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. **