Trying to make the time go by Quicker

This past weekend was pretty busy and my Spanish Teacher decided to help me explore a little more then last year. So we went to Tektik, a town about 20 minutes from here and it's amazingly beautiful. I am excited because I would love to show my boyfriend the land and have him enjoy the country side. Semana Santa is coming and there are many festivals going on. It's not a great time to be on the road but we plan on taking in as much of Guatemala as we can once Scott gets here on Thursday. Please continue to pray for the water situation as it's not been fun to not shower or do laundry for days on in. I hope we come up with a solution soon.
I am super excited for Scott to be here and have him experience what the Ministry is all about. Please pray for us as their rules are very strict when it comes to couples. Scott plans on getting me a head garb so he won't be tempted. lol
Brad Fields got here safely but I haven't seen him all day. I wonder if he is even here sometimes. Please pray for his transition in to working here.

Sports Club at the Public Schools

We were still able to meet with two public schools today. The school I usually go to was closed due to a teachers meeting in town. But because the other two school were out of the town they were still open and we were able to work with those kids. My team joined another teams school. Venicia had more pocumchi kids at the school and their cancha (playground) is one big dirt fest. It was raining but thankfully not too hard. The school was open but the director was not there. We met two Dutch girls who were working there with the kids. They were very nice and spoke a little English. They allowed us to come in and work with the kids. Our coaches did an awesome job. I was very pleased and how soon they had built strong relationships with these kids. Please pray for our time with these kids and that we will be able to keep going back. Pray the school doors won't close due to kids having to pay for their education.
Profe. Salo, Kimmy and Pedro did an awesome job with the them and they seemed to really enjoy it. It's amazing how they took off half the mountain so they could have a play ground. One of the little girls broke her shoe she kicked it so hard. These kids love this game.

Answered Prayer for Teachers/ Wait Maybe Not

Recently the President of Guatemala decided to change policies which would cause families of public schools to pay for their child's education. I know this sounds foreign to you but Guatemala is so poor most people wouldn't have any education if they had to pay for it themselves. Many teachers headed to the capital yesterday in protest and in the evening the President retracted his wishes and our public schools will stay open. This was a concern to our schools we work with in our Sports Club and how much we are up against by reaching this large population of uneducated people. Most of the public school kids finish their schooling by 6th grade. Tomorrow we will be allowed to enter the public school doors with kids to work with and this was an answered prayer.
Just tonight I had to change this blog because the President changed his mind again and said they need to pay for their education. One of my friends here said it really will be better overall for everyone if they do pay, even if it's very little. Please pray for the situation. Thanks.

While the Men are away the Women will play

Our men in the church had a all guy camping outing this weekend. It was for fathers and sons but many boys who didn't have fathers were taken by some dads who didn't have any sons. It is always a huge success. This year one of our leaders in ministry, Paul, was able to take two of his clan of kids who he teaches on Saturdays, with him. Several of my sports club coaches who don't go to our church went as well. We had to cancel a day with our public school kids but I know God was in complete control of the need. They took off Friday so we had a girls sleep over and enjoyed time together too. Ate Latonya's awesome cooking and watched movies. The next morning we were going to go swimming but it rained.
There are a lot of changes happening in the ministry and it's important you please pray for positions to be filled in areas we need them. Brad Fields is coming to join our ministry and it is a true blessing to have him. He will be coming March 26th to fill several positions for us. We are also getting ready to have a group of 22 come from Las Vegas. They raised some funds to help with building more office space and more classrooms. Please continue to pray for our ministry as we grow and reach new goals.
Scott is coming to visit me at the end of the month and I am very excited for him to see what all has changed since he was here last. I think he will be very impressed with how God has moved. Please pray for his safety in getting here.

Physical Education Conference

Well, only a days notice I was invited to a conference in Coban (which is about 40 minutes away). It was very exciting to be apart of this conference because there is an organization called DIGEF which basically stands for General Direction for Physical Education and they were excited to hear what we had going in San Cristobal with our Sports Program. They were very intent on hearing what we have been doing and wanted to help us with getting us supplies. It was a very exciting trip for that reason alone. We learned at the conference there are many things that are not proper for a Mayan to do as a young girl. One in which is play soccer. It's a mans sport and woman are taught it's not lady like to be playing it, therefore there might be some resistance. So far our girls in Sports club have gotten right in there. There was only two young ladies who thought it was uncool to play basketball. I asked her if I bought them shoes would they play and they both looked up at me in shock. God has been so good. Even while I am sick everything was taking care of at school and I was well enough to go to this conference. Please pray this organization will help us with getting us more supplies to all the schools. I know as I walk in these days where things are so uncertain. There is one thing that I know is True and that is His Faithfulness in completing what He has started.

Footlocker

Now I have been able to do a lot of occupations here without a degree in them but I assure you I didn't decided to work at footlocker in Guat City. This year I have been put in charge of the Sports Program for the entire Ministry. With this responsibility we had to put together a booth for our ministry on Sunday Night. I had a vision in my head and somehow it worked. All my sports kids brought their lap tops and we have six slide shows going on and it was very eye catching. What impressed me the most was they were so excited about our booth and helped me put everything away. I have been impressed with these kids as they are learning what it takes to be leaders and to follow God's desire for them. I am reminded everyday how with encouraging words we can accomplish more then we even imagined.

Please continue to pray for my back and now a head cold. I know this is probably do to the water conditions. For the past week we have had hit and miss water conditions. Please pray for health and recovery. Our well should be finished soon so there is hope for fresh clean water.

I am wacked in the back!

Hi! I have iced, massaged, slept, gotten a shot in the behind and have taken muscle relaxers. All because my back is hurting with every move. Before intermissions my back was hurting from my little incident with the dog and my moto. I thought a good back massage would be the cure all. After praying throughout the massage the nice lady told me it wasn't loosening up at all. I took it easy and wasn't playing around. Then during volleyball practice a volleyball went into the ditch. I followed it in there and tried to rescue it from a wet cement flow of lava from the men who are working on our well. My feet seemed secure on the banks and then without notice, I begin to slip uncontrollably down the edge into the cement. Just as my backside is getting ready to hit the cement and the girls are all going to scream in hysterics, I twist my back to prevent the embarrassing moment. As my body twist, only one foot hit the evil fate of the wet cement below but the glory came with my backside being clear of embarrassment. Just when all embarrassment seemed clear, pain shot up my spine with electric force. I was trapped in a ditch and couldn't move. I needed three girls to help me out of the ditch of humility. They came to my rescue and needless to say were very concerned and extremely sweet. It wasn't until later that night when I was coaching them, I tried to show something on the side line and in telling them I did a twisting motion and about fell down in pain. They laughed and asked to see it again. Needless to say, I might have had more fun with falling in the wet cement ditch then having to take 36 hours to heal from a silly back injury.

I guess you take the good with the bad

This past week there has been some super happy times. My nephew had his second birthday and my gifts arrived on time. But I wasn't there to celebrate it with him. My coaches for sports club are truly enjoying coaching the public school kids. We still have one school who eats twenty minutes into the scheduled sports time. Our pastor (Mike) did several exams and they didn't find anything wrong which is wonderful but we don't know if his symptoms will be gone with just rest. Our girls volleyball team won again last night to a young girls team and even came from behind to win it. But I chased a ball in the ditch and slipped and lost functional movement in my back. Please pray I will recover quickly because this is not a good time to be laid up in bed. I guess I have time to work on the slide show for our big event on Saturday but with a lot of pain I might add.

Intermissions/ Relax / Making Friends

Well, we went to a missions conference in Antigua and it was very relaxing and interesting. For the first time they had a singles group and it was quite a range of people. From 60+ to 21 years old. Our leaders worked really hard trying to figure out how to make it all work. I enjoyed meeting some girls who worked in schools with sports as well. We shared info and it was pretty awesome to make some connections. The rest of the time I just laid in the sun and relaxed. Trying not to think about all the things I have going on right now. I am glad I went and got refreshed. The speaker talked in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4. It was enjoyable to understand we are living in a glorious time. We are participating in Christ's call to the church and there is such glory and honor in actually allowing Him to do his work through us! Amen?? No funny stories this time.. Just tired from the seven hour ride back home. Please pray for our Pastor as he has had health problems and is finally taking serious action to find out what is wrong. He stayed in Guatemala City to figure out what might be wrong. Please keep him in your prayers. Thanks.

First Day for Everything

It was the first day for everything dealing with Sports here at the Inn. We had everything going full steam. First day to wear our new uniforms and play a competitive game. First win for the season beating the older ladies at the Inn in volleyball. First time Soccer Boys practiced and volleyball girls as well. First time we were able to enter the public schools and share our faith to the kids. First time for some of our kids to feel like All Stars with all the kids asking them for their autograph. Very cute! It was a great day thanks to time in prayer and giving Him all the Glory! We served 136 kids in four schools today and shared with them the story of creation. It was an exciting time. Many of them didn't have shoe, please pray we can reconcile the situation and get them shoes for their feet on the hot cement. Gracias!