Buenas tardes from our school in Antigua!
We have just completed our second week of Spanish school and our brains are filled with muchas palabras!! (many words!) I've finished up Level A and will take my exam to pass to the next level. I often hear laughter from Kevin's table across the school (surprise!) and once looked over to see his teacher with her head on the table... They look like they're having a great time. Next week we'll be studying five hours a day instead of six, from 8 AM-1PM. There's so many new words to absorb every day that by the time you get your homework done you don't have time to really study and review everything. Such a great way to learn a language, though, especially as we share meals with the family we live with and practice speaking in Spanish. We'll be here one more week, then will be going back to the city every other week to work with the mission teams that come down from next Saturday through the end of August.
This weekend, Andy, Drew and Lindsey, along with Manuel and his family, are going to pick us up and spend a couple of days in Panajachel. The five of us will be able to stay for free in the house of a friend of the ministry. So we'll take our books along and spend a little time in another part of Guatemala about 2 hours from Antigua. It's the last weekend any of us will have off until September, so we'll savor the flavor as much as possible!
The Board of Directors of the ministry was in Guatemala last weekend and we were thrilled to meet each member when they came to Antigua for two days of meetings. Their passion and love for the people of Guatemala, The Servant's Heart and for their Lord was energizing and encouraging as they made plans and shared ideas for the coming year at the ministry. It was a bittersweet time (there are going to be a lot of those, I'm thinking...) as we had such a wonderful time sharing meals and stories and laughs... but the bitter part came when we had to say goodbye to Rachel and Dennis, my brother in law, and other friends on the board. I think we were all bawling by the time we had to walk away from the van and watch them leave us behind.
It's been a tough couple of weeks as we mourn the loss of our family and everything familiar. We've passed the 10 day mission trip time...and are realizing that we aren't going home just yet! We learn every day how weak we are and how much we need to depend on the Lord for every ounce of strength that's needed to be here. It will be good next weekend to finally be back with the people we love, reminding us of the work for which God brought us to Guatemala.
We ask your prayers for continued focus on the only thing that is important...giving God glory and serving Him with all our hearts, minds and strength. It's so easy to lose that focus and Satan would like nothing more than to see us wonder why we're here. But our God is faithful and gives us the peace and strength we need!
Thank you for the emails and comments on the blog! They are encouraging and bring us many smiles.
God be with you and bless you!!!
Much love,
Ginny & Kevin
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