I live where Jesus lives. I see Jesus every day. I see Jesus in the leathery brown face of the old Mayan woman with no teeth who sits on the street with a basket on her head filled with live chickens.
I see Jesus in the homeless man with one pair of ragged soiled clothes with a huge sack of trash on his back as he walks down the filthy streets barefoot.
I see Jesus in the young girl who sits against the wall on the corner of the street day after day selling gum.
I see Jesus in the man with no legs in the makeshift wood wheelchair that sits in the blaring sun in the middle of the road with a white cup hoping someone will drop some coins in.
I see Jesus in the 9 year old little girl who spends her days on her knees shining shoes with little hands that are as black as the grease that covers her.
I see Jesus in the faces of two little boys who bathe 3 times a week from a bucket of cold dirty water outside their shack.
I see Jesus in the most filthy dirty place in all of the city, with miles and miles of trash and vultures everywhere.
I see Jesus in the toddlers and young children who spend their days among this trash, that have smiles that show rotten teeth and big, round, malnourished, parasite-filled bellies.
I see Jesus in the 13 year old girl that has an infant at her breast and no shoes on her feet.
I see Jesus as the huge military trucks drive by day after day filled with military men pointing their rifles, with their fingers on the trigger, ready to shoot.
I see Jesus in the 86 year old white woman from Colorado who has spent her entire life making the Word of God known to people who can't read or write.
I see Jesus in my little puppy who's tummy was filled with parasites, whose head was covered in feces when we first brought him home.
I see Jesus in my friend who comes to my home every Sunday in chains, not able to break his addiction to drugs, or escape his hatred for religion and church.
I see Jesus in the blind man who sits on his knees in the road from morning to night singing hymns as people walk by pretending they don't see him.
I see Jesus every Tuesday and Thursday night at my kitchen table when there are three little Jehova's Witness kids sitting there soaking up everything we say to them.
I see Jesus when I walk by the Paca where my friend sits for 10 hours a day reading his bible and hoping someone will come buy some old used clothes from him.
I see Jesus when I heard that a young girl gave birth and dumped her baby in the trash on the streets hoping it would die.
I see Jesus when I hear about missionaries and foreigners getting slaughtered because of their white skin or their faith in Christ.
I see Jesus when I hear the chants and smell the incense of the Mayan people pleading their case to the god of the mountains.

This is Guatemala and I live in Coban. I live where Jesus lives. I live in a place where outside people take a look and their mouths drop open in disgust. I live in a place where people breathe in and snarl their noses at the smell of human feces and urine covering the sidewalks. I live in a place where people gasp at the fact that there are babies having babies and little kids laboring in the streets and the in the fields. I live in a place where you can't walk out at night and bars on your windows aren't enough. I look out my bedroom window and see big rocks that have been placed on pieces of tin to hold the roofs down on the shanty one-bedroom shacks that house ten people.

You don't drink the water here, if there is any water. You don't mind the smells that flow through the pipes and into your bathroom, if you're even lucky enough to have a bathroom. You don't mind the cockroaches and the spiders in your home, if you're lucky enough to even have a home.

You're heart hurts when you listen to foreigners scoffing at the condition of things in your country, cursing it, and cursing it's people. It hurts when you hear people making fun of things that would be luxuries to 90% of the people here.
Jesus' heart hurts when we rich people see the things we see and then pretend we never saw them. Jesus' heart hurts when the homeless man lies down in the cold rain to take a rest from walking on his feet that are covered in fungus.
Jesus' heart hurts when we rich people know the things we know and then we forget them because they make us uncomfortable.
Jesus' heart hurts when the four year old boy's parents decide not to come get him that day and he spends the night in the landfill with the dogs and the vultures.

Jesus hasn't forgotten this place. I know because every evening the sun sets against the mountains coloring the sky every shade of beautiful that exists. I know because here it is Spring year round and the flowers never stop blooming. I know because we spend days in the clouds, literally in the clouds. I know because the kids smile and they speak the name of Jesus and crazy homeless men stand in the streets and tell you "God bless you" as you walk by. I know because the shoeshiner stands in my kitchen and quotes verse after verse of God's word. I know because everytime I see all these things that make you cringe, I see Jesus. And I know because I know Jesus and Jesus asked me to live here.

That is why Jesus is here. That is why this is the place I most want to be. I have never been anywhere where I have ever been so close to Jesus. And as close to Jesus as possible is right where I desire to be. I live in the most beautiful place in the world.

Guat-date (Update from Guatemala)

I'm pretty terrible at updating this blog. You probably already know that though. I like to wait until I have some good stuff to say before I write a blog, at least something interesting...but due to the ongoing harrassment by my family, I have agreed to write one even though I don't have a lot of interesting, exciting things to say.
I'll just give you an overview so you know that we are actually still alive and fairly well and in Guatemala working towards the children's home.

On February the 10th Geoffrey and I were blessed with our first baby. His name is Theodore Rupert Haynes. He is now 11 weeks old.

As you can see from the countless photos of his every move, we adore him. He is helping us build new relationships and deepen existing ones. In case you are wondering, and I am sure you are, yes that is a litter box and yes, he speaks English. We are proud parents.

We are continuing to teach English a few nights a week and sometimes on Sunday. The three children that come to our home every Tuesday and Thursday evening are learning very fast. We have become quite close to their family and are praying for open opportunities to share the gospel with the parents. They belong to the Jehova's Witness church and we love them.

Julio, our longtime friend, comes over every Sunday and we spend time together. We are praying for his relationship with the Lord to deepen. He has chains that are holding him back.

On Tuesday, February 21, Ms. Fran (who we visit and spend time with every week now) received a frightening phone call from someone claiming to be part of an organized crime unit in Guatemala demanding Q.10,000.00 or they will kill her. Many, many people began praying for her safety and she felt a strong peace from the Lord and knew everything would be fine. Since then she has not received anymore calls.

Thursday, the 23rd, we rode with Galen and Phyllis Groff to a missionary conference in Atitlan.

Galen and Phyllis have been missionaries in a nearby city for quite a while. They have started a school and seen many people come to Christ. Not only did they take us to this awesome MALL where Geoffrey thought he'd died and gone to Heaven,

but they took us to spend Thursday night at a children's home, Misioneros del Camino, which is on the very long drive to Atitlan.

There we met the Metcalf's, an awesome family, with a lot of wisdom and insight on what children need emotionally to develop properly as they grow. They taught us a lot about the problems with staffing a children's home and we walked away encouraged, more aware, and with new friends.


Then we finished the drive to the conference. This is an annual conference for native-english speaking, evangelical missionaries living in Guatemala full-time. Nice, I know. The purpose is to worship in English, around like-minded people, and to be refreshed and relax and encouraged. It was wonderful.
Panajachel is the city that hosted the conference and it is basically a crater filled with blue water over time. It is completely surrounded by volcanoes and mountains and jungle on all sides...not to mention it pretty much sits in the clouds.



That is us and those are two huge volcanoes in the background. Nice, I know.
There we made some wonderful contacts, including the Maynor's. They are a family with the same vision as us. They moved to Xela, Guatemala and are also building a children's home. They are one step ahead of us. While we are still looking for land, they have just begun the construction of their home. They are working with a ministry called Living Water Teaching, which has been established in Guatemala for 32 years. Wonderful people and I am excited to get to know them more in the future as we work together to give a purpose to the lives of orphans here.

And now we are back in Coban. I caught a pretty awful virus while we were away and am working to get past it now. I think the Lord allowed me to catch it just so I'd have time to sit and write this blog and catch up on all the other computer work I've been needing to do. We are still searching for land and communicating with lawyers to get to the point where we need to be.

We want to praise the Lord for the way He answers prayers and moves on our behalf. We needed more friends and contacts here and we made them. We asked the Holy Spirit to touch more people's hearts to financially support our mission here, and He did. We asked Him for insight on how to build new relationships with the people around us, and He sent us Theodore. We asked Him to show us how to wisely serve the people here, and He sent us children who work the streets that we can feed and love on. And of course we praise Him for all you guys who pray for us and love us and tell people about us and for Mom who is constantly dealing with donations, bank stuff, lawyers, and letter-writing, and our soon to be accountant which she will meet with next week. She is a hard worker on our behalf.

We want to ask you to pray with us for:
1) a vehicle
2) a piece of land for which we will build Casa Gloria
3) salvation for the people we work with daily and for the Mormons and the Jehova's Witnesses in Coban
4) our state-side lawyer, that God would move in his heart and that the work would be done that needs to be done with the IRS
5) the person who will do our taxes hopefully next week
6) pray for our visa paperwork to come through and go through quickly and well
7) wisdom in dealing with the attorneys and the government here
8) Jenna Robinson, our lovely friend coming to volunteer with us here for her spring break
9) and pray that we would continue to seek the Lord at all times regarding all things

and whatever else the Lord leads you to pray.

Well, friends, our website is almost finished... www.misionvidanueva.info

and if you have not liked our facebook page, please do, or we will not like you... www.facebook.com/misionvidanueva

We love you,

Jenna and Geoffrey

and Theodore!