Guatemala: April 2013

With one month left, I'm running out of ideas for school! Every day I arrive at school with this feeling of, "Uh oh, my students are going to be bored!" Since Christmas we have been been in a non-fiction unit, studying informational articles and documentaries. It's been fun and we've learned a lot, but I fear that my students are getting bored. So to help with that we will be starting to read a few more books to finish out the end of the year!

Also, with one month left of the school year, I'm getting antsy to return to Oklahoma for the summer! I will be in Oklahoma from June through the end of July (minus 10 days)! That is the majority of the summer, which hasn't happened in 4 years! I'm ready to be able to spend some quality time with my friends and family during the summer months.

Meanwhile, here in Guatemala I have been trying to stay focused on my students and the real reason why I'm here. Speaking of the real reason I'm here, I learned of another salvation of one of my 7th graders! This week I talked to Natalia because of a journal entry she wrote in her Bible journal. In her journal she talked about a recent "change" in her life. She proceeded to explain how she has recently come to realize the importance of Scripture memory and how it has meant a lot more to her recently. She signed her journal entry, "Sincerely, officially saved."
I began tearing up when I read this because even though I have been here since August and I have been praying for my students to come to know the Lord, I feel like I haven't been the most faithful servant. Through her salvation (and the salvation of Andres), I have been learning how faithful the Lord God is to save his people even in spite of his children's faithlessness. Our God is so much more faithful and gracious than we ever can imagine.
Since learning of Andres' and Natalia's salvations, I have been more focused in prayer and more thankful to the Lord for his work in spite of my faithlessness. When telling her about my realizations of the faithfulness of the Lord, Nikki reminded me of 2 Timothy 2:13,

"if we are faithless, he remains faithful..."

I am also very thankful for this weekend to be in my apartment! This is the first Saturday, for the past month, that I've been able to sleep in and rest! It's very nice, and I'm able to write here for you guys. Last weekend, Liz Mason and I went to Coatepeque (Co-ah-teh-peh-keh) to visit the home of our Spanish teacher. His name is Gato (yes, which means cat). Gato works here in Xela where I live, but his family lives in Coatepeque. He travels back and forth weekly to work and back to home. We went there to meet his family, see his church, and I was invited to teach (in Spanish!) his youth group. I taught about John 15 and the importance of abiding in the vine. It was a great experience and more practice for me to teach a group in Spanish. While we were there, Liz also gave an English class to help the youth in the church with their English.

On Wednesday this week, our school had a Fine Arts Festival in the afternoon. Several students displayed their artwork, sang songs, wrote creative stories, created junk sculptures, made chalk drawings, and/or drew on a school mural. It was a great time of seeing the students perform and use their talents.

As I wrap up this blog post, I ask for your prayers for Andres and Natalia, the new believers, and also for the rest of the 7th grade class that the Lord will open their hearts to believe.

I'll leave you with pictures:

We had a family day at school about a week and a half ago. The PTA was in charge of it and they transformed our parking lot into a fair-type event!

Clowns at the Family Day

This is what I ate for dessert at Family Day. These are called "buñuelos" (boon-wey-los). They are similar to funnel cake dough, fried, and soaked in honey. Yum!

The magician at Family Day

This was my meal at Family Day. These are called "garnachas" (gar-nach-as). They are fried corn tortillas on the bottom with ground beef, tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese on top. Many times you eat them with cabbage on the side. (Similar to a tostada at a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma, minus the cabbage).

I didn't eat this, but I wanted to show you anyway. Corn on the cob with ketchup, mayonaise, and mustard = "Elote loco" or "crazy corn." :)

When Liz and I were as we were leaving Xela on our way to Coatepeque, we saw some goats just grazing next to the city street. A second later we saw a woman milking one of these goats for a woman to buy.

Me teaching the youth at Gato's church

Again.

Go here for a brief clip of me preaching in Spanish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hhSO65643E&feature=youtu.be

Our friends that we met in Coatepeque. They are youth in the church there. The two in the middle fed us dinner and took us around the city. They were very nice! The guy on the left side fed us more garnachas for an evening snack.

This is Gato (our Spanish teacher) and his family.

These are live crabs for sale in the market of Coatepeque. They were actually still moving in that basket. Since Coatepeque is very close to the ocean, there is lots of seafood there.

A humongous pot that is used for making tamales.

Arcade games were everywhere in Coatepeque!

A meat market in Coatepeque. I've started buying my beef and pork at these places!

This is Walmart's meat market. That is a huge thing full of chicken.

One picture of my classroom and my sixth graders writing in their journals.

Down the hill to the middle school

This is a picture of two new classrooms they are building along with the older high school classrooms in the background.

Outside picture of the library (far left behind the two girls), the office (the background), and the first grade classroom (far right).

Outside of the 3rd grade and high school Bible classrooms

Picture of the view from the top of the hill

Number 12 is an example of Mr. Warfield's creative vocabulary quizzes. Can you figure out the word?

This is a class picture of 6th grade. I am their homeroom teacher, so I have a picture of them.

Faculty and staff picture

7th grade did a skit for the Fine Arts Festival. Natalia, one of the recent believers, is on the left.

Andres, one of the recent believers, is on the right.

This is Rudy. Hilarious part of the skit!

The hill from the bottom next to middle school. The stairs go up to the office, library, elementary school, and high school.

The road to go up the hill. My friend Aaron and I have run this a few times. It's hard!

Yesterday my sweet tea disappeared from the fridge...

My ice cream dessert at dinner last night.

View down our street. The tallest building in the background on the left (yellow) is my apartment.

Apartment building closer

Again

These are "chuchitos" (chu-chee-tos). Chuchitos are a common party food here in Guatemala. They are very similar to tamales that you would get in a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma. The left one still has the corn husk on it. They are made of cornmeal and have chicken or pork inside. I bought some and had them for dinner one night this week. (P.S. chuchito means "little dog" in Guatemalan Spanish).

This is a view back in Xela of looking off of the balcony of our apartment building.

A view from my apartment. The silos are from a beer distillery.

The view down the street where our apartment is located.

Evening sunset

Evening lights of Xela from our apartment

Morning

Hope you liked ALL of the pics! God bless!

Devin

The time between Christmas break and now has been very interesting. I haven't been motivated to update my blog, so I haven't. Recently, though, I have seen the Lord working in a couple places in my life and I wanted to share.

Since Christmas, I have attended an education conference in Totonicapan, gone on retreat with both the staff at school and another one with the students, seen one of my 7th grade students reborn by the Lord Jesus, attended two weddings of teachers at the school, traveled to North Carolina, traveled back to Xela with my girlfriend Nikki, started an online master's class in education, which my school is paying for, and read a book by David Platt that has been eye-opening. Since I haven't written frequently about each of these events, there is probably too much to include now and you probably wouldn't read all of it if I wrote it. So, feel free to email me and ask about any of the above items. I will expound on a couple.

At the Spiritual Emphasis Retreat with the school staff and students, I learned that one of my 7th graders had given his life to Christ back in December. As a reminder, I teach the 7th graders Bible, as well as English, and I had been praying for them. Early in the year, back in September, 7th grade and I were about as good as friends as Tom and Jerry. They didn't like me, and I really didn't like them either. However, by the grace and goodness of God, we have slowly grown closer and I really enjoy them now. The 7th grader who has been reborn is Andres. At Spiritual Emphasis Retreat he told another one of his teachers that he had believed that he was a Christian for many years, but in December, he felt convicted of his sin, repented, and was forgiven. He did this all by himself and told us about a month later! It was such a blessing to see this happen. I've been thanking the Lord ever since.

I recently read a new book by one of my favorite authors and pastors, David Platt. I read his book Radical during my senior year of college, and when his new book came out, I bought it right away on my Kindle app (actually I preordered it, but that's beside the point). In his book, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live, Platt discusses what it means to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He challenges ones who are in the church to really examine their lives to find out whether they have just "prayed a prayer" and now are saved from Hell, or if they are true followers of Christ, having to die to self and follow Jesus without looking back. The book has really challenged me and has encouraged me to continue to live out my beliefs and not just claim Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior without Him affecting my daily life.

On Saturday, I have been asked to teach a youth group where my Spanish teacher is the youth pastor. The teaching will be in Spanish, so I am nervous about it. I know that my Spanish is at a good level, but when I am teaching and speaking English all day long at school and speaking English all evening long with my friends from school, my Spanish doesn't really have much time to improve (hence why I am taking Spanish classes). I will be teaching over John 15:1-8 and the importance of abiding in Christ's love. If you have a chance I would appreciate your prayers from now until then.

I will try to keep you updated more often!

Picture time: