A list

One week from now and I'll be in the States. My time went so fast!!! Here are some things I am looking forward to and some things I will miss:

I'm excited to:
1)See my friends/fam (esp Noah who can't talk to me on the phone...)
2)Run whenever and wherever I want (due to saftey issues I cannot run alone and it gets dark at 6)
3)Flush toilet paper in the toilet
4)Drive

I will miss:
1)All the new friends I made
2)Teaching 4 different grade levels and 4 different classes
3)The CAG girls bball team
4)The volcanoes surrounding the city
5)Having/sharing an office with Trisha
6)Chocobananas
7)Guacamole (for dirt cheap!!!!!)
8)All the amazingly beautiful places to spend quiet time/journal time

Okay, so this list is a little superficial...but, it's the little things about a place that make it so special. Those little things really stand out as I am about to leave them behind!

And the fish cry foul...

Okay, my dad officially wins for the comment that made me laugh the hardest. I hadn't thought about our goldfish in a while. If you haven't met Dora, Dutch, Nemo, Lazarus, Rocky, and Snowball then you should make your way to Grandville. How big are the little guys these days?

Here are some brief tidbits of update: no theme, no topic, just some insights into life here.

I spent last weekend at the beach: Monterrico is a little piece of paradise! One of my cooperating teachers offered her beach house for the weekend so I went with the Fry's and my office buddy Trisha. So beautiful, and I saw a lot of Pelicans :)

I'm finished teaching 7th grade and tomorrow is my last day with 9th grade. I feel like I have nothing to do, but I think my sleepyness is catching up a little bit. I've been hitting a wall by about 9 every night.

Funny teaching moment: I'm teaching the Constitution (and my scavenger hunt was a HUGE hit!!!!!) and was focusing on the executive branch. As all you astute US Citizens may or may not know, in order to serve as President you have to be 35 and a natural born citizen. After explaining that, one of my students raised his hand and asked, "so, you can't be president of the US if you were born by C-section????" Totally serious. And I thought Nike made cars...

Anyway, I answered his question and had a great laugh about it later!

Oooooh, this is a big deal right now: finals for Latin American Idol are tomorrow night. One of the finalists is from Guate, so the kids are all super excited about it. It's funny because the judges are all Latin American equivalents of Simon, Paula, and Randy.

Here are some beach pictures...don't be too jealous!!!!



The waves were GIANT...like 6-7 feet!









The life of and English teacher: we even have to grade at the Beach!








Kelli's beach house...the pool provided a break from the crashing waves: rough life, huh? (oh, and the super cute little Guatemalan girl is Xela Fry, one of the coolest little girls I've ever met!)






The Beach: black sand on the Pacific Ocean

Happy Birthday to ME :)

I feel blessed to be surrounded by such a loving Christian community--it really shone through today. First, the teacher whose office my desk is in brought me a mocha and delicious breakfast food. Then, my 7th graders planned a birthday party for me in homeroom, complete with cupcakes and cards. Some of my seniors who lead worship had the ENTIRE school sing happy birthday to me in chapel, then proceeded to produce a birthday cake in class. The birthday surprises were topped off with a dozen roses from my boyfriend down here. (ha, just kidding...I bet my mom freaked out for a second though. They were actually from my host mom).

Anyway...I did promise a few more reflections from my volcano time. I'm inserting an article I wrote for my church back home. So, First people...this will appear in First Facts so don't feel like you have to read it twice :)

Guatemala, Volcanoes, and the Refiner’s Fire
My time in Guatemala is proving to be a time of great adventure, learning, and reflection—often intermingled. One of these experiences came just a few days ago. Guatemala is a country whose geography is shaped and reshaped by volcanoes and volcanic activity; the capital city itself is surrounded by active volcanoes. I have never seen active volcanoes outside of my Geology text books, so it is quite a sight. While a chunk of my heart beats for the rugged, piercing rocky mountain skyline, something about the cylindrical, symmetrical force of a smoking volcano draws me in. In fact, it drew me and a group of friends up the side of Pakaya. Our guide, in his traditional Mayan dress and dialect, took us around the back of this volcano to a place where thick, viscous lava oozed down the mountain and across the ground.
I do not know what I expected of lava, but it was hot. Intolerably, skin singeing hot from five feet away (and the pyromaniac in me still had to burn the end of my walking stick in the lava floes!).

I have never experienced heat with this intensity, but, along with the appearance of sunburn, it gave me a refreshed insight in the work of the Lord in my life. In Jeremiah 23:29 God compares his word to fire; in Hebrews 12:29 we are commanded to worship the Lord “acceptably in reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Sidenote: Malachi 3 also refers to this image in regards to injustice—which is challenging and convicting and too much to handle in these few paragraphs. Read it!)

Our God is a consuming fire. He’s not a “let’s warm up and roast a hot dog” kind of fire. He’s a melt me, break me down to the elements, reveal my impurities, refine me into something new and better, consume me kind of fire. As I reflect on this fire that is my God, I have to ask myself a few questions:

1. How do I approach this consuming fire? Is it with the reverence and awe demanded of me? Or is it with hesitancy at what might result from an encounter?
2. What impurities does God so desperately seek to remove that he speaks to me with words of fire? Am I blind to these areas of my life?
3. Do I embrace the pain of refining fire as part of the process that draws me closer and closer to my Savior and my God?

We are all in this together (yes, High School Musical fanatics, you may sing that line). We are--individually and as the body of Christ—constantly being conformed and refined into the likeness of Christ. Like the oozing lava and the landscape of this country, we are in the process of formation and re-formation.

So here I am in Guatemala, standing (well, actually sitting in a hammock) at the edge of all my tomorrows, reflecting on the God ordained changes that have occurred even in my five weeks here. I have learned that I love teaching middle school students (SHOCK), I have learned that I love Guatemala, and maybe someday I will return and love teaching in Guatemala. I also am learning what it looks like to daily serve a God who loves me so deeply that he will not allow me to remain how I am. He is refining me with consuming fire while embracing me with a grace that is more complex and beautiful than I will ever comprehend.

In honor of the birders...

I have some dear honorary family members that love birding. Here are the bird stories I have:

1. School is always open so we've had birds in the classroom
2. My friend Karina has a parrot that says "gringa loca" whenever I walk past it.
3. Birds fly into restaurants and eat leftovers

My apologies, it's nothing exotic, but it's the best I can do right now!
(be thankful that I'm a little better at teaching than at birding!)


A bird eating leftovers...


MONKEYS (I forgot to post a picture the other day!)

Quince Weekend

I had a lot of adventures this weekend--Independence Day weekend in Guatemala. On Saturday I hiked a live volcano (more on that later...I'm writing something about it for church...).

Saturday I went with some friends to Pana Jachel, a town on Lake Atitlan. Atitlan is on Time Magazine's list of places to visit before you die. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. Pictures don't do justice, but I'll include them anyway. We took a boat across the lake (we actually rode on TOP of the boat the whole way...sitting on the roof) to a city called Santiago. There is a big, beautiful Catholic church in Santiago which, as recently as the mid 1990's served as a refuge for those being pursued by guerilla warriors during the civil war. There was a monument for all the people of Santiago who died in the war.

This morning, after watching the sunrise, we went kayaking on the lake and stopped by a nature preserve where we saw MONOS (monkeys) in the wild! It was so sweet, I love los monos :)

It was a refreshing weekend full of beauty, excitement, and awe at God's creation.

Happy Constitution Day!



Trisha Williams (a fellow teacher) and me
on top of the boat on the way to Santiago.


The church in Santiago


Kayaking on lake Atitlan with
the volcanoes in the background.


Yes, that is hot lava. The real stuff--
not the red carpet in Oma's basement :)


Pakaya and its lava!

9-11

I cannot really put words on my feelings about being out of the country on 9-11, but I will try to describe it. The majority of the people I am around were not in the States on 9-11. While they obviuosly care about the event, it did not cause the impact that it would have had they been living in the States; therefore, 9-11 wasn't even mentioned today until I brought it up! That was a strange feeling.

In government class I planned a discussion about 9-11--I wanted students' thoughts and responses to the event, but I also wanted to challenge assumptions. We read articles about the tragedy of the event from the perspective of those who lost loved ones, looked at some stuff on terrorism, but also looked at different crises around the world. I challenged the students to examine global happenings in context of the purposes and intents of governments. Are governments holding up to the test?

We then looked at a few scripture passages: Isaiah 1's call to look out for orphans and widows (amongst a lot of other huge challenges!); Micah's call to "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Lord."

It was an interesting class that raised a lot of questions, but I'm glad the students were thinking and interacting.

A sidenote: basketball games 1 and 2 were cancelled. Game one fell victim to Felix's threat. Today we drove to the school to find out that they had an outdoor court which was flooded due to the daily rain storm. So, we turned around and drove back to school...hopefully tomorrow's game will actually happen!

All is Well in Guate

As you all know by reading and observing the new, Felix changed directions...we've had cloudy skies and more rain than usual, but no severe weather.

My life was increasingly busy this past week as I picked up teaching full time. It went well (I think) and I have my midterm evalutation with all my cooperating teachers and my college supervisor tomorrow. I'm not nervous yet, but hopefully it goes well.

A few stories: I went to a Guatemalan church last Sunday (as opposed to Union Church whose ministry is with English speaking people in Guate). We had communion and sang a lot--I had enough frame of reference during those times that I was able to understand what was going on. We sang some great songs--including good 'ol "Victory in Jesus" and "Amazing Grace" in Spanish of course. I had to laugh because as much as we Dutch CRC people get laughed at for our inability to clap on beat, this church was just as bad! I felt so at home...

Last Saturday I spent the day in the city with new teachers and Sharon Rosa, whose unoffical title is "make all the new people feel loved, supported, and at home." We went to the relief map which is a scaled down version of the whole country of Guatemala. It was built in the early 1900's and gave me a great picture of the geography of the country. Apparently another Central American country wanted a relief map and the architect was assassinated because Guatemalan people wanted to be the only ones with such a structure.

We then went to the Central Market, the national cathedral, and out for lunch at a pretty nice restaurant. It was a good day and I learned a lot about the city and history of the area.

Off to a long night of lesson planning...

prayer request

Here is something to add to the prayer list: Felix is coming and threatening to hit Central America pretty hard. We already cancelled our Open House for tomorrow because it's supposed to hit in the afternoon. Guatemala should only get heavy winds and rains--most of the damage is supposed to be in Honduras and Belize. Pray for safety and that the hurricane dissipates before causing too much destruction, especially to the Indian people along the coast who have no means of protection or travel.

I had a wow moment a few minutes ago when I was reading an update about Felix: after describing the path and damage that may result, the article went on to say, "breathe easy, it won't hit Texas." How about global thinking and caring for the brothers and sisters in the world around us.

Anyway, I don't want to scare anyone (aka mom) but I do appreciate the prayers!