Learning and Processing

Some fun facts about Guatemala:

Phone #: Instead of 7 digit phone numbers we have 8 digit phone numbers. As far as contacting me it is best to use e-mail or facebook as the number one option. I also do have international calling and texting on my phone plan so you can use my number if needed (make sure you know your international costs :P). Let me know if you would like my number.

Greetings: Everyone you see or pass while walking or biking it is common courtesy to greet them using the phrases Buenos dias, buenas tardes, or buenas noches. (Good morning, good evening, or good night).

Music: Around town, at stores or tiendas, in the city, or even your neighbors houses are places you can hear music. It is surprising how much pop music you can hear that is in English as well as different techno music. 

Animals: Apparently roosters do not have any consideration for time of day. Our neighbors have a pig. You see dogs roaming the streets everywhere. Cebus (You may not remember what a cebu is until you watch this clip to the left) are as common as cows are.

Tiendas (Small convenience shops): There are 15 or so tiendas on our seven minute bike ride from our house to Shauna’s parents house. These tiendas sell small packaged snacks, chips, certain sodas, teas, Gatorade, other various drinks, Saldo (minutes) to purchase for your phone, candy, veggies, eggs, ice cream novelties, other basic foods, and other various small items.

These are lichis (prounounced lee - chez)

 Fruit: We have an orange tree in our small back yard/garden area. So if anyone wants fresh oranges come and visit us :). Also we eat the sweetest pineapple on the face of the earth, bananas picked off a nearby tree, bright red strawberries, and really sweet lichis.

La Dia de Independencia: September 15 is Guatemala’s Independence Day. It is tradition the day before to form groups from respective schools and do antorche (torch) runs. These runs take place on roads all over Guatemala. People with torches, horns, noise-makers, flags, costumes, and some face-paint run in parade like formations. At the back of the parade there is some sort of vehicle or vehicles (either pickup trucks, vans, or buses) with more people riding. It is also tradition for people to watch from the side of the roads and throw water on the people participating in the antorche runs. You can watch the video for more detail!

Now for some personal stories.

Spanish: Estoy aprendiendo espanol! So the other night I was feeling pretty confident so I decided to go and get my Spanish/English Bible and see if I could start reading the Spanish side. Well let’s just say it didn’t go to well :P I went back to reading some easy Spanish readers. However, overall it is progressing fairly well! I have two nice sized stacks of flash cards and do homework each day I don’t have class. I also usually have a paragraph or two to write and/or translate each day about different topics in Spanish. Pray that I will continue to push and challenge myself to learn!

Sport Ministry: We went on a trip five hours north of where we live a couple weeks ago. Shauna mentioned this in her blog a couple of weeks ago. A group of five of us went and we helped at a medical clinic. The morning we were there I had the opportunity to go kick a soccer ball with two boys out in the courtyard. The one young man was completely deaf and the other had some brain damage due to being in a three month coma earlier in his life. It was challenging, but so rewarding using different ways of communication than I normally would (using hand motions and Spanish). As I was kicking the ball back and forth a sense of God’s presence came over me. This is what God has called me too. I was building relationships with these two boys through kicking a ball back and forth. The joy radiated from their faces through their laughter and smiles. They were so happy that someone would take time to play and interact with them. This is my vision and passion: interacting, playing, and leading children through sports that they can see the love of Jesus Christ. This time only lasted about ½ hour, but God confirmed with me through that time that this is what He has laid on my heart.

House maintenence: So our house has been fantastic so far. However, we have had a few interesting and 'fun' experiences so far. One morning our bathroom sink fell off the wall. However within two hours we had it remounted (more securely this time) and new plumbing hooked up to it. A few days ago the piece that lifts up the rubber flapper in the toilet broke off, but again by the end of the day that was fixed. We've had to shave off the bottoms of a few of our doors because they rubbed when you opened them. We also have a little patch of lawn to weedwack/mow every ten days or so as well. Overall though we have been so blessed. First of all our landlord gave us an amazing price. Secondly he speaks some English. Next he is close by because he owns the hardware store down the street. Finally he let us know that if anything breaks or needs fixed he will come up to fix it!

I also wanted to update you on the prayer requests I had listed on my last blog post.

• That we would be able to find a bike or two for a good price (to make it easier to get around in town) 
• We were able to get two bikes for pretty good deals as we were out shopping and have used them a ton! Here is a picture of Krishauna's! 
• That we would be able to get all the bigger kitchen appliances, bed, and some sort of living room furniture at good prices when we go later in the week.
• We bought all of our furniture and appliances for under $2500!
• As we adjust to more of a Guatemalan style lifestyle when we move into our house. 
• We have adjusted really well. We have loved the location as it is not on a main road, but we are still within a minute and a half walk from quite a few tiendas. (Side note we finally got internet at our house on Wednesday!)

Thank you for your prayers and we can see how God answered all the ones from last month! Continue to pray for us as we process and trust God to open doors for us as we look for our more permanent location to live here in Guatemala. 

Thanks,

Andi and Krishauna

Feeling settled... kinda

It has been just short of a month since we left the U.S. and we are finally starting to feel settled here in Guatemala! :)

So we aren't repeating ourselves too much, here is a link to Andi's last blog post that tells about some of our adventures over the past month of being here: http://andibrubaker.blogspot.com

After multiple trips to Guatemala City, Chimaltenango, and Antigua to get all our furniture and other household items, we got to move into our house on September 7th. Since then, we have been figuring out how to adjust ourselves to this new and different lifestyle.

This is our kitchen (left). Like most Guatemalan houses, we do not have running water in our kitchen. Instead, we came up with our own makeshift kitchen sink (right). One large jug has purified water for drinking, washing fruits and vegetables, and cooking (if needed). The other jug has tap water in it. This is used for washing off hands while working in the kitchen, rinsing dishes that may need it immediately, and for any cooking that doesn't need purified water. You can also see here that we also do not have real cabinets in the kitchen. This means we need to check for bugs and dirt on the dishes and usually wipe them out before using them.

Our pila is outside off of our courtyard. A pila is what is used to wash dishes along with doing laundry. The middle section gets filled with water and is scooped out with a small dish into the sides where the washing is done. The left side has grooves on the bottom to use to scrub the laundry, but that is something I really don't like to do if possible (it takes so long) so my parents are letting us do laundry at their house using their washing machine for now. We will have to eventually decide if we are going to get our own washing machine or if I will get over my stubbornness and start hand washing our clothes.

Here is how we are supposed to get hot water in the shower. It is called a widow maker. It uses electricity to heat up the water right there in the shower head. So far, we haven't had hot water (or even warm water), but it hasn't been really cold water. You can step into the water without shivering, but it doesn't make you want to stay there for long. I got a little shock once when I tried to adjust it... I think I will just leave it alone from now on to keep from making it mad.

We have a tin roof on our house. This is fine because we have quite high ceilings so it doesn't get too hot inside, but we have a couple fans that are on pretty regularly. One morning, I woke up suddenly to something hitting our roof. I ran outside to see what it was. Our next door neighbors were knocking Güisquil (right) off of the vine growing up the tree that hangs over our house so it was falling hard and hitting the tin roof. Not my favorite way to wake up. On the positive side, the rain sounds amazing on the tin roof! It can be difficult to have a conversation when it is raining too hard so maybe we should learn sign language :) 


Open air houses mean that dirt gets everywhere. We're still working on getting used to sweeping and moping more often to try to keep things clean. It also means we can hear everything the neighbors do. Sometimes is sounds like someone is walking through our courtyard, but we realize that they are in the next house over. They also like to blast pop and techno music. Keeping a fan running helps to block out some of this noise. 

Bombas (colorless fireworks) being set off during the night can be quite scary. Especially when it is coming from right next door and in the middle of the night. This was something I had gotten used to when I lived here before, but I am having to readjust to this again. 

Only in Guatemala... do you get asked by your neighbor to turn off the light in their property because the switch for that light is on your property. Now we put tape over that switch so we don't accidentally turn it on again.


These days, we are staying pretty busy.
Andi is taking Spanish classes for 12 hours a week (4 hours each day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and he has homework to do after each class. Please pray that Andi will pick up the language quickly. While he is at class, I am teaching Checha (Cesar) who lives at Hogar de la Esperanza (my parents' home). As far as we know, he has never had any formal education so at almost 18 years old, he is learning to identify and write letters, addition, and other basics. I am very excited for this opportunity to work with him. He is excited to learn and even asks me to give him homework. Please pray that he will continue to be excited to learn and that he will not be discouraged through the time of learning the basics (he understands that he is behind for his age and this can be discouraging especially if he is having trouble with a concept). And pray that I will know when to push him and when to back off and give him a break.

We are also taking trips with my dad. These are ministry trips to different villages where we take wheelchairs, medication, and food to families and get to spend time talking to and praying with them. This gives us an opportunity to see different areas of Guatemala and seek God as to weather or not He wants us to move to those specific areas in the future. I was able to go to Jalapa (Andi couldn't go because he was sick at the time) and then we both got to go to Canillá, Quiché. These are really neat experiences for us. Please pray that we will have open ears and hearts to follow God's call no matter where He leads us!

Thank you for all your prayers!

Krishauna

Update from Guatemala

Well we have now been in Guatemala for 10 days and things are starting to come together.

• We have a house to rent! It is located in the same town as Shauna's parents about a 20 min walk or 5ish minute drive. It would be a shorter drive except the fact that there are many speedbumps to go over. Speedbumps are quite common in Guatemalan towns to mainly make sure people keep their speed low because there aren't speed limit signs in small towns. Anyways back to the house. It has 3 rooms and a bathroom. The biggest room we are planning on using as a great room (kitchen/living room combo). Then the two other rooms will be a bedroom and storage/study room (which can be turned into another bedroom when we have visitors :)). We have a nice open patio/courtyard and a little bit of actual grass and a few fruit trees. Once we move furniture in more and better pictures will be taken but there are a few below! (As you can see we have a fantastic view) We officially have the house on September 1st, but there's a little bit of maintenance and cleaning to do before we move in. So hopefully the first full week of September we will be able to live there!

        

• We bought phones! We each got the same phone and at least one of us will be getting a plan to be able to call the U.S. so that we can communicate with family and friends. 
• We have some of our household items! We went yesterday into Guatemala City (most likely 1st of 2 or 3 trips) to buy many of our small kitchen appliances and kitchen ware, along with some odds and ends for the rest of the house. We also were able to get some larger food items that you can only get in the city such as stick butter, shredded cheese, American cheese, and pancake mix to name a few. You can see some our personal belongings in the picture below :)
  
• Some prayer requests:
• That we would be able to find a bike or two for a good price (to make it easier to get around in town)
• That we would be able to get all the bigger kitchen appliances, bed, and some sort of living room furniture at good prices when we go later in the week.
• As we adjust to more of a Guatemalan style lifestyle when we move into our house. 

Thank you to all who pray for us and thanks be to God who gives us the strength we need.

On to new adventures!

Some pictures of our packing adventures :)

This week has been crazy so far. Going through all of our belongings and sorting what needed thrown out, what needed given back to people, and what we were giving to Community Aid. We are taking two checked bags, a carry-on suitcase, and a backpack each. So we needed to condense a good bit :) We are making sure we get a good last week of use from our projector and big screen as we have had the Olympics on all week as we get ready. Along with cleaning and packing, seeing family and different friends one last time before we leave has been a priority too.


We have been so blessed by everyone who has been praying for us as well as supporting us financially. We are so thankful and excited to let you know that we have reached our monthly support goal four days before we move. God is so good!! As we begin our respective ministries we expect our expenses and budget to increase and would always welcome more support as the Lord leads you.


Once we get to Guatemala we will be looking for a place to rent. We have been given some options, but we will be looking for others and hopefully making decisions in the first few days. I will also be starting Spanish lessons tentatively on September 5th and will be taking 12 hours a week. If you can be praying for these changes and decisions we have to make that would be greatly appreciated.

Trusting God as He guides us on this new journey in life.

The next blog post will be coming from Guatemala hopefully in the first week or so. Hasta luego Estados Unidos.

To Live is Christ

Sometimes there is a segment of scripture that sticks out to me and different videos and music that impacts me. I feel I need to share some of these thoughts. Hopefully it will encourage you or impact you today.

Phillipians 1:20-26

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed [of the gospel], but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by
far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.

“To live is Christ” means:

-       We proclaim the gospel of Christ
-       We imitate the example of Christ
-       We pursue the knowledge of Christ
-       We are willing to give up anything that prevents us from having Christ
-       Christ is our focus, our goal, and our chief desire

This is my prayer as we move to Guatemala, that I will not be ashamed of the gospel, but will have courage to proclaim the life-changing name of Jesus Christ. We need your prayers because there will be spiritual battles that will be taking place to put doubts in our heads that we aren’t qualified or worth it.

Our world needs prayer. After you finish reading this post. Take some time to pray for our world. Last Sunday at a church out here in Ohio, regarding the race and violence issues, the pastor said, "Hang on to your opinions loosely and hang on to God and the gospel tightly." We need to be hanging on to our Heavenly Father through all of these trials.

     33 more days until we get on the metal bird with most of our earthly belongings to follow God's call on our lives! We still have some Guatemalan bracelets, fresh coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans and scarves to sell. We do not want to take them back to Guatemala with us! Contact either of us if you are interested at andi@hopeforhome.org or krishauna@hopeforhome.org

Also we are having a get-together on Sunday August 14th in the afternoon/evening to see friends and family one-last time before we head off. So be sure to put that on your calendars. More details will follow regarding this event!

Reminder to say a prayer for the world we live in :) 

Love,

Andi

Stay in the Pasture

"Sometimes when God wants to tell us what to do, He sends down a scroll or writes it on the wall. Most of the time however, He just points out the fence line and tells us the stay in the pasture.”

      This quote really challenges me. I am a very detailed person and like to make lists and stay busy. So when I feel God calling me to something, but there aren’t many specific details associated with it   I know I am going to have to lean on Him more than ever. As I think about God leading us to Guatemala this thought crosses my head occasionally. I know God has called me to Guatemala and has given me passion for kids and sports ministry, but as I begin ministry many times I will be ‘walking in the pasture.’ If you would be praying for me that I would continue to rely on God and follow His guiding as I “stay in the pasture” I would really appreciate it!

Push The Rock update: 

      I have been in contact with representatives at Push The Rock this past week. Originally they were going to have a couple people come down to Guatemala in late fall/early winter to check things out, meet, and look at the area. However, that was when we were planning on moving in July. We have both agreed that it will be better and more beneficial for Shauna and I to be more settled, and more adjusted to life in Guatemala, along with the holidays happening so the plan is now for a couple people to be coming down in February.

Support and move update:

      We have an official move date!! We have bought our plane tickets are moving on August 20^th. It’s crazy to think that less than two months from now we will be in Guatemala.

      Regarding our financial support, we are at 64% of our monthly goal and we are trusting God that He will provide in whatever ways He sees fit. Thank you again to all of you who have supported us financially with one-time gifts and monthly support. It’s so amazing to see how God provides for a need when He calls you.

Life update:

      Well this week coming up is our last week of work. We are then headed out to Ohio, a camping trip with Shauna’s side of the family and a beach vacation with my side of the family. The rest of the days here in the U.S. will most likely be full of seeing other friends and family along with packing and moving stuff.  Below is another quote I really enjoyed and a picture of us at a good friends' wedding a few weekends ago J

"The secret to being used by God: Love Jesus with all your heart, Trust Him completely, and Learn to perservere."

         

   Be praying for peace and a calmness for me as we get closer to our move. Also be praying that we can enjoy this last month and a half here with friends and family and that God would provide the funds we need to get to full support. Thanks to all of you for being an encouragement and supporting us in prayer!

-Andi

God works through the smallest details

When I was first thinking about going into ministry my main fear was raising support and having enough funding to provide for me and my future family. I expressed this vocally when I met with a representative from Push The Rock in the fall of 2014. Over the past four months God has met this fear head on. I still have some anxiety of if we will meet our goals and budget, but the overall fear has left. I am confident that He will provide because I know He has put this call on my heart to be doing sport ministry in Guatemala. The past month I have especially felt this calming sense of giving everything to God.

Recently I have not been the best at spending time in the morning talking to God and spending time with Him. However, God has been showing himself to me by answering some prayers throughout my work day and activities throughout my week. A few examples include: asking God to help me find a missing gas cap to a mower I was using, asking God to help our car start after leaving us sit at a gas station, and asking God to help me to love people when they live different lifestyles than I do.

These may seem like small or silly examples, but through these experiences God has reminded me that he always cares about my life and is constantly pursing me, and He wants me to continue to get to know Him. It has been such an encouraging reminder using the small day to day challenges and details that I tend to overlook. 

We would love for you to continue to be praying for us as we look into purchasing tickets for our move in the next month as well as getting documents certified and notarized by different government organizations.

Right now we are down in North Carolina visiting with Shauna's uncle and aunt and going to be speaking at their church, Project:Re3, on Sunday. During our travel time we took this picture :)

Thank you all again for your prayers and financial support as we continue on this journey God is leading us. Lord willing we will be in Guatemala in three months! If you have any questions or would like to talk to us about our journey just let either of us know.

God works through the smallest details.

-Andi