We were sitting in
the Atlanta airport on our way home from Guatemala when I began this post and here I am almost a week later finally getting it out there! Thank you to all of you that prayed for Joseph and I on our trip to Guatemala last week. It was a great trip and our girls each had a great time with friends and family while we were gone. Joseph and I had a very full
few days with Nelson, Rosemarie and their youngest daughter, Camila.
This “scouting” trip was very
important for us in many ways. The first morning we were there, Joseph and
Nelson met with an American missionary who grew up in Guatemala named Nathan
Hardeman. Nathan, the founder and
director of Engadi Ministries International, was able to give us some very
helpful insight from his personal experiences.
He also introduced us to his network of other American missionaries in
Guatemala. One of his recommendations was to consider the value of
attending a language school. This was likely the fifth or sixth time
something like this has been suggested to us! So, needless to say, we are
listening. He highly recommended the
Christian Spanish Academy in Antigua, Guatemala, which is about a 40-minute drive
from Guatemala City. We spent the next day in Antigua visiting the
Christian Spanish Academy (CSA) as well as a couple of other language
schools. CSA is a well-respected school that was started with the
specific mission to help train missionaries in the Spanish language. They
offer an intense full-immersion language program that has been known to be very
successful. We believe that this is exactly where we need to begin.
Joseph will be attending the school every day for 4-6 hours a day for 4 to 6
months. I (Christy) will have classes for 2 hours a day, twice a week. We
will get the most out of the classes by living in Antigua and focusing on
learning Spanish full time. We were able to look at some apartments that
same day and found one that would be a good fit for us, with enough space for
me to continue homeschooling the girls. We are praying that we will be
able to secure this apartment when the time comes. After completing the language program, we
would then look for a more permanent place to live in Guatemala City. The total cost for the full program for both
of us will be around $5,000.  |
| Christian Spanish Academy |
We were also able to have many valuable
conversations about life and ministry in Guatemala during our trip. I appreciated practical things like going for
a run in the neighborhood and grocery shopping with Rosemarie – they have
Walmart and Pricemart! She also took me
to Cenma, a huge fresh fruit and vegetable market where you can buy tons of
great produce for really cheap. On
Sunday morning, we were able to join in worship and fellowship with the church,
Vida Nueva Guatemala. It is amazing to see the Lord putting a closeness between
us and them as we progress toward our move there. There may be great physical
distance between us but the Lord is already knitting our hearts together.
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| Vida Nueva is gearing up for their Bilingual Bible School in November so they were all wearing their "Submerged" T-shirts that Sunday. This is a big outreach event each year that brings in a lot of people from the city. |
The Lord continues to confirm that He is
calling our family there. We believe He
wants to use us to encourage the church in their identity as ambassadors of
Christ with a ministry and a message of reconciliation. We also believe that He will provide for the
ministry that He has called us to. He
has already started moving on many of your hearts to come alongside us. Thank you to those of you who are praying for
us and those who are already supporting us financially. If you are considering supporting us
financially, please let us know by filling out our support form. There is a link to this printable form on the right-hand
column of this blog. (You won't see it on the mobile version of the blog, you have to open the web version to see the link). We are close to 40% of the total funds needed for a two-year
period and we need to know when to make some long-term decisions such as
selling our house, securing an apartment and enrolling in language school. It would be really helpful if you would fill
out the form for us so we can know how to make these decisions.
We are so humbled and thankful for all of
you!!
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| Main Square in Antigua |
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| Guatemala City from the airplane |
