Everyday things...

A few people have emailed asking similiar questions, so we thought we'd entertain a few of them here for you all to read.

What do we do on the weekends?
This is our third weekend in Antigua. The first weekend here was September 15th, Guatemala's Independence Day. We walked around the streets and watched parades (many parades). We also moved into our new host family's home, so we spent a bit of time unpacking and getting used to our new surroundings.

I'm not sure we've been here long enough to say that we have a normal pattern, but we do enjoy going walking on Saturdays. We spend 99% of our time within the same one square mile. It is so nice to walk for a good bit on time on Saturday. Generally we have a good bit of homework on the weekends too.

We have been to two different churches on Sunday mornings. At Iglesia del Camino the pastor who is from Florida preaches in english and it is translated into spanish. Over 90% of those in attendence were American - all here for various reasons.
At Vida y Fe the pastor who is Guatemalan preaches in spanish and the sermon is translated into ensligh. The vast majority of those in attendence at Vida y Fe are Guatemalan.

What is the food like?
We eat 3 meals per day, Monday through Saturday at our host family's home, on Sunday's we are on our own for food. (That is the package deal you get when you get a host home through the school.)
For breakfast we have had various things ranging from oatmeal to banana pancakes to bowls of chopped fruit with yogurt, honey, and granola. Always for breakfast we drink hot tea, and eat bread as well.
Lunches always include veggies and rice. We've eaten a few vegetables that we've seen before. For instance there is a veggie called wiskill (sp?) they tell us it's like a potatoe - kinda tastes like one too. Sometimes we eat something one day that is reinvented a few more times. For example, we had mashed potatoes for lunch on Tuesday - that evening we have mashed potato cakes (that we poured honey on), and for lunch the next day were mashed potatoes within a folded tortilla that was fried.
Supper is very predictable - we have black beans in various forms each evening - whole bean, puree (thick puree, thin puree), soup, sometimes with cream and sometimes without. We always have bread with our beans, and often the bread is the utinsil of which we use to eat the beans. Generally there are also plantains either boiled with cinnamon or fried with cinnamon and sugar.

On Sundays, because we're on our own, we venture out and try other things - for breakfast this morning we had oatmeal pancakes, fruit, sweetend cream and coffee - it was very good. We've eaten italian food here (it was interesting), Domino's pizza, fried chicken, and even McDonald's and Burger King - which are suprisingly good.

A difference here is that when you order something like orange juice - they go and squeeze the oranges. Same goes for things like limeade. When compraring prices, the states is more expensive.

Have your been to the Children's Home?
When we arrived in Guatemala we spent our first 5 days at NLCH. Since then we have been in Antigua. We are planning a 3 day weekend at NLCH in October. We'll go back for the week of Thanksgiving and then for a bit during the Christmas holiday's. Other than that - we're here in Angitua for about 6 months.


We are so thankful for your support. We are without a doubt aware of how you are holding us in your prayers. We are thankful for how you are supporting us financially. Please let us know how we can pray for you all as well - we truly want to stay connected with you all - either through email or by leaving comments on our blog (we have fixed our blog so that everybody regardless if you have a gmail account of not may leave messages).

Have a great Sunday - we'll blog again soon.

And the Winner is????

As we were walking home tonight we happened to see in a resturante the final minutes of Latin American Idol. Carlos, the Guatemalan won.

Thursday afternoon

Tomorrow will complete our 3rd week in language school. We are both humbled by how hard it is to really learn another language. It's almost like playing the guitar - so many people can play a few chords, but there are only a few who play very well. It's easy to say hello, or to hold short and shallow conversations, but challening to be truly conversant.

The day we flew in so did 3 other girls who are here in Guatemala with New Life Children's Home for a few months. They finish their time in language school tomorrow and will go back to Villa Nueva on Saturday.

We have met and are getting to know several people here who we're spending intentional time with. If you would like specific details, please email us at leemaroonjarvis@gmail.com or stacijarvis@gmail.com.

In other random news, the volcano erupted again this morning as school began :) It's cool to look out and see a huge plume of smoke - look again 30 minutes later and it's gone.

Carlos or Ricardo? That is the question of the day in Guatemala. The finale of Latin American Idol is tonight. Carlos is Guatemalen and is, of course, the favorite around here. It's a bit different in that American Idol in that it's as if countries are competing instead of individuals. It's the "hot topic" around here, and people are spending money like crazy voting for their beloved Carlos.

It's time for lunch, we just got the knock on the door letting us know it's ready....

Saturday morning...

Howdy folks,

Lee writing here. Saturday morning and such around here. I'm usually not a real wordy one I guess except when talking person to person so here is a short blog just so see things from my point of view. I study on the roof of the school with my teacher Edna and the other day I was studying the difference between using the spanish prepositions por and para. Edna could sense that I was reaching the point of near frustration trying to understand and put the concept to use. Thankfully breaktime was the next thing to do and before heading down stairs for coffee and bread I had time to just slow down and pray for a sec. It just hit me that if I never really get good at spanish I can still be a ministerial success by just the fact that Holy Spirit is really the one doing the ministry. This is in no way any form of excuse for running right along and not learning the language. I truly believe that the Lord wants to and will have us as good as we can possibly get before school is over for us. I guess what I am saying is something we have already blogged before...We need Jesus more than we need spanish. Like at the end of Mathew 6, we read something like "seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you". Free time, learning spanish, beautiful vistas (views), even ministry itself cannot become the most important objects in our lives...it would be an idol and God would not bless it. How wonderful that the pressure can be taken off, all I have to do is trust and keep walking. Put the Lord first and then the things that seem so big will seem to fall into place...according to how God wants them to look. It was so comforting to think in that moment on the roof that I had somehow placed spanish as the most important thing for the time being instead of God...then to put things into their proper perpective....The Sovereign Lord above all else. How good to remember this at a time when I was wondering how to learn certain concepts...and also wondering how life would look when we don't have a ministry to do for 6 months or so.....or do we have a ministry? Absolutely....God never calls you to a place....He always calls you to a people....He has called us to Antigua to prepare for Villa Nueva...but also to be faithful to Him while in Antigua. You wouldn't believe how this town is such a tourist hub and stopping point for travelers from all over the world. Canadians, Koreans, Chinese, Germans, Swedish, and many others including folks from all over the US as well...Florida, California, Washington, and the northeast. There are people here that we would never have seen at any other place in time....what a chance to share the gospel with the nations. Life is not on hold, it never is, God always has a purpose. Right now we learn spanish, but also we have a chance while in this place to pour out and to be poured into. Follow Him....follow Him hard....it is always interesting....and always a reward....and always Glory for the One Who deserves.

For the Name,

Lee and Staci

Wednesday...

We just fnished class for today and thought we give a brief update before lunch.

Chepe´s funeral was on Monday. We heard that it was of course a sad event, but that the preacher had an encouraging and healing message. On Sunday because of an autopsy, it was discovered that Chepe had a massive heartattack and did not drown (no water was discovered in his lungs). This news has helped relieve the self inflicted guilt from those who believed they could have done something. Still, there is a lot of grieving and saddness. Please continue to pray for those at the home.

The friend of our family did not have surgery on Saturday. The doctors were sure they would have lost him, and have sent him home, hoping that his blood will become better. His blood is very thin, and the incision they need to make is large. He has received a blood transfuion in hopes that his body would receive the platelets well.

We are doing well in school (though it´s incredibly challenging), and really enjoying the new host family. We are often reminded that we are in Guatemala by various activities that are happening around us...while studying in school we often watch an active volcano release smoke and ash, yesterday Lee saw a huge (ok, ginormous) swarm of bees about 50 yards away, and Sunday night while going to sleep a marching band decided to do it´s thing about 10:30 pm a half a block away from us...seriously, at 10:30 at night, is it really necessary?

We are thankful for your prayers, and are often reminded that though we´re in Antigua for language school, we need the Lord more than we need spanish.

More to come (in a day or 2).....

Join us in praying...

As we said in our last post, we moved Saturday morning. We really like our new place, we have a bit more room, warm showers, and a really nice family. We arrived at their house about 11:15 Satuday morning. The wife explained to us that we would eat lunch with them but that it would be nice if we could be responsible for dinner as she and her husband had a friend who was going to have surgery that afternoon. During lunch the husband got a phone call from the friend who explained that the doctor was afraid of complicaions during surgery and that there were great possibilities he would not make it through. The friend called to say that he loved him, and goodbye should he not make it through the surgery. This was within the first 2 hours we knew the family. We have not heard how the surgery went.

Later in the evening we got a call from Daniel who informed us that a group of older kids from the children´s home had got to the coast for the day with a set of home parents. When they got ready to leave they could not find Chepe. The looked for several hours last night until it was too dark to continue. This morning, Chepe´s body was found in the ocean. As feared, he drown yesterday. Chepe was 17 years old and has a younger brother, Juan, who lives at the children´s home.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of broken hearts. Please pray for the grieving process that each of the kids and workers at the children´s home are going through. There will be a memorial service tomorrow. After praying and thinking through the situation, we have decided not to go to the memorial service and stay in Antigua. We just belive that it is wise for us to stay here.

Thank you for joining in prayer with us.

Friday!

Today completes our first week of language school. We are enjoying our teachers and the challenge they are putting before us. We are in school every morning from 8-12 and then we have homework that we complete in the afternoon and evenings. We have had moments that we crave to hear some english and other moments that spanish is just fine - something that we had expected to have happen.

We know it's been a while since we've posted a blog, so hopefully this one will catch you up with us for this past week.

Tomorrow is Guatemala's independence day, and do they celebrate. Yesterday there were herds of kids running in groups in the streets all of them with whistles in their mouths practicing for their run with the torch today. Today the same herds of kids are running around the city, blowing cadences with their whistles and some groups are even followed by a truck or even a bus honking the same cadence.

Throughout the day begining at 6am and ending usually at 9pm the church near our house rings a bell every 15 minutes or so. Last night we were trying to finish our homework and the bell rang for 22 minutes, during which at one point someone lite a good 2 minutes work of blackcat fireworks. We laughed and laughed - this morning we asked our host family about it and they said it was normal and probably even slept through it.

Two days a week our school offers an excursion to various places around the city. Generally they last about 2-2.5 hours. On Tuesday we went to a macadamia nut farm, and yesterday we walked up to a cross on a hill that overlooks the city. While walking to the hill a man pulled up his shirt, pooched out his belly and pressed it against a concrete wall - lesson learned - when your belly needs to be cooled off, just press it against a concrete wall :) Also, should you need to use the restroom, no need to search for one, just stop on the sidewalk and take care of business!

We have enjoyed meeting all kinds of people from various countries too. Antigua is known for it's many language schools and attracts people from all over the world. A lady from Sweeden is staying in the same house as us. Also, at the school is a couple from Korea who is studying spanish - they are quite humorious. Also, we have met a guys named Pete who is also studying here at the school. Pete is from Canada and is here because he wanted to "fall off the grid". Would you join us in praying for Pete? We have the opportunity to spend about 20-30 minutes with him each morning.

Emails and comments. We LOVE them. We want to stay as connected as possible to your lives back home. You can leave comments here on the blog of send us emails at leemaroonjarvis@gmail.com, or stacijarvis@gmail.com. Texas Furniture folks, how are Thursday mornings? Single's class how are you? Wesley folks, how's the fall semester?

Tomorrow we are changing host family homes. The home we are currently living in is just fine - the people are nice and the food is good, however, hot water is only available in the early mornings and even then it is often ice cold. Lee deals with it pretty well, but I haven't been. We are moving in with a host family who our friends Daniel & Kara stayed with while they were in language school here.

We'll end here for now - and post more frequently in thet future!

Antigua : The First 24 hours

Oh man, up until this point we didn't really have note-worthy posts. We weren't living in Antigua either. So yesterday we went to church, ate lunch at the home, even had time for a little nap then made our way to Antigua. Kendon, Wendy, Daniel & Kara came with the 5 of us. We first arrived at the school. We met the director and then he led us to the first house where the other 3 interns are living. We got their bags to their rooms, got back in the van and went to our house. We dropped our bags in our room looked around a bit and then left to eat dinner.

When we got back from dinner we began to unpack our stuff and then the room got smaller. We began laughing a bit as it looked like our stuff just kept growing - about the time we unpacked everything we were really laughing. We decided that we should calculate how many square feet we are living in to help you all understand what we mean when we say small. Lee broke out his leatherman - it has a ruler on it. We measured a tile and then started counting...after a few calculations we can tell you that our bedroom and bathroom combined and including the shower is 115.5 square feet. Lee looked up and said "people go to jail in things bigger than this" I cracked up laughing and fell over on the bed that made a loud noise - which created more laughter.

We calmed down, and were just talking when we heard the lady who lives in the bedroom next to us hang up some clothes. We could hear the hanger clink against rod in her closet - it was then we realized that the walls are made of paper and that our host family was probably regretting that we moved in their house. Oh well.... we're much better guests now.

The story continues with breakfast this morning - we were supposed to be ready to eat at 7am - we walk in and find a mound of fruit with some yogurt and honey on top and peanut butter toast. The lady from Sweden who is also living in our house said "this must be for the Americans" then she proceeded to speak 90 miles an hour in spanish, which was fine as Lee and I were still decently sleepy.

School was fine - Lee is upstairs doing homework as I write this. I haven't started mine yet. We like our teachers and are looking forward to knowing the language well.

We returned from school just in time for lunch - we were first served a chicken soup that was delicious then we were served a plate with white rice, a Guatemalen style chili rellano, and a beet salad. Lee was a champ and ate all of the beet salad, I ate all I could. Again, our Sweedish friend spoke excellent spanish about 90 miles an hour in spanish.

Now, we're back at the school taking advantage of the free wireless internet and working on homework. Thank you to all who have prayed for us - for the past 3 nights I have slept so well (I've even taken a nap each afternoon!) Thank you for praying for our teachers and host family as well - we are blessed to have such support.

Language School....

We're leaving in about an hour for Antigua, where language school is. We'll update more as we know it, with pictures too.

Pray that we connect with our host family and teachers.

Friday....

Today we left at 6:30 this morning to go to the embassy to get our passports validated - one of the many processes to get long term visas for us. We were told that it was a possibility that we would have to leave our passports over night for that process to take place. This Sunday we are leaving for language school and it would be quite an issue for us to have to go back to the capital city on Monday to retrieve our passports. When we were submitting our passports for validation we asked if there was any possible way that they could be processed today, she said that it might be able to happen and sent us to a different room to pay the fee for validation. When we returned with our receipt we waited about 5 minutes, she called us to the window and handed us our paperwork!! We are so thankful that she understood our situation and that she took care of our need immediately!!

After we left the U. S. embassy we walked down the street a bit and saw a place where we could pictures made for our visa - just a few minutes later we left with pictures.

Then Kendon drove us to the Tigo (cellphone) store where in a matter of minutes we had a cell phone.

We got back here about 11:30 - with so much accomplished. Today school is cancelled because of elections so traffic was lighter which was nice.

We're learning lots in the first few days of being here like traffic lights are generally decoration, black beans are a sufficient sauce to top spaghetti noodles with, and long sleeves are just about a need at night with temps in the 50's a night.

Thank you all for contining to pray for us we felt your prayers so close to us. We are still adjusting to our new enviroment and would appreciate you to continue to pray for us in that way. This Sunday we will move to Antigua for language school. We will be living with a local Guatemalen family there. Would you pray that we would connect with our family quickly and that we would begin to soak the language in. Also, with the exception of last night, I (Staci) have not been sleeping well. Beyond just being physicaly tired, it's pretty emotionally exhausting as well. We spent some time in prayer over that matter and I slept pretty well last night. Would you pray that I continue to rest well?

Have a great Friday - we'll update the blog again before we leave for language school.

Wednesday Morning....

Ahhh, it's amazing what a shower and good night's sleep can do for a person. We were welcomed last night by Daniel and Kara Harris at the airport. We got to the children's home with little welcome notes from kiddos here and a sign on our door. The neighborhood rooster who has no sense of time welcomed us at 2:30 this morning - he realized that was too early and stopped about 3 :) The kids begin school each morning at 7:30 - we were woken up with music this morning and the sound of kids playing. Right now just outside of our door some girls are learning a dance so "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord"

They're are 3 girls who are spending 3 months here this fall. We met all of them in Dallas as we were all on the same flight to Guatemala. This morning Daniel & Kara gave us all a tour of both properties. It was so fun to see some of the kids and workers around here. We got to walk around our apartment too! They are doing some finishing work on the inside and should be completely ready for us to live in once we finish language school.

Thank you so much for praying for our travels yesterday. We still have yet to have a drop of rain from the hurricane, our flights were good flights (with extra seats on our flight to Guatemala), all of our luggage got here - no problems at all. Today is a low-key day for us. We're pretty much free until lunch today - that will be the first time we get to see all of the kids.

We're here!

With little delays we made it here (with all of our bags) tonight about 1 hour past what was scheduled. Our friend, Felix is dumping rain and creating some havoc in other parts of Central America, but hasn't produced a drop here yet!

We're pretty tired, so we're going to bed. We'll update with more in the next couple of days.

Felix is just fine...

We were questioned about Felix, the hurricane in the gulf a few minutes ago. Yes, there's a hurricane, yes it's headed toward Central America, however, we'll be fine. The way the hurricane is travelling right now, we'll probably fly in tomorrow night to a rainy Guatemala, just ahead of the storm. Another thing is that Guatemala is on the west side of Central America, so the storm will have lessened quite a bit before it comes across Guatemala. Rain, lots and lots of rain, that's what we're expecting.