Opal House

2011-11-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

Soulful self
Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity, can cause to be set in motion . . . Mend the part of the world that is within your reach.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

A Moment to Meditate

2011-11-11T10:55:00.001-08:00

God IS love
This is the lesson I have learned.
You never know what form love will take
You can't predict how it will come to you
And the way in which it will come
Because love is truly a bigger power than our hearts can actually hold
And so often we block it for the fear of its power
Yet if we truly lived in a world of love we would see no fear
It is fear that blocks us from the full experience of God as love
Fear that keeps us trapped in our bodies
Unable to express all that we were created to be
Because we are love
Truly, we are created in the image of God
And God is love
Did you get that?
God does not represent love
God does not exist as a mere face of love
God IS love
When we love in the world, we are sharing God
When we allow love into our lives we are experiencing God
So often we are afraid of love because it's power is so encompassing
I'm not talking just sexual love .... I am talking about love that seeks justice
Love that seeks to clothe itself into compassion
This is the type of love that God is
Too often we espouse love as a feeling
But just as God is multi-dimensional, so is love
So don't pretend that love comes only in one form
At one point in time
In one body
God is not limited to the constructs that we define Him as
The boxes that we put Him in
God is love
God IS Love!

Charlene Nafziger

Los Patojos

2011-11-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures with the children....did I tell you that I have grown to love them? Every individual personality. They are doing well. School's out for the year and so they are quite happy!We just finished a nine week class on the Fruit of the Spirit. We had a puppet called "Gusanito" - the little worm. The other pictures are of us singing a 'joyful noise' unto the Lord...and I do mean 'NOISE'! We are out of tune and the kids are using our rudimentary instruments, marachas, penny whistles, drums made out of bamboo, tambourine, and eggs that I filled with beans. But I love to hear us bellow out a tune in Spanish! I remember when I had to write out everything and would hardly try and say anything to the children for fear they might respond and I would have to answer with the few sentences I had memorized. Oh the ego of it all. But it has taught me that simplifying our speech can be a good thing. We have a tendency to fill the world with words and less meaning.

This is Anayeli, to the left and Paola to the right of her. Anayeli is Paola's aunt! Anayeli's mother has 14 children! They follow me around like my shadow when they are here. I'm thinking of teaching them how to bake and maybe we might even try a little sewing. I had a great time with them and my friend Alicia. We had the girls over for an afternoon sewing doll clothes by hand. I was amazed how Alicia could whip out a cute little dress with t-shirt material. I'm grateful that I have a girlfriend here. We actually can have a pretty good conversatin though she speaks at the speed of light. I have stopped asking her to slow down, I'm just trying to catch up. I think it's working......

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Goodbye Rain

2011-11-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Another wet season come and gone and here are the results in no order of importance! Ahhh, to have dry clothes is really a gift. I am not used to living in so much humidity. The cement walls hold the dampness and we end up having to hang not only our laundry but clothes that have been hanging inside the house during this time. My leather jacket was producing some mildew which could have been the next pharmaceutical wonder drug. Another interesting tidbit, wood furniture also likes to produce it's own green carpet if left to itself. I try not to leave the house without checking out the 'scent' of my clothes first.

This last tropical storm did a number on our roads. Potholes here and there and everywhere. But the real problem are the homes lost to the torrential downpour. And, ofcourse,crops lost, especially the corn that is so important to the people here.

Here is Margarita at her finest, just about ready to 'dar la luz' which in Spanish is 'to give light'...I love that expression for giving birth.

She really was a belly dragger for quite some time, swinging that belly back and forth....kinda reminds me of middle age hehehe.....

She gave birth to 5 little kittens, 3 black and white, and one that looks just like her. Twenty four hours later she gave birth to the runt who is black. We adore them all. Now, you'll love this, I thought she had tumors, I was too naive to think that a young cat, whom we just got could go off in the blink of an eye and do the hanky panky. But she did, and THEN the day she gave birth I heard the crying of her first one and thought 'that darn cat has drug another live mouse and is eating it alive!'. Time to read up on cats on wikipedia.

And here she is with the first one.....(the little rat)

8 weeks later..

Negrita" small black one

Now, this bottom picture is not for the faint-hearted. This is something that Izzy, the chicken killing Rottweiller got a hold of one night. She actually punctured the armor of the armadillo. I was horrified, but what can you do when you live on a farm? I think the animals here are re-populating. I heard that a local man used to hunt on this property and sell the meat. Who knows what we will find in the future. If only our dogs would leave them alone. Even seeing squirrels are not usual, at least while I'm walking around. People like to capture them and put them inside a very tiny cage where they just run in circles all day long. I wonder if this is where the idea of a hamster wheel came from ......

Just an Ordinary Day...

2011-09-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

"The Sacredness of Ordinary" by Pema Chodron
Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite.It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world. We can do this even at the most difficult moments. Everything we see, hear, taste, and smell has the power to strengthen and uplift us.

Once upon a time, if I needed a break I would jump into my car and head out for a cup of coffee, or to a park, or go see a movie, or shop. But living up on the mountain away from suburbia and living in the rhythm of a much simplier lifestyle, I find that I am learning to find the 'sacredness of the ordinary' in my daily life. Sometimes it's just going to feed the animals or watching the baby kittens wrestle with each other. I'm learning to be aware of what I'm doing, even if it's just washing a counter top or hanging up our clothes on the clothesline (haha to all those homeowner's associations that won't allow THAT!). Today, I found this in my daily devotional also:

"The common drudgery of daily life can be a Divine Calling. We often speak of a young man as "being called to the Ministry"; but it is as fitting to speak of a carpenter being called to the bench, the blacksmith to the forge, and the shoemaker to his last. "Brethren," said the Apostle, "let every man wherein he is called, therin abide with God." Remember that your life has been appointed by God's wise providence. God as much sent Joseph to the drudgery and discipline of the prison as to the glory and responsibility of the palace. Nothing happens to us which is not included in His plan for us; and the incidents which seem most tiresome are often contrived to give us opportunities to become nobler, stronger characters. We are called to be faithful in performing our assigned duties. Not brillance, not success, not notoriety which attracts the world's notice, but the regular, quiet, and careful performance of trivial and common duties; faithfulness in that which is least is as great an attainment in God's sight as in the greatest.....Take up your work, then, you who seem to be the nobodies, the drudges, the maid-of-all-work, the clerk, or shop assistant. Do it with a brave heart,looking up to Him who for many years toiled at the carpenter's bench. Amid the many scenes and actions of life, set the Lord always before your face. Do all as in His presence, and to win His smile; and be sure to cultivate a spirit of love to God and man. Look out for opportunities of cheering your fellow-workers. Do not murmur or grumble, but let your heart rise from your toil to God your Maker, Savior, and Friend. So the lowliest service will glisten, as grass-blades do when sun and dewdrops garnish them. - Fred Meyer

Have a Blessed, Sacred, Ordinary Day!!!!

Seven Celebration of 9/24/04

2011-09-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had a beautiful celebration of our calling to Opal House seven years ago today. Will made some homemade pesto (our basil is doing well)and I set up a cozy table for dinner in the center of our chapel. We lit candles on the table, on the children's altar up in front and on the back wall. It was so peaceful. Will,Ryan and I ate dinner and we shared our story with Ryan on how we came to live here up in the mountains of Guatemala. Then we spontaneously had a worship service afterwards. We held candles while we sang songs, each of us read a Scripture and just enjoyed the beauty of our chapel with the view of luminous, billowly clouds hanging over the lake at sunset. Ryan felt that we should close this special night with s'mores made over our propane stove. He really had to force us to do it....
Today was so sunny, it was easy to forget that we are still in the rainy season. Really, they should just call it the 'flea season'. This has been a never ending battle with those tiny creeps. I drowned them with the garden hose the other day. I felt somewhat joyous doing it. It doesn't help that we had one momma cat and her 5 babies and JoJo living in the sunroom. I can't spray more Avon Skin So Soft or Off Insect Repellent than I do now without creating a health hazard for myself. It's just an irritation but it can make you crazy! Speaking of insects, Ryan is now learning all about those creepy creatures, fleas included. I'm homeschooling him here this year and I'm enjoying re-learning alot of what I have forgotten over the years. He has alot of visuals around here.He happened to be reading up on quails and it just so happened that we have added a couple of quail to our menagerie of animals. He could immediately make up close observations. And we planted a wild flower garden and have many different types of insects visiting it daily. I see his excitement over learning from life that is happening around us every day. He found a dead possum...no, it wasn't playing dead..it was dead. The first one seen here. I think the Mayans have somewhat cleaned out the mountains of most small mammals. Ryan is now the head caretaker of the animals. I hope he'll take it to the next level and clean out those pens. We still want to add chickens and maybe a pig (hopefully one that does not look like Wilbur, I will not have the heart to make it into pork chops)
On another note, Guatemala had their elections on the 11th of this month. The guy who won has a campaign symbol of an iron fist...'mano dura'. He's an ex-general of the 35 year civil war here. It's an indication that the people want someone who can do something about the violence in this country. Unfortunately, it's like they don't remember that it was the generals and the army that killed over 200,000 rural mayans. There were protests in the streets in some of the pueblos around here afterwards. But we heard that it was over the election of the local mayors. The people feel that many votes are bought.
It is amazing to see how the past seven years have flown by and where we are today. We are grateful and are content with where we are. We have learned to just live in the rhythm of the day like our neighbors and stop to enjoy the beauty that is surrounding us. Yes, we have had to make adjustments, especially living in the rural mountains....like flea season, keeping the mice from turning our roof into a condominium, bats in the belfry, picking out insect parts out of my teaching supplies, run-away goats, disobedient dogs, fighting rabbits, falling into mole holes, african killer bees that are just passing by...well, you get the picture.

The Little Yellow School Bus

2011-05-25T11:16:00.001-07:00

With gas being at an all time high we thought why not do what the locals do and so we acquired a tuk-tuk. We were able to sell a van that some wonderful people in the states donated. Tuk-tuks are used in most majority world countries. They are in India and Vietnam. They're just little scooters. But this one is much bigger than the others around here. A local mission helped us to get it. We can coast down to the end of town and though it can only go up to 10-25 rpm's uphill, it's going to save us on gas money.

This is Will giving it a test ride in Panajachel. It's rather loud, but it's diesel and that costs less here. The kid's love it! The locals, well, some just smile, the guys wave (they don't see women driving tuk-tuks around). Some people wave us down for rides. We thought we could get 5 kids in back and 1 in front, but we stuffed 14 in it, just like a telephone booth!!

New "Kids" on the Block

2011-05-25T08:47:00.001-07:00

This is Margarita. She is one of our latest additions to our family. She came from a hardware store in Chimaltenango. She was sitting outside minding her own business with her sibling and here she is. Will and I thought that a cat was needed with all the field mice we have around here. They seek shelter during the rainy season and seem to be attracted to living under the adobe roof tiles. She came to us somewhat ferrel but after running away for a few weeks (or Allie wouldn't let her come back)she appeared to become domesticated overnight. She follows Will and I around like a dog and needs to be scratched like most cats. She's keeping the sunroom free of geickos, insects and sad to say some type of bird that I only discovered feathers and maybe it's head (hard to recognize some things after a fight). Will also throws her on top of the roof and yahoo! we don't hear the patter of itsy bitsy feet anymore!

As you can see Jojo is not thrilled with her. First Izzy, our Rottweiler came to live with us, then Allie, now Margarita. Life was much simplier for him then. But they all know who is the alpha, I think......

Meet the 'Familia Cabra' (goat family :) We have TONS of monte or brush here, TONS. We have workers that have to cut this brush down underneath the avocado trees or the trees suffer. The goats love to eat this stuff and we love to see them eat it. We call the mama goat 'mamacita' and the little boy is Billy, hehe, that's pretty original huh? And his sister 'Coco'. Will got to see them butt their heads last week, just like kids......Now Jojo isn't the only dog having a fit over the new additions. Allie is keeping her eye on them.....a little too much if you ask me. But the week we got them Izzy and Ally broke into their pen (which originally was Allie and Izzy's so who can blame them for the confusion?) and Izzy had Coco pinned with his mouth around her neck before Juan got a hold of her. Izzy needs to go to jail. She is just a breed that will hunt other mammals. So, she is now tied up during the day while the goats are grazing. Here's a picture of Allie and Izzy. Izzy is doing one of three things that she does well, eat....sleep....and look for prey....

So after Izzy's little escapde, the worker's quickly built a new, secure house for them. You can easily picture this as a vacation home near a lake somewhere....The goat family is now content in their secure shelter and even enjoy having guests over for a quick bite :)

Happy Belated Resurrection Day

2011-04-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Belated Easter to one and all! It's hard to believe that another celebration has come and gone! Will and I celebrated Easter with Juan and his family, Diego, and Veronica and her children. We all headed to Antigua to watch the processions like last year. We were grateful that there was cloud cover as last year we baked in the sun and there is not a bit of shade normally by the time they start the processions. I believe it was the first time Juan and his family had been to Antigua and they seemed to enjoy it. Last year we had gone to see the processions on Good Friday, this time on Thursday so there were different processions from other churches. The streets were swamped. But like all celebrations here and I suppose whereever there are people, there are vendors EVERYWHERE! You would think every vendor from china had made their way to Antigua! All the stuff that you don't want your kids to see because it becomes a battle to keep it about the celebration of the Resurreciton of Jesus and not about toys and trinkets. Will and I attended the night time mass at San Lucas....a beautiful mass. We all had our customary candles lit and midway during the service the lights went on and people came out to adorn the altar and the church with beautiful lillies and other flower arrangements as part of the dawning of a new day. That was Saturday, Sunday was a quiet and reflective day. We had our chapel dedication on Easter Monday. Father Greg and about 4 other priests came and held a mass. We had our children and their mothers here along with the construction crew and their families. About 40 or 50 people total. We had a reception afterward and all in all it was a day of celebration with our community. I was glad for the opportunity to show the mothers how we teach the children with the props from Godly Play. They were able to see from the baptism of Jesus through his resurrection all the little figurines that we had glady received from a church in Connecticut! It really helps to seal the lessons in the children when they can see something tangible. We want to thank all of you that donated in helping us construct this Chapel of Peace. We thank Fr. Dave for helping us with the sign and hanging other things before the dedication. We miss you all and wish that you could have been here......

Boys will be Boys

2011-03-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

This is our class time at the cistern: Diego, me and kiddos! The next pic is Will and some of my little ones after picking our sunflowers. For Valentines Day, our lesson was about Mr. Lovebug and his lack of love for his classmates. I surprised the kids with their own puppet. Will took the boys on an ATV ride. The boys love the machines...anything that makes LOTS of noise :)

This is a pic of my caballeritos (little gentlemen). They were on the letter "B" and we made masks. The next one is reading time with Guillermo (William in Spanish). The kids enjoy reading with Will and he quizes them on colors or the names of different things on the pages which seconds as a Spanish lesson for Will!

As I said, boys will be boys! Here is our guardian Juan, the lenadore (treecutter) also Juan, our two visiting college friends Peter and Alex and the little guys. Juan fell a huge pine tree that was threatening to land on the big workshop and the house where Veronica and her kids live. Lots of noise that day. Treecutting in the back and power-washing old brick patios with years of moss in the front. I couldn't hold the boys attention with all that racket!

This last picture is of a stove (plancha) that we put in for one of the boy's families. Will happened to be picking the kids up and noticed that their stove was actually half a burn barrell with a fire inside. The walls were black with soot and this becomes respiratory problems sooner or later. This is a picture of a typical stove that most families have here. No one can afford a stove or the electricity to run it. So this is what they cook on and heat their homes with. The wood is loaded on the left side.

Mid-Summer Activities

2011-02-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

I don't seem to be getting any better with this cut and pasting of pictures! Anyway......Here we are mid-summer and already thinking of the rainy season and some of the preparation to plant a few things. The second pic is me painting some of the kid's shelves for their books. To think our furniture for our escuelita came from the Opal House property. We still have more at the carpenter's that is being made into chapel side tables. And we want to build some cabinets for Veronica's kitchen. We have 'visitors' that come into her house and leave their 'calling cards'. We are trying to show her that there is definitely a connection between the food she leaves out on the counters and her little friends that know where they can get an easy meal! The first picture is at San Lucas, actually from our coffee harvest from last year. This year we didn't do so bad about 125 lbs. We have more than 500 more plants to get into the ground this year. We want to work on that aspect of the farm. The other two pictures are of the grand opening of the San Lucas' Women's Center. This is a place where the women of the parish can meet, weave, I've heard bake bread (we sampled some....mmmmm)and I believe receive educational talks and things of that nature. Chonu, Fr. Greg's assistant had tears in her eyes as she shared what the center means to her and the parish. It's a very beautiful building, big kitchen and medicinal herb gardens surround it. It's just one example of the solidarity that we have witnessed in the parish. We are grateful to be a part of that community. One of the pictures that I can't seem to find in our camera, is of me and the beginning of a preschool. I have 4 little 4 yr. old boys who are a treasure to me. I have them for a few hours, 3 times a week. I read to them, and am helping them become familiar with the alphabet, we do little crafts and ofcourse...PLAY :) The first week, Will and I took them out 'avocado hunting'. One of the boy's big brother was out of school early and climbed the tree to shake them down, while the little guys ran here and there collecting them. We got quite a basket full and brought them home to their moms. We picked sunflowers and ate little apples off of a struggling apple tree. Our great discovery this season is that we have 2.....count them 2! Peach trees. Now I don't know plants and trees like country people do but the flowering of a particular tree caught my attention one morning when I was running. And I see lots of peaches for the future. Will and Juan cleaned and watered them and hopefully with some care we will have our first taste of them soon. The boys were thrilled when they found a bird's nest as they hunted. This is the part of being on this land that is starting to bring the seeds of a dream in the future. God willing, maybe we can have a holistic preschool where the tending of animals and having gardens for the children to take care of are part of the curriculum. I'm going to be receiving my first little critter (baby chick) here soon. A family who wanted to say thank you to Will for helping with some minor surgery is giving us one of their pollitos. They already gave us a freshly killed chicken which Veronica made into one of their Guatemalan dishes called pepian. The chicken was a little tough but it was a really delicious dish. I don't think I have the guts to watch this baby chick grow and kill it, so I told Will this one will be a pet. Unless of course, our Rottweiler, Izzy gets a little hungry for another kill. She just kills chickens but doesn't eat them. She's probably waiting for someone to cook them for her.

So, it has been a beautiful summer. We have made new friends and God continues to bring visitors to us and we are grateful. Even with our continuing struggle to become fluent we can carry on conversations now. Diego continues to be a blessing to us. Will is teaching him to drive and so one day we will release one more young person onto the streets of Agua Escondida. At least he won't be driving a chicken bus.....

Every Dentist's Nightmare

2011-02-18T16:31:00.001-08:00

This entry is Will's as he had first hand experience of taking our kids to the dentist today!
Wow-fourteen children, ages 4-13, all for their very first dental visit at the San Lucas dental clinic, the same hospital/clinic where Diane and I volunteer. All 14 needed anesthesia, with seven having mulitple abcesses needing both needles and extractions of one or more teeth, most needing 2 or more. ALL 14 need more work as the 2 dentists and 3 technicians could not complete all of the necessary procedures. Many children had two or three abcessess on one side of their mouth, and will need to come back for needed work on the other side of their mouth, so at least they can use one side to chew properly. Angelica, our special 5 year old who has such a bad diet of coke and chips and no fruits or vegetables, has a history of complete bowel impaction with fissuring and bleeding not long ago(we immediately took her to the visiting pediatrician at San Lucas who diagnosed fecal impaction and dehydration) has equally bad teeth(Surprise!) She had so many abcesses in her teeth that the local anesthesia could hardly work and I held her hand as she cried and cried during her procedures-she couldn't have had a higher dose of anesthesia safely! My heart and soul goes out to those sweet children(all students of Diane and mine) who are suffering from Coca Cola diets and single parent syndrome, moms who are abandoned and overwhelmed and just placate kids with sweets, processed chips and Coke. No wonder Guatemala is the most malnourished country in all of the Americas.(G8 data 2009). Not one of these kids had ever had hot water for a shower(before our mission), much less floss for their teeth. May God give us the strength to always love unconditionally, come alongside those around us and be Christ to our neighbors. I'll blog about part two of the dental nightmare visits soon. Love, Will

Reflection.....

2011-01-28T11:54:00.002-08:00

The most important events make no stir on their first taking place, nor indeed in their effects directly. They seem hedged about by secrecy. It is concussion, or the rushing together of air to fill a vacuum, which makes a noise. The great events to which all things consent, and for which they have prepared the way, produce no explosion, for they are gradual, and create no vacuum which requires to be suddenly filled; as a birth takes place in silence, and is whispered about the neighborhood. Corn grows in the night. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Back to School

2011-01-28T11:00:00.001-08:00

Ahhh, it's that time of year for all the little ones to give their moms a little break! I know...we're a little behind here with the school year. Here's a great picture of Diego and all our little munchkins and some of the bigger kids in the background. We had planned to only take the small kids and make two separate trips but ended up with 19 on this trip. Like a worry wart I was worrying that we didn't bring enough hot dogs and all the other stuff, but we had more than enough. It would have been mayhem but with Will, Diego and I it turned out to be a fun time for all of us. And the older kids, some not more than 8 or 9 yrs. old are very responsible for taking care of their younger siblings. They learn that pretty early here. Sometimes I think it's so funny to see a 4 yr. old carrying a two year old. They are strong and hard-working kids. The lake water is cold which is wonderful if the sun is out but the wind was blowing which with the wind chill factor made going in sound insufferable. But there they were wading and laying down in that freezing cold water having a good time. Some of the kids were very, very focused on collecting bottle caps.......all the bottle caps in the country of Guatemala from what I witnessed. Thank goodness for Pepsi and Coca cola, huh?

This year, Mishel, our little 4 yr. old is now entering a Montessori school especially created for 4 yr. olds at the San Lucas parish. This is the town that Will and I volunteer at their hospital. We were all so looking forward to her experience in this new school that we took her there one week before she needed to be there! Guess that's better than forgetting her at the house :) She is pretty intelligent and we couldn't see her attending the public school. The schools are under-funded (no surprise for a poor country) and we just thought we should take advantage of Fr. Greg's invitation to us in the beginning of Opal House, that whatever kids we had here he would educate them. We are very thankful. We hope that she has a running start. The first day I took her she looked so small and lost. But she enjoyed it all. Very grown up now after one week. I like the scene in the movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan called "You've Got Mail". He tells her that he really enjoys autumn and the whole back to school scene. It makes him want to go out and buy a dozen pencils. Like a bouquet I suppose. That's how I feel watching the kids come in so timidly at first but with their new backpacks and supplies, called 'utiles' here. Lots of utiles. We sponsored some of the same children again this year and so I took a few of the older girls to the local town and shopped for their new school stuff. I treated them to a wonderful (and I mean WONDERFUL) apple fritter and some tea. Made by the shop that donated the christmas donuts. Man, I have that ladie's number! And where in the U.S. can you get tea for .25 cents and a huge fritter for .60 cents? That's a bargain. The shopping was as simple as handing our lists, about 6 of them, to the guys across the counter and watching them in one fell swoop gather it all together for us. Yahoo, that's the way it should be! Very simple pleasures, and for the girls this is like taking your girls to the malls. They don't get out to 'shop' very often. And when they get a new backpack or whatever it is something of which they are very grateful. These girls were hanging out in front of their homes to talk to me because they had not started school because they had no supplies, like last year. Just $10 can keep a kid from attending classes.

And a Belated Happy New Year

2011-01-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention what we did on Christmas morn'. Will and I were a little tired but had received a donation from a generous lady in Panajachel who owns a donut shop (can you believe that you can buy a huge fritter and a cup of coffee for about .70 cents?). She gave us lots of her Christmas donuts and so we got our ATV out (red, mind you....) and jumped on with the donuts and chocolate bars that make hot chocolate, and drove to the neighborhood where the majority of our kids come from and handed out those donuts for breakfast. After that, we loaded up our old Subaru (again red, like a very old sleigh) with trinkets and a large bag of candy and drove out along the main highway and threw them out the window yelling "Feliz Navidad". Now, this is not something new we conjured up in our heads. In 2007 when we were heading up to Opal House during Christmas time, we were met on the mountain highways with children, as well as families, waving and yelling to us. I actually thought "Wow, they're wishing us Merry Christmas, Will!" Until I saw the car in front of us open up the passenger window and toss out some candy and saw the families running and gathering up the goodies! We had a good laugh over that one and then I thought next Christmas we'll do that. It was a wonderful, joyful time for us! It's one of the best Christmas' I've had.....

Belated "Merry Christmas"

2010-12-28T11:22:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope that you, friends and family enjoyed your Advent and the celebration of 'God with us'! We can celebrate Christmas every day because He continues to be 'with us'. This was our first Christmas without friends or family around. Elaine Hayden and her daughter, April came to visit for about a week and a half and we enjoyed their company. It was a Christmas delivery for the children as they hauled more donations of toys for them. We had two separate fiestas for the big kids and the smaller ones. It can become somewhat dangerous when you have large kids diving over the little ones to collect the candy and toys. We had a scavenger hunt in which they had to find the baby Jesus (who was hiding in the chapel....)One child was a little ticked that he was not in the winning group and pouted the whole entire time afterwards. Pretty stubborn. Elaine, April, Diego and Veronica and her kids helped us decorate and trim the tree. April and I made sugar cookies which we all got to decorate and had hot chocolate to boot. I enjoyed playing 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' on the boom box.....over and over and over again. I really enjoy that CD. We had the employees from the San Lucas Mission Hospital over for a fiesta and now we know that we can fit 38 or more into our sunroom which is where the kids have their classroom! Lots of outdoor cooking....we had tortillas and meat and chicken BBQ, fruit punch and ofcourse, those Christmas cookies, some things you cannot be compromised. Diego wrote out the Christmas story and used our puppets to tell the story once again, of Jesus' birth.We plan on using this form of storytelling in the future. Maybe even teach them how to present lessons for one another. The kids seem to enjoy it. (Thank you again, Glen, for your labor of love!)By now, some of you know Will had a little accident on the scooter and fractured his fibula. So now he is on crutches and healing. There are some pretty good size holes in the roads due to the wash-outs from those past storms. He had a brief encounter with one of them. He's doing well but ofcourse, it's difficult doing those things he normally does.

The other picture is of our new guardian family. Juan, Felipa, Jose and little Miriam. Juan was one of our masons who worked on the chapel. He brings alot of skills to Opal House as well as good character. We thank God for leading him here.

We hope that this blog finds all of you well. It's hard to believe how quickly this year flew by. But I need Will to remind me of those blessings that God has given us as this year was somewhat difficult for me. I am reminded that He will never leave me or us or forsake us. God tabernacles with us each and every day. I am grateful for the quiet moments where I can just reflect on who He is and what He has done. May you all know contentment and peace this year.......

Winter

2010-12-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

It's not winter here but it feels like winter inside my soul, a need to bundle myself up. No pictures this time, just reflection. Autumn and winter are necessary for nature and for us, I suppose. I know suffering is part of the clothing we wear here. I read this today and thought I would share it. I know many who are suffering from different trials and tests, I am one of them. I'm trying to be still because I am in a place where I can do nothing but wait and pray. This year has been a year like that....waiting....praying.

(From the devotional "Streams in the Desert"
"Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering.
I heard of a mother who brought into her home as a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to be very careful in his relations to him, and not to touch the sensitive part of his life but to go right on playing with him as if he were an ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they were playing; and after a few minutes he said to his companion: "Do you know what you have got on your back?" The little hunchb ack was embarrassed, and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: "It is the box in which your wings are; and some day God is going to cut it open, and then you will fly away and be an angel."

A New Perspective

2010-09-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

Day 5 of no running water....emphasis on 'running'. As you can see there is no shortage of water around us. This view says it all. But it's just not finding it's way into the houses. Workers and Will have been at this since it happened and still trying to find out where the malfunction is. Starting out this morning as Will and I are discussing the hope of finding the problem, Will gave me a little bit of wise advise..."Consider this a type of fasting." How true, I'm grateful for his insight. Taking something that you need but turning it into a luxury which becomes a 'necessity' and then a right. Just like food. But with us it's running water. The water is there but we have to get off our duffs and go get it. The Mayans and I would gather to say the majority of the third world (which Will and I have come to understand is actually the majority world) still have to go and obtain their water elsewhere other than their homes and lug it back on their heads or in their arms. Welcome to another reality, Diane. So, this morning I was craving to be clean, shampoo and all. So.......I got off my 'duff,' onto the ATV, drove down the mountain to the where our springs are, hiked into woods with shampoo, towel and razor, climbed UP into a cavern with one of the running springs coming out of a hole on the side of the hill and had my shower! I LOVED IT! What a carthartic moment! Yes, we have water, all the water we and the rest of Guatemala can use and all I had to do was access it. Lesson learned. And God confirmed all this with today's daily scripture reading of the Israelites grumbling at God and Moses for bringing them out into the desert without food and water...which ofcourse makes no sense since they lived 'without food and water' for 40 years. So, take the situation in front of me and do with it what I can......just too bad about all those razor knicks :)

We Need Water!

2010-09-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, this just looks like a 5 gallon jug of water. But it's not. It's one of 3 jugs that Will and I brought up from one of the new springs that we have way down below the property. I mean 'wayyyyyyyyyy down' the property. We hiked in carrying the 3 empty jugs and hiked vertical to get them out. My neck and shoulder are sore from lugging them back to the ATV as we precariously drove them back up the windy terrain to the house. We ran out of water 3 days ago after a LOUD thunder and lightening storm. One of the lines broke and so we are all on a water ration. A water ration......ha, ha, ha. How ironic when we have 5 new springs gushing out of the mountain. I get nervous watching it thinking that it's all going to gush permanently out of the property and we will have to go to our neighbor below and ask him to borrow some back. I was half-tempted to bring a bar of soap and do a little shower under one of those gushers. Now, I'm wishing I had. Josh and Allison, the medical students and future P.A.'s are pictured above. They have joined us for a month, helping us out here with the children and volunteering with Dr. Tun at the clinic in San Lucas. Last night, Josh heard the rain begin and so he left the dinner table and ran to take a quick shower outside while the rain was pouring in torrents. Unfortunately, it stopped after 5 minutes or so but not before he got the rest of the shampoo out of his hair. We are all going to do dreadlocks here pretty soon. Thank goodness for baseball caps. Water is such a precious commodity. Here or anywhere, and you don't know how much you need it until you can't get ahold of it readily. We've had to jump into the pool for our bath.....nice.

First Day of My Summer Vacation...

2010-09-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

The weather has let up and it's incredible! Beautiful blue morning skies, lots of sun, even a gentle breeze now and then. Oh, how I miss it through all this monsoon weather. I just sit on the steps near the patio and stare straight into the sun with my cup of coffee. Very satisfying. Here I am with our grandson Ryan who came to visit us for 3 1/2 weeks! We are swimming in our very loooonnnnng cistern! I wish you could see the beautiful wildflowers that we planted nearby ~ gorgeous. Lots of color, and a great place to have some quiet time. It's embarrasing that my grandson is in his shorts and I'm swimming in my wetsuit, but I'm a chicken when it comes to cold water. We just simply fill it and add some anti-algae stuff and walla! A pool....Ryan really enjoyed his time with us. Riding on the ATV with his 'papa', swimming with his 'nana', learning some spanish with Diego, our spanish teacher, jumping on the trampoline. We hope to have him here every summer if mom and dad will let him go :) The chapel is to the side, as you can see. It is really coming along. Will and I walked through it this evening, marveling at how much bigger it looks with the wooden frames for the windows and the doorframes in now. Our work team has done a great job with the walls, lots of stone actually that fell off the volcano during Tropical Storm Agatha. Will and the workers gathered it and found that it really looks great on the back chapel walls. You can't imagine the hard work for the men to hammer that rock into workable pieces and then put it together like a puzzle on the wall. We're so grateful to them. They are a good work team.

The picture above our the little 'pequenos' class, Will, Ryan, and Diego is on the right in the back. We have 'adopted' Diego. He has now been with us a little over a year. Over a year and we're still at it. We are now in a tense called "subjuntive". It's phrases like "I hope that, I suggest that, I wish that, I believe that...." on and on and on and on. I should be pretty fluent by the time they wheel me into the old folks home. Diego comes to our house on Tuesday afternoons and tutors the group of kids that sleep over. Then Wednesday morning, Will drives the kids to school (while I sip my well-deserved cup of coffee) and then we're off to clinic (the 3 of us). When we come back, we have our little kids afternoon school time. It's nuts here, absolutely nuts. But I love them. Now I know their names and all there funny little ways. They love coming here to do nothing but play. They have a lot of room for that. On Thursday, Will and I are back to class to conjugate, conjugate, conjugate. In the afternoon we have the bigger kids. Diego and I are co-teaching that class. He is enjoying it. He is in the discerning stage of whether or not he wants to be a priest. I told him this is a good way to see if he can 'shepherd'. On Fridays, we have the little ones back for their Bible class. I am so much more comfortable with my spanish now. I still have to read the stories but I don't struggle with pronunciation as much and I can just talk to them without all the notes.

We've had two special birthdays this past month, little 3 yr. old Mishel who is now 4, and her brother Rudy who just turned 1 yr. They are the little family who lives with us. Their mother is Veronica.

Now ofcourse, the tropical depression that we had recently. Because I cannot figure how to get these pictures in some kind of reasonable order, the storm pictures show up first. I knew we were in trouble when the rain continuously poured day and night. Normally, we have sun in the morning and at around 1 or 2 p.m. the clouds begin to pour over the mountains towards the lake and we get the afternoon dump. This time, we have MORE landslides all over the main highway and every road on the way to our home. We lost some big pine trees on the outside of our large gate, but the picture above is of the mudslide that was about 25 feet below the chapel, ran down the hill, across the neighbors avocado farm and continued over to the other side of a road that leads to the town below us. He said he had a river of mud through his property. The sink holes in various places along the roads are frightening. They don't have official transportation workers here in the mountains and so local villagers will try to paint some rocks white and mark where the sinkholes are....if we're lucky. Or they lay some branches around it. Coming back from the city was like some kind of crazy expedition. One part of the canyon was one continous flow of mud. Fortunately, we were in the Suburu....I love that SUV wantabe. The other picture is a chicken bus that didn't quite make it through the landslide and all the mud. And the one with Ryan our grandson standing on the park bench is actually a brand new park put in at Santiago Atitlan. The lake has come up 10 feet because of the rain and so it flooded it and the kids were swimming where normally people would be sitting or eating. Anyway, this is 'our summer vacation' though it's winter here. But hopefully not for long. Like I said the last two days have been heaven.......

Character Lessons

2010-08-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

Hard day this week. A couple of weeks ago when the kids were here for the sleep-over our phone disappeared then re-appeared when the kids returned. There is only one of the kids that is permitted in our house and so that and the guilty look that followed let us know that we had to have another talk with them. So, with the heart of a mother, I reminded them that taking things that didn't belong to them was wrong. One had been caught stuffing something into his hoodie before and so we had a group talk then. The kids come from one cul-de-sac and are all related to one another. So many cover up what the others are doing. I hate being the police. After that long talk the very next day one of the little ones also tried to stuff a toy into his pants and had his sister help him to cover it with his jacket, unfortunately for him I was right there when it happened. So with two of their relatives caught stealing they were asked to leave. This is the part of being a mom that is difficult for me. I had a heavy heart last night and recognize that this is all part of teaching them about love and respect. I have even tried to head off the stealing by giving them toys before I put the rest out so they have something to take home and play with. I understand that they don't have much so the temptation is always present. It was pretty interesting to see their faces when I was going over the ten commandments and we got to the 'do not rob' commandment. Eyes were darting here and there. It was so obvious that the missing phone was part of their non-verbal communication. But I have grown to love this family. They are the least in this neighborhood. Some of their parents are known thieves. So we have challenges. But I'm reminded of God's long-suffering love when it comes to my own growth or the growth of my own family........

"Eat Your Vegetables!!"

2010-06-30T16:23:00.001-07:00

Malnutrition is a huge problem here, especially in the rural areas of Guatemala. But it' now pretty personal to me because of the children that attend my classes. One of the little girls was bleeding when she went to the bathroom. We took her to the hospital, and I thank God that there was a visiting pediatrician. She told me that this little girl's intestines were impacted with waste (or poopoo as we would call it...) She now had fissures from the internally tearing. She was not eating enough fiber in her diet. The father said that she 'refused' to eat vegetables and fruit and because she hardly ate anything (wonder why....) when she wanted a snack she got chips or other junk food. Also, she doesn't drink enough water but her father did say that she drank 2 or 3 glasses of cola daily. This is also a common problem here. Many suffer from headaches and when I ask them how many glasses of water they drink daily the answer lets me know that dehydration is also a problem. Especially since we live up in the mountains. We thought for awhile that the people here are short in stature because of their genes but one of the main reasons is that they are malnourished. More protein and fresh fruits and vegatables are needed but they have come to love what has been imported for the most part into their country: chips and pop. And it cost the same for a small bag of chips as for a piece of fruit, but they want the chips. Some of the children that attend here have rotten teeth due to the pop and sugar. So we now give the kids more fruit and less cookies. But I think I will begin to be more inventive with their snacks. I heard you can actually substitute beans for the oil in some cookies or brownies. Sounds weird....If anyone out there has a good nutritious recipes for kid's snacks, drop me an email, okay??

Our First Surgery Week In San Lucas

2010-06-02T17:14:00.001-07:00

A medical group from Kansas City came to San Lucas for the first time bringing a container full of medical supplies including anesthesia machines! Oh how good God is to bless us with all that we need to provide surgery to those who need it! And the parish raised the funds to renovate the operating room, I hardly recognized it from when we first arrived here. The medical group was so kind and provided the space, equipment and anesthesiologist for our surgeries. Thank you, everyone of you! We hope to see you in the future :) From what I remembered, they were averaging about 15 surgeries a day! They worked hard and some days were very long. But they blessed those who couldn't have those surgeries otherwise. I have to admit that a bit of melancholy came over me when I first entered the operating room while a surgery was in progress. I perused the mayo stand and back table where 'my instruments' would be and had to really think hard to remember some of the instrument names. But, like riding a bike, it came back. I had the opportunity to assist a local Guatemalan doctor with some general surgery. I was so grateful. I hope with all my heart that I will have more opportunities to scrub, not only with Will, but other surgeons here and from the U.S. I so desire to keep up my skills. Now that we have 2 anesthesia machines, the Guatemalan surgeon from the capital said that he will bring someone to run the machine and I can assist! Answer to prayer.........

Tropical Storm Agatha

2010-06-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Life can change in an instant. Here we are standing with Dr. Tun on the top of what used to be his relative's homes. You can see in the background the top of another home. I wish you could see the landslide. It looks ominous even now. And now that there are no trees holding the soil in place, with the next downpour, it can only get worse. Only a few blocks down an entire family was buried alive with only their 16 yr. old daughter surviving. We are hoping the church can contact her and we can provide a home for her. The next picture above is one of many 'derrumbes' (landslides) in the street to San Lucas where we volunteer. Again, it's not hard to predict the continuing downpour of not only rain but soil that will erode as we begin the rainy season here. One blessing is that the people now have wood to cut. There are trees in the streets for miles. The next picture is a town close to San Lucas. The landscape is horrendous now. It was once a finca, or coffee plantation. That was then. Now it looks like another planet. Only gigantic boulders and rocks which tumbled down from the volcano Toliman with the gushing rainwater and leveled the homes where the workers lived. Veronica lost her grandmother and grandfather in the landslide. This finca is gone forever and the jobs and the homes of their workers. The force of nature can be terrible. The government promises that the people will receive land for rebuilding their homes. And where will that land be?????Next to another mountain? That's the only type of land around here. Who knows if we end up having to construct more buildings for future use. Will and I have already planned in the past to store food for our neighbors should the roads cut us off from getting to the stores. We have been supplying water to the people in Agua Escondida. They lost their pipes in the storm. Infact, three villages close-by have no potable water. Our friend in a town below us said that his hotel is now a refuge for those that lost their homes. And they are cut off from the surrounding areas because of the landslides. So now we are watching and listening to see how we can help others..........

"...It has not yet been revealed what we shall be...." (I John 3;2)

2010-05-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

"Our natural inclination is to be so precise-trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next-that we look upon uncertainity as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainity. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, "Well, what if I were in that circumstance?" We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been. Certainity is the mark of a commonsense life-gracious uncertainity is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed by a sign of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we simply become a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God-it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said,"...unless you...become as little children..." (Matthew 18:3) The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainity is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainity and expectancy. Jesus said, "...believe also in Me" (John 14:1), not, "Believe certain things about Me." Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in-but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.".....Osawald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest"-------

A Life Interrupted

2010-04-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

A great picture of Matt, our visiting missionary, and the kids during our Saturday kid's club. It can get crazy at times. And as I've shared one way or another, I am un-learning how to not have a sterile, predictable day or a life for that matter. Case in point, last Saturday one of the girls mentioned that they wanted to spend the night with their siblings. So I planned on having a few but 7 showed up. This was Matt and Molly's last night and they wanted to be present for as they termed it "the last supper". So we had a sleepover and the next day I decided to bring the kid's to church with me and Veronica. Well, preparation was chaotic, there was shouting and laughing and water everywhere as they each tried to get a shower in before church! Then some of the girls showed up in their p.j.'s before we set off. I asked them why on earth were they in their p.j.'s? They said because their clothes were wet and dirty. So off we went, p.j.'s and all. The p.j.'s were actually quite cute with their dangling earrings. I took them to the market with me and we had ice cream afterwards. Typical Sunday morning! But it was unexpected, life always is at some point. It reminded me of something that I read in one of Amy Carmichael's books regarding how God will not allow you to be a 'private' Christian. You are intended to be a superhighway:

"It is the way of the Psalm that shows us a cross-section of the life of the man in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Highways are open roads. Roads are not made for admiration, but for traffic. "God breaks up the private life of His saints and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other. No one can stand that unless he is identified with God," said Oswald Chambers...."

And so when others say that we are not called to be a doormat for others, well, take it up with Him........

Coffee and Cookie Time

2010-04-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

After a little time of hesitation, with fear and trembling I invited the mothers of the children that I teach to our home for an introduction that is somewhat late considering that I started the class last year. I say with 'fear and trembling' because I am not one to just be spontaneous. I need to know from Will when he wants to be 'spontaneous' ahead of time, so that I can be ready. I go over the scenarios in my head until they feel comfortable then I do it. Crazy, I know, yet there have to be others like me out there, right?? Anyway, twelve moms showed up and 20 small children with them. Thank you Lord, that Molly was with me. I would have drowned in a sea of chaos. I introduced myself, our mission, our desire to help strengthen their children's faith. The mothers seemed to be very open and some were just smiling and were very encouraging to me. I explained that I also wanted to have an after-school program for the little kids to give them a headstart with learning to read and write. What great timing....right in the middle of my explanation one of the mom's interrupted the meeting saying that they needed to leave shortly because they all needed to attend a government mandated class that teaches these mothers to read and write their own names! I couldn't believe it. So, next week I will begin by the grace of God. Before the mother's left we served them cookies (luckily I overbake) and what we consider very weak coffee with LOTS of sugar. They thought it was yummy. Then we continued our class with the kids, haphazardly.....Stepping outside of my comfort zone is always a challenge for me. I hate the fact that I have to ruminate over ever detail in my head before I do anything. It's the curse of living my life up in my head. I'm learning to live in the present and out of my heart. Takes time.....

Sabado de Gloria

2010-04-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Took the kids to the local park in San Lucas for a picnic and swim! Two car loads later, we made it. Had a hard time finding a grill to use, Will had to coax a group of Mayan ladies to let him grill our hotdogs and he would leave the briquets (they wanted to know all about them). It was a crazy time of noise and people and more noise and people. It seemed like all of Central America was at this park. All the parks here were the same way. This is how they spend their Saturday before Easter morning. The kids had a blast and we survived. All adults needed a siesta afterwards.....

Good Friday in Antigua

2010-04-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Got up early (whew...6 a.m. we were out the door) and headed to our first Easter celebration in Antigua! Here's a pic of our missionary friends, Matt and Molly and our Guatemalan kids and our first family (Veronica, Michelle and Rudi). We were amazed at the artwork of the alfombras (carpets of colored sawdust) and the amount of time and effort to construct each one. It truly is a labor of love. The main procession was HUGE! The platform was like one enormous flat casket. The men's faces wore the pain they must have experienced carrying it around the streets of Antigua. The first parade was about 3 hours long. We spent our time watching the floats, the children collected the little adornments that were within the alfombras (so did Will!) He actually collected some of the flowers left behind. For the family and kids this was their first time in their own old capital. They hardly ever get out of the rural area they live in. They couldn't sleep the night before because they thought they would sleep in and we would leave them :(.....We had a wonderful time, despite the heat and crowds....

HE IS RISEN!!

2010-04-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

What an incredible gift!....Pictures for the first time since I've begun this blog! And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks Molly :) This is a picture of our table center piece. The flowers are from the local market, the risen Christ made from a carpenter that really got into it and made him a little larger than I needed, but hey, it works! And the tomb is my attempt at paper-mache. Worked out really well, it's amazing what you can do with modge podge and a little chicken-wire and leftover stationary. Last night we watched "The Passion" again. And it still is a picture that leaves you overwhelmed and silent at the end. All for the love of each one of us, that's our Jesus. He is why we are here, He is the reason I continue on this journey of transformation...I expect it, I long for it.

Our other picture is an attempt to capture our new method (new for us)of teaching the history of our faith to the children. It's the montessori method. It's called "Godly play". Instead of traditional teaching of just transferring information from my head to their heads with lots of motion to 'keep them interested', you leave space for God to speak. By simply using our little props we share the story but leave space for the children to wonder, to listen, to be present. You don't have to fill every moment with speech. And it teaches the children to just sit and listen, meditate. Alot of times it's more about entertaining the kids, and eventually you have to be more entertaining then the last time. And even the 'craft time' is really time for them to express what they feel the Holy Spirit is saying to them through the story. I don't need to create the 'craft', they simply are offered the medium in which to express themselves. Hard at times because this requires them to be self-directed. But getting 'out of control' is a good thing. God can speak to them directly. I receive alot of joy just using my own imagination (and some input from others ideas) to create the individual props for each story. Our Resurrection story had all the disciples, Jesus, Mary and her friends, the Roman soldier, Judas and his money bag, the bread and wine, the crosses, the thieves...all made from old-fashioned clothespins. And let me tell you trying to dress all of them was a challenge! But I love it, absolutely love it. To see the children sit practically in silence as we place all the figures during the story is priceless to me. They just watch with intensity and then at the end we ask what is called "wondering question", open ended not asking them the questions expecting them to answer like a parrot whose been trained to know what to say. I'm already onto my next set of props.
This is our first Easter here and we look forward to celebrating with our friends and neighbors. Tomorrow we are off to Antigua to witness one or more of their processions through the streets. We hope to find parking! Then on Saturday we are taking our children to the neighborhood waterfront for a picnic and fun. For some it will be there first time there and it's just 7 miles away. I'm grateful for this time of remembrance for all the joy and grace that has been given, not only to us, but to the world!

I Will Make You Fisher's of Men

2010-03-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Sunny Saturday. But I do enjoy an afternoon rain shower every now and then to give the flowers and trees a little drink and dampen the dusty roads. "I will make you fisher's of men"...Words of Jesus that changed for me this morning as I became a fisher of 'avocados". Matt, one of our long-term missionaries, made an "avocado catcher" with 3 long paint brush extender rods all attached with duct tape (love the stuff...) and the bottom part of a liter bottle of soda....plus more duct tape, and walla! An avocado catcher. There's a method to yanking avocados off the tree without causing it to 'jump' out of the catcher and rolling down the hill. Unfortunately, the majority of our land is hillside and so I had to go a hunting quite a few times. I was reminded of one of those sports fishermen shows where the guy is on a boat with a huge fishing rod trying to pull in a big marlin. That's about what I looked like trying to snag a big avocado high above my head. Tough....just plain tough. But I proceeded to reel in a quite a few and then called it a day. Unlike fishing which you have the reward of a meal afterwards, we must wait a week or so for the avocados to soften. But my hope is to try some of the recipes in an avocado recipe book given to me from some good friends. All things avocado. Soups, salads, deserts, jewelry, cosmetics.....it's amazing what you can do with this fruit. I'm not that crazy about avocados (the texture bothers me, like eating butter), but Allie, our German Shepherd, loves them. She runs with them in the grass, tossing them for awhile before she proceeds to devour them with great gusto. Then she has the pit in which to entertain herself with. This morning she ran with me around the milpa (cornfields). This dog actually does not run, she gallops like a horse. We had a few close encounters as she grazes by me, on her way to the next thing. I found myself just laughing and enjoying the scene. She is a picture of unfettered joy.
And so life on the farm can be full of simple joys. Like 'catching avocados', galloping with Allie around the cornfields, eating a sweet lemon off one of our fruit trees, hanging laundry out to dry in the fresh morning air, hearing our 3 yr. old, Mishel, chatter about what? We can't figure it out!
These are the things that I remind myself daily to be present to. As a good friend once said "Today is a gift, that is why it is called "The present"........Stay in the present.

What it might be like to have an orphanage....

2010-02-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

We had our first 2 night sleepover for our kids! Crazy, absolutely like zoo-keeping! Kids running around playing, doing their homework, taking showers, laughing, shouting....I think you get the picture. The showering was the funniest thing. The kids loved it. I'm assuming having warm water for bathing is like a ride at Disneyland. They laughed and shouted, it was very funny and I'll never forget how they enjoyed their new p.j.'s. A huge 'thank you!' to those who donated those p.j.'s. They were so cute on the children. They each got a new headband for their hair. We had story time just like we are used to doing with our grandson, Ryan. We received some beautiful large (and I do mean large) children's books that were very much appreciated. Thank you to Jack and June Bower for that gift! I tried to type out some rules and regs...who am I kidding???!!!! Try, try again. Will and I were exhausted after the second day and I thought to myself 'how on earth did you think you could maintain an orphanage?'. But ofcourse, we would need help, lots of it!
Last night we were invited to one of our worker's daughter's first birthday. First birthdays are a time of thanksgiving and celebration. We missed our guardian's son's first birthday because we were in the U.S. But we got to see what a celebration looks like. We walked into a courtyard with pine tree boughs spread on the ground everywhere. They had set up tenting to keep out the rain. There were benches and lo and behold a band! An eight member band with speakers 7 ft. high! And lots of them. I was worried because we were sitting closeby. I haven't figured out why so many speakers are needed in such a small space but it was the same way in Venezuela. The Pentecostal churches would be very small, but the speakers would be enormous! The music was great, I danced inside a house with the kids but did not have the courage to do it solo outside where the music was being played. There was a reading of the daily Liturgy and lots of prayers and blessings for the family. They had 6 large cakes and they blessed us with dinner of chicken and rice, which is an honor when people do not have much money for their own families. The people were very gracious to us Norteamericanos. For some reason I was a child-magnet. I couldn't help talking to them (I'm much more comfortable with them than with the adults. They are much more understanding with errors in speech). And at the end I had to invite more of them to my little school that I hold on Friday and Saturday afternoons. We're growing out of our sunroom which is where I not only hold the classes but store all my supplies. I so need to get organized and purchase or have cabinets made. I look forward to having my little escuelita (God willing). I see flower and vegetable gardens, parrots, chicks, rabbits, a soccer field etc., in our future. Glen is finishing the children's play area and it's a smashing success with the kids. He even constructed a see-saw from wood. Yesterday the kids were standing and sitting on it for a total of 10 kids! We were concerned that it would not hold up! He also made a climbing rope which they also enjoyed. We are still trying to purchase palm roofing for the treehouse. Glen even made outside balconies for the little house! Amazing. I can only imagine what the adults feel when they see such fine construction for a child's treehouse.
Our lives are becoming busier, much like in the U.S. and that concerns me. I love it and yet I don't want to become unable to enjoy a sunset or sit with others and just chat. I try to stay prepared for the classes even as I am trying out a new method of teaching that is in keeping with the Montessori method. Breathing deeply helps. I thank the Lord for our rich life that even with all it's little frustrations (yes, and big ones too) we are very grateful for having the sense that we are becoming true neighbors here and for the fellowship that God sends our way.......

Reconnecting.....

2010-02-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Back from a two week stay in the States. At about day 2 I felt I was ready to go back 'home'....home?! Yup, up here in the rural mountains of Guatemala, I feel like I am home. How on earth did that happen? Life in the states looks so sterile and feels sterile. The only home we seem to find is with our faith community. And I suppose that is by God's design. We do miss fellowship on a larger scale. We are integrating little by little but at times I find it hard to listen ever so carefully, until my headaches at sermons or dialogue that run too fast. In time, I tell myself, in time.....And the spanish class goes on.
A scripture that has really stuck with Will and I is Isaiah 49:8-12 (from the "Message"):
"God also says: When the time's ripe, I answer you.
When victory's due, I help you.
I form you and use you
to reconnect the people with me,
To put the land in order,
to resettle families on the ruined properties.
I tell prisoners, 'Come on out. You're free!'
and those huddled in fear, "It's all right. It's safe now.'
There'll be foodstands along all the roads,
picnics on all the hills-
Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,
shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,
For the Compassionate One guides them,
takes them to the best springs.
I'll make all my mountains into roads,
turn them into a superhighway."

What a description of what we feel is going on here....Reconnecting. I pray that we are reconnecting the children with God. Each weekend, we put a story together from the Scriptures or other material focusing on His great love for them. Always a struggle with the language but I trust that some seeds are going out and landing in soil made ready. Putting the land in order is very prophetic. We've stopped the planting of the corn to give the land a rest. Pedro, our guardian planted about 4 acres with his usual amount of fertilizer and he yielded such a small amount of corn. I think the land is just flat our tired. We hope to compost and restore it. We have the word of the San Lucas Mission that they will help us to plant about 10,000 tree seedlings this coming rainy season beginning in May. Just this morning I walked only a portion of the property and tried to imagine what it might look like sometime in the future. Patience. We hope to plant some grass in order to have a play field for the kids. Just let them run in something other than dirt. As for the hungry and thirsty around us and having picnics and foodstands.....well we're opening up our home for our kids to come on Monday and Tuesdays for dinner and a shower and a clean bed in which to lay their heads. One of the children told me she sleeps on a carton and that her back hurts. The 'foodstand along all the roads' is actually quite amazing, in that we have been planning to open a little foodstand near the lookout point at the edge of our property. What we'll sell remains to be seen, but the ideas are building. This may be a future venture for the women who live here. It's not easy creating options for them. They may weave but hardly have an outlet for them as the place is saturated with textiles. We think that we may have a good location to have the women sell their foodstuffs since it is now unoccupied and there seems to be lots of traffic at times. We also have springs that are actually running off into the next property. We hope to capture that soon.
Most of all, I'm grateful that the Compassionate One is guiding us. How on earth could we make sense of all this without Him? My heart is that the children will know that we love and care for them. Their families will continue to be poor, continue to search for work that lifts them above the poverty level. We wish we could 'employ' them all, give to everyone who asks of us (and we hope to if it's in our power to do so....). But we take it one day at a time, one request at a time, one life at a time. And all the while, I find that the transformation that needs to take place is in me. But ofcourse, that's how it works.......

First Puppet Show !

2009-11-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

Today we had the children's club and I can't tell you how much I love it, and I know that I'm in my element. Glen made us a puppet stage and the kids have made puppets with these huge wooden spoons that I found in the local market. Today they made clothes for them and some of the girl's puppets look like little Mayan women with wild hair and eyes (probably a little ladina thrown in ! I told them the parable of the sower. I wish you could see the 'puppets' and props I used. It took some imagination to figure some of this stuff out, but I had so much fun. Then the kids went outside with chalk and made pictures re-telling the Parable of the sower and his seed. I plan on staying on this parable for a few more weeks. I'm not going to rush through these stories. Afterwards, we made homemade s'mores!!!!! I made some round little cookies, and had some chocolates that were also round. We gathered around our copper fire pit and roasted those marshmellows ....The looks on all of their faces as we put these sandwiches together! All of this is new to them and they are having a blast! They just hug us and I can see that God is weaving our hearts together. So I thank you for your prayers. Somewhere in my heart I have a little seed of a dream to have a little 'esquelita'. (A little school). I already have the place picked out. But I will try not to run ahead of God........

"I Have Consecrated this house, says the Lord"

2009-11-10T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today we broke ground on our new chapel! Amazing, definitely NOT coincidence, but all of today's scripture readings were about temples. Ezekiel 47; 1 Corinthians 3; John 2:13-22! We all felt a sense of wonder now that the chapel has begun. This morning we gathered with our crew and spanish teacher (who are becoming more like family) and prayed for the dedication of this chapel. I suspect this is the first time for some of them to begin their workday praying with their work team.
This has been on Will's heart for some time. I have definitely felt the need for a quiet place of reflection and being alone with God. The vista is incredible, it will be as if we are suspended over the lake! We hope to have a more monastic - type chapel, much like we experience at the beautiful 500 yr. old monastery-turned hotel in the old Guatemalan capital, Antigua. My hope is to bring my children from my kid's club into this sacred space to learn to be present to one another and God in a more worshipful atmosphere. Praying and singing in spanish is next on my list.....if I can just speak, period.

"God is Driving Me Out of My Mind!"

2009-10-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

I read this in one of books that was recently given to me and thought 'how appropriate'! I am a muller of thoughts, I am 'up in my head' alot. Plain and simple. And yet that is not where I need to be all the time. That's probably why I am married to a 'heart man'. We really do balance one another.
Well, we have had a wonderful team from Blessed Sacrament in Seattle here for the past 10 days. They are great people and hard workers. Working together is a good test of community. We have been very blessed to have them with us. Glen and Piedad have prepared some great meals for the group and we are also greatful for their hard work. I'm a little concern about the extra bit of fat building around my waist ;) The team helped us finish our workshop with stuccoing the building and painting it a wonderful primary green. It has created a great canvas for the kids and I and others to paint some type of mural. I would love to capture the beauty of nature here. We've had so many butterflies around here and flowers are quite happy in the rainy season. Glen has started the work of a children's playground area, built with the trees around the property. We hope to have a treehouse and jungle gym for the kids that live here and those visiting. Our children's club is doing well. We've had up to 18 children here on one Saturday afternoon. This past week we taught them about David and Goliath and that with God "all things are possible". Gela, one of our team members from Mexico was a riot with the teaching lesson and has brought such enthusiasm and laughter to the kids and adults at Opal House. I have tried to bribe her to stay with us as the official house mother but well, it never works out exactly as you hope! Last night we had Pedro's oldest son's birthday party. Leonso turned 16. Piedad made a big meal of fried chicken (Leonso's favorite) for 20 people. Everyone had a great time and plenty of laughs as Gela guided them in the game of 'gossip' where you try and repeat what has been said to you. You can imagine how that could get crazy with 3 different languages represented around the table. These are the times I enjoy the most. People sharing a good meal and the walls of division coming down. Will and I have had alot of adjustment in our lives and in our marriage as we are learning what it means to be the "Body of Christ" and living in community. But even with some struggles, we still pray and look for God to bring fine wine to His table.........

What question is your life an answer to?

2009-09-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

The Women's Club

2009-08-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

Will and I started back up again with our spanish lessons. According to our teacher we didn't lose much after 3 weeks back in the U.S. es un milagro (it's a miracle). I had Josefina (Pedro's wife), Samuel (new baby), Piedad (her sister and our new House Mother) and Michelle (her daughter) over for some "women time"! It was great. Oh, Piedad wanted to learn how to use my sewing machine and the rest showed up. So I gave her a lesson on winding and threading the machine and then helped her to sew her new 'falda' (Mayan skirt), which is just a wrap around skirt with a belt. They were in awe (no kidding). I gave them some needles to help them with beading and I gave Piedad a simple thimble which was a new and strange thing for them. Everything I own is new and strange for them and it's a kick in the pants for me to explain it all. The ladies will be making things for me to bring back to sell to some of you. They are excited about that and so am I. I'm grateful to share my life with them!

Time for Fiesta!

2009-08-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day on Sunday. The sun was out, the lake sparkled, there were big billowy clouds...heaven sent. Marina celebrated her 13th birthday. She is Pedro's daughter, our guardian of the property. The family joined as well as 7 of her friends from school. The ages ranged from 9 to 15 yrs. old. Very different in our culture where normally the kids are the same age and siblings may be excluded. We had a blast! I wish I could have video taped the kids racing to dress in gringo clothes as one of their games. We all laughed so hard! I'm certain it was the first americanized birthday party for them all. We did have the traditional pinata. This thing was big, it took alot of candy. But when it busted (I made the final death blow) the kids descended like locusts on a green field. I love the family-oriented culture here. They enjoy being with one another. And there isn't this mentality of separation. I remember Pedro working to level the ground where we are finishing up a work shop. He had a large piece of wood and his kids were riding on the wood while he raked it across the ground. They work and play together and sometimes have fun doing it. We feel a part of their family now and this was brought home to us when Saturday night they made lots of tamales and brought it over for dinner to celebrate Marina's birthday. They told us that they were bringing tamales, which they had done in the past but we did not know that we would be included in their own family celebration. We are learning. We have a lot to learn. But we are trying to go slowly and thoughtfully. The party helped me to develop an idea of having a kid's club here at Opal House. I spent a good deal of time teaching Sunday School and VBS back home and I enjoyed it so much. And here, well my mind is jumping with ideas. I've never had so much space and possibilities with a ranch. I would have help with Marina and Michelle here and also their aunt Piedad (Mercy in English). As Will would say "the possibilities are endless". I felt so much joy yesterday with the children here, laughing and playing games that I thought wouldn't it be neat to have this once a week here? And who knows where it might take us?.......

Summer Break :)

2009-07-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

Back in the states and it's truly summertime! Sweltering heat, yesterday triple digits. I was ready to return to Guatemala and the wet season. And I know I'm talking like someone from Seattle. We finished our 2 months of immersing in Spanish. It was tough at times, and my test scores proved it. I have to believe that people in midlife have the capacity to become fluent if they just stick with it. And we are committed to becoming fluent. We really enjoyed our teacher Diego. He corrected us from the get-go and we are grateful for that. The last thing we want to do is to continue mis-pronouncing words and not getting the annunciation correct. We will continue our lessons and hopefully learn as many of the tenses as we can.
Glen came down with his huge truck of donations....we love you Glen :) and proceeded to get things going for a big workshop to store equipment and machinery. Pedro and his boys enjoyed unloading the truck and seeing what Glen brought down. We had an opportunity to use the ATV with the kids and boy did they have fun! I enjoyed the sense of freedom myself. It is a powerful ATV and will be useful on the property. We enjoyed Glen's cooking and hope that many of you can experience it also when you come down. We are going to collect Opal House recipes and create a cookbook in the future.
Other friends that joined us were Wayland and Courtney from Bothell, WA....just around the block from our house. They were such a help to us, helping us finish up all the painting in the homes and picking up trash that people would throw onto the property from a lookout point near the house. They were very hard workers and we enjoyed the conversations around the table at the end of the day.
After Glen, Wayland and Courtney left, we had our friends Wes and Sue down for about 9 days. We so enjoyed their fellowship. Sue is a spiritual director and Wes teaches at Seattle University. We spent alot of time in conversation around the Word and what it means to be in solidarity with the poor. Hard questions were asked and even now I mull over them and allow them to challenge Will and I. We are like babes in the woods with all of this. We are learning so much about how we think as North Americans. How we want to be in control, to dominate, and what kind of "power" the poor have. They have watched the land go from the hands of a rich Guatemalan to the rich Gringos. Not much difference there. And so we find ourselves in this dilemma, for example, of knowing that they need wood to cook their food and heat up their little shacks when it's cold. But if they take cut the wood, we are looking at landslides. We need to reforest large chunks of the property and we know it will be at the expense of the Mayan farmers who are renting our property for their corn. We are preparing to leave certain portions of the land alone to create pea patch farms for the women and children around the community who don't have husbands (or wish they didn't have husbands.....)in order that they may have food for their households. San Lucas Toliman, a mission that is about 20 minutes from our home will be helping us to screen women who may come to live at Opal House. We thank God for their help. They will also be sending up men to help us figure out what to do about reforestation and how to cultivate the coffee. Who knows if sometime in the future we have our own brand to offer folks back home? We truly want to be 'fair trade' and Father Greg from San Lucas can tell you what is fair trade after speaking to the local Mayan coffee farmers. You may be surprised to find our that some of those rich coffee producers aren't as fair as you think.......

"Fall in Summer...."

2009-06-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

It's different having the seasons reversed here. We wait so long for spring and summer to approach in Seattle and then find ourselves here during the rainy season. Not quite like Seattle rain, though. Monsoon is a better description. The other day, I expected to find Noah's ark resting next to the house. And we find ourselves being aware of the sides of the mountains as we drive back from the local towns. This land is familiar with landslides. We heard recently a towns closeby is experiencing a sink hole/landslide. That would block one of the ways we get to Panajachel, but what they are looking at is a river being created that will rush down the mountain and into other towns. I read this Scripture about a week ago and thought "how true"...
"When you walked at the head of your people, O God, and lived with them on their journey, the earth shook at Your Presence, and the skies poured forth their rain, alleluia. Psalm 67:8-9,20."
Will and I experienced them both, earthquake and heavy rains all in one day. The tremors have felt somewhat mild, but one 'caught my attention' at the dinner table. It rattled the windows and doors and we could see things move. But I remember the words: When you walked at the head of Your People, O God.....Alleluia.

We are settling in with our spanish class....how many ways can you slaughter a language, let me count the ways. We are now fluent in Spanglish. I find myself moving in and out of both languages in my thoughts, but sometimes my brain says "Enough". And that is that. But I love it when I can actually put together a figure of speech or put certain words together to make our teacher laugh. Then, it's all worth it. I read this morning" that our actions have a tongue of their own; they have an eloquence of their own, even when the tongue is silent. For deeds prove the lover more than words". This brings me peace when I am anxious that I will only be able to have a somewhat fluent conversation with a 4 year old the rest of my days. But
I won't give up. And ofcourse, my actions can definitely overcome my babbling.

And so we preservere :) We are developing friendships with those around us poco a poco. We find our biggest challenge at the moment besides learning spanish is dealing with issues that have to do with renting the land to locals. We felt led to give a free year to those leasing the land for growing corn. But we find people cutting wood, clearing land that they have not been given permission to clear, and doing what has probably been the norm for a longer period of time than since we've been here. So I remind myself, the Lord reminds me and others remind me that it's not about the trees or the land but about the people. How will we respond to misunderstanding or simply others taking advantage of us? Isn't that the place where transformation takes place?And that is one of the reasons that we are here. To be changed. And God willing, for the better. The land and trees will remain long after we're gone from this earth and I don't want my life to be about stuff, but my relationship with God through others. May it be so.......

Transition....

2009-03-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Wow-God is Great and continues to shepherd all of us on this journey. We have stepped out of the boat and continue to look straight ahead for God's provision. Diane and I thank you for your fellowship and love. First, the driving journey. Three long days of driving the 2700 miles to the South Texas border in the completely overloaded Subaru Forrester went well and felt like a Lenten journey to me :-) I picked up Glen at the local airport and then the next morning we were angelically spirited through the Mexican border without even an inspection, all in less than 45 minutes-this is in comparison to the grueling 6 hours that Jose and I had last spring. We had three long days of uneventful driving in Mexico(Will only had to pay off Two Mexican police officers on the way) and we arrived at the Guatemalan border and then the spiritual warfare began. The border agency man we hired turned out to be a crack cocaine addict and he promptly abandoned us once he got his hands on our $100 crossing fee. I had to illegally cross the river back into Mexico to physically recover all of my papers including Passport, car title and import paperwork. I had to find the flophouse room where this addict had left my documentation with a landlady and grab it from her. Glen remained to protect the car and valuables from robbery. I then re-entered Guatemala and found the border closed with a border strike and computer failure..WeI pushed through by obtaining a toursit visa, then paying only $40 for the import tax on all of the contents of the car(bikes, motorcycle, chainsaws, etc) and it was clear that We were the ONLY non guatemalan car to enter the country through the border that day. We still managed to make it to Opal House by nightfall and fell on our faces. We picked up Diane the next morning in the Capital on time. Joel Van Dyke kindly walked us through the process of obtaining our permanent resident visas, a process that actually took him three years to figure out, we did in only two steps with him. We also visited Tita in the La Limonada slum and reunited with Merci, our first temporary orphan and met her new baby Blancita. Tita has openend a new school in the other gang neighborhood and we will be helping her out for sure as one of our key partners. Now Diane, Glen and I undertook many projects at Opal House. Without any blueprints or septic plans, we had to unearth whatever septic systems existed for both houses before greatly expanding the guest usage capacity of water/waste and encountering an odiferous backup problem. Happily, after two days of digging, two high quality French designed two stage systems were discovered in excellent condition. We then had all of the 30 year old concrete failing pipes torn out and replaced with new PVC so were good for the next 50 years! We are now ready for many people and the children's home had a new wood door installed with a bible inscribed on it-it's a work of art!. Glen and I retrieved our professional survey used for titling purposes and began some key farm project planning. Glen has some great ideas for development and animal husbandry. Even though it was the peak of the dry season, our fresh water spring was full to the top and two new springs had appeared since last year and we now know extra water exists for irrigation of the farm and future projects. We also got the water tested and all appears good-God is multiplying the harvest on the land!! After Glen departed, Diane and I had two very fruitful meetings. First the local mission in San Lucas was warmly receptive to our volunteer and partnering medical efforts-(After they heard Diane's passionate story, they all just about cried)-they have a hospital, operating room and little or no surgical equipment and they have been praying for a permanent local partner to offer expanded services to the 25,000 local population, like orthopedics/podiatry. They need diabetic extremity services, casting, surgery, etc and we will slowly integrate our services through this 40 year old mission, built on the loving and courageous back of Father Gregorio. We also may plan to develop visiting surgical mission trips there with Healing the Children. Father is a hero the all of the locals and was the one who has promised to educate our children who come to live at Opal house. He is also the only non Guatemalan to ever receive the country's highest honor(the order of the Quitzale) and is the only priest to ever receive it also. Glen was also moved with Father Greg's obvious passion and zeal for the people, when he met him before he departed. Finally, Diane and I had extensive time and talks with experts on the newly created government system of children's home and adoption services(we also spent one night at a new home for babies)-a true nightmare of guinea pig oversight. The rules are constantly changing, no one knows the future, the costs were staggering just to take care of abandoned children and not one home is fully licensed in the country as of this time-you might imagine that Diane and I took a big step back and breathed deeply for prayer and discernment about locking ourselves into a paperwork prison with the government. Even the nearest courtroom was 90 minutes away for constant judge visits. We clearly have heard from God that we will partner with Joel's and Tita's inner city ministries, local rural ministries with our neighbors and even our sponsored child Leivi. None of these can occur if we lock into the government system because no unlicensed person is allowed exposure to children in a government run new orphanage...So for now, it looks we will start out as a dynamic, flexible adaptive home for mothers and children, homeless persons, vacation bible schools, people in crisis-whatever "Opal" God brings us..... Diane and I also spent much time with Samuel Antonio, the newest baby addition to Opal House and he is healthy and thriving, although keeping the whole family up at night. We had so much fun playing soccer on the new soccer net we set up at the children's home and they are truly family to us. I will teach the oldest boy Leonso to drive when we return in May. Pedro loved the walkie talkie I brought for communciation on the farm-He's a real Jefe(boss) now as Guardian-pistol and walkie talkie!

"His ways are not our ways...."

2008-11-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

We're back from our 8th trip to Guatemala! This trip is one that will not soon be forgotten! We had our friend Chris and Don back to finish up some tiling projects. They are hard workers and I will find Opal House a little empty without them in the future. They have been an inspiration to me as they don't allow their little knowledge of Spanish to keep them from meeting new friends each time they return. I can be a little shy when it comes to getting to know people and so I need a little nudge to get out their and meet the local community. But Don and Chris have made a 'path' for Will and I and we intend to nuture those new relationships that have been made because of them. Thanks guys :) We love you.....Well, this trip was truly an example of watching God take circumstances that would have otherwise been incredibly bad and turn them out for our good. The guys spent the week shopping and installing the tile for the different casitas; getting them ready for our first family. I was busy one day sweeping the main house for the umpteenth time (dust bunnies procreate at an alarming rate up there...), when suddenly I heard Will shouting for the guys to come and help him because Pedro had been in an accident. Pedro is our caretaker. He and his family live on the property. To make a long story short, Pedro was taking the Honda Passport to the local mechanic. Will was following in our van. Pedro was supposed to make a right turn onto the main road. Instead, he gunned the engine, made the turn too wide and ended up going over a ravine on the other side of the road!!! The Honda turned multiple times and all the while Will is watching this in horror! He saw the Honda in its last few flips before it came to rest about 300 feet below him. He saw no movement and so he ran back to the house to get help....praying all the way. We all took off and followed behind him (I said a loud prayer myself, not knowing exactly what was going on!) Will started attempting to scale down the ravine and was about halfway down when he saw Pedro climbing past him! Will thought it was an apparation! But it was Pedro, and miraculously he was not killed or seriously injured! We couldn't believe it. If you had seen the car yourself, you would wonder how could he have made it out without serious injuries. He ended up with a separated shoulder and some bruised ribs. Will ended up taking him to a hospital in Solola while Chris and I took their kids out to dinner. Needless to say, the whole family was pretty shaken up. But as I mentioned earlier, God took what could have been a tragedy and turned it out for our good. The local community came out to see the commotion and they were saying "Glory to God", because they could see that it was a miracle he came out as he did. They also asked if we needed anything. The children of this local neighborhood had carried the whole back spare tire up the ravine, along with other parts of the car that had broken off, to present them to us and to keep thieves from stealing them. One of the children had the rearview mirror which had hung a rosary. This was presented to Don. It's now displayed in our living room at Opal House as a reminder of God's protection! It was a strange way to be introduced into our new community and neighborhood, but we are so grateful that it happened!

"And they were altogether in one place" Acts 2:1

2008-06-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

We are back from our second trip to Opal House this year! This time, as our plane is approaching Houston, Texas on our return, I'm not as excited to come back as is normal for me when I travel overseas. And I take this to mean that my heart is undergoing a change. I feel more and more at home there, especially as we
meet more locals and become friends and neighbors.

I had not planned on going this time but the Lord had other plans for me. And I am SO GLAD I did not stay home. It would have meant missing out on one of my dearest experiences of what 'community' can look like as it did in chapter 2 of the book of Acts. We had two friends from our church join us this time. Don and Christopher came with such enthusiasm to tile and help with the plumbing as we are trying to add more bathrooms and remodel the casitas to create more of a flow for families that will join us in the future.
They jumped right in and did not hesitate to get to know locals around the neighborhood. They re-tiled our kitchen floor which I can't wait to see in October. Will and I had to shorten our trip this time so it will be much like opening a Christmas present when we return.

The highlight of our trip came when we invited our dear friends Tita and Monica (her assistant) to join us for the weekend. Tita is a Christian who opened a school for the children living in the slum of La Limonada. It took great courage and faith to build a school in the middle of a place known for gang warfare. Today, this school has about 200 kids in attendance and it's continuing to expand.

Two of the people Tita brought to us were from La Limonada. Their names are very symbolic of what we desire Opal House to represent. One was a 20 year old young lady who is four months pregnant. Her father drank himself to death, then her mother followed with a drinking binge and was found dead on the beach. This young lady is named "Merci". The other was a baby whose mother has 7 other kids and is so depressed she was neglecting her youngest and just leaving her there in the room all alone. She hadn't had a bath more than twice in 2 months. This tiny baby is named "Grace". So "Grace" and "Mercy" were our first to find refuge at Opal House! This is how God works.....completely amazing.

So Saturday night our house was full! People talking, eating, laughing, working, even crying at times. Our hearts were just as full as our home. And I was happy. It was as if God said "Diane, you wanted a vision of what I have planned for Opal House, well here it is!" And that's enough for me. We may not have all the details but we know it will be built on love. We pray that it will be the heartbeat of God.

This may be the reason it was not as easy to return to Seattle this time. I've left part of my heart there.......

"Psalm 113"

2008-01-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

After 17 years the Lord has fulfilled His promise to me! This was the Scripture given on September 24, 1990 and on December 22nd, 2007, the day we signed for the property, this was the Scripture in our daily devotional! God's promise has come full circle! "and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly" (Deut. 1:36) is the Scripture on December 21st as we waited for the wiring of the money to deposit into the bank; the very last business day before the signing....We stand amazed at all that He has done for us. This has been an incredible year of doing what is possible (fund-raising, sharing our story...) and watching the Lord do for us what we knew we could not do without Him (raise $350,000 in 10 months)! On December 23rd we stood outside the house and gazed upon all the land, the guacamole trees, the incredible view of Lake Atitlan and just trembled inside. We understand that this is a great stewardship, but we so look forward to see those children and others who will become, what we hope, part of our family.
We have one family already living on the property. His name is Pedro. He and his wife Josephina have 5 children. We look forward to getting to know them. In the meantime, we are in the preparation stage. We had our first missionary couple and their 2 sons come and help us clean, clean, clean. They were a blessing. Thank you Darrell, Corrine, Ian and Tyler! They continued to make the house a home after we left. We hope as we get the word out that those who have skills like plumbing, tiling, painting etc., will come and share those gifts!
We would like to thank all of you who gave this past year of your time, talents and treasure. We know we could not have come to this place without you! Our hearts are full and we are humbled at all you have done.
May God be blessed with abundant fruit on His table. Fruit that remains................

August 28,2007

2007-08-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

"You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. O Lord, what great works you do!" Psalm 92:4-5a

Buenos Dias!

Well we are heading back to Seattle after a two week stay here in Guatemala. It has been a busy two weeks. We have been in Panajachel to go over the housing and property one more time before December. We had a great time in one of our favorite hotels, Casa Del Mundo. We even enjoyed a ride in the back of a pickup truck with mayan ladies and a baby! Infact, we believe we have ridden every type of transportation available in Guatemala (including a chicken bus) with the exception of a horse or donkey.

The Lord, again, has carved a way through what may have been a crazy run-a-round trying to find lawyers to help us gain guardianship and incorporating in Guatemala. We came in on Wednesday and by Thursday evening we had two choices of lawyers (who work with their spouses on this type of project). Today we are signing the final paperwork! God is forever good to us. We always feel like sheep with an incredible Shepherd when we come here. He always opens the doors and networks us with the people and help that is needed to continue our journey.

Opal House

2007-08-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2007

Hello!

My name is Diane Boegel. My husband and I are opening up a children's home and medical clinic in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Please join us as I journal our journey!