The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. 

And these were His very words to me. I had battled them long enough. I fought them constantly in my mind. In my heart. In my prayers. I fought them in front of other people. I fought them to their faces. I fought them through days of anxiety and worry and wonder. Constantly looking out the window wondering when they'd show up next. I wondered how do these people live here under this subtle and not so subtle oppression all their life? I wondered why doesn't anyone stand up to these bad guys? Why doesn't anyone fight? 

And the Lord brought me a handful friends who cared. He brought me Baby. He brought me warriors in the faith. He brought me Rudy and Tita. He brought me guards. He brought me all these beautiful reminders me that He has not left me alone to fight. But peace doesn't often come in a physical form and the battle continued on. He constantly reminded me that the battle that I fight has nothing to do with anything on the outside, however it is a battle against my own little faith in His Word and in His promises. The battle going on outside our gates is a battle that is not against flesh and blood. It is not against corrupt men who are out to steal and kill and destroy, rather it is a battle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness - not in Chajcoxoj, nor in Chixajau - but in the heavenly places. It is Satan himself that wants to distract us, make us fail, send us home, destroy us.

We started digging for a well since the bad guys are trying to find ways to take our water. I knew just about nothing of wells and such until a few days ago. The well digger was telling me how the land was like the human body with vessels of water running all over it in different directions. It is amazing how the Lord has made the earth. So we are digging down into His creation and trying to find one of those vessels that we can borrow water from and have a source that no one can take from us.

The Lord, maybe tired of my little faith, finally shouted at me. It was like He said, "Be quiet, be still and listen to me. You've been fighting long enough. It's time for you to just be still and watch. Watch me, -I- will fight for you. Watch me, I will win right before your eyes." 

And there it was, my peace.  

And here I sit quietly within the walls and look out and wait expectantly for the victory that is surely ours. 

---- 

And yesterday, after four years of work, from nothing to finished, we turned in our paperwork to the social worker for him to review and turn in to the government. We have done everything we can do, or the Lord has done it all I should say, and now we have turned the ball over to the government and they will decide when to come and inspect our home. Upon approval, we will present to the judges and have our inauguration and they will begin to place children in our home. What an awesome thing this is and we are ready for it. 

We have a dozen people just waiting until we call for them to come in and begin to work. Tita has been helping me with all the human resource aspects of the work and dealing with the government. Rudy has been helping me take inventory of every single item in the home and is getting ready to help me plan teams and work on cases like little Rodrigo's and baby Linda's. We haven't forgotten either of them, I had just reached my limit and could do no more without help. Now I have help. The psychologist has been coming twice a week planning workshops and training sessions for the nannies. Mayda has been running around here just as crazy as me trying to help with every little detail. And life is overwhelming. Here we are at the very brink of the ledge. Almost there, almost finished. Ready to jump in to a whole new world of work that doesn't involve construction and construction workers and concrete and sheetrock. Rather, it involves malnourished toddlers, babies who have been thrown out, little boys who have been beaten and girl's who have been violated. It involves families living in extreme poverty, and mother's who weep for their kids who were taken from them, children with HIV and children who have lost everything, literally, everything. It involves recovery, restoration, and redemption; victories and failures and an utter dependence on God. I will tell you that what you see as you look at our building is a magnificent testimony to the provision and power of the Lord. But what you will see inside our building will be something on a whole new level, at least I believe so. With construction, if there is no money you just stop. With 18 children and 17 full-time employees on government approved salaries - there is no stopping, even when you have no money. We will spend over $7,000 a month in salaries ALONE. How much does it cost to raise 18 children and babies? I have no clue. 
"Money doesn't grow on trees; It doesn't fall from the sky; It won't build itself; Don't be naive; You will fail." This is what they told me. "You've created a self-destructing giant; You are in over your head." We have heard and still hear it all. And the devil tempts me to doubt and the Lord gently reassures me that "He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it."

----

And with tears in my eyes, sitting in the back corner of our little conference room, we worshiped. While we worshiped and lifted our voices to the Lord, my heart was in awe. What a place He has created here. This is what this place is designed for - worship. This is the "why" for our life. Seventeen of us gathered together for an hour and fifteen minutes. Outside the conference were the rest of our workers, 10 men and 1 woman. Why didn't I invite them in? We wouldn't have all fit for one and they were being paid to work for another, but I think next week I will consider giving them the hour to worship instead of work. To hear the word of the Lord that never returns empty. Maybe we can show one of them the "why" of life, too. Maybe one day we can invite our neighbors and even the extortionists and the bad guys to worship with us. Maybe we can be a glimpse of Jesus to more than just those within our gates. Maybe we can take them by their hands and reassure them that it is never too much, they are never in too deep. Show them that there is always a way out, but there is only the one Way. Maybe, maybe one day.

Here are some pictures of some of the staff. And to see a complete picture tour of the home, please visit Mision Vida Nueva's Facebook page. 

www.facebook.com/misionvidanueva

Love, 

Jenna

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