Day 3!!!

Today was absolutely a total God day!!! Jimmy picked us up from our hotel, and we went back to their house to pretty much chill until New Horizons. It was a really good time of just talking with true and genuine missionaries. We learned a lot about the Guatemalans just by talking with them. They are very superstitious, and they believe that if you drink cold water or stand in cold air you will get sick, and if you are already sick, you will die. At the wedding that Jimmy went to, there is this one woman who has a little girl, and she was telling some other lady that she gives her daughter a cup of cold water in the morning, to help her build immunity to cold water Well, it’s not really the cold water that makes them sick, but the parasites and amoebas that are in the cold water, which are also in the warm water that they drink. They do not boil or clean their water in any way! So the lady turned to Jimmy and asked him, that’s right Jimmy?? If I give my daughter cold water every morning, she will become immune to it! What was Jimmy to say……

We helped Shelley cut out some more stuff for activities and crafts, and then Jimmy cooked us sopa roja! The recipe was courtesy of Larry Boggs, who has been a missionary here in Guatemala for over 30 years. The sopa roja was really for an object lesson that night in our adult Bible study. He was going to be teaching on Jacob and Esau, but we got to taste test the soup first! It was very good!! By the way it was very hot today! 111 was what Jimmy’s thermostat said in the car!

After lunch Jimmy decided that it would be a good time to go and look for those deaf children in San Juan. I started to get really, really nervous! I don’t know why, but it is one of those things, where I could do nothing without God helping me! We ran to this gas station first, so Jimmy could get a diet pepsi, and the lady there knew exactly who these deaf children were. Their names are Maria Jose and Jaime. She told us that if we went to the tienda in San Juan, we could find out where they live. Well, Jimmy got out of the truck and was talking to the lady for a very long time….needless to say I was just getting more and more nervous as time went by….he came back with great news though!!!! The lady at the counter had actually called Maria, who is Maria Jose’s mom, and they want to set up a time to meet with us! We also went and visited Jaime, who is Maria Jose’s cousin, and we were able to talk with him and his mom. Jaime is actually our age, he was sent to Guatemala City when he was only 3 years old to learn signs. He lived with this family for six years who treated him horribly and came back to the Petén when he was 9. His signs are a lot different than American signs, and he is kind of rusty because he doesn’t use them as much here. His speech is extremely well, and he can communicate with his family by reading lips and gestures. So sometime later this week, we are going to set up a time where we meet with both Maria Jose and Jaime again at our hotel! We really, really need your prayers for this meeting. Jimmy will not be able to stay the whole time to translate due to his other responsibilities, but I will have Brittany!! We both are going to need God’s help understanding languages that we both are still learning. Brittany’s Spanish is improving a lot!! She is practically going to be our translator, seeing that my Spanish is horrible! I know ASL but that doesn’t help me much with Guatemalan Sign-Language. I am hoping to video tape their signs, so I can start learning their language myself! We found this amazing verse, which we would like you to pray for us…. “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.” Colossians 4:3


After meeting Jaime, I was soooooo excited at how God was already opening doors here in the Petén. There are no schools for deaf children here in the Peten. There is one in Coban and Guatemala City, but most deaf children here in the Peten do not get to go there. If God permits me to start a school here, not only will they learn how to read and write, they will get to learn about a Savior who died for them!

There was still about an hour before our Bible study in New Horizons, so Jimmy took us back to our hotel to chill. Except our AC wasn’t working right, so we sprawled out on the cold tile and took a short nap! It was definitely a good experience :) Quincho came with Jim and Shelley to pick us up! He is one of the teens that have totally stepped up to the plate, and he helps Jim and Shelley out a lot! We were finally on our way to New Horizons!!!!! Our kids Bible study went really well! We had almost 20 kids come and learn about how “Para Dios no hay nada imposible!” Shelley’s Bible lesson was about the feeding of the 5,000, and the kids really pay attention. It is really sad, because they can all tell you how to get to heaven, but they will also tell you that they are not saved and not going to heaven. For some reason it doesn’t bother them. These kids are thrown into the world and sin at such a young age…it’s heartbreaking!

Oh! I did finally see my first scorpion!! We were playing a game, where we had to look for 5 panes y 2 pescados for our basket. So I decided to look behind the dry erase board, and something fell out by my foot….not the fish, definitely a huge black scorpion! Yeah, I jumped pretty high! Then Jaime, another one of the teens, thought it would be funny to pretend to squish it, and actually make it even angrier, so all of us girls went screaming out of the Bible study! Jaime is a little prankster :)

After the Bible study, Brittany and I went next door to Marcella's house. She taught us how to make corn tortillas from scratch! Starting from the corn kernels, to washing them, then grinding them into corn meal, then to shaping them (which I was not so hot at), to putting them on the oven! We will post pictures for you to see! It then began to rain really really hard, so the Adult Bible study was canceled. After leaving New Horizons we went to dinner at Maya International. It is a restaurant on the lake near Flores. Brittany had grilled chicken, and I had BBQ Pork. They were both really good! Oh! Brittany finally got to try the Limonada! It’s like a glorified Sonic limeade! The best!! We also had flaming bananas for dessert!! Now those were good!! Well, tomorrow we go to Santa Rita for their Bible studies! I am super excited to see them again! Their village is the total opposite of New Horizons!!

Thanks for praying - Becca and Brittany