You win some, you lose some

Ok, so I've officially been in Guatemala for 51 hours, and I feel like a lot has happened and nothing has happened at the same time.

I got sick last night, but not bad sick. It was bad enough for me to be in the fetal position for about 2 hours, but not bad enough to...well, you know..."blow up" the bathroom. So that's good. I was slightly terrified that I was going to experience dysentery. However, that wasn't the case, gracias a Dios.

I slept in until around 8:30 this morning (Valerie and I had been getting up at 6:30). Well, we got in the shower, and I learned a very important lesson there. This lesson was called "Do not touch the shower head." Why? Because it will shock you. Like electrocute you. Oops. Valerie actually told me that on the plane ride here, but I did not remember that until afterwards...obviously. I had a very productive day after that, however. I ate breakfast without almost blowing up the kitchen and had a wonderful little devotional in Matthew.

I only read one parable in Matthew 13 because I tried to read it in Spanish, and it was taking a long time. The parable I read was the Parable of the Sower. I have read this parable a bazillion times, but the simplicity of the story is really astounding to me. Jesus basically said, "You win some; you lose some, but even though you don't 'win' them all, the ones you do win mean so much." Losing is really, really hard for me. Always. I've made several 'humble pies' just since I've been here because I feel like my lack of knowledge of the language and culture is losing, but if I keep focusing on just that, I'll never experience victory. So I prayed and prayed this morning that not only would my mission field here be fertile ground for His Word, but my mind would be fertile ground in how I can grow in Him and what I can learn here. I want to be like a sponge. I feel like I have just enough boldness to get to Guatemala, and now my courage has run out. I'm jut glad the Holy Spirit residing in me is so much bigger than my cowardliness.

So after God began to implant a new heart and a renewed spirit in me, I talked to Alabaster for about 5 minutes. Then Valerie and I made our second VLOG on YouTube. Then we choreographed the warm up for our students. We begin teaching Monday, and we're helping them learn English in a "Dora the Explorer" kinda way--with songs and dancing. Well we are warming up to "Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua, which is very 90s, but very fun. I really think they will have a good time. We choreographed the whole song, and it was kind of exhausting. For those of you who do not know me, I am not a graceful person. I have never taken dance, and I was just kind of following Valerie. I did ok exept for this move that we do during the chorus. It took me 10 minutes just to get the concept down, and even now I don't do it well. Valerie says it's my homework...and I'm seriously going upstairs soon to practice. But after we finished that we celebrated with grilled turkey and cheese sandwhiches...and they were good! And nothing burned down in the process. Then we drank what we have very maturely dubbed "poopy tea." It supposedly helps with digestion, but it looks like poop. I can't really describe the taste. It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't say it was good.

And we've successfully hunted and completely destroyed a misquito. He's been left on the wall to serve as an example for all other misquitoes that want to come into our room. I would certainly count this day as a success, even though we haven't left the group home. Sully and Rudy are in El Zapotillo until tomorrow, and Andrea and Fernando are busy studying their little heads off. So Valerie and I are making use of the time we have here to plan classes. Yay! I'm going to go practice my "dancing" and maybe I'll practice some Spanish with el hombre en la mesa. Eventually, I am hoping the girls who live downstairs will warm up to me (and I to them) so I can practice my Spanish with them, too. I wish I wasn't so afraid to be embarrassed. Workin on it. ;) Peace and blessings, ya'll, peace and blessings.