I had taken my bible, a notebook and a pen to the park and sat down on a broken wooden bench in the shade. I had completed my list of things to do today and decided to go sit in the park and read my bible. On the way to the park, Don Pedro, the ferreteria (supermini Home Depot) guy, stopped me to tell me that his wife would be bringing his three children to my apartment to learn English on Wednesday at 4. I smiled and we agreed to hold English lessons twice a week for his three kids.
Don Pedro had taken me to his home the other day and introduced me to his family, let me pet his dogs, listened to my tore up Spanish as I tried to explain to him about Mighty, showed me his little lot, and drove me back to my apartment. He said his landlord was trying to sell the lot. (While good land, it is still too small and too expensive). What a sweet guy. He is a Jehova's Witness.
Walking away from the ferreteria and towards the park, I decided I also needed to make a lesson plan for these kids.
After a rather rough night of stressing out, all alone, in my cement cave with only Geoffrey's voice trying desperately to make me feel better, I decided that while the weight of the world is on my shoulders in terms of stuff to get done in a place where I have no idea how to do it, I needed to begin to take a different approach to all this work. This is a one time thing. The beginning of something great. My lifetime dream. I need to enjoy it, to think of it like a game, or a rather difficult puzzle and I am on a mission to solve it. I am speaking of visas, registration of non-profit, purchasing land in a foreign country, wedding planning, wedding-party planning, etc etc. All to be done by Dec 1. I got to lighten up when it comes to this. I guess it's okay if some of it doesn't get done by Dec 1. It's like Soduko, or whatever that horrible game is called. I don't know how people have fun with that, but they do and I need to figure it out.
So there I am, sitting peacefully. Instead of reading my Bible, I decide to write a prayer to the Lord. I pulled out my pen, wrote the date, and wrote 'Dear Lord,'. I begin to hear the whispers of a Mayan man sitting next to me. He is telling his one year old daughter to look at me, I am writing a letter. I smile at them and next thing I know we are knee-deep in Spanish conversation about why I am here, why they are here, etc etc.
I hand them my prayer card.
This quickly grabs the attention of the teenage boy who had wandered over right next to me to unobtrusively listen to my every word. He comes and sits beside me and takes the card to look at it. I give him one. He talks to me in English for a bit and then leaves. The Mayan man says something to his wife, who apparently doesn't speak Spanish, and then tells me he has a question for me. He has two children, a 7 year old girl and a 2 year old boy living with him. Their parents died and they have no family. They are orphans. He can't afford for the little girl to go to school. "Can you help them?" He asks me. I explained to him that that is why I am here. Although at this time I do not have a house, only an apartment, if they need help I will be glad to try to help them. He asked me, "How will you afford for her to go to school?"
I told him that there are other people where I am from that care about this little girl and her baby brother too. They care so much that they are willing to give their money to the organization so that precious babies like these can eat, go to school, and most importantly to learn about how much God loves them and that He has a purpose for their lives.
I proceeded to tell him that if I needed to care for them, I have a place they can stay, I can find a way to get her in school, and that I could eat them.
Yes, I told him I would eat them. As soon as I did, thankfully, the man knew what I was trying to say and corrected my Spanish. I felt dumb.
His family stood up to leave with my phone number in hand, and within the same 30 seconds an older man comes up and says, "May I sit with you."
"Sure," I smile and tell him.
We had a long conversation about my blue eyes, land, and the lack of jobs in the United States. This is when I look up and notice other people inching their way closer to my broken, little bench. They weren't being as inconspicuous as they thought they were. There was a kind of line forming. I knew this was going to be a long, friendly day in the park.
I met a park picture-taker, who will return to the park everyday with paper and pen to look for me so he can learn English, a boy who sells rubber to put on doors of cars to keep the rain out, a professor of Spanish and K'iche who I will be meeting again at 1:30 tomorrow to exchange language (I teach him English, he teaches me K'iche), and a professor of English who studied 3 years in Modesto, CA, who I will meet again tomorrow at 2:30 so he can accompany me, as my translator, to the attorney who is going to help me register Mision Vida Nueva in Guatemala. And it just so turns out, the attorney is related to the Mayor of Coban.
All this will occur following my 12pm lunch with Francis Eachus, the one who alphabetized the K'iche language and translated the bible and wrote a concordance over the past 56 years of her life here in Coban.
Building relationships in Guatemala: just go sit in the park with a pen and paper, you'll have all the relationships you will ever need before you get up to go.
 |
| The park where it all happens. The bench with the couple, that's where I sat. |
One thing that everyone got excited about, when I told them I was getting married on December 1. Their first question, "IN GUATEMALA??!". No, I tell them. In the United States, but then we will come back together and continue working on Casa Gloria to help the orphans here in Coban.
Maybe you'd like to know the plans?
Well, we pretty much knew that we were going to get married before we left for Guatemala. I had told Geoffrey a long time ago though that I did not want to get engaged though until I was living in Guatemala. That way, when he proposed, he knew he would be commiting to not just me, but to this mission that the Lord has given us. He, by faith, knew it was what God wanted for his life, and as it turns out, true believers have a tough time saying "No" to God.
So I come back to the States November 14. I will have two weeks to get ready for our wedding which will be Thursday evening at 6pm in Warm Springs, GA on top of a mountain in Pine Mountain.
Because of the lack of time to plan and the fact that we are wanting to build a Children's Home in Guatemala (which costs quite a bit of money), we are having a very small, family-only wedding. This literally will be family only, even the preacher. I am excited though. We have one lady who is coordinating absolutely everything from the videoing to the bubbles, and she charges such a reasonable price. Thankfully that leaves me with no planning to do except find a dress, which I will do in a week Lord-willing, when I get back.
Then we are going on a 7 day honeymoon to Jamaica (wow, what a blessing) and then back to Guatemala, haha. Talk about some culture shock.
Our number one prayer request, which is HUGE on my heart and on Geoffrey's, is that he will sell his house in Alexander City, AL by Dec 1. It is ready to sell and should be on the market in the next couple of days. It is a beautiful three-bedroom house, perfect for a small family or an older couple. Brand-new, just built within the last two years, a garden home in a gated community with a pond in front and a creek that runs behind it.
 |
| http://www.facebook.com/kurmytdafrawg?ref=ffl#!/media/set/?set=a.768636045315.2409853.27402775 Click the link to see the album of the finished house. |
It's obvious he loves me. And even more obvious He loves the Lord. Just wait til he wraps his arms around that first little orphan boy....I am so thankful to the Lord, for His gifts are nothing short of
perfect. Nothing easy is truly worth it. Prayer Requests:
- Geoffrey's house will sell before Dec 1.
- The trustworthy attorney said our visas are going to cost $562 (possibly per person) if we are able to get the cheapest visas offered. Pray for the Lord's continuing provision.
- I meet tomorrow with an attorney to register Mision Vida Nueva in Guatemala. I don't know how much that will cost yet.
- The Lord will direct me to the perfect piece of land for Casa Gloria to be built.
- Continue to pray for the Lord to open doors for me to build relationships and bless and serve the people here.
Love,
Jenna
"So there could be nothing but peaceful acceptance. And when one accepts, then ALL that is included in the thing accepted is accepted too- in my case, the helplessness, the limitations, the disappointments of hope deferred, the suffering. I now know this is important in keeping our own spiritual 'atmosphere' clear. For if we let even the fugitive wisp of a cloud float across our sky (in the form of a wish-- that is, a wish that things were different!), then the whole sweet blue of our spirit is swiftly overcast. But if we refuse that wisp of cloud....If we look up and meet the love of the Lord that shines down on us and say to Him about that particular detail of the trial, "Dear Lord, Yes...." then in one bright moment, our sky is blue again.
My Father, I will say-- no matter what shadows of circumstance blow across my way-- you are my Father of Lights. Coming down from heaven are good and perfect gifts to me....All the promises of your love and goodness are still...YES! and AMEN!"-Amy Carmichael, missionary to India, started a children's home that served over 1,000 orphans.
No comments:
Post a Comment