First Week In Guatemala!

Well we have now been here one week! Where to begin..... hard to say. It has been a full week of setting up the house we rented. We landed in Guatemala City last Monday night and then tuesday we searched through some stores in the city to pick up some essentials that you might not find in Monjas (the town we are living in now). We also picked up the furniture that we were able to preorder in the city with a milk truck that friends of friends in Monjas arranged for us! We were quite the site- tired, five buggies full of stuff in the Guatemalan Walmart, 16 hockey bags, a loaded milk truck, ect. We then drove 2 1/2 hours to our new town- thankfully Noah fell asleep- and we went to see our new rental house and unloaded some of the hockey bags, furniture, and looked around. The adventure truely began our first day here!
The next day we went to a nearby town, more like a city, and picked up some groceries and basics for the house and everyday life.... most things we were able to find, but they just look different. I was pleasantly surprised to find things that I thought we wouldn't be able to get here! Steve also stopped at a hardware store to get some shower curtain rods, and random tools that he wasn't able to fit in a hockey bag. It was nice to have our friend Julia help us find things and translate for us- she is Guatemalan and serves as a translator at the oprphanage and is now living with us here!
Day 3 was full of cleaning our house, getting around town in a tuc tuc (a little three-wheeled taxi), trying to figure out how to connect a heater for the shower (called a Widow Maker as you can be electricuted if you touch it while showering), and writing lists of things we still need to get to get our house in order.... meanwhile everything around us is in another language- wow- we can only speak a little and basics so it has some challenges, but it is exciting to try to pick out words and we are ready to learn more! We all felt really tired this day and wondering when we would feel settled! We were still sleeping at the team house at this point as we still didn't have a fridge or stove and we still had to put together beds for the kids.
Day 4- In the morning we got to bring the kids to visit the school at Shadow of His Wings, called Liberty Christian School, where they will be going in the mornings (7:30-12). It was so great and encouraging to be with the kids there and see all the girls and boys playing together and just being at S.O.H.W. I just love being there and it was my mom's first time meeting the kids from the orphanage! We then went back to the team house, cleaned up, and moved our stuff from there to the rental house (just our things we had been using) and Julia's stuff as she had been living at the team house for the last 8 months she has been working at Shadow of His Wings. It took a couple trips with a pick-up that a friend at the orphanage lent us over lunch break. The rest of the day was full of organizing and figuring out details of life here.... good but just a bit overwhelming so far. Steve went to find a vehicle to rent from a friend of a friend of ours here and an hour later he came back with a nice truck that we are able to rent on a day-by-day basis, so we can get around here. We then treated ourselves to dinner out at a really great restaurant in town called Carolina's, whose owner used to live in North Carolina! Good food, not expensive, and nice to relax and just chat!
Day 5- Saturday we were able to go with some of the girls from S.O.H.W. and two house dads to pick up 40 chickens that people from our church, Christian Life Assembly, donated money to buy to give to needy families in this area- they were egg-laying chickens with feed for each. It was a great experience and I am so thankful that we got to be a part of it! A blessing beyond words to some of those families and to a nursing home in Monjas too. One woman told us that she had prayed that someone would come in a truck and pray with her.... an answer to her prayers and the blessing of continual food from the chicken- amazing! Thank you Jesus for letting us be a part of your plan here and for those at CLA who wanted to help people here have food to eat! There were so many more incredible people we got to meet and it was amazing to be able to pray for them, their families and ailments.
Day 6 Sunday we got up and went to church at the project... my mom's first time and our first time as regulars. It was great to be back and the kids all went to sunday school. I like the passion and enthusiasm that Guatemalan's have when they preach and yet they are humble and honest. It was a simple yet impacting service. At one point, the house dad who was preaching shared about something that we had been talking about just the night before at our house with Julia and my mom... I love it when that happens. After the service we visited briefly and then headed home, only to find out we had locked ourselves out of the house. It took almost two hours for the landlord to come with a garage door opener to let us in (which we now have all the time).... so off to Carolina's for lunch and thankfully they were open. Not too many places are open on Sundays here. It all worked out and the rest of the day the kids relaxed, played, rollerbladed in the garage and storeroom in the house and the rest of us puttered and got stuff done around the house.
Day Seven Monday- Got up at 6am and got the kids up at 6:30 to get ready for their first day of school. A big adjustment from home: new school, only spanish, and different routines. They were nervous but excited. We got there right at 7:30 and they met their teachers and in they went to their seperate classes without a hitch. I was so proud of how they just walked right in and joined their classmates. The kids are so kind and friendly, which helped a ton. Steve and I had a meeting with Carroll, who is the Executive Director at S.O.H.W and it went really well. We then walked around the grounds to check out some things Steve will be working on and then it was time to pick up the kids. They said they liked it but it was hard too.
I am thanking God that the kids have adjusted well so far and that we all see that God wants us here and He will help us stay focused, figure out the details of everyday life, and sustain us through it all.

Amazing Support!

I am in awe right now of how blessed my family is! We just experienced an incredible weekend with so many of our close family and friends sending us off! Two going-away parties, tons of encouraging cards & emails, gifts, kind words, and just the understanding that we are not alone in this adventure! Thank you so much to all of you in our lives! It is so great to see people that you haven't seen in a long time and how you can pick up where you left off.... and just so good to see them! I also was reminded today of the beautiful heritage I have with all the Swedes in my life. I grew up without relatives nearby (as my parents immigrated to Canada from Sweden before I was born), and so my parents Swedish friends became family. They are amazing people who I admire, look up to, and am very thankful for. They have walked with, lived for, and trusted God and been a great example to me. All the people we have seen in the last few days have reminded us of the privaledge and gift it is for us to go to Guatemala and live out what God has called us to do!
The last few weeks have been insanely busy with trying to sell our house, having open houses, showings, truck problems, homeschooling, and packing up..... the list of things to do is overwhelming at times, but the purpose is what keeps us going with our heads held high! We know all the lists, running around, working hard to stay organized and on top of everything is to get us to our final destitnation! So, just a quick note to say thanks so much for all the encouragement! Also, we would not be so excited and encouraged in all the craziness, if we did not have God to lean on and get us through the days. Thankfully He is in all this and knows our needs, struggles, and tiredness...... Talk to you soon with a new update and hopefully some answered prayers regarding our house! Love you all! Shalom!

Sponsorship and How it changed our lives.....and can change yours too!

  Sponsorship..... it has changed our lives!  It began when Steve was maybe 18 and he decided to sponsor a pastor through Gospel for Asia (which is an incredible organization).  I always wanted to help out somehow and so when Steve and I got married we began with sponsoring some kids through different organizations.  I began writing each child a few times a year and we were happy to know that our little contribution was hopefully helping our child and their family.  I always wished that I could see how it really helped them or at least where they lived and what life was like for them.
  Well, when I went to Guatemala and Shadow of His Wings for the first time, I knew I needed to sponsor some of the girls there.  The way the orphanage is set-up is amazing, with house parents, a great school, opportunities for the girls to reach out to other communities.  The people that work/serve at S.O.H.W. are full of love, hope, compassion, and care so much for each child that comes.  I made some instant connections with a few girls that had helped our team with a Vacation Bible School we did.  So when I returned home last November, I looked into sponsoring two girls right away. We were able to sponsor the girls and I wrote letters right away and prayed for them.  When I returned in January, I was amazed at how the relationship that began in a few short days in November just flourished and became something really special.  In being a sponsor I was able to spend some extra time with the girls and we had some great times together, sharing pictures, stories, just laughing together and playing sports too!  There is something so special about knowing the child/teen you are sponsoring- you feel so invested in their lives, wanting to know how they are really doing, and because I got to see where they lived and what they had come from, it was incredible!  I just loved these girls and felt like they were family to me- truly like my daughters and I know God made that happen! 
  Each time I have visited I have had the opportunity to spend time with the girls, three now, that we sponsor and I love that I am involved in their lives, praying for them, playing games and having fun with them, and knowing that hopefully us moving there will help them to feel like family with us as well.  When we went to visit with our family this past June, our kids just loved them so much and my girls even wrote cards to our sponsor girls saying "Thank you for being my big sister and I love you so much!" 

  I believe that even if you never have a chance to go to Guatemala, you would be making a huge investment and difference in the life of a child who needs you there.  They are just like our own kids, who need love, care, hope, and to know that someone believes in them.  They do receive amazing care in their homes at the orphanage, but the need of sponsorship is there and the girls really do appreciate it and feel special when someone sponsors them!  If you have any questions about sponsoring please contact Vanessa Priest by email at shadowsponsor@gmail.com or check on their website for more info at http://www.shadowofhiswingsorphanage.org/ !

  I am writing this to encourage any of you, that sponsorship really does make a difference and can change these kids lives and your life too.  I love that we have kids in another part of the world and that they are a part of our family too, especially when you know of some of their stories..... when a child is abandoned, orphaned, and/or abused and someone chooses to love them, support them, reach out and invest in them- I think it shows them that they are important and that they do have someone out there who really does care!  We can be God's hands and feet and reach out to these special kids or others out there!