"i'm the creation, You're the Creator, i am imperfect, You're the Redeemer, i'm filled with questions, You are the Answer, i am a sinner, You are my Savior. You are the One for me. and i belong to You. for the record i'm a full-time failure, You know me better than i know myself." -Mandi Mapes, "You're the one for me"

Thursday, March 17, 2011

and we will sing. . .

. . 'Holy, Holy is the King of Kings'


Again, here are more journal entries from Thursday, Friday and Saturday (which means the end)

Thursday
   We didn't leave the mission until 9 am today, which was an horu later than we normally do, and such a blessing. At the site it was wheelbarrowing, there was no more cement for me and Rebecca to finish our 'cement bombs.' I wheelbarrowed up and down all morning until lunch. Lunch was a little later because we waited on Nathan to return, but I was so hungry that I ate a little too fast. I started by switching with Matt down at the bottom of the hill building up the road. I stunk that up real fast and tried to beg Matt to switch back with me but he wouldn't, so I switched with Nicole. I was getting really short with people and wasn't nice at all. The boys finished the trenches which meant our dirt was finished soon after. When Matt shared that we had no more dirt I jumped and screamed like a teenager seeing Justin Beiber. We then began leveling the ground above the current night watchman house and dumping it like 10 feet away to build that land up. It was super hot and I got super tired. I worked with Daniel, and he had me laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants (I'm a lady, I know). After, NAthan took us to the very end of his land. The view there was incredible. What I thought was even greater was Nathan describing what he envisioned on teh mountainside - the 4 homes, the boys each with house parents all goign to school and work. It was so beautiful to hear the vision God has given him for this place. We then prayed for the ministry, the permit (they technically aren't suposed to be building on this land and need the mayor to sign off on a loophole in the law God showed Nathan), the boys, the house parents, adn Nathan and Claudia.

Team Time they had us go downstairs and after soem worship time, Eric came down and got us one by one. As I came up, I saw Matt on the floor with a bucket of water. He then washed each of our feet with Eric reading the passage of when Jesus does it to his disciples (John 13:1-17). It reminded me of when my youth pastor Eddy McBroom did it at camp 8 years ago. Seeing and feeling the change from then and now was interesting. That day was when I consider myself truly becoming a Christian and understanding all that following Christ entails, and it was on this trip that I really felt that I was willing to give it all up and spread that love that Jesus has given me to the ends of the earth.

We continued to worship and ended with 'Oh love that will not let me go' (don't try googling it you won't get the right version. ill get back to you on it). The last line is 'and we will sing, 'Holy Holy is the King of Kings' As Daniel continued to pray over us and the ministry there would be at least one person singing that line over and over again. It was a beautiful sound to hear and to think that for everything
 we are doing we should be signing that line.

 - All day long we would sing song parodies revolving around dirt or shoveling.

Friday
Lake Atitlan

  Today was the fun day. We started at the same time (8) and just took the 2 - 2.5 hour drive through the mountains to Lake Atitlan. The van ride was fun, we played 90s music and partied it up. The scenery was beautiful, the mountains looked like waves. We drove through different villages, all incredibly unique and yet totally the same. Once at the Lake we went ziplining. It was very well setup, got all our gear on and even practiced on a very short one - which gave me some confidence. I had already told both Becca and Eric to be prepared to push me down the line if necessary - I was doing this. We then hiked quite a way up, passed some spider monkeys (notice how I say that like its no big deal? but yeah, I saw monkeys) and the off to ziplining.
They harness you in, and then you had to stop by pulling your right hand off the trolley and onto the cable that was pulling you. I hated it (like my honesty). the height didn't bother me at all, but thats probably because I was too freaked out by sort of losing control and having issues breaking. However, the zipline was a group of 8, so do 1 you got 7 more. I did alright on the first few, but on the third one I never braked really, and slammed into the rope that acts as an emergency brake. there were tears. While I didn't enjoy, the rest of the team loved it!! I'm glad I did it though, and it was an experience that I'll never forget.

Lunch was at the Circus bar. It was a pizza dive, and really yummy. At lunch Nathan also showed us some pictures and videos from his karate demonstrations in the prisons. After lunch we shopped. We walked all the way down one street. I bartered pretty well. I could have done better, but never felt like I was paying too much . Seeing everyone else shop and interact was fun too. The drive back was just as beautiful, and we were all exhausted, so much quieter. We stopped at the Ranch site (first group!) and learned about that land and prayed over it. that land had more of a prairie country feel to it than the mountains we were used to seeing. On our way back, our beloved van began having transmission problems, but thankfully the ride back was mostly downhill and much easier. We had dinner at a fancy hotel in Antigua. It was delicious, but not as good as Claudia's. Nathan shared more at dinner, and gave us all certificates, something he said was a very Guatemalan thing to do. I loved hearing all of Nathan's stories, and his heart for this.

That night had nothing exciting, just packing and getting ready to leave.

Saturday
  We woke up at 4:30am on Saturday to pack up the van and head back. We said good bye to Nathan and Kory at the mission and then drove to the airport. Security in the Guatemalan airport is intense. you do the normal American thing, but you also get frisked - every single person. They also individually checked my bag, and took my volcanic rock out. (I was a little sad). We had our last meal their in the airport, and then boarded our plane. They check everyone's carry on one more time after they scan your ticket and before you get on the plane. (Also there were only two American Airlines flights to check in to, Dallas Fort Worth and Miami. big choices)

The flight was fine, I mostly sat there praying and thinking. We landed in DFW and met up with Mitchell's marvelous parents who met us with a pizza lunch. We chowed down, and then headed over to our gate to wait. Waiting and waiting, and then boarded once again.

then we were home.

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