Resolutions

I love New Years and the days that follow.
I love getting a new journal.
I love making resolutions.
I love it all.
I feel like it is a time to start fresh. It motivates me to take stock in my life and it spurs me on to make goals.

This year I want to continue to eat gluten free and eat as many raw foods as possible. I want to keep exercising and continue in my quest to get healthy. I want to have more sex with my husband. (Yeah, I said it)

I want to be a student of the Holy Spirit and actively listen more and to read The Word with fresh eyes. I am going to read thru the whole Bible writing notes in the margins and pass it on to my oldest daughter, so she has a Bible that I've studied to spur her on in her walk with the Lord (thank you Melinda Evans for spurring me on).

I want to watch all 7 seasons of the Gilmore Girls.

I want to read more.

In 2011 I read
The whole Hunger Games series
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
The Cross and the Switchblade
Keeping aBreast
Decision Points
Me Myself and Bob
Fool-proofing your life
The 100 Top Picks for Home School Curriculum.
(and I am sure I am missing a few more)

On my current list for 2012 is
Unveiled by Alan Smith --heard him in person, can't recommend it enough.
Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets
Think Differently Live Differently, by Bob Hamp,
The Essential Guide to Healing by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. This book is out of my norm for types of books I read. Excited.
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
Fasting by Jentezen Franklin
gluten-free girl by Shauna James Ahern

Still deciding on my fiction.

So what are your goals for 2012?

Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.......

Warning: this blog is not appropriate for small children.

Tonight on CBS was the TV show Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus based on the letter written by Virginia O'Hanlon to the New York Sun in 1897. The topic of Santa comes up every year around this time. Last week I saw a story on Fox News where some parents wanted a teacher punished for telling the class there was no Santa Claus. I get it, I have kids and I was a teacher.

This same topic comes up here in Guatemala. While having a conversation with a Guatemalan friend, she relayed a story about her childhood. She asked her older brother if Santa was real. He said only in rich families. She then asked if they were rich, he told her no.

We work closely with a family in the village of Santiago Zamora. Last year just before Christmas the dad was riding back to his village on his bicycle, his only form of transportation, with cereal and milk for Christmas Day (a treat they can't normally afford.) Half way up his road he was robbed. They tied him up and took his bike, the cereal, milk and a few other gifts he had bought. This family can't afford to believe in Santa.

But that is where the good news comes in. This same family loves Jesus. This same family shares testimony after testimony of how good God is to them. They may not have gifts but they have joy. They may have no hope of filled stockings but they do have the hope of a God who is not just for the rich, but who offers a new life for all.

So, I get it, go ahead, tell your kids about Santa, but make sure you tell them about Jesus too, because He is real.

This same family has a son who, without a scholarship, will have to quit school. Please consider giving to our Servants 4Him scholarship fund. Education is a great gift, even if your teacher says there is no Santa.

Gluten Free or as they say in Spanish...Sin Gluten

So, I’ve gone gluten free; in reality 3 out of 5 of us have gone gluten free. I know it’s the new bandwagon in the U.S. but let me assure you, it is not trendy here in Guatemala.

So, why in the world would I choose to go gluten free? Well, my stomach has bothered me my whole life. And for the last few years I knew I should probably try going Gluten free but in reality, I LOVE GLUTEN. In fact, I even believe I was addicted to it.

After going home to the states and eating at every restaurant I have missed, I returned to Guatemala feeling quite sick. I was happy mind you, just sick. So I decided to “cleanse” for a few days. We’ve all done it, the post vacation diet of fruits and veggies, but I was craving bread like a chain smoker craves a cigarette. I needed motivation to stay with my healthy foods for just a few days. Mind you, this was not going to be permanent. So I bought the book (on my iPad of course, I have yet to find a bookstore) Wheat Belly by William Davis

Wow, It offered the motivation I needed. He said, the first few days you will crave bread like a chain smoker craves a cigarette!

So, I stuck with my “temporary” healthy eating for a few more days. And something that I never expected happened, I stopped craving bread and I felt better than I had felt in years!! I had mixed emotions. Obviously I was happy to feel so good, but I was sad, because I realized that the very food I craved and ate often was the very food making me sick. I could not turn back.

Todd and Emily have joined me on this lifestyle change. Todd has not noticed much difference, but Emily who has always been skinny but had a little protruding belly, came to me just yesterday and said, mommy my big tummy is gone. After reading wheat belly I believe she was bloated from gluten.

Why am I sharing all this with you? Well, not to over spiritualize this but I was refusing to give up the one thing I loved not realizing it was the very thing hurting me. I see this in my spiritual life too. I tend to want to hold on to the very thought, action, or sin that I think I need in my life; not realizing it is the very thing holding me back.

This whole journey has been quite eye opening.

What are you holding on to that is really hurting you?

Happy 15th Birthday Clay!!

Clay has done things his own way since he was born. He was 10 days early, spent 5 days in NICU and could jump before he could talk. He's been a leader since he was in preschool.



He makes me laugh


















And has always been handsome.
















He likes the Redskins.
















And is a hard worker!!














He loves his dad.













and liked playing lacrosse.



















He adds joy to each day.
















And has already had memorials named after him!!


















He loves music, like Toby Mac













He's becoming a great musician in his own right and speaks great spanish. He has a large heart for ministry.
I watch in awe the man of God he is becoming.

I love you, Clay.
Mom

Sisters

Sisters have been on my mind a lot lately. I know two older sisters here in Guatemala, never been married...buying one cinder block at a time and praying for three years that some one would build them a house, and we have teams helping to build a house for them. I love these ladies.

Then the other day I met 2 more sisters, 15 and 17. They live alone since both their parents died. They live in a 1/2 finished block house with no bathroom ( they use their aunt's bathroom) and a piece of lamana leaning up against the wall as a make shift roof to cover the open flame they cook over. They have a bedroom, the only real room in the house, with a small, old bed that they share.

We took the young sisters up to see the older sisters. The older sisters have Jesus, and a house. The younger girls have neither. I can offer them Jesus but I can't build them a house because they aren't the official owners of the land. I stood and cried, my heart breaking, as I talked with the older sisters about the younger sisters.

Tears that I could not live how they live, tears that they don't know Jesus, tears that I dont kow how to fix their physical living situation, tears that God led my Katey to meet the older sister, tears that my kids don't have to live that way, tears that these young girls do. Tears that I didn't take them home with me, and more tears that they probably would not have come. So many tears.

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed." Psalm 34:18

A "Normal" Saturday in Guatemala...

I had someone tell me recently that the things which I now consider "normal" would probably be very interesting to people who do not live here in Guatemala. Today, as we were running errands in the city, I started looking at my day with that mind set.

Here is just a small snap shot of my day which was so close to my old normal and yet so far.....

Katey, Todd and I went into the city to run some errands. We decided that we could do one stop shopping if we went to Eskala Mall. It has a newly renamed store....Walmart.

I could not find the makeup I needed so I bought a different brand and hoped it would work. They also don't have bottled water by the case, so we grabbed an arm full of individual bottles and hoped to make it to the cart without dropping them.

I could not find a few of the items I needed, but I made a mental note of the items I saw that they had not carried before.

We spoke spanish in the checkout line, payed in quetzals and headed out of the store. The store opens up to the inside hallways of the mall, just like in the US, but we now had our Walmart cart. We left the mall and headed for our car, passing a security guard with a very large gun in his hands.



After loading up the car, we decided that we were hungry and it was well past lunch time, so we decided to grab a quick lunch at the mall Pizza Hut. This is not the food court Pizza Hut but the sit down kind and it was cleaner than any Pizza Hut I've been in.

The manager asked us in spanish (of course) if we wanted to be able to see the TV and we said yes. It seemed the whole restaurant was there to see the TV. Barcelona was playing Manchester United in soccer.

Now imagine the whole US being either a Redskin or Baltimore fan. No other teams even come close.... that is what it is like here. Just about everyone is either a Real Madrid or Barcelona fan and today only Barcelona was playing. Since leaving our house earlier in the day we lost count on how many Barcelona shirts we had seen. Every TV in Walmart , every radio that had a plug, was on the game.

As I headed to the Pizza Hut bathroom, Barcelona scored and the whole restaurant (including Todd) went nuts. Even the kitchen staff was out of the kitchen watching the TV (which made me wonder how long it would take to get our pizza, but it came quite quickly).

I ordered pepsi light (diet pepsi) and it almost always comes in a can. This time it was a fountain drink....I was so excited. Do you have free refills, I asked? No.

Since moving here I have found 1 resturant that had free refills. Todd and Katey ordered a bottle of water, which they call agua pura (like your going to order agua unpura..) which also does not come with refills, so the old trick of ordering water to cut down on your tab does not work here.

I have not had Pizza Hut since moving here, so we decided to splurge and get the stuffed crust. It was good, the crust was stuffed, but on the outside of the crust was cheddar cheese.

We enjoyed our meal, our non refillable drinks, and the game (Barcelona won in case you missed it) and we headed home.

Then, this evening, a mom and four of her 7 kids stopped by to say they did not have enough food to eat.

This is such a struggle for us. We know the concept behind the saying, "If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day but if you teach him to fish he eats for a lifetime", but when they are standing on your door step at 6:30 pm in the dark and the rain with 4 of their kids, ranging from ages 12 to 3 months, there is not time to teach fishing. We invited them in, introduced the little ones to our cat, fed them popcorn, chatted in spanish, and then I packed up a lot of food (some that I had just bought at Walmart) and we hugged them and prayed with them and the mom cried and we gave them bus money and sent them on their way.
And as the evening was coming to an end, I thought, what a "normal" Saturday.

I am not always content with the new normal, but the Lord is working on me, which brings to mind the part of Philippians 4:12 that says, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation," ......That is my prayer.

Have you ever had to adjust to a new normal?

Before and After Photos... A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

These are our smaller stoves being put in houses in San Pablo... across the lake from Panajachel.

After:

The women are believers of Jesus, the father is a witchdoctor

Before:


After:

This sweet lady has terrible pain in her legs. I got a chance to lay hands on them and pray for healing for her.

Before:

It's The End Of the Day As We Know It

The World was supposed to end today, according to some. For us, in a lot of ways, it is just beginning.

Have you ever have one of those days when God just sends people to your door? Well, I had no intentions of having one of those days. We were going to head to the city, but boy did God have other plans.

This was our day:

5:00 am.Todd drives family to airport

8:00 I get out of bed because men are coming to work on the roof

10:00 Guatemalan friend from the city comes by with her mom and dad so we could meet them

10:30 A mom we minister to, from El Tizate, comes by with her oldest daughter and newest baby (see last news letter to get the story about baby Carolina). The daughter needed to use a computer for a school project. I fed them lasagna for lunch. Mom shared how she does not have enough food for her children. I pack her a grocery bag full of food.
Mom brought me a plant from her garden as a gift.

11:00 The gardener, who comes every saturday morning, plants the gift for me with Emily's help. We feed him every week, this week he got lasagna.

11:30 Todd, accompanied by 2 of our kids, drive the mom and 2 kids to pick of medicine for the grandma and then drive them home.

1:00pm One of Clay's friends comes by

2:00 A Gautemalan friend, Fernando, and three of his kids (that I tutor in Santiago Zamora...see last news letter) come by to visit and talk. I give them medicine for a sick family member.

4:30- 6:00 many missionary friends come by

6:30 Our ministry driver (that we use for teams) comes by to tell us about a car accident he was just in where God spared his life. We feed him dinner and give him medicine.

7:00 Clay and friends come back from the central park, where a young man that we connected with at the lake this week, has called to tell clay he is in town to visit. We feed him dinner. He is now sleeping on our couch.

The story that God was writing in my home this Saturday is better than any movie I was going to see in the theaters. What did you do today when the world didn't end?

Where There's a Will, There's a Coke

Ever wonder why we can't get people clean drinking water or why we can't get enough food and medicine to rural parts of the world..and yet, no matter where you go in the world you can get a coke?
Well, Melinda Gates wondered the same thing. Here is a short (20 minutes) video on what NGO's could learn from Coke.
I watched it and was fascinated. And then my mind went wild, the same concepts work for sharing the Gospel.

i encourage you to watch this video. The principles are priceless.

Melinda French Gates: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola | Video on TED.com

Family Devotions- It's A Zoo Out There!

Not for one minute am I going to pretend that finding time for family devotions is easy. It is not. But that is all the more reason to make it a priority and fight for a time that works.
When living in the states, the few times that really worked for us were times when we were naturally together. Time in the car on the way to school or at the dinner table.
The second hurdle we faces was what to do. Our kids range in ages from 10 to 17 so that posed a small challenge.
We have had some great success with the book "Voices of the Faithful" You just read a page a day and the focus is on missions.
I also like The One Year Devotions series. They have One Year Devotions for Boys, for GIrls, for Kids, Teens and Preschoolers.

But now that we are homeschooling we have devotions 5 mornings a week, at the beginning of the school day and though I could not be more thrilled with this, I have struggled to find something that they wanted to listen to daily.



Thanks to a friend I used to teach with, we have found the perfect book. I have used it in the classroom and now with my kids and in both settings the kids request it!!! "Are we going to read the zoo book today?"

The stories are true, some funny and some sad. They are a few pages long and tell of the adventures that Gary Richmond had while working for many years in a California zoo. At the end of each story he ties it into a story or lesson from the Bible. My whole family loves these, they are not just for kids!!

So whether family devotions are new to you or you have mastered the art, this book is sure not to disappoint. Grab a copy (you can get it on amazon) and start reading it at the dinner table tonight.

In The Words of Mother Teresa....

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. 
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. 
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. 
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. 
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." 
— Mother Teresa

So you had a bad day

What constitutes a bad day in your world? No coffee? A foiled snow day? A sick toddler?

For me here in Guatemala it is usually something like running out of milk and knowing I can't get the kind I like for days, or the internet going in and out, maybe it is firecrackers at midnight when I am really tired.

Well, we know a dear older man who is always smiling. He works as a guard at our gate and he serves us faithfully. If he sees me in the market, he waves and smiles like he's seeing a friend.

He lives right outside of Antigua in a tin "house" with no water. This is the amazing view from his house.

The other day he had a bad day. Apparently, the town was cutting down a tree and it fell on his house!! Here is the current state of his house:

Here is his kitchen:

and here is his bedroom:

OK, so here is the problem, the government says they are going to fix it, but how long does he wait to see if that is true? We could build him a new house. We could even use cinderblock, but we can't verify if he owns the property. If he doesn't own it, then as soon as it is built the landlord may decide to take it. That would leave our friend homeless. So, please pray with us as we decided how and when to move forward.

The interesting thing is that many people in all of our lives have houses that are crashing down. Maybe not on the outside, but on the inside. Their exterior house may look beautiful, but their marriage, or finances, or hearts may be collapsing.

So, pray that God shows you who in your life is having a bad day and I'll pray with you that you too, to know how to move forward.

Our Super Hero

Tonight, after our friends left, we searched high and low for our cat. She's a little like a dog in that she comes when we call her, but she was no where to be found. Even though Todd told me he checked the balcony, I went out there just one more time. And that's when I heard it. This faint meow.
Turns out Casper was stuck in a tree behind our house in a gated lot. So at 11:00 at night Todd climbed the fence, had the kids help pass him a ladder, climbed two stories with the ladder not secure against the tree, to save our cat.
If we are willing to do that for a cat, what are we willing to do for the hurting and lonely people around us?
I am pondering this question as a go to sleep tonight, with my cat sound asleep on my bed.

Homeschooling 101

Teaching is not new to me, I've been doing it my whole adult life. Homeschooling, however, is.
I have had the most fun looking at curriculum. I am a nerd like that. It hit me the other day that Emily was the only one of my kids who had to go to full time day care at the age of 2 because I had to go back to work. I feel so blessed that God is redeeming that time away from me as I get to be with her one on one now. How cool is that.
Anyway, I have no idea if any one cares what curricula I am using, and I could change my mind on some of them by next year BUT for now I am pretty stoked about my choices. (Thanks to Angel Radford, who gave me some great recommendations!)

Let me share them with you....

Bible: Well, that one is not in stone yet but I am 95% sure I am going to use one of Kay Arthur's Inductive Bible Study for Kids

Math: Horizon Math

Science: I am pretty excited about this because it is really deep and Bible based and we already did an experiment!! For Science, we are using Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology

History: I thought hands on would be best, so we are finishing American History with a whole set of History Pockets. We are starting with Explorers of North America.

We are also covering Geography

Shurley English - I used this at my last school and the first year I did not like it, but year 2-8 every year I loved it more.  Shurley English

Literature- We will use various novels, as this was my area of speciality at my last school. I am also using a workbook for short articles and more focus on reading skills.
We are also doing handwriting, spelling, and daily language review, vocabulary and more. I am picking and choosing for these subjects so I don't have a single website.

Emily is currently reading Otherwise Known and Sheila the Great. One idea, I google all book titles and find cool info, vocabulary, questions etc. for each book. I also google the author, many of them have blogs that are geared toward kids.
What kids books do you and your children love?

Already we have covered so much, I am learning new things and we can run to the computer or kitchen to check on or test anything. I am excited to see how this year unfolds.

Here is a Quick Review of the Past 2 Weeks...(Guest Blogger:Katey Erickson)

I am sorry that I haven't blogged in a little while...I have been busy. And I want to tell you all about it so here is a bunch of pictures and explanations of how I spent my last two weeks :)

On the 22nd of December we went with some friends to Oakland Mall in the city to see the new Narnia movie. It was tons of fun! It was really nice to go see a movie in the theaters and it was such a great movie...so spiritual! And we even got our pictures with Santa :) It was a great day with friends!

And then on Christmas Eve we had dinner at the Forrest and Carols house and then went to the candle light Christmas Eve service put on by our church. It was a good Christmas Eve!

But thats not all, at midnight the sky lit up with fireworks from EVERY direction to celebrate Christmas Day! It was like nothing I had ever seen, heard, or smelt! And its definitely a tradition that I will enjoy (:

Then Christmas morning we had a normal Christmas morning. But then once we opened gifts and ate breakfast, we went to the airport to pick up the Oesterblads!

And with them came more gifts! It was like a second Christmas morning. Thank you so much to everyone who sent stuff down with the Oesterblads! And thank you to everyone who signed my shirt! You guys are AWESOME!!!

(in the picture above I am reading all the signatures on a shirt that a lot of my friends from school and church signed!!)

Then we spent the week with the Oesterblads! It was a great week. We...

Sifted (first picture) and cleaned (second picture) sand for a water filter!

Went to a village where we played with kids and the guys built a new stove for a family.

The second picture is me with two little girls who braided my hair (:

The last picture is the Oesterblad guys with the family that got the new stove!

Went to some ruins in Antigua!

Hiked the volcano Pacaya. And while we were there I talked to our guide from the last time we hiked Pacaya and I gave him a picture of himself that I had taken last time. He loved it and he said that he didnt have a picture of himself. It was so cool!

And we celebrated New Years Eve with food, movies, and of course...Fireworks!! We set off some of our own and then watched them light up the sky at midnight just like Christmas Eve! It's so cool to watch!

So thats how I spent the last two weeks!! It has been a really fun last two weeks. Thanks for reading...sorry for the excessive amount of pictures :)

-Katey!!