Girl Power: such amazing girls to have spent this entire week with. We all got a little closer and learned a little more about each other. These girls welcomed me in as though I was one of their roomies. I'm so excited to see where God takes each of these women over the years.

Day 7
It's our second to last day today. I just started my morning as I have since we got here: wake at 6:30, get coffee, read today's devotional and letter, then enjoy about 20 minutes of quiet time before everyone (other than Matt) wakes up.


It's a great way to start the day here mainly because it's beautiful in the morning here - the sun is rising, revealing the most beautiful peak to the volcano we can see from the house, as well as the birds are all chirping. I always hear random footsteps around as people who work at the school or in the admin offices here at Common Hope start to arrive. There's always a smell of stuff burning in the distance (not like the building's on fire, more like when you're camping and you always smell a fire), then in the quiet I usually hear a backfire of a car passing by.
It's so quiet and peaceful. I think about back home what my mornings look like: usually waking a few minutes before Gabbie and rushing around to get things done. No quiet time. Definitely no time to read God's word or reflect on the day before and the day ahead. I'd like to keep up this new habit {and feeling uber convicted that as I re-type this journal entry, remembering those sweet times and that I've already slipped back into my busy life}. Doesn't it seem like the perfect way to start a perfect day?

I was going up the hill yesterday for about the 30th time (I tried to keep count again) and realized what a boring , mundane task we had been doing. I realized how physically challenging our work had been, especially given that I never do this kind of stuff at home. {feel free to chime in and tell me if you spend your days hauling dirt by wheelbarrow to help build a road}. I was thankful for a strong work ethic. Proud of pushing myself through these days and thinking it must be all that experience from playing sports, pushing myself in practice or during a tournament when we were on our 5th game for the day when it was 110 degrees on the field.
It wasn't until this morning that I realized how self-centered that thought process was and how much it is like so many other times when we think we're giving God the glory, looking to Him for our strength but in all actuality we have those little thoughts that we did it on our own accord. It's not until we stop and look back on what was accomplished that we realize it was God's power THROUGH us.

Think about how much power that is!! WOW It's enough power to bring you to your knees with hands rands high in utter surrender to our powerful God.
We limit the possibilities of God's power because we limit what we think God is capable of doing through us.
In us.
By us.
My prayer today is that I can continually be aware of God's power and presence in my life to do exceeding, abundantly, above all else. (Eph 3:20)

side note: ironically this morning we saw black puffs of smoke come out of the top of the volcano outside of our house (you can kind of see it in a few of the above pictures. We haven't seen any activity throughout the whole week. This is the same day that the terrible tragedy happened in Japan. None of us became aware of the Japan tragedy until later in the day on Friday when we stopped in a restaurant to use their restrooms and saw the messages come across the TV. Not sure if it was related, but hard to think it wasn't. Thankfully we were never in danger of the earthquake/tsunami affects while in Guatemala.

Day 6
Last day of construction. I definitely had this strange sense of needing to accomplish our task today. we got a later start this morning but it was nice to have time around the house before getting to the work site.
Today on site we finished digging out all of the trenches as well as hauling away all of the dirt that accompanies that digging. The road we were building with all that dirt has turned out to be incredible. Definitely worthy of car traffic very soon!

A few of us ate lunch down the hill on the road we'd been working on all week. Here's a self portrait...

Here are a few pictures of the road we worked on - it's tough to tell the progress, but trust me, it was great and made us all appreciate concrete and machinery that can do this SO much better.


This afternoon we finished hauling away all of the dirt and got reassigned a new task: start clearing land that will soon become the administrative building.


As the day wrapped up, Nathan called us all together and told us to follow him. We went back down the same hill we'd been walking all week - this time without wheelbarrows (all of us commenting on how weird that felt).
Nathan led us to the very edge of the property - specifically where one day he and Claudia will build their own house. He began to paint a very specific, detailed picture for us as we looked out of the property and a beautiful ridge. Outlining where the first four homes will be placed for the boys.

Living with houseparents who are the best parents they have ever known - showing them love and what love really means. They come home from school to warm pie on the table and a fun tree house in this one specific tree on the property. There's a huge rock that he hopes to have the playground centered around so boys can be boys and throw stuff and just have fun. be full of joy.

These boys will grow up learning to love God and become "Oaks of Righteousness." Learning to be the fathers and husbands and men God intends for them to be.
He asked us to split up over the property and pray. It was such a powerful time - just thinking of all those boys whose lives will forever be changed by this one property. That my three days of construction - helping with the foundation of a guard shack, as menial as it may seem now - will have a forever hand print on the boys whose lives will be changed by this property.

Here's our view from the top of the property - absolutely stunning!



"Here I am. Humbled by the Love that You Give."

Forever changed by this week....

Here are some other pictures from the day:

Love this one: Remiggio and demonstrating their machete sharpening skills. I have a video also, but this one cracks me up because Remiggio is standing perfectly still while I take the picture. This sharpener is used by turning a handle to make the wheel spin, not an electric sharpener at all.
A group shot of the guys who worked in the trenches most of the week - picking and shoveling dirt.

Sorry for the brief hiatus from posting about Guatemala - we just returned from a quick trip to the West Coast (I will post/blog about it later).

So here we are, picking back up with Wednesday - Day 5....

Sweet children. Kind. Polite.
Those were my first thoughts today after visiting a school and playing with the kids. I sat down with my group of kids as did the others on our team, only to realize very quickly that I needed help and fast. Remember: I really don't speak Spanish. At all. I'm not even one of those that attempts to do it at the Mexican Restaurant only because I am pretty sure my Southern accent butchers a beautiful language.
I took this shot while standing on the open play area for the school - this shows you the perimeter of the school - surrounded by homes and a really busy street.

Thankfully Mitchell - one of our 2 resident translators - was wandering around for a group, I nabbed him and we worked together with a group of about 5 kids. These guys were sooo incredibly proud of their work. We were making name plates and I had laid out an example to help teach them what we were doing. What's so funny is that they wanted to make it precisely like the example even though Mitchel kept saying "make it uniquely yours." Again, another characteristic that transcends all cultures.

Each RHCC team member split up with a group of students - we spread out all over the playground area and got to work...

Can you tell how proud they are of their name plates?

Love this one: this little guy did this all by himself -

After team time tonight and hearing everyone's thoughts on the day, it is becoming much more apparant that we all know this ia a special place forever engrained in our hearts and a marker in our walk as Christians. From each smiling face proudly showing us their foam sticker name plates or the teachers so excitedly helping us as we struggled with our Spanish, the pure joy of those kids' faces as they played with us was priceless.

These guys LOVED Eric. I'm sure it had a lot to do with him being a male and getting his attention. He's trying to get a shot of his group and their name plates, but they won't back up far enough so he keeps having to back up away from them, then they follow. It was quite the scene:

Incredible experience. Bottom line.
These kids were definitely a little better off as far as physical living conditions, but only in comparison to here in Guatemala. They definitely were cleaner and overall happier than the Paradise Kids. I'm sure a lot had to do with us being at a school vs a neighborhood on the weekend.


The 1 hour drive to Palina (Pa-leyna) not like Sarah Palin was another crazy TINA trip. The include driving anywhere here is really crazy and hard to describe until you experience it.
After playing with the kids, we headed to Pacaya the volcano (I blogged about it right before I actually left for my trip. We started at an elevation of 1200 meters and hiked up to about 2500 meters - the actual crater of the volcano is at 2800 meters. It erupted in May of 2010 so we saw of lot of the remnants from vegetation not yet growing back, etc.

This is from the perimeter of the school - one of the houses that was hit by lava from the eruption:

We had a sweet Guatemala lady, Violet, as our tour guide. She literally wore KEDS shoes, a cotton skirt to her knees (and a slip nonetheless), a guide vest and her hair pulled back. Her front teeth had two holes where her teeth were rotting.



The hike itself was a once in a lifetime experience and I say that because I had to keep reminding myself as I huffed and puffed my way up the incredible include. It was yet another physically demanding and difficult task for this trip. To say we had a day "off" was not quite accurate.

Made it to the "beach of Pacaya" and took a group shot:




If you have ever traveled outside of the U.S., you can probably appreciate this shot: just how tasty and refreshing a good, bottled coke is. Even if you don't typically drink coke: man oh man, it's the best.





I've decided for sure that this trip is all about pushing myself to the most physical and mental limits. Today's devotional to start the day was based on putting our faith through the fire (ironic since we were headed to the volcano = fire). The trials we experience as Christians only make us stronger in our walk. Just like pushing 50+ loads of 40 pounds worth of dirt, carrying 100+ pounds of reebar, shoveling dirt, or climbing the crazy incline of Pacaya - it's hard. But when we're reminded of how easy our life really is once we return to the U.S. in our comfy homes - after driving past a family of 6 hauling wood on their backs as they hike yet another mountainside to make it home (one so steep our van crawls to 15 mph because it's such a strain on the engine). Playing with those kids today was so simple. We didn't do anything special, but people noticed.

The park ranger for the volcano let our entire group in for free as a thank you for stopping by the school for a few hours. Just when we think people don't notice.
And what was that about how dangerous Guatemala is?
I thought about how unique Nathan's ministry is here. I mean really: here's a guy whose dad was called to be a missionary in Guatemala when he (dad) was only 13 years old. After marrying, Nathan's parents moved to Guatemala and dedicate their lives to working with a very small Myan tribe in Guatemala - all because God called him and he answered. Nathan is born in the U.S. (So he can keep his citizenship) but is raised in Guatemala. So he looks like a normal white guy from the U.S. He understands U.S. culture for the most part, but is Guatemalan. He speaks perfect English AND perfect Spanish. He looks like a Gringo but can knows the culture so well he fits right in. When we go around these kids, they all respect him and love him. They stand still and listen when he speaks. They have a respect for him and he commands their attention without really demanding it. He does such an incredible job of tying in all of our crafts to using it as a tool to share God's love to these kids. (ie: the Name Plates: "The only name that matters is the Name Above All Names.")
Amazing. Really. They get it and in a great way. Then to see his wife Claudia who cooks these incredible meals and loves every minute of it. She complements the ministry so well. Only a God who has His mighty hand on every detail of our lives could orchestrate something so beautiful.
As we head into our last day of construction, I was just telling Eric that while I really miss Gabbie and Brent (of course) I am really relishing my time here. I know that my life will quickly slip back into a norm of every day life. I just pray that I can stay in this state of mind where my eyes and heart are open to so much.
Since we left the airport in Dallas, I have had the song in my head that says, "Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see, Everything that I keep missing, give me your love for humanity...."
And Matt's been singing, "You Make Beautiful. You make Beautiful things out of us."
I just want those as my prayer for a few days and wait to see what God does with/through me.

Today funny stuff happened: Looking to the back of the van as Nathan (driving) yelled "BUMP!" only to see Eric literally FLYING off the back seat and his entire body slamming into the ceiling of the van.
TINA: A man standing on a wooden wagon being pulled by two bulls on the same road we were driving on. Wish I'd had my camera out - it was priceless.