Sorry for the Delay!

I know that we promised a post about our host family and pictures of where we are staying. I am sorry that it has taken a few days to put that on here. When you don't have the language skills to communicate and ask questions, everything takes so much longer! It has taken us a few days to find a place where we can connect to the Internet. Thursday night at dinner, through much fumbling, we were able to ask the family about it. One of the boys told us that a fast-food restaurant, Pollo Campero, which is only 3 blocks from our house, offers free wireless Internet. What a blessing!

Ahh... Antigua!

We finally made it to Antigua. We've begun language school and have met our host family. Kara's going to say more about them later, but she has already made a good friend in their dog, Dolly.

Our first day at language school was challenging. Kara and I both realize how far we have to go before we can communicate easily with people here. But it got off to a good start as we got to know Arturo, the language school's director. He was running the school when Kendon & Wendy went through 18 years ago and has become a trusted friend of theirs. As we talked with him, he told us a little bit of his story. When he opened the school in 1983, he occasionally attended church. One of his first groups of students was a group of missionaries from YWAM. As they finished their studies and were leaving the school, they asked Arturo if they could pray for him, which they did. They surrounded him and laid hands on him as they prayed. To that point, he had been addicted to cigarettes. A few days later, he gave them up and has never smoked since. But that wasn't the only difference- his voice started to get emotional and powerful when he then started talking about the change in how much he loves Jesus. He said he and his family now attend mass every day, work with the youth, and help with the music. It was a joy for us to sit with him as he talked about what a gift it is to be able to share the love of Christ with his family.

In school, Kara and I each have our own tutors. We sit down with them 1-on-1 for 4 hours each day. It's pretty intense, but we both enjoyed getting to know them. My tutor and I meet on the roof of our building, and I took the picture of the volcanos that surround Antigua from the roof during our break.

Many thanks to all of you who prayed for us to recover from our sickness. We've both successfully eaten big Guatemalan meals now and walked all over town, so I think our recovery is complete.

We're so excited to finally be here, getting to know some wonderful people and see the Lord in new ways...

A Day Out of Bed...Finally!

Today was a GREAT day! We are starting to feel so much better, even giving our stomachs a big test with pizza tonight... no problems yet! Although we are still a little weak, we ventured out into the city with Wendy for about an hour and it was nice to have a change of scenery from our bedroom. Tonight Kendon & Wendy invited us into their home to have pizza and watch a movie. How wonderful it was to have fellowship with a family and hear English for awhile! God is truly blessing us through this couple, and in so many other ways as well. We plan to head to Antigua for language school tomorrow!

Our evening dose of medication... and boy are we thankful for it!

Our first big adventure out since Thursday -- a trip to the grocery store with Wendy to buy a week's worth of food for the children's home. It was a lot of food -- two heaping cart loads! I took this picture of the raw meats section because the smell and look of it was quite a test for our recovering stomachs. Shortly after, Wendy informed me that the store owners do not like people taking pictures because they think they might be shown to their competition (... and their competition can't visit the store themselves??)

It was great to feel well enough to do a load of laundry today! It took a long time to get everything hung on the clothesline... and then take it all down again 20 minutes later due to an approaching thunderstorm. I guess I should learn from the example of the children -- they wash and hang their clothes to dry at 6 AM! We are in the rainy season right now so, most mornings are clear and the afternoons have scattered showers. We sure wish that we could send some of this rain to the ranch, Dad Harris!

God's Provision

It's been a long few days with our new amoeba friends, but I'm thankful to say that we're both doing much better. Wendy got us lots of medication- we each took 5 pills at dinnertime- but it's doing its job. We're not back to 100% yet, but we're on the way.

Even though getting sick so quickly here hasn't been any fun, we're seeing God's provision in countless ways. First of all, getting sick down here at some point was probably somewhat inevitable, so it's actually a good thing it happened when it did. If it hadn't been this week, we wouldn't have had a clinic on site and a nurse here who speaks English and who has been taking excellent care of us. It would have been much more miserable if we'd already been in Antigua and had been staying in a family's house with whom we couldn't communicate very well. Then also having the clinic right here, we were able to get a diagnosis and medication very quickly, where as that process would have been much more difficult if this had happened next week, once we've started language school.

The Lord's provision is coming in a lot of other ways, too. The internet makes communication so much easier- so being able to talk to family several times since we've been here has certainly made the transition easier. But especially with the sickness, this week hasn't been a honeymoon- then again, we didn't sign up for one. We came here wanting the Lord to teach us things that we really need to know.

One of the ways that is already happening is by seeing people's dependence upon prayer in a whole new way. I never used to think much of praying for safety in travel, but after driving around in Villa Nueva and Guatemala City, I'm all for having an entire worship service in the car before setting out to go anywhere- traffic here is nuts! My concerns about driving here, however, are trivial compared to the things for which other people are utterly dependent upon prayer- like food, health, or the safety of their children amidst gang violence. We heard the other day of a teenager who used to go to school here who was killed. I was pretty saddened by the news, then little Kevin came up and gave me a hug and I became even more thankful that he's living here instead of out there.

One more way we've experienced God meeting our needs- this evening Kara and I were talking about how it's different being here without a church team, and how for now (since we can't communicate with most people and we can't really get started on our work yet) we just don't seem to have a place. Right after we said that, we heard a knock on our door, and it was two of our favorite little guys, Sammy and Giovanni, demanding that we play cards with them. We agreed and went outside to play. It took us a minute to figure out what the game was- but it became obvious that it was a 4-man game of war. Both of the boys were cheating like crazy- Sammy played a king of spades about four times in a row, but playing with them was just what we needed when we needed it.

There certainly is no limit to the ways that we can see God's faithfulness, but I think we do have to be paying some attention. Normally we wouldn't have noticed the Lord in a couple of boys cheating at a card game, but it was pretty obvious tonight.

Starting Off With a Bang

Today Daniel and I were both diagnosed with amoebas and an intestinal infection. We certainly didn't waste any time! We are trying to keep a positive attitude about this or I may just start crying and want to catch the first plane home. The last 24 hours have not been enjoyable but things are starting to get much better. Thankfully, Wendy (one of the missionaries) is a nurse and she is taking excellent care of us. We were both started on two medications this afternoon that should be pretty fast-acting. I sure hope so!

Yesterday, Daniel and I took a trip into Guatemala City with Wendy to purchase some things for the new girls' dorm. On the return ride, I started feeling sick. Last night I began throwing up (and the other stuff -- can I say diarrhea on here?! Oh well, why not. I might as well be as honest as possible on our blog) so many times that I lost count. At one point I was lying on the floor with my head in Daniel's lap and he covered me with the prayer blanket that we received from our home church. In that moment, I could feel the prayers of our family and friends and I can't tell you how much of a comfort that was! Daniel took wonderful care of me -- getting me water, cold rags, and rubbing my back. There is nothing like vomiting and diarrhea to make a marriage stronger!

At 3:30 AM, Daniel started having fever and nausea. Thankfully, he has not yet experienced the other stuff -- just feeling low energy and nausea. We are so thankful that there is a clinic and doctor on site so that we could be tested promptly and begin the medication. Wendy assures us that the first time that you get this is the worst and subsequent times are much better. Although, I certainly hope that we don't have any subsequent times!

We sure would appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery and tolerance of the medication. We had to take five pills at once today; my sensitive stomach does not appreciate that very much.

Thanks be to God for caring people to take care of us, provision of medication, His comforting presence with us, and the prayers of our loved ones!

Daily Dose of Pepto

This is a picture of Daniel enjoying his daily dose of Pepto Bismol. Yumm! We were going to be brave (or foolish??) and not take it this trip but the missionaries urged us to take two doses a day during our first two weeks, while our bodies adjust. After feeling sick my first night here (most likely due to some odd tasting cream cheese in the Houston airport and not Guatemalan food), I decided they were probably right.

Happy Birthday Karla

Birthdays are fun here at the children's home. Today was Karla's birthday; she turned 11. All of the kids share a good birthday cake and sing a lively spanish birthday song and count out the number of years, the birthday girl (or boy) gets firecrackers popped in their honor, and they get to go out to a special meal with Kendon & Wendy. And we've got another birthday tomorrow...