Learning to Teach.

This week we have been at the base in Antigua, teaching a class on Intercession for the group of 11 students in the Discipleschip Training Program. 

 I would be the first to tell you that I am not a natural teacher, but when our director asked Dave and I to teach, we felt God was looking for us to be willing.  We began preparing six weeks beforehand, reading books on prayer, and listening to sermons and finding every reference to prayer in the Bible, and of course-- praying.  We wanted to do the best we possibly could, even though to be honest I felt fairly overwhelmed and underqualified to teach a bunch of students anything about anything(most of them only a year or two younger than I).  

I listened to a sermon that talked about the beginning of a certain pastor's preaching career.  I don't remember the exact quote but in essence he said, "prepare for preaching to ten as though you are preaching to a thousand... And then one day you may get the chance to preach to the thousand". So we did.  

The week started out with the story of Dave and I coming to Guatemala as missionaries, and then over the last four days we taught about many aspects of a life of prayer including spiritual warfare, faith, and studying many stories of prayer and healing in the Bible.  It was nothing overly profound.  Our studies of Greek and Hebrew words were copied from the books of more-educated people who had learned these languages... But we feel that we did the best we could, and the students responded very well. 

Another aspect of this week for me was the fact that by teaching, I learned.  I studied the Bible in a new way and came to deeper understanding of things that had previously been only vague ideas in my mind.  Also, just the fact that Dave and I were teaching together gave us completely new opportunities to work together and interact in a way we never have before.  Its taught us about mutual respect and teamwork.  

I just hope the students gained as much as we have from this class!  😄

Pictures to go along with our story.  Dave took care of the PowerPoint while I did most of the talking.  I'm sure no one is surprised by this set-up.  Haha.. 

Z learning some new skills with some of the guys.  Mario Cart!  

The Tale of Two Retreats

We began our duo of retreat weekends with weary souls.  We were tired of being alone.  Tired of having so few friends and feeling discouraged with our yet-again delayed residency.

Friday of the first weekend we took the public lancha across the lake and arrived in Panajachel with time to spare before we could check in at the hotel where the first retreat was being hosted.  We walked up to a Christian-owned coffee shop and chatted with the owner, Mike.  More obviously-missionary type folk arrived and we struck up conversation.  They were excited about what we are pioneering at the lake and as we talked with them we could almost visibly see our spirits rising. 

Before check-in we had lunch with another family who are missionaries in another area of Guatemala.  They live in a rural area, working with a Mayan people group, and also like us, moved last July.  We don’t see them often, but when we do it is always a time of deep refreshment and mutual enjoyment.  This time was more of the same.  They even had a birthday gift for me—coloring pages and a new table cloth! 

By the time we were allowed to settle into the hotel we felt that the weekend had already fulfilled everything we’d hoped it would.  Our room was beautiful, the view overlooking the lake and the pool.  We had a hot shower, catered meals, and what Z considered the best part of all... missionary kid camp!  Z spent all his time, except meals and sleeping, with his playmates at camp.  They learned songs, made crafts, played outside, watched skits, ate snacks, and had a special movie night on Saturday.  He loved it and told me, “Yeah, and Mom, they even speak English!” 

For Dave the highlight was the tightly-packed schedule of missions workshops and key-note speaker who came from the States.  I enjoyed a more relaxed scene with many of the other moms, hanging out by the pool and talking home school.  The highlight for me arrived as a surprise when I dropped Z off for kid’s camp on Saturday morning.  I look over at the man dropping off his daughter beside me and think, “He looks a lot like my leader from my Cambodia team” (I spent two months with a team of 15 in Cambodia through Teen Missions International in 2005).  I glanced at the guy’s nametag and suddenly realized... it WAS my leader! 

We were so excited to reconnect, especially under new circumstances as I wasn’t the best behaved 11 years ago when he was my leader.  He and his family had arrived as missionaries in Guatemala last year and we were able to eat a couple meals together with them and hear about their experience of transition to a new ministry.  It felt incredibly redemptive to have another chance to show him respect and friendship, two things I failed miserably at in Cambodia.  God really is the God of second chances! 

The second weekend was a Prayer Retreat hosted in our home.  Two couples from the States were the participants in this special time, and we spent a great deal of time in prayer both collectively and as couples.  Our theme was “Married in the Ministry” and one of the mornings we spent time in girls/guys groups praying for our spouses and asking the Lord for words to sow into their lives, like yeast in bread.  When we all came back together to pray over each other all the wives were in tears at the beautiful words our husbands had to give us.  It was a beautiful weekend of encouragement, for us and for the couples.  They are a group who have started a mercy ministry in an area called Esquintla, near the coast.  There were some large future-changing decisions that needed to be made and so these couples had requested that we host the retreat to give them a time away as a leadership team. 

Z’s favorite part of the retreat was putting together puzzles with our friend Chris who came to watch him on Saturday morning, and also playing “Beanboozled”—a game of taking chances on eating jelly beans, some which taste fine, and some which have flavors like “canned dog food” or “skunk spray”.  Many laughs were shared over the antics of poorly-chosen jelly bean victims. 

We began these two weeks with a sense of weariness.  We have come out the other side with a sense of refreshment.  We know that God has called us here and that He is confirming the vision He gave us.  We have a feeling that He is about to do a new thing through us and for us, and we are excited to see what it is... and we are thankful to a God who allows His workers a break when it’s needed.

Thank you to each of you who’s generosity allowed us to participate and be blessed by these retreats.  We are utterly grateful for your obedience to God’s call.  

View from the hotel room in Panajachel

My good friend Bethany and I chilling out on the patio

Z taking a quick break from kids camp to watch some Paw Patrol 

First supper with our friends during our prayer retreat 

devotions on the roof 

Right before a dog-food-flavored jelly bean made Shawn throw up (center-- same name as me!) 

Candle-light breakfast, thanks to a short power-outtage.  So romantic.  

Keep Going

I was standing in the middle of the concrete stairs coming down from our roof.  Dave stood a couple steps below me, and between us rested the 13,000 pound chicken coop Dave had built for me.  We had wrestled it this far, but strength was leaving our arms and both of us were starting to wonder if we should have just left the darn thing on the roof where he'd built it.

But a that point regret was superfluous.

It was too late to turn back.  

There was only forward.  

The blocks were in place across the yard from us, waiting to recieve their cargo.  The chickens pecked happily at the ground and Z wandered around impatiently.  Lunch wouldn't happen till this job was done and he was getting "hangry".  

I looked at my husband with sweat running down his forehead.  He was bearing the brunt of the weight  of the coop so I gathered my strength and helped him drag it down one more step.  

Four down, five more to go.  

It was at this moment, glancing out towards the grassy area we were headed for, the beautiful spot where our chickens would reside, I had a thought.  This was a picture of our life.  Dave, me, a giant project that was too heavy and to big for us to handle easily...  But determined to see it to the end.  

Starting a house of prayer... Living without our families... Trying to get residency and adopt... Learning new languages...  These things are like a giant chicken coop that feels too heavy to keep going sometimes.  But we are already doing them, we're already halfway "down the stairs".  We only have to keep going.  Never quit.  Never stop praying and believing that God will establish us here and build this idea into what He wants it to be.  

We just keep going.  

Homeschool High-Five!

We are officially a homeschool family!  This morning we set up his desk, practiced our verse, read a chapter of Pilgrim's Progress, did devotions and then I watched in amazement at how well my little boy could finish his schoolwork.  When did he grow up?!  I am sad, and proud, and excited all at the same time.  

Get out the Jean jumpers because I am a homeschool mom now.

Hope of Love

This week I was cold for the first time since moving to Guatemala. 

We spent four days in a mountain village, drinking hot chocolate, playing Settlers of Catan (well, the boys, not me), eating delicious food, jumping on the trampoline and enjoying the encouragement and fun of time spent with beloved friends.  It was the best week of my whole year. 

We prayed with our friends, for their ministry of training village pastors and for our house of prayer.  We prayed for each other’s marriages and children, and then of course, as we always ask people to pray—they prayed for our future adopted children. 

My sweet friend Bethany asked the Lord to put the “hope of love” in our children’s hearts.  Knowing that our children may already be alive and in an orphanage somewhere, I often pray that they will be cared for and have food and a bed to sleep in.  I pray for their salvations and that God will bring them into our home soon… but Bethany put into words what I am truly praying for in all the variations.  

Somewhere in Guatemala there is, or will be, a little child that the Lord has reserved for our family.  I long for the day we are united, but until then, I pray that they will be filled with hope of love.  That they would know, somehow, deep in their hearts that God loves them, is with them, and has prepared a family to receive them.  I pray they would feel hope, no matter how hopeless the situation which orphaned them. 

God loved me and my family.  He loves my children who have yet to come to me.  He has helped Dave and I build a stable, joy-filled home.  This week as I reveled in the happiness of spending time with our friends and their kids, I saw the Lord’s heart for family.  I felt His pleasure that we are raising our sons (Bethany and her hubby have two boys) to follow Him. 

He is preparing us to receive His blessing… but for now we pray for hope.

The hope of love. 

Our attempt at a family photo, with the highest point in Central America behind us.  

Tailgate party after hiking up the big hill (in the background of the picture) 

Dinner time!  

Watching Elf and eating homemade apple pie as part of our Christmas party

The boy's side of the table, where they played 9 rounds of Settlers.  Bethany and I took over the other side of the table and made jewlery and paper boxes.  

Guest Post by Darrin

In the middle of October we had my brother visiting from Canada.  Because we have been here for two years already, sometimes I don't notice what is "different" about living in Guatemala.  I asked my little bro to write up something to share with people what his experience was like... so here you have it, a guest post about a visitor to our home:

Hello my name is darrin, 

A month ago I embarked on an incredible adventure. I went off into a foreign land with no idea what to expect. A place very different from what I know. Guatemala.

As someone who does an abundance of backpacking and camping I am accustomed to being slightly uncomfortable as I sleep, but nothing was to prepare me for a night in Guatemala. I recall learning very quickly that regardless of the low income status areas, Guatemalans always seem to have just enough money to buy a variety of fireworks on a daily basis. So basically come bedtime all hell breaks loose with the most obnoxious percussion of "bedtime noises" and street dogs fighting often come rippling through the air. In addition to my discomfort a mysterious banging against my barred-over window naturally filled my imaginonation with pictures of black masked barglars yeilding machetes attempting to break in and attack me in my sleep. Long story short, not some crazed lunatic trying to break into my room, it was an avocado falling off of a nearby tree which was very common as I found out avocados seem to fall on the roof almost every night. 

Now you have to understand, that literally everywhere in Guatemala there are wild avocado trees and coffee bushes growing. This makes for an amazing jungle like atmosphere. The houses on the other hand are not as majestic. Each building gives you the impression as though it was slapped together in an extremely rushed fashion, with cinderblocks and scrapwood thrown down with some elementary kid's school glue to hold it all together. The worst part of the buildings being that each room is seperated by outside facing doors. Which renders a terribly unfortunate scenario if you find yourself having to go to the bathroom at night. Where the Guatemala night breezes are crisp to the bare-bum. But hey, alleast thats a 5 minute time out from the constant 24-hour sweat bath you're in during your first week. 

Now let me describe for you Guatemala traffic. The variety of vehicle selection is scarely small. You got the basic 1997 Toyota Tacoma with 40 people riding in the box,  the Tuk-Tuk (  A trike with a roof which 8 people ride in somehow), the classic dirtbike, and my personal favourite The Chicken Bus! The Chicken Bus is an old school bus that has been jacked up, semi truck motor dropped in, then loaded with 70 person passenger plus the chickens and a few goats for long and very fast drives from town to town. Add in the fact that there are no rules of the road and you end up with not only The Chicken Bus but "The Chicken Road" too. 

Yet, when I look back at the falling avocados and the people driving wildly down the road I recall in between these events some of the greatest memories that I will carry with me for a long time. Fantastic food ( a.k.a tacos and casedieas ) and the pleasant King family home setting and the dazzling Guatemalan firework lighting up sky.

 To say the very least I came back changed, and what I mean by that is I now know what mass poverty is, I know what it's like to feel as a minority and completely out of place ( all 6 ft 200 lbs blonde hair blue eyes of me ). I know how extremely blessed I am to have grown up and reside in a country that is free of questions like how do I get my next meal and how do I not get shot by gangs? Yes this trip was an adventure  that changed me and I would recommend that if you would like and adventure full of bizarre and crazy stories that you might go to Guatemala; and maybe even stay with Dave and Shawn.

Thank you Shawn, Dave and Z

taking a boat across the lake 

lunch at a somewhat sketchy eatery 

for all the adventures and talks.

Abundant Peace

      We moved to Lake Atitlán almost four months ago, certain that God had called us here... But not certain of anything other than that.  

      Dave and I began meeting in our living room every evening to pray.  Sometimes we listened to music and sang, sometimes we drew pictures or waited for God's voice in silence, but more than anything, we just talked to God.  We prayed for the problems around the world, our friends and family, and asked God what He wanted us to do.  Then, one night, He spoke.  

      His voice was not audible in that moment, but it was intensely clear.  "You are already engaged in the ministry I have called you to do.  I want you to start a House of Prayer".  

       In the weeks since we received this word from the Lord, we have begun to clarify how to start this work.  We believe that the House will be built in one of the towns where we have been working (we live in one of a string of four towns, each with a unique flavour and set of needs, but they are close enough that we can work in all four from whichever one we build the House in), and we believe that God will call a team of dedicated prayer warriors to come and join us in the ministry.  The foundation is prayer, and evangelism, which may demonstrate itself in many ways, including visiting homes to pray for the sick, and hosting prayer services for the community.  Our hope is that one day we will have a team large enough that we can have 24/7 prayer in the House.

    We desire to be filled with the Spirit of God that we might pray with power and authority.  We desire to see nations transformed, the gospel carried to those who have not heard, the sick to be healed, and for those with no hope to find it through relationship with Jesus Christ.  We believe that God will accomplish all these things through our dedicated pursuit of His face.  

     The next thing we asked the Lord for was a name for the House... He told us: 

    Paz Abundante 

    which means... abundant peace