Month: January 2018

In my 10 months here, I’ve noticed a pattern. The new thing drawing the attention of a majority of the kids changes in a wave. For instance, when I arrived, the attention grabber was a trompo, a top. Kids would wind thin ropes around their top, throwing them at the ground getting them to spin real fast before beginning to lift them into their hand or walking it like a dog. New tricks were being learned everyday, the older teaching the younger. And, some of them were still getting the hang of flicking their wrists in the correct direction upon the initial throw. Lots of skill levels with even more tops surrounded the court, sidewalk, and any empty flat area that could be found.

As we shifted more into the summer season, the temperature rose quick and the rain drops fell even quicker. Whenever the sun came out, any free afternoon turned into a water fight. Buckets filled with rain water were dumped over heads. Hoses sucked up every last drop of water saved in the showers. The pilas (sinks for washing clothes) were left bone dry while every inch of clothing worn was dripping wet.

Towards the end of summer and the last couple of days of the rainy season, most of the houses, kids and caretakers, were planting something. The areas with dirt were filled with flowers, greenery, and a variety of plants. The kids were focusing on being responsible for their house’s plants and keeping an eye on the growth. Then, began another season, the season of barriletes.

Kite season! Small, lightweight sticks were assembled together with a thin piece of thread. They were decorated with tissue paper and a long tail, and soon flew through the air. Different techniques were used in both assembly and flight. Kites of all sizes filled the sky. By the time December came, so did a time of another activity. Cuetes… Fireworks!

I couldn’t walk anywhere without hearing some type of pop or crackle from some type of firework. With Christmas and the New Year approaching, everyone was spending their free time outside participating in setting off the fireworks or at least watching/listening. Day and night, the sight and sound of fire was entertaining for girls and boys, young and old.

Now that January has come and gone, the new attention grabber is la cuerda. Jump rope! Again, lots of techniques, lots of skill levels, but the same activity. Some of the older boys are whipping the rope overhead as fast as they can, getting maybe an inch off the ground, from years of practice. Others line up in groups to see who can last the longest. And then their are those younger ones who are on the sidelines of a soccer game trying to master getting two jumps in without needing to take a break in between. Some do it for exercise, others do it for competition, and others for just pure fun and joy.

I’ve also noticed patterns over my past ten months here. While I do have a job to fulfill as a sponsorship assistant and as the “news reporter” of Casa Shalom, I find my attention being grabbed in new roles to fill in the kids’ lives. I have skills in some areas, while others I am still picking up along the way. I arrived at the orphanage last April, and in May, I was asked to fill in as a horse therapist. That included dedicating time to learning how to care for the horse as well as working with the child(ren) to make the most of their time with the horse. May, June, and July were filled with weekly appointments with the horse, with kids and also with the fellow instructors.

August and September came, and I picked up a new role. I became the piano teacher for two of our teens, and myself as well. I was doing lessons with them once a week teaching chords and scales, while also helping them practice using the side of the table or the countertop as a piano. I would open up my room to them and allow them to practice on an actual keyboard for a few minutes at a time whenever they wanted to.

October, November, and December were busy months of the year, with kids all out of school and events being scheduled almost every week, from graduation parties, to outings, holiday preparation, and the occasional shopping trips. I was helping as an assistant, a decorator, a safety monitor, a babysitter, a supporter, an event coordinator, and everything in between.

A new year means new responsibilities. New ways to help the children, staff members, and American volunteers/interns/short term missionaries. Over the past week or two, I’ve been working alongside the new intern coordinator. I’ve been her translator to the house parents, I’ve supplied her with materials making it a little bit easier for coordination between the intern and the house parents. I’ve helped her make a schedule, and assisted in being eyes and ears when she is off campus. I’ve been providing my own feedback on my time as an intern, and have given her new ideas to bring to the internship program, as she sees fit. January brought two new interns, and I will be helping them (intern, intern coordinator, & house parents) get adjusted to one another and provide areas that need improvement or further translation.

I have also noticed a role that I could fill, one that would benefit the kids if someone were there to fill it. Pastor. No, I’m not filling the role of a full time campus pastor, leading services weekly for all of the kids and being the backbone for spiritual growth. That position is still open and needed. I will be spending about a half hour with a house in the evenings, one night with the younger girls and another night with the younger boys. I will be providing them a video, an activity to go along with the video, and a memory verse for the week to remind them of the Bible lesson for the week. This doesn’t only add an hour of work to my week (half hour with each house), but involves watching the video at least once beforehand, writing notes of questions and conversation with the kids, making up an activity, and finding time to grab the supplies from the store, knowing that I am dependent on others for transportation. Plus, everything takes almost twice as long, now that I am having to create conversation and activities in a second language.

That role is a lot to fill, but one that I know is needed. I am nowhere near fit to fill the role of a pastor in 24 young kids, but I can make a spark of difference in these two dozen lives. I am provided with a fun video program (that is in both Spanish and English), I have some extra time that I could be filling for the benefit of the kids, and I’ve taken the time to really plan things out, create exciting activities, and have grown spiritually while doing so. February starts the first of the weekly Bible lessons, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this role will take not only me, but also the 24 kids and 4 house parents (and the intern). I can’t wait to see what the next season’s “attention grabber” will be. What role or activity has grabbed your attention in this season?

Sometime last week, I was asked by a 9 year old, “Where do you live?” Seems like a straightforward question with an answer I wouldn’t have to think about before answering. But I had to stop and  really question myself… My community, friends, and family are based in the US, but I’m spending most of the year in Guatemala with all of the kids. When I am in Guatemala, home is the US. And when I’m in the US? Guatemala. I responded “I live here and in the US. Both of them.”

Home. Throughout the years, the definition of that word has changed based on my location or stage of life (grade school, college, and “adult life”).

Home, to me, doesn’t just signify the building or room in which I live, but the community I am a part of. Friends I have. People I can pour into and that can pour into me. A relationship based community, with sharing, encouraging, and togetherness.

If I were to be asked what the most difficult part is of living with 91 kids, it would definitely be the lack of community in my life. I am constantly surrounded by kids asking questions, seeking guidance, and recovering emotionally from what their past held. I rarely have a person or a group of people pouring into me and I in them equally. No one to drag to a movie, no one to share dinner with, no one to simply enjoy being in each others’ presence with, while we are journaling or reading together. I am often the one pouring from my cup, participating in activities and conversations the kids want to share together. I guess that’s what I signed up for, right?!

I’m trying to view my community differently. We do not currently have a campus pastor, and I’ve been praying on how I can assist in this gap. In the next few weeks, I will be sharing devotions with the younger boys and girls house once a week after they finish school and dinner for the day. This will include a short video, followed by questions and a memory verse. I will take the time to notice needs and fill them, if and/or when I can. I will be getting more involved with worship. Through our weekly therapy groups, we do praise and worship before getting involved in our activities. This praise and worship may be accompanied with hand motions, dances, twirling scarves, and a guitar. I’m often standing alongside the kids leading and participating in the motions, but I want to start bringing my ukulele along to pour into the kids more, and hopefully getting worship involved not only in therapy group but also into the houses (maybe with my devotionals, if the kids are up for it?!).

I guess in a way, I am surrounded by the best community. I’m surrounded by company at every meal I eat. I am often annoyed (playfully) while at work, because a few of them are curios to learn about whatever is currently on my computer screen. I get a chance to follow up with them after school everyday to see how their day went and what they learned. I get to take part in rolling cars down the hill, passing soccer balls, jumping rope, and flicking marbles into a triangle (still not completely sure of their rules!). I can sit down with a child and write out the words they say to me, to later copy my letters in their own writing to send to their sponsors, assisting in developing skills of learning how to write and match letters with their sounds. But, I do need to make more notice of what the kids are in a way teaching me, not in conversation but through example. Kindness, giving, selflessness, caring for one another, including others, imagination, looking to the positive, joy, unconditional love, and much, much more.

It’s almost like I am a small part of two environments or communities, without actually being fully in one. I almost feel slightly uncomfortable in both, feeling as if I am missing out on one if I am in the other. When I am in Guatemala, I love video chatting with friends and family back home. But when I’m in the States, all I can think about are my kids back home. I guess we weren’t created to be comfortable in our earthly home, but to set our focus on our eternal home, where everyone we love and care for will be reunited together in one community.

“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

 

(In the photo with the horse, the back of my shirt says “The thing I love most about my home is who I share it with.” Pretty much sums it up!)

More and more recently, I’ve been giving thanks for everything to come at me, good and bad. Showing praise and gratefulness for the moments that come into my life and also the lessons brought by the obstacles.

First, Thanks be to God. Thankful for His all. Thankful for His grace, love, and forgiveness even when I feel least deserving of any of them. Thankful for His providing and provision even when I had my own doubts. Thankful that He opened the doors in allowing me to fulfill His calling in my life. Thankful to all He has graciously given despite my lack of thanks.

I give thank for the almost 90 kids I get to share a home with. Thankful for those who have left the Casa Shalom neighborhood in the past couple of months, and also for those that will join the family in the next few weeks, months, or years.

I can’t forget about the moments I share with each of the kids. Giving thanks for a little boy wanting to show me how he can ride down the ramp while seated on the skateboard.  Thanks to the small hand that slowly works its way into mine while walking to our next destination. Thanks to the young girl wanting to carry my bag for me, and frowning when I wanted to take it into the house. Thanks to the pre-teens that fight over who I should eat my next meal with. Thanks to the young men and women who often times get on my nerves, but also accept me with arms open wide.

Thanks for the staff members of Casa Shalom. Thanks for the maintenance men who got up on my roof to stop a leak. Thanks to the cooks for working early in the morning until late at night providing 3 hot filling meals for the day (although I’m often too lazy to get the first one!) Thanks to the office workers for coordinating events, visitors, and other essential information that I am often times unaware of nor give notice to. Thanks to the psychologists who assist in the healing and processing of each child at the orphanage. Thanks to those volunteering, whether intern, full time, or short term missionary, for finding needs and fulfilling them to their greatest potential.

Thanks to the therapy group I get to be a part of. Thankful for the healing brought by our furry four-legged friends, cat, dog, bunny, or horse. Thankful for the creativity that can be shown with a few dried out markers and scratch paper. Thankful for a sand box filled with another world. Thankful for construction of racetracks and train tracks. Thankful for the laughter shared while hitting a puck on the air hockey table. Thankful for lifting up one voice together in praise and worship as well as a bible story.

Thankful for the sponsorship program. Thankful to have so many sponsors pouring into each of the kids. Thankful for the donations that are given for birthday gifts, good grades, and general needs. Thankful for the contact shared between kids and sponsors exchanging letters and photos. Thankful that I get to be a small part in that translation.

Thank you to my friends, family, church, and sponsors for encouraging me, supporting me, checking up on me, and continuing to pray for me and the ministry of Casa Shalom. Thanks for your confidence in me and keeping my head up at times it may begin to fall. Thanks for still allowing me to be a part of your community, while I am still searching for  my footing here in Guatemala. Thanks for staying up-to-date with everything that is happening in and around Casa Shalom. And thanks for taking the time to read this blog! If I might’ve forgotten anything, which I know I have, I’m thankful for that too! What are you thankful for today?!

 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

With a new year upon us, it now begins a season of change. Lose weight, break bad habits, spend less money, cut out junk food, clean the house, finish that project, the list goes on. But how long do we actually end up keeping those new years resolutions? Isn’t a new years resolution just for new years day?

I’ve gone another way. Instead of being focused on adding or removing something into my daily routine, I’ve set this year on a word (or a few words). This word is not one that is just a few letters long that I can look up in the dictionary. It is a word I want to think upon daily and use within my life when I see it can be used. I was debating between two, but they both fulfill a similar meaning.

Light.

Example.

New years night, we lit all kinds of fireworks, sparklers, and firecrackers from about midnight until 1 am. Those fireworks that would be illegal in the United States. For sure! But we all had fun, and no one ended up going to the hospital, which was the main concern while the three volunteers were in charge of passing them out and setting them off.

The whole night, I was attracted to the light. The sparklers to my side, the multiple firework shows going on in the city below, the rockets shooting up above my head, the bonfire (when the mountain wind picked up), or the little flashlight on my phone guiding my way down the rocky road when everything was over.

So were all the kids. They were running around everywhere finding the nearest source of fire for themselves. Whoever had a sparkler in hand, they were surrounded with kids. The more that came to the source of the fire, the larger it got, the more noticeable it got. When the sparkler ran out, they had to run and find a flame elsewhere, from a lighter, a friend’s sparkler, or the bonfire. From a small sparkler shot a large rocket. Although the flame may seem small, it could grow so large as more start to notice it.

I want to be the light (an example). I want to notice the light (examples) around me and allow it to spark a flame of my own. I want others to see my light and be able to pick up a spark from me. I want to be aware of how I spend my time, so that my flame is continually keeping strong. I want my light to be contagious. How do you want to use the 365 days this year has given you?