Prayer Requests

It's just almost time! We leave in less than two weeks for Peru! We are so excited to join the REAP North team, settle into the apartment and dive into ministry!Please pray:

• For smooth travel and as Ryan, Brittne, John, Christine and I go to Peru, Aaron and Stacie go to Argentina and Jessica goes to Ecuador.
• For continued language learning as I have by no means mastered Spanish, but have made good progress.
• For relationships with my new REAP North teammates and for Peruvian friends.
• For overall adjustments into life in Peru.

We will update the blog with pictures as we settle into our apartment and life in Lima! Love to you all!

Firsts...

With my 26th birthday on the horizon and this being my first Christmas away from home (ever), I was definitely a little nervous about what the homesickness would be like this holiday season. I got up early on my birthday so I could talk to my family first thing in the morning before school. As good as it was to talk to my family, I cried a little while talking to them, and then again when recounting it to my friends before school. I had a normal day of classes and then enjoyed a great Christmas lunch provided by the school. My afternoon was spent talking with family and friends, and doing a little bit of homework. Northing extremely exciting. I returned home to have dinner with my Guatemalan family, and knew that I was going out with some of the girls after dinner for dessert. Little did I know what was planned. Just after dinner, I was on the phone with Shelley when I heard tons of voices behind me singing, “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Birthday too!” I absolutely love Christmas caroling. I love caroling, I love when carolers come to my house, and I love being surprised! We went to another house for a birthday celebration on the roof complete with ice cream and cheesecake! Christine’s parents arrived from Colorado the night before and brought birthday and Christmas presents from my family. What a treat! I am so thankful for my missionary family in Guatemala. They made me feel so special on a day that I didn’t want to a huge deal out of because I was afraid of being homesick.

My great friends at my birthday celebration!

We spent Christmas day with a fellow missionary family in Antigua. The Stamps’ were so great to have us over for Thanksgiving dinner and still invited us back for Christmas day too! It was a great laid back day grazing over the food, hanging out together and taking turns calling home to talk with our families. I don’t think I took my camera Christmas day, so I don’t have any pictures to share. If I find some…I’ll post them later.

Stacie and I at Lake Atitlan.

My Christmas treat this year was a 2.5 day getaway to Lake Atitlan. Talk about beautiful! A bunch of us headed to the lake for the weekend, but stayed in different hotels because they were so fun. Aaron, Stacie and I took our time exploring some of the pueblos around the Lake Atitlan on Saturday, enjoyed some touristy shopping and complete relaxation. These were some of the most relaxing and restful days that I’ve had since arriving in Guatemala. If you should ever get a chance to come to Guatemala, don’t miss Lake Atitlan…especially at sunset!

This has gotten quite long, but I wanted to leave you with one of my favorite images from Lake Atitlan.

“I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; you faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heaves; let your glory be over all the earth.”
Psalm 57:911

Playing catch up

My Dad politely pointed out to me the other day, that Christine and I haven't blogged at all in the month of December. Oops! I think where we last left you was at Thanksgiving a month ago and we were about to head out of town to the beach. All 13 of us who are studying in Antigua left Thanksgiving afternoon for Monterrico beach for 3 days of R&R.
We had such a great time cooking and eating American food, playing at the beach and in the pool, and speaking English for 3 full days. It was a much needed break from the first 6 weeks of language school. We stayed in this great house (above) that the Lord provided. The top floor is an open air, covered patio with a view of the ocean. It was so peaceful and tranquilo. For some, this was their first Thanksgiving away from home, and while we didn't cook the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the beach, a sweet MAC region couple invited us all over for Thanksgiving dinner and prepared a feast! I always like Thanksgiving, but I don't remember the last time I was so excited to see cranberry sauce and a honey roasted ham! It was absolutely delicious! The Stamps have been kind enough to invite us over again on Christmas day.

Speaking of Christmas, we had the opportunity to hear Handle's The Messiah in Antigua about 3 weeks ago. I wish you could have all been there to experience it with us. We went into a gorgeous 5 star hotel that had lit candles and white christmas lights everywhere and walked to the back portion of the hotel where there are ruins of a cathedral. This was the most professional group I have ever heard sing and play The Messiah and I don't really have adequet words to describe how good there were. It was an awesome way to get into the Christmas spirit, and be reminded of the real reason for Christmas.

Not everyday is like the events I've just described. I promise! I thought some of the special events would be more fun to share about than the normal day to day routine.

Spanish is coming along for Christine and I. We have started learning the Subjunctive Mood which is the last major part of Spanish and is also really complicated. We don't have a similar tense or mood in English, I don't think, so it's kind of hard to wrap my head around. With time and practice it will come.

We have just under 3 weeks left in Antigua, which is a little intimidating. I only have 10 days of class left, and there is no way I can possibly learn all that I want too. Please pray for continued focus for us as our time here comes to a close. It's becoming more difficult to focus on studying with my birthday, Christmas and New Year's being so close. Also please pray for our group here as we are far from our families during the holidays. This is a first for most of us, and while we have a great place to go, and people that we love around, it's not the same as being at home.

Merry Christmas to you and your family! I hope you have wonderful day off from work, being together with your families, and celebrating Christ!

We haven't forgotten...

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we haven't forgotten about you blog readers out there! As I write Christine is taking her first Spanish and I'm preparing to take mine tomorrow.

On Thursday we head off with the group to Monterrico for the Thanksgiving weekend. I promise we'll post a nice long blog (with pictures) when we return from a relaxing weekend at the beach.

Hasta Luego!

Blah, blah, blah...

Here's my new favorite Spanish word: hablaba. Seriously, this is a word, and I laugh almost every time I say it because I just think it sounds so much like blahblah. When you conjugate the word hablar (to talk) in the imperfect past tense you come up with hablaba, hablabas, hablabamos and hablaban.

Just humor me and laugh too...

Lava Roasted Marshmallows anyone?

Have you ever felt like you would be blown off the side of a volcano. We have! Last Friday 10 of us loaded up in a van with two guides with the ultimate goal of making s'mores over hot lava.

On our way to the volcano.

The guides mentioned that we might want to spend 5 quetzales (about 65 cents) and buy a walking sticks from the local kids. It sounded like a good enough idea, so we all did. Little did we know that it would later save out lives! We started out on a steep, but paved path with horses following us just in case we couldn't make it. The path soon changed to dirt and roots as we entered the forest. The horses continued behind us, with their owners trying hard to convince us to pay to get to the lava. We hiked for a while through the forest enjoying incredible views off the side of the volcano.Kevin, one of our guides, demonstrated the best (and safest) way to cross that ashen lava dunes. (I was sure he was joking.) We literally ran straight down and back up the "sand dune" like desert. This is where we experienced 70 mph wind. At one point we stopped to count heads and we literally had to jab our sticks into the ground and hold on for dear life, to not blow away and bounce down the side of the volcano. (Mom and Dad, keep in mind that we did live!)

This where the real challenge began. The final ascent was steep, completely unstable, sharp lava rock. Add this to the fact that the wind was still blowing 70-80mph and it was getting dark quickly. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked towards a beautiful orange glow and we knew the end was near.

The glow of the lava.

We made it! Tired, excited, a little cut up from the lava rocks, hungry and ready to roast our marshmallows! We (Mindy and Christine) had been to the supermarket earlier in the week to buy marshmallows for our s'mores and the best we could find were shaped like bunny rabbits. Our guides, Chris and Keven, carried dinner which they cooked at the summit of the volcano. Yes, hot curry was really good on a volcano and we really appreciated the heat from the lava, especially since Christine didn't have a jacket and the wind was still blowing. Have you discovered a trend yet?

Christine, John and Mindy hiking in daylight

After our tummy's were full and our bodies were warmed up, the descent began back down the steep, completely unstable, sharp lava rock only this time it was completely pitch black and we relied on the light from our flashlights and headlamps. Mindy didn't have one...so it's now on her Christmas list. Just a quick FYI.

Mindy and Christine on our first hiking adventure

We made our way back through the lava dunes, the forest and the steep cement path. The van was a welcome sight. The four of us in the back (John, Ryan, Christine and Mindy) took turn giving each other backrubs. We reached Antigua at the end of our nine hour adventure, dirty, tired and ready for bed. Christine discovered when she got in the shower that the water had been turned off for the night. She was not very happy. Mindy was so tired that she pulled out her sleeping bag for extra warmth, and fell asleep before ever making it to the shower. In fact, she doesn't even remember laying down.

Breakfast came bright and early Saturday morning at 7:00am...just like every other day. We both went back to bed as soon as we were done eating. Saturday was tranquilo and exactly what we needed before another week of language school. We ended Saturday with Domino's Pizza, Oreos, Coke and Sprite as a little taste of home.

*Most pictures courtesy of John and Ryan. Thanks guys!

Technology advances

Just a quick note to share how thankful I am for the advances in technology over the last two decades. When my family lived in South Korea in the 80s it was $3.75 a minute for our family in the states to call us. Needless to say we didn't talk all that frequently and it was a huge treat when we did get to. In 2008, I have the wonderful technology of Skype where I can call family and friends for literally pennies a minute keeping me connected to home. I LOVE IT!!! It's been so good to be able to talk to my parents and friends when I have an internet connection. It has definitely helped make the transition easier to life in Latin America.

And while I'm bragging on the advances of technology. I love emails! Wednesday was a rough language day for me, but when I checked my email that afternoon I had so many encouraging emails that totally made my day. Thanks for your love, support, prayers and emails! They can literally change the direction of my day!

10 Days and Counting!

We've officially been here 10 days! In some ways it feels like I've been here a lot longer than that. Maybe it's because I've really settled into my routine with my Guatemalan family, and I finally have a consistent schedule again, or maybe it's because I really like the tranquilo Latin American life. Either way, I'm really thankful to be here and for the opportunity to only study Spanish for 3 months. I joke that I've finished my first week of kindergarten. I sound out almost all my words and I can say very simple things like "I like music," "I talk to my parents," "I study much Spanish." I'm slowly able to put more and more words together to form sentences, but it's definitely humbling not being able to communicate as an educated adult! I received at least 400 vocab words in the past week and have been feverishly trying to learn them. As I write, I'm sitting in an internet cafe making flash cards to help me learn!

In class this week I got some of my words confused and I told my teacher that I carried my books in a big blue onion to school. Yup...I meant bag, not onion. No wonder she was looking at me so funny!

On a funny note, I was sitting at an outdoor basketball court with Kelli and Leah the other day and randomly we saw a horse come galloping down the road and around the corner dragging a brach from the tree that it broke free from. About 20 or 30 seconds later a group of men and boys on bicycles and motorcycles came chasing after it. It's not every day you get to see a horse loose on the streets!

Team REAP North

This is us at the Church/Coffee Shop that we found.

Antigua

Well our entire group has made it safely to Peru. When we arrived on Wednesday night we were all shuttled out to our host families. I had been under the impression that we would be the only person living with our families, but when I got to my “new home” I found out that I would be living with 8 other students. I was a little disappointed at first, especially when I sat down for dinner and everyone was talking to me in English, but it is actually really cool. In my home there are 2 guys and a girl from Belgium, 2 girls from Denmark, 1 girl from Switzerland, 1 girl from the UK, and one from the US. So it is a very international group and 2 of them don’t speak much English so we have been using more Spanish lately. Anyways, please keep my host family (father: Miguel, mother: Amanda, children: Alan, Diego, and Guillermo) in your prayers and that I would be able to develop relationships with them in spite of the boarding house like atmosphere. Also please be praying for the other students that I am living with. We eat all three meals together 6 days per week, so we should have a lot of quality time together.

Tuesday morning our group met at Appe language school for orientation and a tour of Antigua. It is a really beautiful city with colonial architecture and cobble stone streets. There is also a coffee shop on every corner and most with wireless internet. That makes me really happy as I’m sure you can imagine. At the language school we each have a personal tutor that we meet with 4 hours per day. My tutor is so, so wonderful. Her name is Claudia and please be praying for her and that we would be able to have good conversations as I learn Spanish. Yesterday she described herself as an evangelical catholic and we talked a little about the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. Unfortunately I didn’t understand a lot of what she said but it was a good start.

Today most of our group was looking for coffee shop with wireless and the one that we wondered into just happened to be a Christian church. Our waiter shared his testimony with us and we are excited about helping out with some of their ministries.

Anyways, that’s all for now. I am so excited to be here and I feel like I am already making a lot of progress with Spanish. I love you all and miss you already. (just a little note – I will reply to any personal emails if you want to say hi… babyruthgt@gmail.com)

Bye until next time!

Good-byes, transitions, and exciting days ahead!

I hardly know where to begin this blog because so much has happened in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, we finished eight and a half weeks of training. We learned about Church Planting Movements, transition and culture shock, how to start a church and methods of discipleship. It was definitely a time of being stretched and challenged. It was also a time of encouragement as we spend everyday with like-minded people who have become such dear friends.

Last week after our Commissioning last week began the very sad good-byes. The 363 other people that I have spend the last two months with are literally spreading to all corners of the earth, and while it’s very exciting, it’s also sad to know that it will be a long time before I get to hug their necks again. I have said my fair share of good-byes, but it’s almost as if I’d forgotten how hard it can be. Maybe I thought that it would be easier than before because we hadn’t been together very long in the grand scheme of life, but I was wrong! Now that I’ve been home a few days, I still miss my new friends, our awesome conversations, the laughter, Waffle House runs and just being together.

I am very excited about what lies ahead in Guatemala and Peru! I still don’t have a clear picture of exactly what life will look like, but the Lord has given me such a peace about the unknown. I’m excited to rejoin some of my FPO friends as we begin language school in Guatemala. I’m so thankful for the protected time that the South America region is providing to learn Spanish. My focus for the next three months is Spanish and learning to be bilingual. Being able to share the gospel in Spanish is going to be crucial to our ministry in Peru.

In the remaining 9 days that I have at home, I am spending as much time as possible with my family and friends. It is really special to have my brother home from Oklahoma for a few days. As much as I love being home, I’m ready (except for packing!) to get on the plane and head to Guatemala!

If you would like to receive my email updates, please leave me a comment and I’ll add you to the list!

Anticipated Schedule

There are still a lot of unknowns about moving to Peru, but what I do know, is that we are going to be in Antigua, Guatemala from mid-October to mid-January studying and learning Spanish. Christine has a much better grasp on language at this point, but I'm ready to learn!

In mid-January, we will make the exciting move to Lima, Peru. Lima will be our home base and where the majority of our team lives. As I think about our work in Peru, Psalm 96:2-3 keeps running through my head.

"Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples."

It's Official!

Hi all! Christine and I are just starting up our blog that we'll update during our years in Peru. We are currently in training in Virginia and are about 38 days away from flying to Guatemala for language school. It's really hard to believe how quickly our first 5 weeks here have past. It's been an incredible time of building relationships with teammates and others who are going all around the world.

We'll post more soon as time permits. Thank you all for your support and prayers for both of us!