Daniel and I returned to Guatemala on the 28th of December with a group from Tennessee and hit the ground running. They left on the fifth of January after being a tremendous blessing to the ministry. Then the real fun began.
I tend to forget things after they are over but I do remember a strong sense of being overwhelmed in January getting the books in order for the end of the year financial report which included ordering the months of November and December. Those were the months we were in the states. It also entailed deciphering Gilma's notes about what she did with the money, asking her to clarify a notation, questioning why this was bought and what for...nothing major, because she is an excellent person, but its in Spanish and is not always clear to my North American brain. After getting that in order, its time to do January's financial report... then how about an update for November and December. Done! Breathing a bit easier...oh yeah, don't forget Daniel's home school begins in January...let's get rolling!!
My daily schedule changed also with the leaving of Pastor Leonel. Until the Lord brings us a new pastor, I'm preaching, which I don't mind except I need to translate everything in Spanish and since I want it to be correct, I write everything down and translate via Babaefish, which is not always correct so I have to reread and make corrections of the Babalfish translation. Done!
One January Monday I needed to go resolve some issues with the finance department of my town, where they tell me I need to get something authorized at a lawyers, which I do and return to the finance department who give me a long list of things I also need to do and pay at the bank but first go to the mayor's office and get a paper verifying I am a resident of the town and return to their office. This takes only 2 hours and its better than it was years ago and I'm walking all over town. Thank God its a beautiful sunny, but not hot day.
I decided to wait and visit the bank another day and when I returned on another Monday, paid what was due at the bank and returned to the finance office they informed me I did everything right BUT I needed to return to the lawyer and also revisit the mayor's office for other things that were needed. I past a flower stall and on impulse bought some flowers and gave them to the lawyer and the secretary who kindly helped with the next step, went to the mayor's office waited about an half an hour, got that paper work and returned to the finance department and EVERYTHING IS OKAY! PTL! Everyone was very nice everywhere I went walking through town from place to place.
In the ministry, Monday, Wednesday and Friday we hold the feeding program. Gilma and Andrea are in charge of that, singing, sharing the word, giving out medicine, preparing food and serving. I go around greeting the children and mothers, taking pictures sometimes but not much else.
Tuesday we hold a Bible study with the ladies which the pastor used to lead. I am now teaching on the women of the Bible and its going very well. I brought back some Spanish books as reference books so its less work. Gilma and Andrea help me with the study by praying and ministering with the women.
Wednesday we started a mentoring program with some of the girls ages 15 to 18. Did I mention the cook, Graciela, got sick with I believe shingles, and is not working with us anymore either. So we have some students who are studying on Sundays or in the afternoon and I asked them to volunteer to help out in the ministry like half a day. I also decided it would be great to mentor these girl along with Gilma and Andrea helping out. Its going great. They come almost every day now and are helping fix the food, sharing with the smaller kids, cleaning up afterwards and also using the computer to keep up with their school work. I am using Self/confrontation which is a Bible based study and they love it. They have a verse to memorize each week. We named the group "Jovencitas creciendo abundamente en la obra del Señor" or literally "Young girls growing abundantly in the work of the Lord". I'd like to think of it as "from girls to women".
In between all of that I met in January with the construction guy to see what money I could find to keep the building going, gave out school supplies to all of the children , made sure all the sponsored students had their uniforms, shoes, inscriptions and school supplies, communicated with the sponsors of the students, bought prescription medicine for those who are seriously ill, bought winter blankets and give them out to 23 families, ordered and gave out in February: one stove, 8 water filters, 3 solar lamps, distributed bean,rice and corn to 28 families and bought 21 replacement filters to replace the fitters given out last year. Some of our older boys helped to bring in the parts of the stove to the home located in an area inaccessible by car. Jorge, one of boys, installed the stove.
So truly when I look back it really wasn't that bad, when I took a breath and did the next thing, as some of my friends counseled me to do. People were kind to me on every hand, the girls are a blessing, my computer is functioning fine, Daniel is doing okay with his studies, Gilma and Andrea are a delight to work with, and I overheard one of my neighbors say she didn't want to be late to hear me preach! ...and then came the well problem....more later and I can alway use some help!.
