Sharing In Spanish

Hello! I want to share with you all the fun things you can do when you can speak to people in a different language! Now, I'm not professing to be ready to be a translator or anything even close.

As part of my language classes, we are required to share devotions & children's lessons in Spanish. So the following picture is of me - doing my best not to read off a piece of paper! I usually write it out in case I get too nervous. This is the second time sharing devotions in Spanish with the prostitutes at El Oasis!
And here I am with a little girl at a Children's Hospital. We go there on Friday's and play with the kids, do hand crafts, lessons in Spanish and usually bring puppets. We bring the same ones in fear of losing our heads - simply because they've fallen in love with the same 3! It's cute.

All the children we work with are the Rehab department; working on some sort of dabilitating disease that disables them from using certain parts of their body. This little girl cannot walk, talk, nor can she coordinate her hands. Her body is very weak, and tho she can keep her head up, every few minutes it gets weak and her head falls. I was helping her color after two other missionaries gave the Bible lesson with puppets.

Though I can't remember her name, she is a precious young girl who knows what she wants! She made me draw circles all over the page. If I had the wrong color or was about to color in the wrong spot, she was sure to let me know!

Praise God! Praise God for His goodness to allow us to learn Spanish and with our limited means be able to impart His love with these kids. Praise God for His grace, that when we fall short, He is there. I know I make mistakes when sharing, but I trust that the Holy Spirit is there, still speaking to those women and to those children. I love being a place where I have no other choice but to trust that God is doing His part, that He is sending His Spirit!

My Fourth of July

The story of my Fourth of July goes a little something like this:

Guatemala doesn't exactly celebrate our Independance Day. However, both of my language school classes were canceled! My friend Amanda and I decided we wanted to (a) get out of town and (b) do something we don't normally get to do.

So, we went to Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful (touristy) town outside of the City about 45 minutes. We went to Hotel Antigua (origional, huh?!?!) and went to the pool. Pools are very not common here, and heated ones are even harder to find.

Needless to say, we spend a few, very relaxing, hours in the pool with a beautiful view of Volcano Agua. Agua is the third largest in all of Guatemala and Antigua rests on it. It's viewable from the roof of my house and many areas around the city. However, when you're at the foot of it, it's a little different!

After swimming, Amanda and I went to the restaurant Mono Loco (Funky Monkey) for dinner. It's a very 'unique' restaurant with a very unique feel. However, they have great food! The brick pole to the right is covered in red, white and blue confetti - the closest we got to fireworks or anything closely related to our nation's colors!

We had a great time and returned home exausted. I, on a very happy note, got a little sun!

Happy Independance Day!

Sarah

Decisions

Hi!

One thing God has been really speaking to me is about decisions. He gave us free will. And what we do with that is OUR DECISION. We can decide to live in the past regrets or decide to move forward. We can decide to hold grudges or decide to let it go.

I am reading a really good book called "When Your Past is Hurting Your Present". There's a quote on the chapter I just read. It is a native Indian at a campfire with his grandson. He was expressing these same things to his grandson. He said, "It's like we have two wolves inside us. One is good and the other is bad, and both are fighting for our obedience." When the boy asked, "Which one wins?" the wise olf chief replied, "Whichever one we feed."

I find this relevent because it's so easy to stay where we are with our mindsets, possibly wallowing in our unforgiveness or past, whatever it may be. So the question of the day: What wins? The past - is it going to hang on to us forever, weighing us down, slowing us from all God has in store for us? Or will the potential future win? Will we allow God to truly work in our lives and set us free from those hinderances to a future full of awesome potential?

Either way, we must decide to move on... it's on us what our future will be. Our past maybe wasn't ours to decide - but the future is your hands & in your decisions.

God Bless,

Sarah