Being a part of the World Race means you enter into a new world in a way.  We have our own culture as any group does.  Our culture is very community driven.  We spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the same people.  There is little to no privacy.  These people know you and you get to know them too; good, bad, and ugly.  At training camp, I was placed on Team Cherished, an all girls team.  I was excited with the team I got and liked the ladies really well.  At first it was hard breaking down all our walls and getting close to each other, and yes there were arguments and hurts feelings quite often.  For the most part though, I was really happy with our team.  But, another part of the World Race culture is change.

   At the end of our third month, our leaders, coaches, and home office decided that some changes needed to happen within D Squad.  Since we were all together in Honduras, they felt this was the best time to do initiate these changes. Long story short, every team was mixed up and some leaders and treasurers were asked to step down and others were raised up.  We received our new team assignments, and then spent the next 3 to 4 days traveling from Central America to Europe.  Once we landed in Europe, we were divided up again and sent to our different ministry sites.  

   I wasn’t happy.  Actually I was quite angry.  As a person who has some major trust and abandonment issues, it was hard for me to open up and be honest with Team Cherished.  It was hard to learn to accept constructive input from them and allow them access to my heart.  But I fought through all that and did allow them in.  I trusted them, confided in them, was weak in front of them.  We laughed with each other, cried with each other, hurt each other, and forgave each other.  We were just reaching that next level when out of nowhere, BAM!  They were stripped from my life and replaced with people I barely knew.  Now I am expected to start all over and get to know these new women and then what?  Get close to them, share all my personal baggage with them, learn to love and depend on them so that they too can get ripped out of my life?  This is crazy!  This is nuts!  It makes no sense to me.  Not only did I get stripped of my biggest support system, but at the same time, I was paired with my biggest challenge.  This was cruelty on a whole new level.  To have to face your biggest fear without your strongest allies is a harsh reality.  I was angry.  I was hurt.  My attitude was bad.  To be quite honest, I was done.  I wanted to go home and give up and quit.  Then I told myself to stop acting like a 4 year old.  

   You see, I believe in a sovereign God.  He chose me for this particular team.  If I don’t like what is going on, the only one I have a right to mad at is Him.  And I was.  As long as I had my eyes on me and my problem and how unfair I thought it was, I was mad.  But slowly, I started taking my eyes off myself and focusing more on Him.  I have this thing I’ve started doing when my emotions overwhelm me.  It’s the only thing that keeps me sane when I feel like the world is crashing all around me.  I start at the beginning and remind myself of truth.  1)  I believe in God.  I believe that all the evidence points towards His existence and only the fool would believe otherwise.  2) I believe the God of the Bible.  He is the only God that makes any sense and has proven Himself real and true time and time again. 3) If I believe in the God of the Bible, then I have to believe what the Bible says about God.  Thus, God IS love.  He IS holy.  He IS justice and righteousness.  It’s not that He possesses these qualities, He is the very definition of these words.  I have to believe the Bible when it tells me that “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6).  See, if I am going through one of the hardest places in my life....there has to be a reason.  God loves me and wants the best for me.  What I am going through this month is agony, but I know it is for my good.

   I remember when I was a little girl, my parents told me not to get on the neighbor boy’s motorcycle.  He lived by my grandma and was older and one day offered me a ride and I agreed.  He plopped me up on his bike and I immediately burned my leg.  I jumped off, said I changed my mind, and began to panic because I knew I was going to get in so much trouble.  Well, I didn’t tell anyone and after a few days, it got infected and I couldn’t hide it any longer.  Now I don’t remember much, but I remember going to the doctor with my E.T. stuffed animal and watching as they opened the SOS pads.  I remember biting on E.T. arm so I wouldn’t scream as they had to scrub off the scab on my burn to allow the infection out.  Believe it or not, I don’t remember the pain.  I also don’t remember going back several times to have it done again and again.  (Unlike my poor mother who had to sit through it all!)  The point is, I had to go through that pain in order to allow all the infection out of the wound.  It wasn’t pretty.  It wasn’t fun.  It definitely wasn’t nice.  It was necessary however.  And now, I’m all better.  There is no scar and I don’t even remember the pain.  Spiritually, I am going through a time where the scab is being scrubbed off so the infection can come out.  God, like my poor mother, is lovingly letting me go through this agony because it is the best thing for me.  In the end, I know there will be no scar left and one day, I won’t even remember the pain.

   So my attitude is getting better, and I am getting more excited about my new team.  If they are on my team for the rest of the Race or just a few months, I know they are here for a reason.  I can not longer waste the precious time God has given me to get to know these women and what He wishes to teach me through them.  Even though I will miss my old team very much, I’m happy to tell you that I am now a member of team Majestic Summit.





Love you all!

I can’t believe that I’m in Honduras!  It’s so beautiful here and it was such a relief that the heaviness I felt when I entered El Salvador vanished as soon as I crossed the border.  We met up in with our entire squad in San Salvador and together we all headed to Honduras and to debrief the first two months.  Even though Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world, we were assured by our host that we would be perfectly safe.  So we all loaded up and headed out.  We were so blessed to be able to have several days of debrief before we started our ministry in Honduras.  Debrief is a time when our AMAZING Squad Leaders and coaches from the states grab us and discuss the first two months and pour life back into us.  We got to stay in real beds and take hot showers!  Plus there was only 4 or 5 of us to a bathroom instead of an entire team or two.  We slept a lot, prayed a lot, let go of a lot, and were SO blessed to finally meet Randy and Betsy Garmon, our amazing coaches.  They are our spiritual parents for the race and read our blogs and keep up with our Facebook statuses and pray for us and talk to our leaders about what is going on with each of us spiritually.  They were and are such a blessing and we are all in love with them!  

After debrief, we headed to our ministry site.  We are right outside the capital and we are working with a great guy named Tony.  Tony is an American that God called to Honduras about 4 or 5 years ago.  Tony works with street kids and is truly changing lives.  Tony does the type of ministry that speaks most to my heart.  He is real, genuine, and a bit unique....but in a good way.  He is a dreamer and fully trusts that God will fill his day with work.  Tony goes out to the poor communities and just treats people as Christ would treat them.  He builds relationships with street kids and beggars and dump dwellers and addicts.  He goes to them and just talks and jokes with them and treats them like human beings.  If he can help he does, but mainly, he wants to befriend them.    He’s not looking to make himself a place of charity, but he will help people if he can.  What he mainly does is finds the roughest boys that the community doesn’t like, and he builds a relationship with them.  If they show that they want to start changing their lives, then he takes them home with him.  

Now I need you to understand, these are street punks.  Kids from 10 - 20 who don’t go to school, get high all the time, rob people at gunpoint.  These are tough kids who have hellish family lives and are poorer than poor. They are tough enough to have literally survived on the streets of one of the most dangerous countries in the world.  Their rap sheet isn’t that of the average American teenager.  They come home with Tony and live in his house.  To stay, they have to go to school and stay clean.  If they slip up, they are out for a specified time.  If their attitude is too bad, they are out for a specified time.  Tony is never cruel or mean to these boys, but he is firm and he is in control.  If they are disciplined, they are not shunned, just not allowed on the property.  It’s AMAZING!!!!!!  He is teaching these boys how to be productive, contributing members of society as well as loving them into the Kingdom of God!  It is so inspiring.  He truly loves these young men as a father loves his own children, and they love him too.  Thanks to Tony and his beautiful wife Nedia, these young men are learning to trust and respect others and most importantly, they are learning about Christ!  The boys are great!!!  They are so affectionate and so protective of us.  It’s a bit sad and funny to be guarded by a teenager, but it is necessary.  The boys aren’t perfect, but when you look at them and watch them, you realize that under that tough exterior, is a kid.  They are just kids that never got a chance to be kids. They never got to just play and build tree houses and laugh.  They never had affection or at least not much.  They never had the opportunity to learn or were never taught that they could be anything they dreamed.  It’s a beautiful ministry.  It’s not perfect, but life isn’t perfect and neither is family.     

Please join me in praying for Tony and his ministry.  One of our squadmates is building a website for Tony this month and I will share that information with you as soon as it is up and running.  On the site will be the opportunity to sponsor one of the boys.  It will show their picture and share some of their story.  As well as working with the boys, Tony is building a ministry where he can host and house missionary groups and church groups.  He has big dreams for this ministry.  While here this month, we have helped to start working on the property and we all chipped in to help hire a tractor who came and started working on a football (soccer) field.  The field still needs lots of work, but we have started it.  The field will be the only “Christian” field.  That means no drugs or alcohol.  It will help the boys and the community have a place to play without being tempted and it will be a way the ministry can get a little extra money by renting it out to teams.  There are so many projects and I am sure that on the website, there will be a list of projects as well as boys that you can give to.  Believe me when I say that if you are looking for a place to give or a ministry to support, Tony’s ministry is truly changing not only lives, but communities.  They see the difference in these boys and it is having an impact on them.  

My heart has truly been convicted and challenged by Tony.  I know how I think and treat those in my area that might not look like upstanding citizens.  I walk past the needy, and brush off the poor, and look haughtily at teens who are being disruptive.  I miss the opportunities to show them Jesus, to show them kindness.  I miss so much.....

Guatemala seemed to be a month of constant activity and challenges.  I was able to do so much ministry, it was hard to sit down and spend time with the Lord.  El Salvador, however, was the exact opposite.  This month was a daily lesson in patience and obedience.  Patience with the lack of structure and “Latin” timetables, and obedience to be faithful to do anything that came across my path.  

This month, I was given a tremendous amount of down time. And though at times, I was going stir crazy, I finally made peace in my heart that it is really ok to be at rest.

Times of quiet provided the opportunity for the Lord to press into my heart and soul and deal with some of my issues.  It was exhausting at times and painful.  The house was full of tears some days and laughter others.  I’ve been stretched learning to live in community and by letting go of my expectations.  I have also been challenged to really believe what I say.  If prayer is as powerful as I say, then why am I frustrated when given the opportunity to spend time in worship and prayer in my tent?  If one life is worth saving, then why do I get discouraged when I am not ministering more or seeing more fruit?  I have to stop worrying about what others may or may not be thinking about me and do what God has set before me.  If that is prayer, then I pray.  If that is worship, then I sing and read the word.  If it is riding in the back of a truck to church, then I smile and wave and greet as many people as I can.  I have no idea what God is doing, all I know is that I can only do what He sits before me and in so doing, I am being obedient to all that God has planned for me.



Riding in the back of the truck! :)

  The High School I helped teach an English class at.  So fun!



Our house in Apastepeque, El Salvador

 Me & Jen doing a skit

This first week in El Salvador has been good.  We climbed to the top of a volcano, ate at Chilies, and rode in the back of serval different types of trucks.  We really didn’t get to do much ministry this week.  We learned some songs and dramas and were able to go on some prayer walks through several communities.

I have really been enjoying our prayer walks.  The first one we did, we found this church up on the top of a hill.  We went in and just prayed the Lord’s blessings on the church an on the people there.  Our second one brought us in contact with a bunch of kids and then we were summoned off the road to this house where we got to prayer with the family and give them some of the Spanish tracts we had.  The third trip was around the town where we are living.  The one today was the best one though.

Today we went to a disaster relief camp.  In 2009, a hurricane hit hard down here and caused the rivers to flood and destroy many houses and killed many people.  The US came and built these houses to help those that had lost everything.  Now they are just poor houses.  The people that live there have nothing.  There are children everywhere and some of our team grabbed a ball and started playing soccer with them.  Others walked around and prayed with people that God would provide for their needs.  But I got to do something even better.

Hugh, Jen and I took off to the opposite end as everyone else and went straight to a family that was standing outside waving us over.  The man was raised in the states and thus spoke very good English.  He opened his heart to us and told us how he used to walk with the Lord and how he had gotten his heart broken and turned away from the Lord.  He started drinking and partying and got into a lot of trouble in the states.  He spent some time in jail and then was deported back to the El Salvador.  Now he is unemployed and an alcoholic and wishes that God would hear his cries for help.  We sat with him for an hour and were able to share our testimonies with him.  We loved on him and I told him that God did hear his cries and loved him so much that He sent three gringoes from America down to El Salvador just to show him how much He loves him.  We prayed that God would break the bond of alcoholism from his life and provide him with a job.  We encouraged him to get his bible out and start reading it.  We told him that he needed to start going back to church and when he felt like he needed an drink, he needed to grab his bible.  We encouraged him to let go of his past; to forgive himself as Christ has forgiven him and to start new from this point.  God is an amazing God and uses these hard things in our lives to bring glory to Himself and healing to others. 

I am confident that God has a plan for this man.  I know that if he will trust the Lord in this, God is going to use this man in a mighty way.  He is known as the community drunk, but God can redeem and restore him and he can one day be known as the community pastor.  God is SO Good!  Please join me in praying for Hector.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will rise up in him and break his bondage to alcohol.  Pray that he will become a light in his family and his community.  Join me in crying out to the Father for our brother.  I know one day, his story will change the lives of many. 

(Was so blessed!  A week and a half after our visit with Hector and his family, they came to church!  Our team also went back to his community and he translated a service for us!  Most of all, he hasn't drank since we were with him and is in the word!  GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!) 

We arrived safely in El Salvador and were blessed to spend a day and a half resting at La Libertad.  We stayed in a pretty little surfing community on the outskirts of town and watched as some of our team tried their hand at the waves.  We enjoyed good food and access to internet and some of the best frozen lemonade and smoothies I’ve ever had.

We finally arrived in San Vicente after changing buses 4 times.  Let me tell you that traveling across a country with all our packs is quite the sight.  Luckily people were gracious and we provided some much needed distraction from the daily grind.

So here are some differences between Guatemala and El Salvador.  Both are hot, but Guatemala is humid, so I like not sweating so much.  El Salvador is definitely more modern and Americanized than Guatemala.  When we went to San Salvador for our day off, we were able to eat at Chilis and follow it up with Starbucks.  Some people even went to Wal-Mart.  The roads are better here too, but the people of Guatemala were more friendly.  In Guatemala, the major forms of transportation was a motorcycle or micro bus.  In El Salvador, everyone rides in the back of trucks or on school busses.  I really loved getting to ride on a motorcycle, but riding in the back of a truck is fun too...so I guess they tie there!  Though we are in the shadow of a volcano, I have to admit that Guatemala was prettier.  It is drier here, so things are not as lush and green.  Our contacts in El Salvador are young and very cool, but I don’t think I will be as close to them as in Guatemala...but that’s ok.  Some members are our team are bonding nicely with them and I think it’s good I share!  In Guatemala, we were very busy doing lots of ministry every day.  Here in El Salvador, we will have more down time since our contacts both go to college and have started classes.  It is good though.  God is really working on all of us personally.  He is really dealing with our issues and drawing us closer to Him.  Last month we were so busy, it was hard to spend time in the word.  Here, we are able to spend an abundant amount of time in prayer and reading and listening to sermons.  We are all working on our testimonies and prepping for the times we are asked to preach.  We are getting to rest and enjoy each other.  

So prayer for this month would be that I would be ok with not getting online very much, and that I would be able to really press into God and allow Him to work in my life however He chooses.  Also know that I am spending a lot of time this month in prayer for you too.  You all are the reason I am here and I am seeking the Lord on your behalf.  If there are any specifics that I should know about, please let me know.  I love you, and thank you so much for blessing me with the opportunity to serve the Lord in this way.

Here is another old one, but one I wanted to get out.  I won't post anymore today, but will try again tomorrow to post some from El Salvador.  Thanks again for your support and paitence. 

I truly believe that I am the luckiest person in the world to be doing what I am doing.  I get to leave my life of stress and routine and insignificance, and go around the world spreading the love, hope, and joy that is found in Christ!  Though it is stressful and exhausting in it’s own way, it is such an amazing honor to get to cling to Christ this year and learn to trust Him and obey Him.  To be able to focus on loving and pouring into others is so refreshing.  

With that said, I have to say, leaving Guatemala was bittersweet.  I am happy with the work that we did in Guatemala and there is a part of me that is excited to be on the next leg of this amazing journey with the Lord.  But there is a part of me that is and will remain a little sad.  The staff of Casa Verde are not just family because we are all Christians, they became family in my heart.  God used them to pour some much needed life into my heart and used them to remind me of a little of the joy I once had.  We laughed, we cried, we prayed, and we served the Lord with all our hearts.  The staff of Casa Verde will never know how much it meant to us to be so welcomed and cherished.  

Thank you to Paul and Hilda for opening up Casa Verde for us and allowing us into your lives for an entire month.  Thank you for the family nights and the trip to the waterfall and to the beach, and thank you for providing us with opportunities to share the love of Christ with the people of Guatemala.  Thank you Pastor Roni for taking care of us every day.  Thank you for your laughter and grace and most of all your patience.  Thank you for showing us the true heart of a missionary.  You changed our lives and we will never forget the example you set.  Thank you Kevin and Andrea.  You both loved me so much and truly made me feel like family by opening your hearts to me and sharing with me.  You spoke so much life and love into my heart and I pray that God will continue to use us in each others lives.  Thank you Benjamin, Fernando, Uncle Ronnie, Gerson, Byron, Jonathan, and Ada for serving us with smiles and laughter. May God richly bless you for the all that you did for us.

So, I have had the most trouble getting online and posting.  So here is just one story from my newsletter.  If you would like to know more about Guatemala, email me at mistydcurry@yahoo.com and I will send it to you in a PDF document.  Thanks for your patience!  I'm still working on pictures, but there are some in my newsletter!


     Probably the hardest ministry for me to do was the prostitution ministry.  Prostitution is legal in Guatemala as long as you have a license and get a check up every month or so.  Every week, Pastor Roni would pick us up and take us around to several bars.  Our job was to go in and just spend a little time talking to the ladies and getting to know them.  We would bring them candy and ask how their week had been and ask if there was anything we could pray for with them.  It was so intimidating!  I had no idea what to say or what to do.  I don’t know Spanish and how crazy am I to think a prostitute would want me bothering her during the day!  It was hard and awkward and probably the coolest, most stretching ministry I have ever done. 

The first week was so hard, and believe me, it really didn’t get that much easier.  The ladies were awkward and we were awkward and it took a while for them to believe that we were not there to judge them or preach at them.  We were just there to get to know them and pray for anything that they needed.  We would go in and ask how they were, how their week was, how their family was doing; things like that.  Sometimes they would just give us short answers and be annoyed.  Sometimes though, they would open up and tell us just some crazy stories of their lives.  

We met two ladies in one of the bars, both were named Alma.  The first week, we met Alma #1.  She was an older lady, probably around 45 or 50.  She was so kind and I really enjoyed talking with her.  When we pressed into her a little and asked some questions, she broke down and started crying.  Her husband had left her and her two children.  Though she had searched and searched for a job, she had run out of money and had no choice but to turn to prostitution.  She was devastated and was so afraid that her children would never love or respect her.  We prayed for her and asked God to work in her children and help them to keep the love and respect they have for her.  Alma #2 had a similar story.  With this Alma, her granddaughter had a tumor on her back that would cause her not to be able to walk as she gets older.  She gave us directions to her house, and we went there and prayed for the baby and met the other children.  The next week, her younger daughter saw us on the street and she came running up to us just to say hi.  It was so sweet.

There were so many girls with so many sad stories and so many walls around their hearts.  There came a point where I couldn’t go into one of the bars because they were burning incense and my allergies would not allow me to stay.  I went outside and sat with our men in the van and just  started praying.  In that moment, God started speaking to my heart.  

I started thinking about these women and how I would feel in their place.  I was overwhelmed with a sense of shame and guilt and hopelessness.  I started praying that God would protect them from violence and protect them from feeling worthless and like they deserve what was happening to them.  In that moment, God broke my heart.  I realized how I have treated prostitutes in my own country in the past.  How I have looked down on them and judged them, assuming they liked their work and chose to stay there for the money.  Never once have I asked a prostitute or exotic dancer her story.  Never have I cared enough to take her a gift and pray for her.  Never have I offered to help her with her children so she would have time to look for a new job or so she would not have to pay a babysitter.  Never have I taken the time to love someone I consider such a sinner when loving them is the only thing that might bring them enough hope to leave.  In that moment, I cried out in my guilt and shame and asked God to forgive me and give me a heart for the precious women who were trapped in this industry and for the men who chose to use and abuse these women.

Let me tell you that God hears and answers prayer.  From that moment, my attitude changed and I started praying crazy things!  I asked God to close bars, to make the men who drove down those roads sick so they would not feel like going inside.  I started praying for revival and asking God to save the pimps.  I started asking God to bring us opportunities to pray and make our presence known.  Guess what, He showed up!  One of the bars did close, and while sitting outside one week, a young man came up to our guys in the van and asked the guys for prayer.  Our team had prayed for his mother and she was all better and he wanted us to pray too.  (Later, we ran into his mother and she was excited to say that she was all better and so was her son!)  Our last day of doing ministry, we went too early and the ladies were still asleep.  We were sad that we were going to miss seeing some of the ladies.  When some of them realized that we were outside, they came to see us and let us pray with them.  

We may never know what impact we had on those women, but I am convinced that we made a difference with some of them.  Please join me in praying for the prostitutes.  Pray God will provide new, honorable jobs and that they will be treated with dignity and grace.  Pray their families will love them and that God would send them new, godly, kind husbands.

So I hope my next few blogs will give you a glimpse of some of the ministries we are working with in Guatemala!

One of the first ministries that we were blessed to be a part of was working at the local convent.  Recently, the only orphanage in Puerto Barrios closed due to the rampant corruption with the finances.  Those running the orphanage were taking the government money and pocketing most of it.  The local merchants finally turned them in because they were buying the rotten and left over food to feed the children instead of what they should have been buying them.  When the officials looked into it, they discovered that there were numerous discrepancies and decided to close the orphanage all together.  The local convent decided to step in and help as much as possible.  Sadly, they could only afford to take the youngest.  They took in the children 12 and under.  The remaining children were turned out on the streets to fend for themselves, or returned to the terrible homes the had been rescued from.  It is a sad reality.  What is more heart breaking is the fact that as badly as we would each like to adopt some of these children, it is extremely hard for Americans to adopt Guatemalan babies.  The Guatemalan government has very strict policies right now because people were going into the hill country and stealing babies and then taking them to the orphanage and finding Americans to "adopt" the children, so they could get money.  Once the government started doing DNA testing, people just started running away and leaving the children, and they had no idea who they belonged to.  The problem has lessened now that the government has put restrictions on American adoptions.

We get to go to the orphanage with Pastor Roni on Monday afternoons.  We only get to stay for about 45 minutes to an hour, so we play hard and walk away exhausted and covered in sweat and dirt.  But for an hour, we get to be the arms of Jesus holding a baby, the hands of Jesus helping a little one to walk and walk and walk, the feet of Jesus to kick a soccer ball, the face of Jesus and smile and make faces, and the voice of Jesus and laugh and sing and praise and tell them how special they are and how much we truly love them.  The first day was the hardest because it is hard to walk away from a child who is crying and holding out their arms to you, begging you not to leave.  But, honestly, these are the lucky children.  Though I honestly have never seen more than five women with these children when we have been there, at least there is not a ton of children.  They are clean and fed and they are quick to smile which means they are loved.  But it is still hard.  The sisters don't have a lot of money, so any treat we can bring is so welcomed, and there are not many toys for the children to play with. 

So we pray.  We pray for God to raise up godly men and women to adopt these beautiful children and claim them as their own just as God claimed us.  We pray for money.  That people will want to partner with Casa Verde to bless these Sisters and these children with extra school supplies, toys, fruit, and mainly the gospel.  We pray even more for the children that didn't get to stay.  The older children that are now trying to survive on the streets.  We pray that God will raise up men and women who will come and set up homes for them and minister to them.  We pray for their protection from human trafficing and violence.  We pray for a safe place to sleep and good food to eat and a good job to work.  We pray for a church to have enough compassion and love to accept them into their services even if they smell bad or are not dressed well.  And mainly, we pray protection for their hearts and minds so they will not become hard toward life and hard toward God.

Please join us in praying for the sweet orphans of Guatemala.  If you are interested in giving to Casa Verde to help with any of their ministries, you can give online.  (Mail doesn't come to Puerto Barrios, and packages cost the ministry money to pick up.)  Please visit their ministry website atwww.shofarstereo.com/shofar-ministries.com.  

Here are some pictures:
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Our first week in Guatemala has been good and stretching.  We have been blessed to be in Puerto Barrios.  It is a port city, but the we are not near the water.  The water is too polluted to enjoy anyway.  But we are in a pretty little neighborhood and surrounded by children and beautiful palm trees.  Guatemala is in the midst of working it’s way out of the Third World.  Thanks to the North American Trade agreement, American companies are coming to Guatemala and a middle class is developing.  It is really funny to drive down the street and see extremely clean fast food restaurants and then to look and see people washing their clothes outside and trash covering the ground.  Electricity is very expensive here, so you only use the lights at nigh and you don’t leave them on when you are not in the room.  Because of this, it’s hard to tell if some places are open or not because they only turn on what they need.  And though we have regular toilets and showers, there is no hot water and you cannot flush the toilet paper! (Correct, ALL toilet paper goes in the trash!)  There are six of us girls in a room slightly wider than my first college dorm room.  (That’s really small for those who didn’t see it!)  We also smell worse than most of the people because we sweat a whole lot more and are still learning how to do our laundry and we don’t wear perfume because we don’t want to attract even more mosquitoes.  

We are learning a lot about the people and have been able to get to know some of the staff very well.  Guatemalans are very polite and respectful and love a good laugh.  They have fast and ready smiles and think it’s crazy that we don’t speak Spanish.  We are getting very close to a sweet young lady named Andrea and Pastor Rani.  They go with us to most of our ministry sites and speak enough English to help us communicate well enough.  We are also getting close to a great young man named Kevin.  He has encouraged me quite a bit and made me feel like family.  He is fast becoming my new little brother and if it wasn’t for him, I would not be doing as well as I am.  Our first Sunday here, Andrea invited us to her and her cousin’s costume birthday party.  It was so fun.  They have some crazy traditions!  In Guatemala, on your birthday, you are woken up at 5:00 am with fireworks and singing and cake!  Yep, 5:00 AM!  Then at the end of the day, instead of a spanking, you get a bucket of water dumped on you.  It was so funny.

We have lots of ministry that we are doing.  Our week is going to look somewhat like this:  Monday we have prayer and worship here with our ministry hosts, then the orphanage in the afternoon and working with prostitutes that evening.  Tuesday we prayer walk through the neighborhood talking to anyone we see, then go to the children’s hospital in the afternoon and church that night.  Wednesdays we do praise and worship at a market in town and then work at a nursing home in the afternoon and church in the evening.  Thursdays we do praise and worship at one of the local markets, not sure what we will be doing in the afternoon, and then go to a local park and play with kids and talk to the teenagers at night.  Fridays we do something as a team to bless the neighborhood.  This week we picked up 5 big black garbage sacks full of trash from the side of the road around the ministry in 30 minutes.  Some of the people were so proud of us and thankful, but most just thought we were crazy Americans.  That afternoon, we went and ministered to the kids that live in the city dump and that evening we had a family time of praise, worship, and fellowship with everyone involved in the ministry.

Personally, I’m still trying to figure out why God sent me on this trip, but it is good.  It is hard living in community and I am struggling to adjust at times, but that is all part of the process.  For me the hardest part is the constant noise.  My ex-husband was very quite and since he left, it’s been even more quite, so the constant noise of music and talking and differing maturity levels, it is sometimes daunting, but it is for all of us and we are learning to adjust and not kill each other.  We are also learning what we need to do to be effective and what ministry with such a language barrier means.  Keep praying for us as we learn what it means to be missionaries.  

I will post pictures soon!

I’m on the World Race!  Can you believe it!  I honestly can’t believe I had the nerve to stay in my seat at the airport and not run back outside and tell my mom I changed my mind.  It took us a while to get everyone and all their gear transported from the airport in Ft. Lauderdale to the Romanian Baptist Church where we were staying via the public bus, but we did and not too many people were upset to share a bus with us.  We slept on the floor and were allowed $5 per person per day to eat.  Yep! That’s $5 in Ft. Lauderdale for an entire day.  It can be done!  We enjoyed some great stories from the road and some wonderful times of prayer and worship.  

When the time came to leave, we loaded up our unsuspecting bodies with the extra 70+ pounds of gear we had and walked around a half mile/mile to the new bus stop.  We rode the public bus over to a train station and made our way down to Miami.  After the train, we were blessed to just catch the last shuttle of the day to the airport.  We got all 42 members of “D” squad, their gear and a handful of Floridans onto the shuttle.  We got to the airport and spread out in the first cubbyhole we could find.  Needless to say it was a rough night of very little sleep, but that will become common and an experience I will never forget.  The next day we loaded up on the plane and headed to Guatemala City, Guatemala.  Once there, we crashed in a corner while our fearless leaders found us rides to our separate ministry sites.  We found a really nice guy who offered his little van to take us to the bus station.  Thanks to a miraculous God, we loaded 13 of us and all our gear into a 9 passenger van.  It was so fun driving through the HUGE city and having everyone stare at us.  Honestly, everywhere we go, people stare at us!  But we got to our bus and headed to Puerto Barrios.  It was the 3:00pm bus that normally arrives no later than 8:30pm.  We however arrived about 10:30pm.  I’m not sure how long we were on the bus, but it was at least 6 hours.  We arrived safe and sound with all our stuff and enjoyed our first meal in Guatemala....spaghetti and white corn tortillas!  :)  

So we are here and we are blessed, but it does come at a price.  In Matthew 19, we read the story of the rich young ruler.  The young man comes to Jesus and asks Him how he can have eternal life.  Jesus tells him to keep the commandments.  The young man replies that he has kept all the commandments and wants to know what else to do.  Jesus replied to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.  When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  It’s not that God has anything against the rich.  There will be plenty of rich people in heaven, but we all have a tendency to cling to our stuff, our idols in this life.  For some, it’s material items or people or consumable products.  For others it’s intangible things like attention, comfort, or familiarity.  All these things we have laid down to follow where God would lead.  It’s not easy.  (It didn’t hit me till I turned my phone off and I knew I no longer had instant access to texting and Facebook!  That was a hard moment!)  But I know it will be worth it.  Here I go through the eye of the needle....can’t wait to see what’s on the other side!