Grace and Peace

Since I've come down I've been downloading sermons from Mars Hill, and Rob Bell just started a series on the book of Philippians. So far, it's excellent, encouraging, and challenging. One thought in particular has really stood out in my mind. Philippians, and most of Paul's letters--despite the content--open with a blessing of grace and peace. "Grace and peace to you from God our father..." The greek grace=charis=free expression of God's love; peace=shalom=mankind experiencing peace in the here and now.


Imagine what our lives, this world would be like if everytime we greeted one another, if in every interaction, we blessed one another with grace and peace. Grace and peace to you...


I spent this past weekend experiencing grace and peace at our teacher retreat. We went up to Panajachel which is on Lake Atitlan. It was absolutely beautiful, refreshing, and so good to be around the teachers I usually don't see (aka the elementary teachers). We went ziplining, kayaking, played a lot of games (Hannah...I had a

near repeat of our rook experience. I need to work on that...), ate some good food, and enjoyed God's creation and his people.


Pic 1: Lake Atitlan
Pic 2: My roomates Trisha (curly hair) and Suzy
Pic 3: Super cute Guatemalan children in Pana

A few notes

1) Phyllis is currently in a commanding lead for "number one blog responder who wins a home made Guatemalan dinner by Annette when she gets back in June." It's an intense competition...any challengers?

2) The lock in went well. A little dodgeball, four on a couch with sixty people, a power outage from 12:30 to 2 (it's Guate, what can you expect), a lot of Rook, some fight 21, movies, and a pancake breakfast. The kids had a fun time, and I got to interact in more of a YL leader role, which i LOVE.


3) Here are some pictures from Semuc Champey--Semuc is an oasis tucked away in the middle of Guatemala. It's not touristy, and it's absolutely beautiful. Water filters through rock to create the pristine, clear pools; a river rushes under the pools, and there are waterfalls all over the place. BONITA!!!!

Hablo Espanol...un poquito

Being an English speaker in a Spanish speaking world brings its fair share of funny stories. For instance: This past Thursday, I had five people apologize to me for missing my birthday. My response was along the lines of, "don't be sorry, it was in September." The whole situation escalated when my name was on the birthday board and celebrated with the rest of the January birthdays. I started doing some investigation, and as it turns out, the other day I was filling out my insurance papers and recognized the word "fecha" as the word for date. So I wrote the date. January 15. Apparently, the rest of the words behind "fecha" meant date of birth. Woops. Needless to say, the dilemma was resolved, everyone knows I don't know Spanish, and I had the best non-birthday celebration I could imagine.

A prayer request: I have the high school lock in starting in about fifteen minutes. 12 hours of no sleep and lots of high school kids will be interesting :) More updates to come.

Week One

(this is an okay picture of the lava...a better one is to come when I get pictures from other people!

I am almost finished with week one of school. I love teaching, but I can't wait for this weekend so I can do some planning. I feel like I'm running about five minutes ahead of my students. I teach Freshmen English--we're about to start the book "A Separate Peace," which I've never taught, so I'm pretty excited about it. I introduced a project to my 6th grade social studies class in which they have the opportunity to earn their knighthood (we're studying the middle ages). If any GCS people are reading it, I definitely ripped that project off Mr. Bobeldyk. I'm also doing a one on one English class with a student, and teaching an ESL class.

Creative writing will be a highlight for me--I have eleven middle schoolers who are all excited about writing and ready to work hard and have fun. I love it already.

I'm helping coach soccer too--apparently my keeper knowledge from way back when in high school is enough to earn me the position of goalie coach. It's a good thing that I was trained by the best!!!

I'm looking forward to teaching English at a friend's church, and also seeing if I can hook up with Young Life down here (the staff person is at all staff in Florida, so I won't be able to connect for a little while).

Pretty much, I'm keeping busy, loving life, and loving teaching.

More to come!

Bienvenidos A Guatemala!

I've been in Guatemala for hardly two days, and already the adventures are piling up. I had a rocky landing in what I found out is the worst wind the country has experienced in thirty years--including any hurricanes. Needless to say, I was welcomed to a powerless, waterless home. Really, is there any other way to be welcomed back? Probably not.

I settled in as much I could with the remaining daylight hours (it gets dark by 6 every day, all year), then set off on a simple task: drive my roomate Trisha's car to the gas station, put some air in the tire, then head up the boulevard to the Fry's house. What should have been a fifteen minute ordeal escalated into over an hour and a half of anxious driving. I did not know that the ENTIRE city had lost power, which explained why all but one gas station was closed at 7 pm. The one gas station was seriously overcrowded, so I decided to head to the Fry's and get an air pump from school. As I left the gas station, I missed the turn around and ended up on the upper portion of the road (comprable to an express lane) and had to drive FOREVER before I could turn around. Then, the road split so my return path was not the same as the one I was on. Needless to say, I was without communication, maps, and driving on a semi-flat tire in a completely dark Guatemala City. What a way to start! I kept praying that God would keep air in the tire like he kept oil in the jars, and he did. I eventually made it to my destination with quite a story to tell. Ethan and his girlfriend, Kelly, were actually out searching for me at the time.

The adventures continued on Thursday as our house still didn't have power (meaning no showers yet...gross, I know). E and I picked Trisha up from the airport, we caught up, got some goods for my room (essentials like lamps...I love lamps) and the power came back on in the afternoon.

Last night a group of us night hiked the volcano (again, a night hike in the dark is from about 6-10). My pictures didn't turn out too great, so I'll post some better ones later. Regardless, the intense glow of the lava created a red sky visible from miles away. It was a phenomenal experience.

Now I'm off to school to check out the notes the other teachers left for me and to get some planning done for my first week of school as a REAL, certified teacher :)