My team is so blessed this month. We are living at the orphanage that we are working with this month and my guess is that this will be one of the nicest living conditions we will witness this year. Not only do we each have our own bed but we have huge bedrooms, hot showers daily, a washing machine and a dryer, safe and clean water, good food, awesome kids to work with, and the most wonderful hosts. Our hosts, Pat and Bill, are missionaries from the states who were working with YWAM (Youth with a missions) in Antigua, Guatemala about 4 years ago. When they felt they were done with that ministry they stayed in Guatemala working at a coffee shop and waited for the direction of God. About four months ago they moved here to San Lucas to work with the orphans. We are the first World Race team to come here and we love it. Hopefully we don’t mess it up for future squads ^_^
Spanish is the dominant language and it is by far my biggest challenge this month. In high school I tried to swim against the flow and so I took french instead of spanish. So here is the extent to my knowledge of the spanish language:
Hola – Hello
Buenos dias – Good morning
Buenas noches – Good night
Me llamo Melanie – My name is Melanie
Como estas? – How are you?
Bien – Good
Por favor – please
Gracias – Thank you
Adios – Goodbye
Iglesia – Church
Calle – street
Sud- South
Norte – North
Platano – banana
Oh yeah, and I can count to ten 🙂
Okay so anyways, here in Guatemala women don’t really have a voice. According to Pat they are getting better about it and a women even won a Noble Peace Prize but in general, not everyone is created equal. However last night there were fireworks going off and to me it provided hope that this nation will grow and change. I can see Guatemala as being a place where all children are safe, men are honest and protective of their families, and women are not ignored. This is possible. God wants to re-invent the family in this place and wants to bless His people. Pray for this. These people are worth it. And where two or more are gathered in prayer… Well, let’s just say that God can do awesome things! He’s breaking chains and healing broken hearts TODAY!
Fundraising: Still have another $4,000 left to raise. Can you help me stay on the field? To donate click on “support me” underneath my picture at the top of this post
<3
M
