La Vida Chapina

It has been a crazy week. On Tuesday I moved into my Guatemalan house and got thrown into an Englishless world, and it has been one adventure after another ever since. On Tuesday I spent the day with my family: my mom, my eight year old sister, and my five year old brother. I played lots of cards and cars with my brother, ran errands in the town with my sister, etc. At two we (my family and some other americans) went to the church to practice a program for their Father's day dinner last night. Our girls taught the dance from our first month program to the girls in the church and I was so proud of how well the taught it. After that, us Americans ventured over to the other side of Rosario to meet up with the others and get some ice cream. That night we went to church, and after a discouraging day of lack of communication I was encouraged to understand the whole sermon. After talking, some of us decided that we have mastered understanding formal speaches but not everyday communication. Wednesday was an interesting day. I went to my job for the summer, the school here in Rosario, and we followed the English teacher around to a new class every 30 minutes. The cool part is, we taught every class and he simply monitored us. I had a blast. We taught the older students fruits and the younger colors and days of the week. I just love teaching, even in another language. I have a feeling this trip is going to define my calling a little more clearly. On wednesday night we were told we were going to another church, but it turned out to be an outdoor service for the whole region. Meaning our whole American team was there. It was really cool because the purpose was to pray for peace in Guatemala and it was really cool to see the body of Christ come together like that. On Thrusday and Friday the school was closed, so I went back to the compound to interpret for a short term American team. On Thursday we went to the park in Zacapa to do evangelism. I was really nervous to translate, but it was really fun and I felt so useful. My group saw one lady saved on Thursday. After that we went to a pizza place (PRAISE JESUS) for lunch. I have been wanting pizza for over a month. After that we had some time to kill so we stopped in a market with American candy and I got a Hershey bar. Basically, Thusday was heaven. On Friday, I went out with the team again to a village behind the dump. We did evangelism in the morning and invited people to an eye clinic in the afternoon. On Friday, my team saw three people accept Christ. On the bus ride back, it hit me that this had happened, and I realized I had gotten comfortable sharing the Gospel in Spanish, and for a split second, had taken it for granted. May I never get confortable with sharing the Gospel in either language that I rely on my own strength. That afternoon we saw about 50-60 people in the eye clinic and gave them glasses. That team had an awesome system for the eye clinic. On Friday we stayed at the compoud for the weekend. I went to the orphanage to see my loves. Then we just hung out and relaxed the rest of the night. Yesterday was very similar, just a super chill day around the compound. Then a friend and I went to church with our leaders to hear them translate sermons. We came back to our homes this morning and I am about to go play basketball with my sister and her friends. It could be a perfect afternoon living the life of a chapina.