The Green House

Our bedroom in the green house

the living room

our kitchen on the first day

our yard

    

 

The Green House (moving day)

  

 

Dave teaching Luis to play American Football

Making eggs on the little stove... just like camping!

   

Z and Damaris happy to live closer to each other

The kitchen once we`d recieved a few gifts :)

We moved to the “green house”, as Z calls it, on Saturday.  It is only a few houses away from the YWAM base where we work, across the street from a little store, and only a couple blocks from our Spanish teacher, our good friends Luis and Ana, and within walking distance to a plaza where I can get coffee, baked goods, pizza, or fried chicken.  Plus, we are only a quick walk away from the bus stop where we can catch a chicken bus to Antigua for anything else we need!  I am so happy!  

    This week the DTS is learning about Supernatural ministry and healing, and so their teacher spoke at our Monday night church service (it`s an English-speaking church service put on by our YWAM staff every Monday as an outreach to tourists and other missionaries in Antigua).  It was an inspiration message, reminding us all to claim who we are in Christ and to walk in victory.  Then last night there was a time of teaching at the base, where people from the community were invited to learn about prophesy, and speaking words of life and encouragement over each other.  Dave was able to go (because we live so close now- yay!), and got the chance to speak over many of men that came to the meeting.  

     The Green House has become a place of prayer for me.  It is a very simple home, we don`t have much, and yet our friends from the community want to be here because it is clean, peaceful, and because the Spirit of God is here.  There is a sense of calm over this home, a sense that God has great plans for our lives in this home.  We are in a time of need, and yet a time of great peace and eagerness to walk in the fullness of God.  

      Our friend Luis had a tumor removed last month which was malignant.  Dave went with him to Guatemala city a couple weeks ago to have a scan done to check for cancer in the rest of his body.  We prayed every day that the scan would come back clean... and it did.  God has provided for the surgery, and now has cleaned Luis` body of cancer... Praise God!  We moved into this house without a scrap of furniture, and within two days we had been able to buy a bed at a huge discount, borrowed a little stove, fridge, and bed for Z (who has outgrown his playpen).  As I was packing I found Q300 in a wallet I forgot I still had, and it was enough to buy a couple shelves and chairs for the house... and then the next day Luis and Ana brought lunch for us along with a little kitchen table.  We were blown away!  Every need is being met, not in our strength, or even our timing (as in waiting for a baby), but we have such assurance that God is with us every step of the way.  

       We have a list on the wall of the kitchen of all the ways God has provided for us in this move to the Green House.  I never want to forget the ways that God provides for us.  Sometimes I miss my family, or my home in Canada, or Kraft dinner... and I need to remember that God brought us here out of His great love for us, and that nothing can remove that love from me.  I have a husband who cares for me, a son who brings me joy, a team who is now very near, a Spanish teacher who encourages me in my faith, and a God who is with me every single step I take.  He`s got plans... and I want to be part of them. 

     

 We live in hope of seeing God`s kingdom in Guatemala.  We live in hope of seeing our family grow.  We live in hope that we`ll see our families again.  And that one day we`ll be able to get some couches... that`d be good too.  Little needs and big, God is able and willing to provide.  

Walking in Promise

Photo evidence that Guatemalan grocery stores love to give "bonus gifts" with all sorts of random items... this was coffee we bought that came with a free plastic pitcher... yet it was the cheapest coffee on the shelf!  Gotta love that!

Walking back towards Santa Ana

The road just outside of our house in Santa Ana. 

    We have done a lot of walking in the past two months.  We walk to Antigua, we walk back from Antigua.  We walk to the base, back from the base, to the bus, back from the bus.  Our house is not in a convenient place and we have gotten our exercise trying to save on taxi or bus fare.  It takes an hour to walk to Antigua (each way), and more than an hour to walk to the base.  We certainly haven`t needed a gym membership!
    
     We don`t mind walking.  Enjoy it really.  But it`s lonely to live so far away from our YWAM team.  So we decided at the beginning of this month that we would start looking for a place to live closer to the base.  It was a frustrating process, once again, as house hunting here yields a lot of very random results for prices that don`t always make any sense to us.  But, thank the Lord, yesterday we agreed on a price with the landlord of a house only three doors down from the YWAM base!!!  I am so excited to get to live closer to our team, and to our other friends who live in that community.  And if we need a long walk, we can just walk into Antigua for our market shopping.  :)

      This morning we were startled awake by someone setting off firecrackers right outside our bedroom window.  I have no idea why.  But since I was awake, I got up and talked to the Lord.  Lately I have been dealing with a lot of frustration, loneliness, disappointment, and discouragement.  I think a lot of it is just the process of culture shock and dealing with the reality that we LIVE in a different country!  This aint Canada, no matter how many times I use the work "eh" or make pancakes with (fake) maple syrup.  I have to learn this new language, a new way of living, make new friends, and... it`s just hard.  I`ve cried a lot in the past couple weeks...
   
    But this morning was something different.  God met with me, and gave me fresh strength.  Reminded me of how many amazing ways He used to bring us here.  The money that was given to us to pay for our DTS, how He intercepted us from going to Brazil and told us to go to Guatemala.  God told us to come here, we weren`t forced by our DTS, it`s not a mistake or fluke that we`re here.  He has given us visions, and words, and confirming signs that we are in the right place.  Even in the moments I was crying and angry, I never once thought we should leave.  We have been called here, and God is going to do something through us and in us in Guatemala. 

    Dave and I were listening to a Bill Johnson sermon online last night, and I was reminded that it is when we forget all that God has done in our lives that we start to slip in our Christian walk.  The sermon encouraged me so deeply, that I just had to share it with you all. (Bill Jonhnson- I am looking for one person)  God has done so much to bring us here, He has promised us so much, and I am not abandoned and forgotten by the God who is able to do more than I could ever imagine or ask for.  He has provided a home closer to those who we know and love in this country, He has provided us with one beautiful child who we adore, and He has provided us with His Spirit- by whom we live and breath, and have our being. 

    So thank you to all of you who have been praying for us, and who continue to pray.  We are asking the Lord for another child this year, for our residency in Guatemala, and for Him to use us to bring the Kingdom to Guatemala.  We must follow after God courageously, ignoring the barbs of the devil to try to discourage us.  I am loved by the Maker of heaven and earth, there is nothing to fear. 


"He brought out His people with rejoicing.  His chosen ones with shouts of joy.  He gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for-that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws.  Praise the Lord."  -Psalm 105:43-45 

    

Sigue Adelante

Z has started using Spanish words at home! 

    Sigue Adelante!  My Spanish teacher says this to me almost every class.  It means "keep moving forward", and I have needed to be reminded of that frequently in the past week.  I feel like I am at that point in my language abilities where I know enough to be frustrated by how much I don`t know.  Eloisa keeps reminding me though that it is poco a poco.  Little by little.
   What is wonderful though is having a Spanish teacher who loves the Lord.  Yesterday I was having a terrible day in class, just could not remember how to say the things I was trying to say... and she stopped and prayed for me, hugged me, and told me that she was proud of me.  It meant the world to me, and popped the bubble of anxiety that I was trapping myself in.  I am so thankful that God has brought her into my life, she is such a support to me.  (Plus, we really are learning Spanish quite quickly, even though it feels slow on the day-to-day level.)

Crepes and pancakes are still our favorite foods

    Life continues forward, we are still helping with kids club at the base, and Spanish school five days a week.  Dave has started helping in the kitchen (no big surprise there!), and I`ve started bringing a craft to do with the girls at kids club while the boys play soccer.  This past week I had almost ten little girls who all did the craft, and then read a Bible story with me.  We had supper with some friends from Guatemala City the other day and will be starting to help them with a ministry they run in the village of Puerta Abajo.  (We did a VBS to that village during our DTS Outreach.).  We`ll get started with that in a couple weeks, which is going to be nice to have something that takes us outside of Antigua every week. 

      We have decided that we are going to move closer to the base at the end of the month.  We need to save money on rent, plus I really want to get chickens!  This isn`t the reason Dave would give for wanting to move of course, but this really is high on my list!  (You can take the girl out of Quadra, but you can`t take the Quadra out of the girl!).  We found an adorable little house just around the corner from the base that has a little grass yard for Z and the chickens.  A neighbor let us in to see it, but we have yet to meet the landlord, so we`ll have to see what happens about that. 

Z napping on Mom and Dad`s bed... SO CUTE! 

     As you can tell, there`s nothing super new to talk about, but we continue to work towards speaking Spanish fluently, setting up a home where we can stay for a long time and save enough money to eventually buy a place here, and just trying to work through the emotions of living outside of our home culture without our families.  We`ve been out of Canada for more than 6 months now... it`s started to feel like a long time, but we are still convinced that God wants us to be here, so... sigue adelante!

    "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT