Our life in the US...with our little dog, too!
The weekend was truly epic.
Birthdays: We're 24, we feel old. ;) I planned Jordan and surprise party and my birthday present was my new computer, we celebrated with a day in Antigua. Zach Lynkiewicz even came down for a week and half to help us celebrate, we had a blast having him around for our post-work entertainment.
Hopefully our picture will be in Glamour someday.
The first day we spent cleaning the camp we stayed at. The second day, we put on two programs for the students at Pastor David's school, Colegio del Buen Pastor. And after, we continued our work at the camp and painted a few rooms. Overall, it was great to be with our students, watching them impact the community for Christ.
BreakAway: Our time with the Wheaton team could not have been more uplifting, impacting, and memorable. Every time we think and talk about it, tears sting our eyes. Jordan and I both felt a sense of completion from the Lord, THIS is what He sent us here in Guatemala to do. (See the next post for the picture video!)
High School Banquet: A beautiful night in Antigua to get dressed up and eat a fabulous meal. What could be better?
spent the first part of the week showing her around school, then we were able to shoot off to Antigua and spend a few days by the pool, shopping, zip lining, and eating. Again, what could be better than that?
Talent Show: Hasn't happened yet (May 6th), but it is coming, and coming fast. All of the acts have been selected, ticket sales start Monday, and rehearsals are underway. We'll let you know the winners in two weeks!
but no one realized that until they were 14 or 15, even 16 and they themselves were over 5" tall. I believe that speaks to her personality and ability to lead. That being said, every Friday morning, Mrs. Pelton would lead worship during Elementary Chapel. I went to a Christian school, affiliated with a Baptist church; most of you can imagine the 80s-90s songs we sang. This early morning, one in particular came to my mind: "They that wait upon the Lo-o-rd, shall renew the-ir stren-en-ength. They shall mount up on wi-ngs like ea-gles, they shall run and not grow wea-ry, they shall walk and not grow faint. Teach me Lord, teach me Lo-ord, to waaait." Now that speaks to Mrs. Pelton's ability to spiritually impact a 6-year old for at least 15 years.
of you have probably seen the pictures from "Christmas Day" where Jordan and I were Santa and Mrs. Claus and the kids were our "elves." Well, this past week, we took it a step farther and we think we brought Spirit Days to a whole new level. It was "Retro Day" and we needed to pull something big in order to catch up to the other classes that were getting "creative" points. The instructions: dress up as someone would dress from the 40s-80s. Naturally, we decided that we needed to dress up as zombies. Why? One tenth grader is a big Michael Jackson fan. So, he dressed up as MJ and we filled in as the rest of the cast from Thriller. Like, I said, we brought Spirit Days to a whole new level.
achel would visit. Counting until I would come home for Christmas. Counting until I would come home for the summer and the big countdown, counting until the Big Day. Now, I suppose the question naturally would be, what happens after zero? Well, if I may, I believe I have the answer: Life! This semester has flown by. Between Sophomore retreats, Sunday nights at the Gathering, Parent-Teacher conferences, visitors, and the latest fiasco from CAG, Harvest Fair (we'll get to that later), weeks can be seemingly clocked by an egg timer all of a sudden. I think Kenny Chesney said it best in his nostalogic country song when he said "Don't blink, time goes faster than you think." I agree.
' Senior trip. This year's theme was "Alice in Wonderland" but don't let that limit you to the amazing creativity of each of the grade's and their booths. All the classes showed astounding creativity, but putting biases aside, I would say the Sophmores had the best booths. The first booth was a pool-noodle Fighting Booth, fully-equipped with a balance beam and gym mats to cushion the fall. Our second booth was the less lethal Fishing Booth. This booth included all the perks including a toddler size pool, magnets, and more candy than you can shake a stick at. Even with those two 
great booths, the show stopper was the Pie Toss. Basically pie tins, whipped-cream
, and some of the most "popular" teachers at school and you've got an award-winning humiliation booth that couldn't get a moments rest! Students came out of the woodwork to satisfy revenge on their teachers, including the recently married Mr. and Mrs. Underwood (we must have made an impression!)
would do this for them. Ya know, try to help out a little. Basically, you either take what I'm offering or leave it. That's right, you can click the little X on your screen anytime, but truly, I think you'd be interested in what I have to say.
It's been quite the crazy few weeks – my parents are always coming and going. To get them back for it, I try to wake them up every morning at about 6, it keeps them fresh, plus, they feed me to get me to leave them alone. Works every time. Then, at night, I'm brave now, so I go up on the roof and bark at all the dogs. I always hear my parents calling my name, I think they miss me when I go up there. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.
When we first got here, after my encounters with scary airport people and loud engines, they had Teacher Orientation and they would leave me in my kennel. Those days were the best, because they would come home at lunch to play. I overheard them talking that 
they learned a lot of new teaching techniques, I'm glad it was useful. Now, their lunch break is shorter and I've proven my maturity, so they leave me in the family room instead of the crate. I pretty much tricked them into letting me out of the kennel by chewing up one of my crate pillows and, boy, were they unhappy. But, boy, did it work...humans. And when they are home, I don't get on the furniture, but, when they leave or go to bed, I definitely only sleep on the couches. They made me a bed of hard pillows and scratchy quilts! Couch versus pillows and quilts, couch versus pillows and quilts; like I said...humans. Now, they come home right after school to let me out or take me back with them. I prefer to stay at home, school is a little scary, especially during basketball practice.
I know my “mom” is teaching K-2, Middle School, and High School Physical Education and English 10. They keep her pulling her hair out, but I know she is enjoying them. As for my “dad,” he's even busier than mom... he's teaching the same classes as last year (Bible 9, US History 8, Economics - 2nd Semester, High School Physical Education, and Weights Elective), but he even picked up a sixth! He's also doing Bible 10, my parents enjoy the 10th graders.
I met a few of them this weekend. 11 of them (half of the whole class) came over to help paint our bedrooms. I didn't have much fun that day, they were all loud. I kept trying to 
get under the bed, instead, I accidentally ran into the wall and covered myself in paint. Mom spent the better part of the next few days picking the paint out of my fur... oops.
Dad is still doing piano lessons after school, volunteering at the youth group and leading worship on Sunday nights at church. Mom signed up to be the assistant basketball coach and she loves it, but she will be excited for the end of the season. I'm the mascot, they even named a play after me!
Pray for my parents, they need it. Mom's been a little sick and really hurt her back after painting. And dad, he's just so busy... he does play with me every night though, don't worry. They are going to cut back because it's too much. There is always work to be done in ministry, but they can't tackle it all.
Shoot, gotta run, they'll be home soon and the roofs are calling me. We love all of you!
PS: Tell Bella I'm learning some Spanish, I'll share it with her when I come home. Te amo, chica!
The 3rd Quarter is officially over here at CAG and there are plenty of emotions that it carries along with it. The biggest one, of course, being that there is only one quarter left before my return home and wedding! All that to say, so much has happened in this third quarter that it would be impossible to share it all with you. That being said, I thinks Elementary Sports Day deserves some recognition. I don't know about you, but I definitely looked forward to this day as an elementary student. A day filled with competition and games against fellow classmates was the pinnacle of fun. I had never thought, however, of the strain and craziness the P.E. teachers feel! Sports day at CAG can be best described as controlled chaos. Of all the hilarious stories I could tell, I think the Dodgeball Showdown must be told. All other players were out except two on each team. I forth grade boy with an a
rm and determination to win, and a third grade Korean girl, who maybe weighed 50 pounds soaking wet in a snow-suit. There showdown lasted an exciting 8 minutes! Back and forth they went and the electricity flowed through the gym. The boy not wanting to lose to a girl (and understandably so at that age!) and the girl wanting to prove that girls were just as good as boys. 
Does over thirteen hours in a 12 passenger diesel van (without power steering) with half of my Freshman class sound like fun? Oh yeah! Servant Days was last weekend and we, the Freshman class, went into the mountains of Nebaj to build a sidewalk, paint, and work on a construction site. The family there has an awesome ministry. They train Guatemalans who want to minister to the Muslim world! How amazing is that? In the mountains of Guatemala, where there is so little already, they are concerned with reaching OTHERS for Christ. The weekend was frustrating, exhausting and completely rewarding. For some of these kids, it was the first time outside the city and the first time handling a shovel as well. Our work started slow but after a little bit of encouragement from myself and our other sponsor we really focused and accomplished a lot. Praise God for our safety as well! There were incidents just that week of our trip of robberies and things like that, so thank you all for your prayers!! (View the slideshow here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlJuUPzEETA)
riday and Saturday at 7 P.M.(central time) CAG is putting on our musical "The Life We Knew" and it will be available for viewing online: 
Watching them interact with the people they now call family was so encouraging to me and shed a whole new light on their idea of ministry. So please remember the town of El Zonte in your prayers because they are really a great community and have so little.
