From Tiny Seeds Come Giant Trees

Some of the team over for Potluck night!  (Look, we have a couch!) 

Eloisa teaching Dave to make Pepian (National dish of Guatemala)

The Lord has provided so that we finally have a fully-furnished kitchen!

Z and Damaris hanging out during literacy class

Two of our lovely students in class

Forming and reading words for the first time!!! 

 The past few weeks we've been hosting a potluck night at our house for the base staff.  We hoped it would catch on as a weekly tradition, and so far it has, with everyone squishing into our place every Thursday for a fun evening of food, conversation, and usually a card game and coffee to wrap up the evening  (our sweet Susy sure loves card games).  With three volunteers here now from Texas, our house is full of even more people and laughter.  We have a great team, and our goal is to help build community through regular social time.  It's been a lot of fun! 

   This past Thursday Dave decided that instead of having regular Spanish lessons, he wanted Eloisa to teach him to make Pepian.  It is the national dish of Guatemala, and is a tomato-based, chicken (often times) soup.  It is served with rice, tortillas, and of course the typical plate of salt, limes, and chiles.  Eloisa was trained as a professional cook before she became a Spanish teacher, and so the two chefs had a wonderful afternoon preparing what appeared, in my opinion, to be the most complicated dish ever created by humans. 
   
 Everyone loved the Pepian, and Eloisa and Dave made such a huge pot that we are still eating it, four days later. 

     As you may notice from the pictures, we have accumulated a lot of new furniture!  God has provided the money, gifts from others, and creativity for new storage solutions, that now our house is fully furnished!  Praise God!  We have almost lived her for 4 months now, and it feels amazing to finally be able to just relax at home... on my couch!!!  Thank you God!

     Literacy classes are still the highlight of my week.  The ladies have begun to form words using the letter/vowel sounds they have learned, and they take turns reading their words in front of the class.  We all cheer and clap after each student reads, and it is the most victorious feeling to watch these women reading for the first time.
 
    Before each class we take time to share from the Bible with all the students, and we have memorized a Bible verse (Phillipians 4:13), which we recite together.  Anytime someone gets frustrated in class we all stop and recite the verse together.  Watching these women persevere is helping me persevere in language school as well.  It is just so excited to think about the Bible going into these homes for the first time, and these students being able to read it for themselves!

    We hope to see this class graduate within a month.  We will be doing another intake of students after that, and already have interest from quite a few people.  The YWAM base has started a Bible study for women, and the literacy class is being promoted there, as well as our students are attending that study and learning even more about God and the Bible. 

     Living away from family here in Guatemala sometimes I feel lonely or scared... but God keeps whispering in my ear that I only have to trust Him.  I only have to keep walking every day, putting my whole faith in Him that He is able to finish everything that He starts.  And He keeps telling me that I should not despise small beginnings. 

    Our little family... little house... little school... but it will not always be this way.  This is our little beginning, and God will create something magnificent out of it.  Please continue to pray for our students, our team, and for us.   

After the first Six Months

Z and Eloisa playing Scrabble

     I was wedged in between a mariachi band, a woman selling stewed chicken with tortillas, and two kids reaching over me to touch Z`s blond hair.  My clothes were drenched in sweat, and although I really needed to use the bathroom already, I kept drinking water to fend off the stifling heat.  The beautiful country-side wizzed past us outside the windows, as the large bus pulled into the on-coming lane to pass a pick-up truck full of people heading for work.  I was ridiculously uncomfortable, and yet blissfully happy to be home in our beloved country of Guatemala.  I had missed my home, even when I was only twenty minutes over the border. 

Z hanging out in his tent (the box from our new fridge)

YWAM staff Potluck held in our living room

      It`s been over a week since we returned from Mexico.  We have a new stamp in our passports, and we can stay in Guatemala for another six months (although we have to pay for an extension at the three month mark, but that`s a lot easier than busing to Mexico again!).  We lived through the long bus-rides to and from Mexico, and discovered Z is far better at traveling than I am and does far less complaining.  Dave, of course, thought the whole thing was a wonderful adventure, and would do it again tomorrow. 
 
      While in Mexico, we enjoyed a few days at a beautiful hotel in a very hot area, and spent a lot of time by the pool and in our air-conditioned room.  It was a nice break, and while we were there we also became an Aunt and Uncle for the first time as my little sister gave birth to her first child!  A little boy, and the first cousin for Z!  (Congrats again to Shannon and Caleb!)

     We came home from Mexico to our beautiful kitchen, which now has a stove and fridge thanks to the generosity of our financial supporters.  It is seriously SO nice to be able to make supper with ease, and to be able to know that our milk wont go bad in our new fridge.  Dave has already made cookies a couple times in our new oven!  

Playing Dutch Blitz with our Canadian friends (and Susy)

    Because of our new kitchen being finally being functional, we decided to start having potlucks at our house for our base staff.  Our base doesn`t have very many social events to bring everyone together, and as you may know- I love hosting team-togetherness events!  We had our first potluck last Thursday evening, and hope to start having them every week.  The first one went very well, and we all enjoyed an evening of food, conversation, and for those who stayed later... Dutch Blitz marathon.  (There are two Canadian volunteers here right now, and they are a riot to play Dutch Blitz with!  They go home on Tuesday, and I am going to miss them so much!  I haven`t laughed this hard in a long time!  What a bunch o`hosers, eh?). 

    We have started having literacy class twice a week, and our first class of four students (we had five, but one boy had to drop out because of family crisis) is well on their way to graduating.  They have all learned all the letter sounds, and will be moving on to sounding out words next week.  Eloisa, our talented teacher, thinks that this class will be able to graduate by the end of June.  We are planning to have a family dinner for all the students when they graduate, and gift each student with a Bible/children's Bible and other supplies so they can continue practicing and learning about the Bible.  I am so proud of each of the students who are working so hard, they come to class so excited to show me their homework.  Eloisa has me teach the Bible lesson before each class, which is great Spanish practice for me, as well as is so encouraging to see the women listening to the Word with such enthusiasm.  These students are open to the gospel, and this class is a wide open door to share with them. 

     This morning Dave will be off to Puerto Abajo,the village where he volunteers every Monday.  Some friends of ours run a lunch/evangelism ministry there once a week, and Dave goes to hang out with the kids.  The kids are starved for attention there, especially from a male role-model like Dave, so it's an amazing opportunity to share the gospel with the kids.  Dave always reads them Bible stories, and has been giving some Story of Jesus booklets to the kids who can read.  We have requests to bring our literacy school to Puerto Abajo, and are praying and waiting on the Lord to see how we could mobilize our school to reach more families. 

     Mondays are a quiet day for Z and I while Dave is gone.  With rainy season in full-swing, it is too wet to even play in the yard some days.  Today is an especially wet Monday, so I think we'll be making some hot chocolate, and playing with our new play dough all morning (the greatest purchase we made in Mexico, and will probably be the toy that get Z through rainy season!).

     Thank you to those people who write to us, encourage us, and remind us that although we are far away, we have not been forgotten.  A big thank you as well to those who pray and donate financially to our ministry, we appreciate your support and partnership in what the Lord is doing through us here in Guatemala.  We are so thankful to be able to live here!

(also, sorry about the picture quality, I couldn't get the pictures off our camera, so these were just taken on a camera phone.  figured something was better than nothing.  thanks for reading my blog!) 



Note:  If you are interested in partnering finacially with us, please go to www.ywamcanada.org/donations.html for information on how to donate within Canada and recieve tax-recepts.  (David and Shawn King, YWAM Antigua.)  In the States donations can be sent through YWAM Chico, at ywamchico.com.