From Darkness to Light: the God of the IMPOSSIBLE

Today I just want to tell you a story that many of you know and many of you do not know. In 2005 I was saved, baptized and called to the mission field. In 2007 at 22 years old, just having graduated from Auburn University, I married a man passionate about the Lord. He was in the seminary program at Lakeview and was called to preach the gospel. He spent time doing mission work in Sudan just before we got married and was open to going where ever it was that the Lord would call us. This man had been an alcoholic sober for more than two years when we married with a radical testimony. Unfortunately, with the stress of being newly married and the pressure and stress that come along with obtaining a Master's in Divinity, his alcoholism got the best of him just three months after our wedding. It was a very hard time for me. I was young, just married, and ready to serve God with my husband and this was not happening. It was a period of great sadness as I had to deal with things I had never dreamed possible. Living with an active alcoholic, who you thought would be the most Godly husband ever, that is hard. He quit the seminary program and his life and lifestyle began to get darker and darker. I was working at the church and had an amazing support system of understanding, godly people who would meet with me and pray with me on a regular basis. It was still a time of great suffering, however, as I would do everything in my power to love him and lead him back to Jesus always to no avail. There would be times he would sober up for whatever reason and repent and cry and make promises, and of course I welcomed him back into my arms with great joy and praise to God for bringing him back, hoping that this time it was for good. And a few weeks later, he would be right back into the darkness with a big smile on his face enjoying many of the evil pleasures this world offers. There were more violent times where I was forced to leave the house and go to my friends or my parents. There were times where he would empty our bank account and told me I was to come to him when I needed to pay our bills or buy our groceries. There were times where his worldly "buddies" would call me asking me to come get him off their couch or out of their yards. There were times when he called me from jail begging me to come and get him. And he got his 4th or 5th (I can't remember) DUI which rendered him without any means of transportation for many years and the courts ordered him to be at meetings twice a week or he would violate his probation and go back to jail. And how would he get there? Of course I would have to drive him. After about a year and half of living in this madness I felt the need to separate from him and with the permission of the Lord and my church, I moved into an apartment to make sure I was in no way enabling his behavior and to show him that I was serious about his need to change. To my great disappointment, this did not change things much. As a matter of fact, he began inviting women from the bars over to spend the night in our home and so began the beginning of the end. Until that point, I was going to fight and stick it out, even if it meant we were apart. Until that point there were no thoughts of ending our marriage, at least not on my part. He was always telling me he was going to get a divorce, but I would hear nothing of it and definitely not encourage it. After the first girl I found out about, I was hurt and angry, but I also forgave him and told him I was not going anywhere. After the second, I was angry, yet I still forgave him. But as I was praying fervently about what I should do and how I could survive this, he called me one evening and told me he had made up his mind and was moving to south Alabama. He was taking our trailer and moving. At this point I was working full time at the bank and had my family near by. I knew following my unfaithful, alcoholic husband to south Alabama was out of the question and he made it clear I was not welcome to come with him. And that is when the Lord gave me permission to leave him. He told me not to worry about what the world would think, that I had not let Him down, that He would be my banner and He would speak for me. And that is what He did. And after two and a half years of turmoil, it was over. 

I tell you all that to ask you to see the impossibility in my situation. To imagine how it must have felt knowing that I was 100% called to the mission field and yet unable to go because I was first and foremost called to my husband. To have all the desire to go to the field, to reach the ones who were dying without Christ, yet there was no light at the end of the tunnel. To have been stuck in a time of great suffering at the hands of another person and completely unable to "go". That was one of the hardest things. I had every intention in the world of following Jesus to the mission field with my husband when I got married. The promise was there. My heart was there. And yet I was chained to the ground by lies, alcoholism, adultery, and many other unimaginable things. I thought it would never happen. And then the Lord set me free, with many tears and great pain, he set me free. And the light came back.

It was time to heal and figure out where the Lord wanted me. I continued my job at the bank, swept away the ashes, and began to rebuild my life. I knew by the end of 2010 he wanted me in Guatemala to start a children's home. In the beginning of 2011, as I was in the process of selling my belongings, I met Geoffrey. At first I knew it was no use as this time I was GOING TO GO where the Lord wanted me and not get myself trapped in another horrible situation. Months went by and the Lord began to move in Geoffrey's heart and he knew if he wanted to keep me, he'd have to act fast. I told him from the beginning that if he could not see himself giving up everything and moving to Guatemala then there was no use in us having a relationship. I would not marry another man until I was already living where the Lord wanted me. And so it was. Geoffrey helped me move to Guatemala and a few days before he was headed back to the States, he proposed. Crazy. SO happy and so in love, I said, "yes". I couldn't believe it. I thought my chances at marriage were over. But then there was Geoffrey and quite the opposite of my first husband. And I stayed in Guatemala alone beginning the mission all the while making plans to marry him come the end of the year. Dec. 1 we were married and he moved down here with me on Dec. 29. We have been here ever since.

Back up. God wanted me in Guatemala but the IMB was not sending missionaries to Guatemala. God wanted me to start a children's home, but my mission pastor told me that was "passe missions". But yet I was sure of my calling. If I couldn't go under the mission board, I would start my own mission and go. And this is what I did. I named it Mision Vida Nueva. As for support, "Do NOT raise support", the Lord told me clearly. I will support you. Without raising any support, I sold my belongings, quit my job, and left. The mission I had started had $2002 in the account. One friend from long before heard of what I was doing and out of no where he felt prompted by God to send me $2000. And another friend at the bank put $2 in my account. With no financial supporters at all, I said bye to my family and my church and left. I came to Coban, Guatemala where I knew of no one and nothing.
The very next day support began flooding in. From Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina. All these donations from people I had never heard of. Jesus had touched someone's heart to raise support for me. Astonished, I began looking for somewhere to live temporarily while I would look for land that the mission could buy to start the children's home. Keeping true to our commitment to letting the Lord handle the finances, 6 months later, we found the land and it cost $19,200. And we had $20,000 in the mission's account.

And this is what our 4 years in Guatemala have looked like, all the glory to Him who is able:

The bus ride to Coban, the very first time. 

Getting engaged!

Our awesome apartment in Coban. 

Many many miles were walked searching for land for the children's home.

And then we found it. 

And bought it. 

And we built the garage with a room on top for us to live in. 

And the three (!) of us moved in.

And we spent the next year suffering through pregnancy and waiting on the Lord to provide the funds to build the steel structure of what would be Casa Gloria. 

And a beautiful baby girl was born. 

And He absolutely provided!

We poured the footing.

And the slab.

Built the walls.

Raised the block.

Installed the windows and doors.

Sheetrocked for months. 

Installed lights and painted. 

Installed flooring.

Installed cabinets. 

Began a ginormous wall that the gov't requires. 

And now, buying furniture. 

Furniture! Yes, we are already putting furniture in the children's home. That is how close we are getting to being finished. Oh, how long we have been waiting and working....and now, finally, the end of the construction is in sight. Will we have enough funds to furnish 7000 square feet for 18 children, a doctor, a nurse, a psychologist, social workers, directors, etc etc? I can say with faith that WE WILL. And it is not because we are awesome speakers, writing letters, or any of that. To the contrary, I am a horrible speaker. But it is because the Holy Spirit is at work and because He tells us in His Word that, "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." When before the possibility of missions was an impossibility, and now it is my every day reality. And if you think that all we do here is build, you are crazy. Building is about 20% of our lives here, we just don't have as many pictures of the other 80%. We are working to build relationships, share Jesus, meet needs in the communities, love the sick and walk alongside the hurting. We are working with the government to register and accredit our home and we have a passion to grow as a ministry and be able to serve in other areas. We will share the love of the Lord with these children, each and every one, no doubt, but we also desire to take the Word of God and the love of Jesus to others too. And so the Lord has sent us another ministry that has been around for some time, created by Guatemalans with a heart to serve and honor the Lord and in working with these amazing people we have decided to merge our ministries. We are no longer just two. They will come under the umbrella of Mision Vida Nueva and we will have Casa Gloria for the orphaned, abandoned, abused children and we will have Living to Serve for all the community outreach programs. This is an answer to four years of prayers. It is hard being just two. Now we are many and the best thing is that we are working with local believers who have a calling to serve! Now that we are many, the opportunities are endless. We have been mentioning some of the ideas we have for future ministry and they include working with child mothers, working with the elderly who have been abandoned or neglected, working emergency health cases and having a recovery house, a shelter for battered women....among so many other ideas. Yes, we seek to improve the physical health of all these people, but even more we seek to improve their spiritual health, and EVEN MORE THAN THAT we seek to glorify the Lord by bringing people to a place of worship and acknowledgement of who He really is: the God of second chances and the God of the IMPOSSIBLE.

MVN's newest team: AVIS aka Living to Serve!

Now Mision Vida Nueva can receive donations specifically for Community ministry. Anyone who wishes to contribute to this branch of our ministry can make donations to Mision Vida Nueva and earmark them or add a note that says "AVIS", "Living to Serve", "Community outreach" etc so we know they go towards this ministry. Any donations received not earmarked as such will be used for Casa Gloria, the children's home. We are very excited for this new opportunity and know that the Lord will provide as He sees fit.


Thank you for your prayers as we begin hiring professionals and nannies to serve the children who will be coming to live with us in just a few more months. Thank you for your continued contributions and generosity as you are helping us build a sanctuary for babies and children with no where else to go. Thank you, thank you, thank you as you are faithful to the Lord and are an inspiration and encouragement to us. We love you all and you cause us to praise God even more!

Jenna 

www.misionvidanueva.info

www.livingtoserve.org

So, what ever happened with the footing of the wall? We tore up the last 7 meters and stopped working for a bit due to "letting go" of the guy we had hired to work on it. We did not touch it for about two weeks while we sought workers from a neighboring city. We felt like it was not wise to have anyone from the community working on the wall. Now we have two guys, not from here, and we have made a bit of progress with no more problems (so far).

Last 7 meters

..

We currently have 14 construction workers working every day. We have 3 guys working the wall, 2 guys working trim, 1 guy working the prefabricated doors, one who is a painter and light/fan installer, one who lays tile, one who is working on the laminate flooring, one who does maintenance work around the property and the rest are mudding sheetrock on the second floor. We have finished the sheetrock on the first floor and are painting, installing fixtures, and laying floor, trim and doors. It is AMAZING to know that we are this close to finishing!! Oh my, I just want to hire 100 more guys and be like "Get it done!!!", but of course nothing of good quality happens so quickly and easily. I spent Monday laying laminate floor in order to teach one of guys so he could take over and do the rest.....yes, I used the miter saw all by myself, and it turned out good except for that today is Wednesday and I still can barely walk or use my legs. I am in so much pain from being on my knees for 9 hours and the constant squatting and standing.........But thankfully our guy is stronger than me and doesn't hurt bad enough to not keep on going!

Apt 4 kitchen

Apt 4 hall

Apt 4 Master

Education/Psychology room

Prayer Room

Social Worker Office/Family meeting room

Secretary office

Director's office

Conference room

Conference room with handmade window trim

The big things that need to happen before we can actually USE and LIVE in the home are the water tower, finishing the septic for the home, and installing the appliance and cabinets. We are in talks with a company about cabinets, appliances will be easy, the septic - well I don't know anything about that right now, and the water tower......well that brings me to a much bigger subject.
There is about 2 acres of land on the other side of our fence, the majority of it is a big hill. We have talked to the owner about allowing us to put a water tank at the top of the hill in order to naturally supply enough volume and pressure to the entire children's home plus any future constructions. He told us no problem and he wouldn't even charge us. It seems nice, but we know from experience we can not take anyone's word as law without having something formal in writing. It just does not work like that here, although he is a very nice man and I would like to take his word for it. Wisdom just says it is not wise. With the construction of the wall advancing and two sides touching his property, and with the bad neighbors on the one side whom we had to call the police on, and with the knowledge that he wants to and intends to sell that land behind our property, we started thinking that it would be best for the mission to possibly consider purchasing the property outright - eliminating the need for "permission" and possible future problems that come with our water source and 100's of meters of tubes being on someone else's property, as well as eliminating the possibility of more "bad neighbors" purchasing the property and being right up against the children's home, and other advantages this would allow us....not to mention the possible uses of 2 more acres of land for the children's home and ministry. We prayed about it and discussed it with the board of directors and yesterday we met with the owner to find out a price. Sadly, he asked DOUBLE the cost of the highest amount we were willing to go. We were surprised and we knew right away that there would be no chance of the mission purchasing the land. We said our goodbyes and the three of us discussed it amongst ourselves saying that we would wait and pray and if the Lord wanted us to have that land He would either provide the funds and/or touch the man's heart to give us a more reasonable price.
We laid out all the information before the entire board of directors and it was at that point that we were made aware of a pending donation that we had not known about that "would be enough to purchase the land"!! This was completely unexpected, yet another amazing act of God's provision. Should we receive a more fair price on the property, it will be ours once the donation has come through! I couldn't believe my ears and was speechless!! All I could do was praise our God, who IS the father of the fatherless!! I type this with peace in my heart and a smile on my face because He never forgets about us. He never fails to provide. And when He says "No" or "Not right now", or when it doesn't go the way I hoped it would - I can be sure that there is something far better around the corner.

Old picture, but the big hill directly behind the building where the dry ground is....is most of the land that we hope to buy.

Update on sweet baby Linda who has spina bifida and many of you contributed to the cost of the various tests and consults that she has needed and will need - The diagnosis is worse than what we thought it would be. It appears that her spinal cord is very damaged and that she also has a condition with her bladder in which because she cannot feel when she needs to use the bathroom, her urine backs up the tubes and into the bladder and her bladder is very large and it is possible that the tubes are no longer straight. We need a test for this, but can only do that test after she is cleared of a bacterial infection. We have been fighting the infection with different antibiotics for over a month now and every test reveals that the antibiotics are not working. We are still trying though. If her bladder tubes are not straight, she will need to go to Guatemala City and have surgery. This is very likely and will end up being very costly. Her parents WOULD not be able to help their baby if it was not for your generosity......and we still have funds in her account, but in short time they will be diminishing - hopefully because we are helping her to get better! I will keep you all posted on the progress as time goes by.

And our big Baby, is just that - a healthy, huge, playful, baby who lets nothing and no one come on the property calmly. He is the guard dog of all guard dogs and we love him to death!

And we love you all and we thank you for your prayers. Please keep them coming - 

Jenna

www.misionvidanueva.info

where will our help come from?

We live in a rural aldea that is like a suburb of a tiny little town that is not even considered a city really. It would be like living out in po-dunk Alabama except that quite a few people live out here.  Most of our neighbors are poorer people, some have light and water, some one or the other, and others neither. Some of the newer neighbors have a little money and wanted to buy a bigger land and build a decent looking house. The majority of people here are very uneducated and contrary to popular Gringo belief, they are not such "sweet and humble" people. Christian or not, doesn't matter, for the most part they are selfish and extremely self-serving and will go to the utmost lengths to gain for themselves - they are sinners equally as sinful as all the rest of us, just not educated. In our community when the people don't like someone they threaten them to change and if there is no change they kill them. We have seen this injustice first hand. In Guatemala's aldeas there is a governing body called the "Cocode". The people come together and vote in a horrible and corrupt manner to decide who will be the president of the cocode, vice-president, etc. The municipality gives the authority to the cocode and will hardly ever intervene when it has to do with an aldea.

The problem is that the cocodes know their power and are deceitful and self-serving at the expense of anyone else. We have tried to steer clear of most of these guys and not get ourselves involved. The vice-president who has been in jail more times than I can count has robbed us personally of thousands of quetzales. He is now going around the entire community and trying to take pieces of people's land. The people here are poor and uneducated and don't know the difference. Men (and women) come to our gate ALL the time asking us for work. This puts us in a difficult situation because of course there is not work for everyone and we can't just hire just anyone. Lots of men have reputations for being thieves and we can't take that risk either. Then comes the cocodes asking us for work telling us that we told them in our first year there that one way we hope to bring support to the community is finding jobs for some people, be it construction jobs or other. And they tell us they trusted us when we said that, but they have never received a job. But they have. And one robbed us. Apart from that we have given jobs to dozens and dozens of men from the community - just not to them personally.

So 5:45am on Sunday morning two guys with evil smiles on their faces come to our gate and Baby, our new guard dog, goes crazy. We find out that they want to gather all the neighbors and meet us down at the bottom where we just poured the footing of the wall that we are required to build by the government. One guy who had asked for work long ago was really mad and was instigating everything. The other guy had been, for some time, bullying Julio our main worker telling him he was looking for a way to get him fired. The workers we do have go through a lot within their social circles to maintain jobs here. Just last week, Mayda cried to me as she told me some women were gossiping about her because they were jealous that she has worked here for so long. Anyway, as we get down there where the men had gathered all the neighbors from their sleep and were trying to rile them up, he was saying our wall was too close to the road and we were going to need to fix this now. We are talking about $3,000 worth of work here. And then from up the road comes the evil and conniving vice-president with a smile on his face. When he began by being so super sweet to us, we know these guys were up to no good. So we told them we would figure out what needed to be done and we would make it right because it is not our intentions to hurt the community by being too close to the road. We had left minimum 3.5 meters from the center of the road, but they were measuring from the neighbors fence which was, shockingly (sarcastic), put right on the road.....like everyone else's fences, walls, stores, and houses, including the men who were standing there accusing us.

So yesterday we call the cocode of the other community - our property is the border of two communities - and the president comes and says they want 8 meters of road, 4 meters from the center-line to our block. Okay, even though NO BODY else has 4 meters, we will tear up the last 6 meters of footing and make it right. Thank God they didn't want more. So yesterday I called the president of the other community also to come and he comes at 6pm but doesn't even want to see the wall. He just wanted to spend 45 minutes talking about why we haven't given him any work. Then he wanted to see the children's home and said he would like us to hire him when it is time to do the floor upstairs. There is a conflict and risk there for us because we hire the president of the community and he doesn't do a good job and we have to fire him then we have lost his support in everything from there forward. He was not interested in what the other guys were doing to us because he was on board with it from the beginning - they don't give me work, we will cause them problems.

So today as I read and prayed early this morning, I prayed that instead of moving mountains, God would move the hearts of these greedy men. If our prayer in faith can move a MOUNTAIN, it can surely move a man's heart. Power goes out. The angry man knocks at the gate. I go down. He is very nice and says that he would ask that I please do not call the other community that we would resolve this with just their community and that he is so sorry for the bother etc etc. Fishy, I know. He didn't know we had resolved it with the other community yesterday. We walk down to a mob of people and I am praying the whole way. They had definitely come with bad intentions to gain something for nothing. I asked that if before they started, if I could please say a word to everyone. They gathered closely and I began to tell them that when they all see us they may think we are rich, white people who are building this huge castle with all kinds of money to spend. What they don't know is that that is quite the opposite. Geoffrey and I and the baby live in a space smaller than the majority of their houses and we work ourselves to death, seemingly literally, and not for one cent. That we left our jobs, homes, and families to come to them and we did it for the Lord. That the castle they see is being built by churches and believers and other generous hearts in the US that send donations to us. That that castle is a shelter for the poorest children in their department, for the ones who have no family, no house, nothing. For girls who find themselves pregnant and are rejected. For babies who are left in the hospital unwanted. For kids whose parents hurt them and they have no where safe to go. This is what that castle is for. It is for many of them. I told them we cant just give work to every single person who comes by, sometimes we don't have money, sometimes the association chooses other people, but we do help in other ways though. How much have we supported the two schools? The water tank? The poorest of the poor among them? And we want to see that for many years to come. And somewhere in me telling them all that I started crying and once that happened - the bad men looked to the ground. I think their hearts moved from here to there. So we began to pull lines and take measurements and they begin to tell us that everything was okay with our wall. The only change they wanted was the last 6 meters, just like the other guy. We were okay with that. Then they said we can make a vote right now so that we are all in agreement and you don't have to tear up anything. They called the people together and I stopped them and said, "No. We don't want to vote to leave it. If it is not in accordance with the law, we prefer to break it up and move it." Shocked the man nodded. I knew he was going to do us a "favor" and then in return he would want a "favor" from us - probably work or money. I also knew that in 5 years we will have another Cocode and they will probably be just as corrupt and could come and tell us to tear down the whole wall. The main guy who instigated all this looked like he wanted to cry - his plan didn't work out. And now he knew there'd be no chance in the world for him to work with us.
Anyway it was resolved, with maximum stress, but resolved. We will break up about 7 meters. Then the president looks at me and says, "Don't forget what we talked about." Meaning, "You better give me work."
I went to the municipality the day before and spoke with the people who regulate all the land, but they said that they have no jurisdiction where we are, only the Cocode does. I also met with the one person in the whole community who I know loves the Lord with all her heart, the only woman I trust here in the community. She prayed with me and then told me about the three new houses going up in the community right now, one right in front of the school. They are three Zeta families and one moved here because they had killed another family in the last community but needed to leave and find somewhere else to live so the authorities would not look for them. I have seen strange men about in the community lately carrying big guns on their belts and thought it was weird. Now I understand what is going on.

When you can't request the help of the government, when your only authorities are corrupt and deceitful, when you can't count on men - you remember you have only One Help and only One Hope. I lift my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the MAKER of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel (me, my family, our ministry) will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

I'm not scared nor worried - so don't be scared or worried for me. I am just stressed and tired. But when I am weak - He is strong. May His strength shine through and may we continue to move forward.

And if any of you want to come and live down here forever with us and take on half of our responsibilities - like we say here in Guatemala, con mucho gusto! I will be glad to share my load and my blessings. Pray for workers of the harvest to RISE up. Jesus is coming back and we can't waste anymore time or make anymore excuses.
Thank you all for your words of encouragement, your thoughts and your prayers over the past few days. We need them so much!

Love, 

          Jenna

 "Should we call the police?", I asked.
"I don't know, maybe not....", he responded.
"What should we do then?"
"I have no idea."
"What's the phone number to the police?"
"I have no idea."

That has been our conversation twice in the last week.

It isn't a unknown fact that Guatemala is a hot spot for crime and violence. New articles are always emerging listing Guatemala as one of the most dangerous countries in the world in different categories like violent crimes against women, exploitation of children, armed robberies, theft, and crimes that go unpunished, and the list goes on. The country is a hot spot for drug trafficking and cartel activity. The country is known for having a corrupt judicial system and police infrastructure. And despite what the tourist agencies, the missions needing volunteers, the hotels and restaurants, and the lucky guy who has been to Antigua five times for a week each and never had any bad experiences might tell you - the country is a beautiful country but with a LOT of ugly crime.

(https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=15656) - in case you don't believe me.

We've been here for nearly four years and we have seen a couple dead bodies and an attempted lynching by burning; we have seen robberies take place, we have had close encounters and passed by multiple crime scenes minutes after the crime; we have learned that calling the police can be like inviting more criminals to your crime scene and that hiring a professional armed guard can be like hiring a broker to a ring of thieves.....but to us directly, other than some criminals posing as lawyers and running off with our money and your average construction worker liar/thief, nothing - praise God - has ever happened to us.  But I would be stupid to tell you this is a safe country. I would be stupid to tell you that nothing will happen to you. I would be stupid to make it a habit of being out at night or grocery shopping alone. I would be stupid - and sadly, I have been stupid before.

We've learned the safer places, but we've learned we should never take it for granted, although sometimes we still do. We've learned that the "evangelical"-claiming man who all the sudden wants to be involved in your life is probably the one who is going to steal from you. We've learned that being a church-goer here is a really good cover up and excuse for why "you" couldn't possibly be the bad guy. We have found a handful of people that are actually trustworthy people and we stick close to them. We love our village (for the most part) and we have always felt safe here surrounded by people who we hold very dear to our hearts.

So, we pull in to Villa del Sol in El Rancho, El Progreso the other day on our way to return my mom to Guatemala City. We have a good relationship with the staff as we stop here all the time on all our trips. The women stop their work and dote over Mary Charis lovingly as they have basically watched her grow up. We use their restroom, we buy their food, we play on their slide (Mary Charis does at least), and we head to the car which sits in the shade under some palm trees with coconuts. Mom's backpack is gone. This is a unreasonably large back pack, maybe due to the pillow she stuffed in it, and it holds her passport, her money, her license, all her electronic goods, and her beloved pillow. It's gone. I go straight to the guard who obviously already knew what had happened and I asked him and of course he says, "I watched your car the entire time, not one person got near it the whole time." And he goes on and on and I ask him for the number to the police, and he says he doesn't have it. And I ask him how could he not have the police's number, and he says he just doesn't have it. I go to the women in the restaurant and tell them what happened and the manager comes out, sweet lady. The other guard doesn't have the phone number to the police either, strangely. I call our most trusted friends who have helped us before in these situations to ask if they can find the police's phone number here in El Rancho - and by then the manager lady had scolded the guards into giving us the phone number which was clearly and neatly written in one of their little notebooks. Our friends give us the embassy number, so Geoffrey calls the embassy and I call the police. The guards are obviously extremely frustrated, denying that we were robbed of anything in their parking lot, despite us showing them the new little hole punch that appeared under the door handle.
The police come. They were fairly nice to us, but I got the impression it was only because we were foreigners and had mentioned already calling the Embassy (which they probably think is some huge deal that only foreigners can do) and they harass the guards and take us to the police station to make the report where a bunch of other police were walking around shirtless and in a bad mood that we have interrupted their day insisting that they make us a report. A woman, typing with two fingers with four officers looking over her shoulder arguing about how to word things, we sat there patiently in the horrible heat of El Rancho, watching and waiting patiently. Two hours later, with a piece of paper, we left.

A couple nights ago, about 9pm, we turn down the television and I get ready to get in bed and all the sudden we hear music blasting loudly through our open windows. What on earth kind of neighbors could be playing music so loudly, I wondered to myself, thinking our closest neighbors are across the valley on the mountain next to us....maybe 1/3 a mile away. No, a car had pulled up on the other side of our chain link fence, sitting in the dark at the edge of the bush, with it's radio blaring. Two men were shouting back and forth using ugly words and drinking beer. They weren't fighting, they were partying. It goes on for about 15 minutes and I am wondering for how much longer will they be there? What will they do once they are really drunk? It's private property. It's late. It's Monday night. Why on earth are they right here, only a stone's throw from our window? After much ado, we decided we needed to call the police and Geoffrey did not need to go out there and try to ask them to leave. Much to my surprise, the police said they would come right away and as soon as I told him we were the foreigners, they knew where to go. They drove up to the other side of the property, lights flashing. The men had no idea they were there. The officer walked with me across the property to our gate and told me he would take care of it, meanwhile the police truck drove back to the street and around to the other entrance of our property where the men were. I stayed behind a fruit tree next to the house and listened and heard the men say they were going to leave at once. The police officer came back in and walked up to me and Mary Charis and said it was taken care of, no problem. He planted a big kiss on Mary Charis, gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek too (that is the traditional greeting here for very close friends), and said that that is what they are there for and that we are always free to call them for absolutely anything and it is their pleasure to come and serve us. He hugged me again and kissed my cheek and I asked him for his name. He was the police chief of the Santa Cruz station. I was overwhelmed by his kindness and professionalism. I was filled with extreme gratefulness....not because he sent away the bad guys....but because he was so incredibly kind and different than the police officers we always hear and read about.
One of the drunk men shouted "Goodbye" to us in English and said some other stuff that I did not understand. And finally, with police escort, they left. Yesterday, around 10am, I noticed someone watching me from the other side of the fence while I was hanging clothes on the line. Maybe I noticed him because of his sombrero? It was one of the guys from the night before. I saw the car, same car. I waited for him to call to me, thinking maybe he was coming to apologize. He saw me see him, twice, and when he did nothing but stand there, I went to get two of our workers. The workers came out and the guy hurriedly got in his car and left. So weird.
I was hoping he'd come back so I could try to talk to him, but he hasn't. But I did send a very nice note to our new friend the police chief along with a Pokomchi Bible with his name in it.


I have started reading the Bible every morning in Spanish so I can begin to learn the verses in Spanish. I have started reading it with Mayda, too, every morning when she comes to work. We look at each verse and it's meaning very carefully. It touches my heart to see her face fill with understanding and conviction. God is opening her eyes to Him every morning. This morning I read about the fig tree that withered. In my Spanish bible it says that when Jesus passed by it, it was only leaves and no fruit. A beautiful fig tree, maybe with beautiful green leaves, alive, possibly providing relief from the hot sun.....but because it had no fruit, Jesus cursed it and it dried up and died. I thought of my cinnamon tree that Julio asked me about just yesterday. It is two years old now and really growing beautifully. But it does not produce cinnamon. If you break a leaf you can smell the delicious aroma of cinnamon, but there is no cinnamon present on my tree. Why not? Because, according to what I read, when the cinnamon tree is about three years old, we have to cut it down to it's base. Only when we take a sharp machete to it's core and cut off all those beautifully growing limbs and leaves full of bright green and red, and cut it back to nothing, only then will it begin to produce it's fruit, shooting up sticks of cinnamon. Only when we strip it bare, when we appear to be killing it, only when we take away everything that it has worked for over three long years, when it has no beauty and no pride left, only then will it begin to serve it's purpose and produce a beautiful spice. Only then will it no longer be useless. Only then will it make it's Maker proud and cause others to glorify God. It is then that it will begin to live the life that the Lord had intended for it.



May I never let fear rule my heart. May I never let fear rule my actions. May I never cower in the face of trial and danger. And may I always understand that our omnipotent Father, always in control, will never let anything come to me that has not first passed through His hands. It will always be for my good and it will always be for His glory.

Love, 

Jenna

www.misionvidanueva.info

In Five Years

The last time I wrote to you was back in October of last year. I knew it had been awhile, but I didn't realize it had been so long. I try so hard to write at least once a month, especially since we don't do monthly newsletters and what not.....but life gets so busy that I forget to even remember that I need to write.

Now the question is, where do I even begin?

I remember sitting at my desk at the bank, daydreaming about where I should go for my two week vacation. I remember thinking I want to go somewhere quick to fly to, very poor, somewhere I'd never been before and spend one week in an orphanage and one week traveling around. I will tell you the truth about why I chose Guatemala. It was for the name. Guatemala. Just say it a few times out loud. The word has probably never even came out of your mouth before. It is just such a foreign place that no one thinks about, ever. Who even knows anything about Guatemala?
So like a good banker, I waited until I got home to begin researching what my opportunities in Guatemala would be. I found a non-Christian children's home - a perfect place to be a light -  and a lot of cool places we could travel to in a short amount of time within the country. Now, if I could only talk Emily into going with me......She said yes!

Some months later we find ourselves in a strange country with lots of intimidating looking men ushering us from bus to bus. And we make our way toward the orphanage after only a 9 hour bus ride. It's dark and the bus just dropped us off on the side of a bridge. We found our way to the hostal of the orphanage where we slept in a communal room full of bunk beds and no airflow. We spent the next few days sweating, scratching mosquito bites, wondering aimlessly through hundreds of children in ratty clothes wondering what we could do. So we helped the other volunteers moving children from place to place and spent time hugging them, loving them, and praying for them. I won't tell you about the tarantulas, cockroaches, lice, scabs, the hygiene, or the obvious inappropriate actions that were taking place behind the scenes. And every afternoon, without fail, the sky opened up and the Lord let out all the tears He had for all those children in that very place who may never have a chance to know Him.
And then the week was up.

And we stood on the side of the road with our backpacks, hopped on a bus and we left.

Many hours later we arrived further north in the jungle where we slept on the ground in a tent that we shared with spiders, our heads only about 20 feet away from a large tarantula, listening to howler monkeys screaming loudly through the night probably keeping the jaguars at bay.

The next day we wanted to make our way down to a "hidden treasure" or so they call it, Semuc Champey. Instead, we ended up in a scary city called Coban at a very sketchy bus stop. There was no time to go to Semuc Champey as the sun was already setting. So we found a hostal and made arrangements to go the next day. The sun rose and off we went to a beautiful depth of the jungle where a raging river runs at a speed like I have never seen. Supposedly there were cascading blue pools of still and sparkling water on top of the river that make that place so beautiful. On the way there we passed women bathing in creeks, children running barefoot in thick mud, and skeletal dogs looking desperately for something to eat. Upon arrival, they would not let us in to even see the pools. We could not understand why so instead we bought homemade chocolate from children and sat around wondering how safe we were down there with no power, no light, no internet, no phones, and definitely no police.

And then the tropical storm hit and we were stuck. There was no way out for all the mudslides. So we spent a couple more nights anxiously awaiting news that we could leave and get to our next destination. And when that morning finally came, we were on the first pick up truck out of there.

And we left.

We intended to head to the West side of the country, but we were told that the roads were blocked due to protesters. So we decided instead to head back toward Antigua, a calm tourist destination where we could hopefully find a bed a decent distance from any tarantulas. Thinking we could make it there by afternoon, instead, at nearly dark, we stopped once again in this scary city named Coban that was never on our radar nor was it halfway to Antigua. All I remember was being glad when I got off the bus that the little kid next to me threw up on. In Coban we found a man who insisted that he was a taxi and we asked him to please take us back to the hostal we had stayed in before. By the grace of God, this taxi got us there.

I had never been greeted with such a big smile and sigh of relief. The guy at the hostal immediately recognized us. He said he was SO glad to know that we were alive. He had not slept the past few nights thinking that he had "just sent two tourists to their deaths". He said right after we got on the bus to go to Semuc Champey, the storms hit and the roads closed and people were dying all over the place from the mudslides. He was sure we hadn't made it. We took some cold showers and slept cozily in a room with some other people, and then just when we were getting through with breakfast about to find a bus to take us to Antigua, we heard the news.

The volcano erupted. Seriously? The volcano erupted. The one just outside of Antigua. And now the airports were closed and Guatemala was in a state of emergency. So we spent another day in Coban wondering the streets and taking it easy and hoping that surely the airport would open up in the next three days because we had a flight to catch and there was no way in <Guatemala> that we wanted to spend another day more in that country.

And the next day, we left.


To Antigua where there are little kids who lick your legs and try to sell you stuff, good food, decent hotels, and lots of foreigners. Normally, I would not have been so pleased to be in such a place, but this time I was. The only problem, were we going to miss our flight if the airport didn't re-open?
So we spent a few days hoping, wondering around, getting Emily's ear pierced and the morning of our flight, the airport re-opened and with great joy we boarded the plane.

With big smiles and naturally formed dreadlocks, we left. 

(I know Emily, I am a good friend for not posting the other one.)

Goodbye and good riddance..

That was in 2010. Here we are in 2015 and what would you know but that for the past three years Coban has been my home. Semuc Champey is where I got engaged. Coban is where my daughter was born and where she will grow up. And it is here in the beautiful country full of tragedy and testimony that we make our ministry to babies and children who were once orphaned, abandoned, and abused. It is here where we work day and night with every ounce of energy inside us to glorify God by bringing the orphan to the table of worship where their cup will overflow. After all, it is Jesus who deserves the worship of every person and every person, big and small, loved or unloved, deserves the opportunity to know and worship Him. 

We've come a long way, praise the Lord. And we still have a lot more work to do before we can put warm blankets in the cribs and on the beds. For all of you who have given to this ministry so sacrificially and generously, and all of you who continue to do so, I can't thank you enough. You are the ones building this home block by block, board by board. You are the ones who are paving the way for the Lord to be glorified in the lives of His children....you are the ones who are leading them by the hand to His table. 

Love, 

          Jenna

www.misionvidanueva.info

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

--Paul, missionary and martyr, beheaded in Rome

**scroll to bottom of the page to see video clips from our 2010 trip. **