"Wave"

11x14 acrylic on masonite

Last Best Week

If I have learned anything over this past 2 months here in Guatemala, I have learned it in this last week.

We spent the first couple of days helping paint a new building at a campus called "Casa Alleluya". This school houses 350 kids from age 0-18 who have been abused, neglected or court ordered to be away from their homes. This 25 acre campus has facilities to house all of the kids, educate them and give them skills to succeed and move off of the campus and be an asset to the community. They also have full time welders, carpenters, nurses and counselors to help with all kinds of needs.

The next days we spent time at a school for the mentally and physically handicapped children. This school is rooted in one of the poorest towns just outside of Antigua and thanks to many people's donations, God has blessed this school with even its own elevator (one of the few in all of Guatemala). Most kids who are handicapped are not educated and the Guatemalans don't necessarily feel they even need an education. This school is a light in the darkness.

Next, we stopped at an orphanage/school for a day and played games with these joyful and most polite kids. They were so thankful and appreciative for us being there just to play games with them in the street and tell them silly stories. Guatemalans are a very gracious people.

To finish out the week a few of us spent the afternoon at "Casa Jackson", a home to 14 malnourished kids, all under the age of 3. They have a full-time nurse, 24 hours a day and a great staff as well as a constant flow of volunteers. I learned today that Guatemala is the 4th most malnourished country in all of the world, 2nd on the western side of the hemisphere. 49% of the children are malnourished and part of the reason they are a small people group is due to generations of malnourishment. Parents are uneducated and too poor to provide new babies with proper nutrition. Women often drink pots of coffee and only corn all day long, in turn, the breast milk has no nutrients combined with excessive caffeine. Or, they boil corn to eat and think that there are nutrients in the "corn water" and only feed their babies water. Some of the kids struggled to suck on the bottles because they had never really been fed before and their bodies had a hard time even digesting real food.

Today we got to play a vital role in these new babies lives by getting to hold them, feed them and help change them. If only for a day, it was the best day ever. The staff said that these kids who come to "Casa Jackson" leave fairly quickly, to a now-educated family, because of all the physical affection and attention they get all day long. God has made us to be loved. Here are some photos from the week. Just to give you an idea...the little baby girl in the yellow was 4 months old and weighed only 5.6 lbs.

1 week from today we fly back to Montana. We are all pretty excited to finally get back home, share stories and see our friends and family.

Coming to an End

Jackie:

We have just about two weeks left here in Guatemala. It's hard to believe our two months here is actually coming to an end. If I'm being completely honest, both Brenden and I are eager to return back to the States. We have greatly enjoyed this experience and just being completely immersed in another lifestyle for a short period of our lives. However, ideas, plans and desires for our future are ready to be played out in this next season of our lives. If anything, being a part of YWAM has taught me two things.

First, truly following Jesus has a cost. Often times I find myself holding onto areas of my life that I am unwilling to give over to God. I still struggle with this everyday. I have an idea of what I want for my life and what is best, not necessarily considering what God might think about it. Being almost 26 there are things I am facing now that I wouldn't think about a few years ago.. Starting a family, career, a home, etc. These are all things I am learning to daily trust God with.

Secondly, and the hope to our worries and concerns for following Jesus is that it IS worth it. Throughout this 6 minus we have visibly seen God provide for us over and over and over again. Even just quitting our secure jobs, moving and essentially having no income has been a true challenge for me. Everything I know that makes me feel secure has been left for now. God is good and a perfect friend to trust. The cost is worth it and He absolutely cares about the smallest of things in our lives.

February 4th we fly back ... Until then we will love and live as well as we can.

10 Days at Lake Atitlan

Jackie:
Our team just got back from spending 10 days with Pastor Antonio and his family in Lake Atitlan. We were so fortunate to stay at his home at the top of a large hill in San Pedro, one of the small water towns that surrounds the lake. There we helped build a house for a family in a nearby village, led church services, helped families pick coffee, prayed for some people who were sick and I even had a chance to sing my own song on a public radio station there. It was such a great time to get out of the city and really experience a different lifestyle. There is a strong Myan influence and the people speak primarily Tzutujil. The women all dress in traditional skirts and blouses full of color and its very common to see the old men wearing cowboy hats, colorful capri pants and carrying large machetes by their side. We also got the opportunity to take a crazy ferry boat ride, jump of rocks into the lake and dig a large, large hole to help for the house. (the guys on the team were obsessed).

Mizata, El Salvador

Brenden and I were so excited when our friend Carlos asked us if we wanted to go to the beach with him in El Salvador for the weekend. He and Brenden got talking about the beach, surfing and the coast and since he was from El Salvador and knew friends through Christian Surfers on the coast..he had great connections. We rode down with a few of Carlos' friends, spent the night in Sonsonate (about 30 mins from the coast) with another friend, Madrid, headed to the beach at 6am the next morning. We spent the day swimming, exploring and Brenden surfing some of the best waves of his life. The sand is black there from lava rock and the water is green and warm. Palm trees and grass shacks scatter along this small beach town called Mizata. We took naps, met new friends and ate eggs and beans. We stayed the night at a ministry house there on the beach. Basically a room with a mattress, bathroom, spiders and chickens and stray dogs roaming around in the yard filled with fallen coconuts.

Not having been to the ocean since August, Brenden and I had joyful hearts. We spent time talking about our love for the coastal lifestyle and reminiscing about the last 3 years we spent in the Outer Banks. Sunday we came back to Antigua on the chicken bus. Needless to say, this was quite an experience. These old school buses that travel around the country are packed like sardines. People are 3 deep on the benches and stuffed all throughout the aisles. This 3 hour ride was filled to the max with birds, mothers breast feeding in the aisles and sweat dripping like you've never felt before. Adventure is an understatement for this past weekend..too many stories to even write on this blog. However, we were glad to have met new friends and feel the salt water again!

An update of what's been going on this last week...

We have continued our childrens program but this week with the kids in Cuidad de Vieja, where we are staying. We have had 40 to 70 kids show up to play games with us and hear about God. There are always children who come up to receive prayer when we offer it. It is hard to hear story after story of absent or drunk fathers, but this is the reality in these kids lives.

We have been getting ready to celebrate Christmas here in Antigua , buying a gift for our secret Santa and special little treats to help bring a part of our traditional Christmas to Guatemala. We hear that on Christmas Eve at midnight the whole town goes crazy and fireworks last through the night. We look forward to joining in on the festivities.

On a sad note, Cassandra and I had to take a dog to the vet up the street to get put to sleep. Here in Guatemala there are so many stray dogs that just roam the streets, beat up, malnourished and trying to survive. There was one dog we named Esperanza, "hope", and the name of our street. She had a broken leg that was dangling, making it hard to walk, especially because other male dogs were after her. We took her in and the vet said she would need amputation at the hospital in town, very expensive. We all decided putting her down to end her suffering was the best thing. Not an easy thing to watch because the process took longer and was more primitive than how it would be done in th states. I did not expect to have to put a dog to sleep in Guatemala.

Brenden and I are planning to go to El Salvador for New Years weekend with our friend Carlos. We will be staying at someone's house on the beach and we will be surfing and helping Carlos learn. We are so excited to get the opportunity to go to the coast...this is the longest span of time we have gone without seeing the ocean. It will also be nice for Brenden and I just to get away for a little bit by ourselves.

Even though we do get homesick, especially this time of year, we are having such a great experience here in Guatemala. Caroling in the streets, decorated chicken busses and "Feliz Navidad" is on our lips!

Jackie:
While I have been sick in bed the past couple of days, along with 4 other members of our team, the healthy ones have been out in the city where we are staying. I wanted to let everyone know we are all recovering and should be back to normal by tomorrow hopefully. Brenden has had a crazy couple of days. Just last night he prayed for more faith to believe in what God is doing and how God can use him. This morning about a hundred Guatemalan kids showed up in this alley by a clinic playing games with four members of our team (the other six of us were back at the base sick). Brenden and another guy shared the way they started their relationships with Jesus and about 40 kids came forward to accept Jesus into their life or get prayer for healing. One 7 year old girl who had painful kidney problems was prayed for and she said the pain went away. Later that day the four of them went into Antigua to walk around and meet people. Bren decided to stay in central park and talk to some international people. He found himself on a park bench sharing his story with a guy his age from Sweden. The conversation then led to the man beginning his journey with Jesus. I love that while I was in bed recovering my husband was bringing such good news to people.

We have been here in Antigua almost a week now and have loved every moment of it so far. It has been in the upper 70s during the day and upper 50s at night, not a cloud in the sky. There are 3 volcanos that surround the city and one is active. It is so neat to watch a puff of black smoke come out every couple hours. We are staying at a YWAM base in a smaller village called Cuidad de Vieja meaning "City with a View".
All our meals have been prepared by a local woman, Florencita, and they have been some of the best meals I've had in a while.
The water is not drinkable here so we have to purify it as well as bleach everything we buy before we cook it. Not a price to high to pay to avoid getting very sick.

The people of Guatemala are very open and friendly. We have rode the "chicken bus" in town almost everyday which is always a good time. As the man comes down the aisle to collect our money we always say "diez gringos"'... ten white people. You can always count on a quiet laughter from the local passengers. We have seen one man come to profess a faith in Jesus already just from a couple of our teammates talking to and meeting people in the city.In fact a man came up to Gianna and Karl out of nowhere who was. Christian and spoke perfect English. The three of them approached some young Guatemalan men, Karl, a Norwegian who has previously served in the army, shared his testimony while the new friend translated and one of the men came to know Christ. Turns out his friend sitting next to him was related to the translator and they were just meeting for the first time! A couple guys with us have also befriended two drug dealers who live on the streets of Antigua and after talking with them and praying with them they invited them to church...and guess what? They were there this morning. God is all around us all the time.

We are excited to see what this week will be like. We have organized a kids program at a local clinic and we have no idea how many little ones will show up!

well, we made it to guatemala. after a pretty crazy flight, we drove through streets with no lanes going in all different directions making jackie ultimately vomit. but, we made it. it is absolutely beautiful here. we are surrounded by three volcanos and are living in a traditional latin american hacienda. the layout consists of two stories of rooms surrounding a central outdoor garden. there are walls on all sides and we have a very large door to the outside. we feel like we are in a fortress. there are also stairs leading to the roof where we do most of our pondering\admiring the view. every few minutes we hear fireworks celebrating some kind of holy week. it is a crazy place. we are looking forward to going into the city. we are overwhelmed with joy.

End DTS, Part 1. Begin Guatemala, Part 2

We have had an exhausting week getting ready leave for Guatemala this Tuesday and processing the fact that we will be moving out of the country for the next couple of months. We have met so many amazing people here in Montana and wish them well as they all go off to Haiti, Brazil, Thailand and Turkey.

Take a few minutes to check out this video from our Thursday night meeting. These are testimonies from all the students in our school about how God has changed their lives over the past few months.

Cardboard Testimonies FDTS 10'

http://vimeo.com/17472939