Rough Waters

   Tuesday at noon we loaded the moving truck and Jeep, then set out for Lake Atitlan .  We were about halfway there when it started to rain so heavily we had to pull over and wait because we couldn’t see anything through the windshield.  We sat at the side of the road and thought about all our stuff in the truck.  We knew that although the driver had covered most of the boxes with a tarp, the mattresses were unprotected.  In my head, I started making a plan for how we could sleep that night without our beds.  The rain let up enough to keep driving, so onward we went. 

    Less than an hour after the blinding rain we were stopped by a police checkpoint.  They looked over our paperwork, found a flaw with our documentation, and charged us with a fine.  The officer was polite enough about it, but I was shaken the rest of the way to the lake.  I was upset that not a single person in  any of the offices where we transferred the car papers only a week before had told us about the missing paperwork!  I am a law-abiding citizen, and I felt frustrated that not only were we now knowingly driving without correct documentation, we didn’t have a way to solve the problem either, since the papers could only be obtained in the City (about a three hour drive in the opposite direction from where we were stopped by the cops).

      Regardless of the shenanigans on the road to the lake, we arrived in good time and unloaded the truck with the help of our friend Juan, who’d come in the truck, and our new neighbor, a woman named Maria.  We shared a quick snack once everything was in the house, and then the guys took off towards home to try to beat the descending darkness.  Everything was damp.  The beds were soaked at one end, so we propped them up to start drying while we attempted to unpack the kitchen enough so we could eat dinner.  That proved to be about a two hour job, including dealing with a flooding toilet, a pila* without water, and a little boy who wanted nothing more than to find every piece of his train set. 

       After dinner we layered the drier side of Z’s mattress with towels and secured them with a fitted sheet.  He went to sleep in less than three minutes.  I had been feeling scared in the house  the entire evening, and even though I’d been praying, the sense of unease hadn’t gone away.  Dave and I walked through the house, into each room and touching all the walls, and we prayed the Lord’s covering over our home.  We could sense peace settling into the rooms as we went, gaining momentum and even filling the areas we hadn’t prayed over yet.  By the time we circled back into the kitchen I felt calm.  We found some more towels to cover the wet part of our bed, and we slept right through the night. 

      The first morning in the house Z woke us up early, as usual, and we got started trying to unpack everything.  We’ve gathered up quite a lot of stuff in the past year and a half, but unfortunately not enough furniture to truly furnish the house or even find a place to put everything.  We have a lot of books and kids ministry materials that I had been boxing up slowly during our time at the base, so I hadn’t realized how many we truly had.  Apparently the lack of libraries in Guatemala has turned us into book hoarders?! 

      We walked to the market the first afternoon, which ended up being fairly unproductive because of rude teenage boys who thought we didn’t understand Spanish, and also due to a lack of vendors in the market at that late hour.  We bought enough to get through the night and called it a day.  I made crepes with pumpkin sauce for dinner and we watched a movie.  Thankfully there had been enough sun to dry our mattresses on the roof and everyone had a clean bed to sleep in. 

       Day two dawned gray and overcast.  Of course this was also the day I was going to do laundry.  I was feeling out of sorts, and struggling to make the kitchen work for me as I got breakfast ready, but I dumped the laundry into a big bucket and filled it up with water.  The toilet was clogged, so I went to deal with that and when I came back I saw a scorpion on top of the clothes in the laundry pail!  I ran and grabbed a pair of tongs and a bowl, and I snatched the insect (are they even insects? they look more like tiny dragons!) and drowned it in some water.  I was so angry.  Here I was, just trying to take care of my family, and what do I find?  Poisonous bugs waiting to ambush me! 

        I could feel the spiritual attack in that moment.  I don’t know if the scorpion was sent to scare me, or if it was just an innocent little guy who thought our clothes looked like a cozy cave.  It didn’t matter.  I felt discouraged and completely alone.  I prayed as I washed the clothes asking God for help, and for the courage to keep going.  A line from Z’s favorite movie crossed my mind. 

       “You came here to be a firefighter.  If you leave today, think of all the lives you won’t save tomorrow.” 

              - Blade Ranger, Planes 2

        Granted, I didn’t come to the lake to be a firefighter, but the quote strengthened me anyway.  I came here to bring glory to God, and if I gave up, I would never have the chance to see how He might be able to use me here.  I didn’t decide to move here on a whim, or even necessarily with very much eagerness, but I have peace because know it was what God wants for my life.  God has a plan for our family, and this is an opportunity for growth in my relationship with Jesus, if I choose to be brave and not give away to fear of the unknown.  It doesn’t need to be easy; I just need to cling tighter to the One who will never abandon me. 

       As you can probably tell, this move has been challenging for me.  I miss my friends at the base, the familiarity of daily life in Antigua, and being able to contact my families whenever I want through the magic of email and FaceTime.  I’m starting completely from scratch in making new friends and figuring out the way life works here. I feel lonely and disoriented.  But I know it will not always be this way.

Packing the truck at the base

Kitchen 

Sala 

our bedroom

Front patio area

Front yard

double bathroom... fancy.... sort of 

The path towards the main road.  no one lives in the white house

Z´s room  

     God will help us to forge a new path… after all, this was His idea in the first place. 

 “I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up… then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” 

       -Isaiah 49:11 and 23

 (This chapter of the Bible has been my life’s chapter for about two years now.)          

*A pila is a cement sink with a water reservoir underneath.  Water is then removed by scooping it out with a plastic bowl.  The pila is used for everything, including washing clothes, dishes, and in some homes, for bathing as well.  Our new house has a shower, but the pila is the only sink.  We have a water filter in the kitchen for drinking, but everything else has to be taken outside and washed or a bucket of water has to be brought inside.  So far this has been a bit tedious, but it’s the way almost everyone lives here, so we are trying to work out systems to make it easier.  It will become normal eventually.