I'm Heading Back...

In just a few short days I will be heading back to my home in Guatemala!!!!!

I'm so stoked to be working with all the wonderfully intelligent kids at Colegio Cristiano Avivando el Feugo in Tizate as the ESL Assistant.

Look at my beautiful town!!!

I will get to be in the classroom yet again with the wonderfully talented Miss Julisa!  She's the head of the English department at the school and also happens to be my lovely roommate.  She is the most creative teacher ever and is awesome to work with.  Love her.

I will also have the pleasure of working with our new English teacher for the younger grades, Ellis!!!  I'm excited for the energy he is going to bring!!!

And we will be working with the best kids on the planet!!!  Ok I may be a little bit biased but seriously, these kids will melt your heart with their love for Jesus and make you smile even on your worst day.  Here are some pictures of the wonderful kids we work with.

Aren't they the cutest? 

I will be homeschooling two little geniuses after school.  They already know two languages and are learning even more.  Crazy!  Samantha and Genesis are also really funny and love to do crafts (which I try to add in whenever I can).

It's crazy to believe I will be spending another year here and serving God through the kids there.  It is such an honor to be working in Guatemala again and I can't wait to be back there.  I truly feel like a part of me is missing when I'm not in Guatemala.  It's great to be where God wants me to be.  I know he has a plan for me being there.  Just influencing one kid towards God and his amazing love would make it all worth it.

I have to raise my own support.  All of the ESL staff is done through volunteer and donations by all of you.  For my next year there I need to raise a total $6,600 for expenses throughout the year.  This covers the cost of living, a monthly stipend for food, travel expenses, medical insurance, etc.  

If you feel called to be help support me, whether its one time or throughout the year, I would feel so blessed.  I know that I couldn't do it without the love and support from people back home.  If that's you, go here:

Global Shore Donations and type "Shelby McConnell" in the note box.

 

I know that not everyone can support me financially but still want to support me.  If that's you, please keep me and the school in your prayers.  Pray for God to continue to work in the lives of the students, for God to use me where he needs me and that all the finances will be taken care of.  There is major power in prayer.

Thank you so much for your love and support.

I will be updating this more as time progresses.

More Time with Him

It's been a while.

I'm not really sure where to begin so I'll tell you all what's been on my mind lately.

I recently started a course at IHOP (no not the Pancake House) on living a life of prayer.  I'm not too far into my course, just a few sermons, but one of the requirements for the course is spending at least 8 hours a week in corporate prayer and worship.  This requires me to be much more intentional with my prayer times.

During the past few weeks I've been in the presence of the Lord much more, because I've been putting in the effort to be with the beautiful Creator himself.  

I've discovered something interesting about the Christian life.  We can't be complacent.

It's that simple.

I know I've been pretty bad with this throughout the years.  I often expect God to do big things in my life without putting the effort to spend time with God.  What am I'm I, lazy or something?  Well, yes that's exactly right.  I'm being lazy with my relationship with God.

And God loves us all immensely and loves giving gifts to his children.  I know that the things God does in my life is not dependent on me (thank goodness) but I can't just sit back and let him do all that work.  That's not really what a relationship is supposed to look like. 

So this "required" time with God is really good for me because it allows me to consciously put in effort to be with the Lord of the entire Universe.  And that's incredible! 

I know that I will fail God.  It's inevitable sinful human nature.  That doesn't mean that I quit trying to do the will of God and that I quit entering the presence of the Lord. 

God will do great things when we are there and willing to listen.  As one movie put it, "It's not easy but it's simple." (brownie points for guessing which movie). 

So spend more time with God today.  He will probably surprise your socks off with something incredible because you chose  to spend time with Him over everything else.

Baking Adventures-Challah

Yesterday, the school had a day off due to a national holiday here in Guatemala!!!!  So, my roommate and I decided to spend all day lounging at home.  We played games and read but this got a little boring around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  So, we were trying to decide what to do next.  I was searching through my recipes to try and came across a website called "The Second Breakfast."  Being a big Lord of the Rings fan, we began looking through her recipes and came across a bread called Challah.  Now, I'm no baker so I clicked on it to check it out and saw the most amazing-looking bread in my life!!!  We just had to make it!!!!  Here's our journey in the kitchen.

This is our first batch of dough.  We followed the directions but after 30 minutes of letting the dough rise, it was not budging!!!!  It still looked like this.

 

We already started the strawberry filling, which turned out SOOO yummy!

Since the first batch wasn't rising, we decided to set it aside and bake it anyway with a second batch. This is my roommate Kayla moving the sticky dough.

 

On to round two!  We decided to wait a little longer on the activating the yeast part.  So here I am, encouraging it to activate.  It just took a lot longer then the blog-lady said.

This time, it worked!!!  Here is our braided Challah with strawberry filling.  The braid isn't as pretty as it could have been but it tasted amazing!

Remember the first batch that didn't rise?  Well, turns out, it was rising!!!  Although it took double the time to rise, it grew and grew and grew!!!  So, we made ANOTHER Challah without filling.

 

I think I really enjoy the process of making bread although I might some more practice.  But I'm more then willing to practice more if it keeps turning out this tasty. 

Also, have I mentioned that I have the best roommate.  So, if this bread wasn't already amazing, Kayla made french toast out of the Challah with strawberry sauce.  This was the best breakfast I've had in a long time!!!!

Garden in the Mountain

Recently I took a trip with my roommates to a small garden on top of a mountain outside of Antigua.   It was absolutely gorgeous there!  The people that take care of the place were so sweet and took us on a tour of all the entire place.  This place grows many things that are native to Guatemala.  They also grow a variety of flowers and had an orchid greenhouse!  While we were walking around, they kept giving us fresh fruits and veggies to try straight from the plant.  The wife of the caretaker also weaved traditional Mayan material.  It was neat to see the process that it entailed.  It was a wonderful time spent with wonderful people!  Here are some pictures.  I know there are a lot of flowers but they were too gorgeous not to share.  Enjoy!

 

Holy Week

I've been thinking a lot about the differences between religions, especially here in Guatemala.  There is an extreme divide between Catholics and Evangelical Christians here.  One will not associate with the other.  I've even heard of some who will not buy food from a stand that they know is run by the other.  Everything that is done by the church is to show the separation between the two.

Let me give you a bit of a background on the differences between Catholics and Evangelicals in Guatemala. 

This past week was is known as Semana Santa (or Holy Week).  This is not uncommon to the North American church.  During this week, Catholics hold a series of celebrations through processions.  These processions consist of floats, bands, and people dressed in long purple robes.  The floats are not pulled by semi-trucks, as seen in the US or Canada, but are held up on the shoulders of men.  These floats are extremely heavy and leave bruises on the men that carry them.  These procession literally shut down the town of Antigua as they weave through the cobblestone streets.

The Catholics here believe that carrying the floats is a huge honor and the bigger the bruises that are left on their shoulders, the more they are forgiven for their sins.  This is the time of year where people can atone for the sins that they they have committed.  There is a sense of duty for "bearing their own cross."  Not only that, but these men pay A LOT of money to have the opportunity to carry these floats. 

Now, I'm all for prophetic acts and I understand the reference to "bearing the our own cross" that is talked about in the book of Luke but this is a bit different.  The men that are in these processions are following the theory that we need good works to get into Heaven.  They believe that their forgiveness lies in the ability to pay money and bruise their shoulders on an extremely heavy float.
 
Not only are these processions through the week of Semana Santa but also throughout the period of lent. 

I was once caught in one of these processions while trying to get to church one Sunday morning and, I have to admit, my reaction to it was harsh.  As I pushed my way through the crowd of people up a busy street, the band began to play.  The music had a heaviness to it like I've never heard in my life.

I looked to my right as I passed a float holding a bloodied up Jesus holding a cross. 

I look to my left and I see a women dressed from head to toe in black sobbing on the shoulder of her husband as the float passed. 

I looked ahead of me and see men dressed as a roman guards surrounding the float. 

I have to admit, as I was fighting my way to get to church, I began to get angry these people.  I'm not Catholic!  All I wanted to do was get to church before the worship was over.  I wanted to scream, "Hey!!!!  God's not Dead!!!!  Stop acting like it!!!  I don't know about you but I serve a God that is alive!!!!"  The anger of being caught in such a depressing state over a God that is, in fact, alive burned in me for a long time afterwards.   

This past week, during the thick of these processions, I began thinking about the people that believe this tradition was the only way to be forgiven.  I began thinking about their lives and how sad it was that they serve a God that is still hanging on a cross.  I want to them to see that God is off the cross.  I want them to know that the cross was the beginning, not the end.  I want them to feel what real grace feels like, not forgiveness that they have to pay for.

There is a huge difference between Catholics and Christians down here. 

The God that I serve is one full of power and love and truth!  I serve a God that is alive!  Amen!

Dulce

I want to tell you a little bit about a girl at the school.  Her name is Dulce.

Dulce is in kindergarten and is around 5 years old.  She's lived more in her short years then most people do in a lifetime.  When Dulce was younger she was  sexually abused.  Because of this trauma at such a young age, she has learning disabilities (or so we think) and is struggles socially with her other classmates.  She is now living in a family that loves her and truly cares about her.

At the beginning of the year we were told to not expect much from her.  As long as she could participate and interact with others, then that was good enough.  That just doesn't seem right to me.  I believed she could do more. 

I remembered a short documentary I watch about a little girl in a similar situation as a child.  At the end of this documentary, the young girl had changed so dramatically that you could barely recognized her.  She was adopted into a christian environment and had parents that continued to show God's love to her.

I believe the same for Dulce's life here at the school.  It's only been three months into school and I have noticed a difference in her already.  Yesterday I was helping her write down words and drawing pictures.  I wrote down the word "pencil" and asked her to copy it.  Not only did she copy it but she wrote better then others in her class.  She was able to do the same to a few of the picture to match the vocab and she copied the pictures as well.  Now the pictures weren't perfect but and she was still easily distracted, but her demeanor has changed.  She was truly happy and joyous while I was working with her.  She has gotten better in the social environment with her classmates (from what I've seen).

She has been capturing my attention recently.  I can see a joy in her that was not there at the beginning of the year.  I believe that God will heal her completely from the trauma of her past, a trauma that was not at all her fault.  Her joy is incredible to see.  Even her smile has changed.  It's bigger and brighter, full of life.  I can't wait to see what God does in her life this year.

Funny Guatemalan Moments

There are many differences between Guatemaltecos and North Americans.  If I tried to make a list of these differences then you could be reading this for a long time.  This week I came across an interesting and amusing cultural.

I was asked to photograph headshots of all the pastors under Apostal Jacobo’s covering.  These pictures were only meant for identification cards, meaning they are only going to be the size of my thumb.  

North American Shelby thinks, “This will only take 20, 30 minutes tops.  Everyone will jump in front of the camera. Uno, does, tres, Snap!  Next.  Done.”  Right?  I mean, that’s how it would be in North America.

HA HA!  If only it were that simple.  But oh no, we’re in Guatemala and here, things are really different.

So, here’s what really happened.

As stand and wait to take each pastors and pastoras (pastor’s wives) I begin to look around.  A few came up to get their picture taken and then there was a long pause and no one came.  So I began to look for some of the pastors I know, who also happen to be teachers at the school.  I asked if they wanted to go but apparently there was a specific order.

OH an order, well then who’s next?

They pointed out the man that was supposed to go next so I went to see if he was ready.  He promptly told me that he was waiting for the Jacobo.  I had no idea why, but I assumed if he was waiting for but it must be important.  So I wait for 10 minutes.

Finally, Jacobo comes running in with three different tie choices.  We were waiting for the right tie!!!  You have to have the complete package, apparently.  

Now for a little quiz.  Can you spot the things that are the same in these pictures?

 

If you guessed same tie AND same jacket, You're right!  Give yourself a pat on the back.

Not only that, but these ties made their way from pastor to pastor, along with a suit jacket, that magically seemed look good on all the pastors.  At least they care about the total package!  Always a good thing, I'd say.

Typical Day

So, I never realized how much of a commitment writing a blog would be.  I'm trying to do them pretty consistently so Everyone can know how my life is here in Guatemala.

I feel like I'm finally getting into the swing of things here.  My typical day consists of waking up at 6:30 so I can be at the school for 7.  In the mornings all the teachers are divided with particular jobs that change daily.  So I am either greeting kids when they come off the bus, at the door or in the street in front of the school.  I personally use this time to load up on my cup of coffee.

Then it's time for devotions from 7:30-8.  This is probably my favorite time during the day.  Just imagine a room full of 250 kids from prekindergarten to middle school all praising God.  It's fantastic to be apart of it.  We often use that time to pray for needs within the school and for teachers, principles, sponsors and workers involved in the school.

Finally it's breakfast time.  Yay!!! The kids enjoy the delicious cooking skills of hermana Ana (sister Ana).  My favorite breakfast is rice and beans.  Yes, I know what you're thinking, that's so simple!  But you have never tasted Ana's beans before.  They are fantastic!!!!  Also I might just be a huge fan of rice and beans.

Then classes begin.  While I'm not teaching classes myself, I help out in the English classroom, mostly with the younger grades.  I also do one-on-one classes with two students who are advanced in English, Jenny and Ester, and they are also out upstairs neighbors! They are great!  So whenever their grades have English class, I give them lessons.

I finish the school day at 1:30 so I walk home and grab some lunch.  Around 2:30ish, I begin homeschooling with the younger girls, Genesis and Samantha (also our upstairs neighbors).  We learn anything from different cultures to vocab and spelling to poetry.  It is never a dull moment with those two!  They have quite the imagination, to say the least.

So, that is basically where my day ends.  Sometimes we have church meetings that we need to go to or play soccer or hang out with the kids upstairs.

On the weekends, we do many things, depending on the weekend.  Last weekend a group of us went to a really nice restaurant overlooking Antigua.  It was a fantastic view and a relaxing time for us all to hang out. Then we found the helicopter landing area and decided to hang out there for a bit.

Here are a few pictures from that for your enjoyment!!!

Look, Antigua!

Fantastic people I live and work with.

(Kayla, Juice, Karla, Dan, and Jimmy)

Me!

Josh!

Jimmy, Karla, and Juice!

Kids and Birthdays

So, working at the school has been going really good.  It's amazing to spend everyday with such loving kids!  Best job ever?  I think yes!

I thought I would provide you with some awesome pictures from the last few weeks.  The first little bit is from a birthday party for Danny (Pastor Jacobo and Julianna's son and fellow teacher at the school).

 

This is a playhouse for the kids!

 

It's me, so there needs to be a picture featuring the best color ever.

 

This little cutie is Jaden.  He lives above us.

Samathat (far left) and Gensis (far right) are the two girls I'm homeschooling.  They are playing with their cousin here.

It definitely pays to live underneath one of the most incredible bakers.  Julianna made this and it was as good as it looks.

I also got to take some pictures of the first and second grade classes for one of Karla's friends.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Guatemala Lovin'

It's been a few weeks since I landed in Guatemala!  Everyone keeps asking me how I feel, so I'll make it public.  I feel like I'm home!  It's fantastic and everyone here is incredible.

I thought I might share a few stories with you all.  It would be great to give you every detail, but that would take a very long time.

The first story is from last Sunday's walk.  My housemates, Julisa and Kayla, and myself started walking up the path past the school.  One of the workers at the school joined us with the intimidating Lex on a chain leash.  (For those of you who don't know, Lex is the guard dog German Shepherd at the school.  He looks pretty fierce when he's on his chain leash.)  Here are a few pictures from our outing.

 

 

The walk was a great way to relax before the school year started.  We had been walking a long way and came upon a house (pictured above).  We decided that we would turn around once we got to the house and head back.  Once we got to the house a few kids ran out and began hugging Julisa.  They were some kids from the school.  I heard Juice say my name, and so I looked up (I was currently entranced by the goat across the road) and saw my sponsor child running towards me.  We had inadvertently stumbled upon their house!  It was pretty awesome!

This past weekend I was able to go to Quiche, another 'state' in Guatemala.  There is a short-term team that went too.  This is the place that GSO is thinking about starting another school.  God works in incredible ways.  There is a pastor in Quiche that has connections with Pastor Jacobo.  He believes in a holistic teaching of the people in San Andreas, the town.  This includes education of the next generation.  Anyways, through a crazy turn of events, God has brought GSO to the people of Quiche and we were able to pray over the plan for GSO's involvement.

While we were there, we also had the opportunity to go to a remote church about an hour away.  It was literally in the middle of nowhere, but the drive was incredible.  

So, while at the VBS, Jacobo locked his keys in his car.  The wonderful men on the trip spent one hour breaking into his car.  This is the photo of triumph once Jacobo got his keys back.

On our way back to Tizate, we stopped at Lake Atitlan.  It was absolutely incredible. 

Prayer Request:

-For the kids at the school to continue to grow in their relationships with the Lord.

-There are a few of us teachers that are fighting colds.  While it seems like a small thing, it can really drain our energy.