This has been an absolutely incredible week. So many things have happened. God is more than amazing!! Usually I am in the city on the weekends, but this weekend I felt like I should not go.
Now, to start with one of the incredible things that has happened... I live in a house with 5 other students. There are two women who work here unselfishly, every day, making the food for us and doing the cleaning.
The older woman's name is Elsie and has 5 kids. Since Carolina passed away in July (the woman who owned the house), Elsie's daughter, Dominga stays here during the night with her daughter, Estephanie, who will be 2 next month. The family is incredible. We have had many good conversations and little Estephanie is just a sweetie.
Anyhow, one of the students in the house is a young man, 21 years old, who has a serious problem with alcohol. Honestly, it is very difficult to find someone here who doesn't struggle with this issue. He came to this house about 2 and a half weeks ago and has bounced from family to family. His purpose for coming to this house was to try and "find himself" and change, so that when he goes back to the States in Dec., he will be a different person. Tardeo goes to the gym and the owner of the gym is a Christian. His name is Giovanni. He invited Tardeo to the church on Wed. night. This was strictly a Bible study, not a service. The study discussed part of the 9th chapter of Romans. There were about 5 people in each group. The study went very well. Tardeo had many questions as he is a non-believer. Now, remember that it was Wed. night (Halloween) and the bars are loaded with people and activities. Tardeo was struggling with the issue of going out, so we went back to the house and talked for about 2 hours about different issues that he is facing. I prayed and continue to pray that God would give me the words to say to him as I feel very inadequate, since I haven't gone through the same problem and I am not a man. However, God is amazing and can work through anyone. Tardeo, never went to the bar that night, thank God. This is a very delicate subject as Tardeo gets bored very easily and when that happens, he wants to drink. However, he is afraid to take a risk or try something different, for fear of failing, so getting him to occupy his time in a beneficial manner can be a challenge. He has an extremely low self-esteem, no self-confidence, and likes the personality that he has when he is on alcohol, but does not want to drink. I hope you all can see why this is a big struggle for him. Thurs. night he also went to the church, but a different one than the night before. One of the guys from the other church, had invited him to go to an Evangelical church. It was very different than anything he had ever experienced as people were singing/dancing/more on the "wild" side. In the morning at breakfast, he was actually singing a song they must have sung that night. He told me that after that service, he did not have a strong desire to drink that night, which was awesome. Now, for you to understand how much of a struggle this really is, on a sadder note, last night, Giovanni invited Tardeo to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, because he had a really good friend who was celebrating 2 years of not doing drugs, and they were going to celebrate that. Tardeo went to the meeting, but got home around 9:30 or so and didn't know what to do. He was bored. He said he had trouble understanding the meeting because everything was in Spanish. Tardeo told me that he wanted to talk, but saw that my light was off, so then went to the bar and drank too much, not as much as he usually drinks, but enough that I would have been in the hospital. Please pray for him as he has a ton of issues to work through, and pray for me that God will direct me to give him the guidance or the words of direction that he needs and that he will open his heart to accept God, and will see how only God has the power to change him. I feel so much like a mom to him, that it is really hard. I am just so thankful that Tardeo is willing to go to church and has the desire to want to change. It will not be an easy road, but with God in him, it will be possible. Tonight he will actually play soccer with some of the guys at the church and then tomorrow he will go to the regular service. I am just incredibly thankful that Giovanni is a Christian and has taken him "under his wing" as well. Just continue to pray for him that he would come to accept God and see how God can do a miracle in his life!
Thursday was an extremely interesting day here. It was the Day of the Dead here, when everybody visits their loved ones who have died and brings them flowers. Well, the Mayans have two very religious villages here that are significant for this day. The school that I go to was going to one called "Sumpango". I had a ton of curiousity in this. The director of the school was going as the "guide" so to speak, to tell us about the importance of this day. He asked me to be the translator. So, he spoke in Spanish and I said what he said, but in English. It was very awesome as God let me do it!! This day is also a day when everybody flies kites and there are contests. Well, the Mayans will go and visit their dead and will stay at the site all day in hopes that their dead will reappear and come back to life. In the past, there was an important "god" who was here, but had suddenly disappeared. They think they have found the place where he may be buried now, but some of the things this "god" used to do were drink rum, and have many women. So, the Mayans will leave alcohol, flowers, and candles/incense at the tombs of the deceased to remember this "god". The mayans are polytheistic, and believe that their gods are in the sun, moon, water, fire, in whatever thing you can see. There are 4 important gods, for love, health, negotions, and safety. That day, they fly kites as a means of communicating with their gods. They will also pray at the tomb, to their loved one, asking that when they die, they will be granted a good after life. It is incredibly fascinating. Talk about an incredible mission opportunity. This is one reason why I want to work in the villages as well as this is where you will find most of the Mayans. Over half of the population here is Mayan and they are also the most malnourished. The kites were of all different sizes and colors. Each color represents something for the Mayans and each drawing does also. Some of the kites were huge, like 16 meters in diameter! There is no significance for the size of the kite, only the size of the string as the higher it is in the sky, the more they believe it is in communication with their gods. I told you how it is hard to find a person here who does not struggle with alcohol, well, the director of the school happens to be one. He is an alcoholic. There were about 20 of us from the school who went and we were supposed to meet at a certain spot before going back to the bus, as the bus was 15 minutes away or so. Anyhow, the director was drunk and was no where to be found. Some of the other students saw him and said that, so another girl and I made sure that everyone knew what time the bus was leaving and that all of us were accounted for. Then, we get on the bus... I am not sure how much alcohol the director had, but seriously he was done for. He had a hard time walking and couldn't finish his thoughts and almost fell over. It was sooo sad. Anyhow, I took the roll to make sure all of us were on the bus and then we left. Then later that night, I saw the director, Jose, sitting outside the tienda that is next to the school, "sleeping". He was pretty much passed out. I pray for God to use me in this situation as I really want to talk to this guy. He needs some serious help. I don't know though if he even knows he has a problem. Just pray for me in this situation as well that God would direct me in this.
I have so much to tell you all... I am sorry this is so long, but I have to tell you this too. After I got back from Sumpango, I went to visit the cemetary here in Antigua. I was just curious to see what was going on. Well, I walk through and see people leaving flowers. For the most part, the people here are not Mayan, so they only left flowers. Anyhow, when I wanted to leave and was trying to get out of the
crowd, I heard someone say "That's mano dura". I turned and looked and I couldn't believe it. This Sunday the people will vote on a president. One of the guys' nicknames is "Mano Dura", because he has talked so much about eliminating the crimals and the delincuents that are here. "Mano" means hand and "Dura" means hard, so "hard hand". This guy used to be a general in the wars back in the 80s that killed thousands of people. He himself probably never killed anyone, but ordered other people to. Anyhow both candidates have major issues against them. The other guy has no personality and has stolen millions of dollars in the past, when he previously tried to run for office and has huge connections to drug trafficking. I saw this guy, Otto Perez and watched him for awhile. I was sooo close to him. He was shaking people's hands as he went by. I felt like I needed to go and see him. So, I went up to him and told him that I hope God would bless him. I think I about shocked him as it looked like he wasn't expecting to hear that. He gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and then I left. I don't know who is going to be president here, but I tell you that whoever it is really needs to bring about some positive changes for this country and really needs to look to God to do that. I am not even sure that this guy is a Christian, but I know that if he gets put in to office God will direct him as I felt like God put something over him when I told him that. It was not even me saying that, but God as the Holy Spirit was very present. Please pray that the right candidate will get put into office and will actually be beneficial to this country and will do something good that they aren't expecting.
Well, I think this is enough for now! Once again, I apologize for the length of this, but God does so many incredible things, that it is soooo hard for me to give a condensed version as this is my "condensed" version! Please continue to keep me and all the people God would put in my path, in your prayers as God is in the process of changing peoples' lives, including mine!
