support! I´m still about $1,000 away from reaching my support goal so if you feel like giving, the Support Me tab on the left is the easiest way to do so! It goes to a great cause, I promise!
Much love!
