"Gacelas de Dios", Cheap Flights, Praises, and Prayers

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Updates...

It's been just over a month since the girls and I moved into our new home. A few of them took it upon themselves to get the downstairs painted a colorful terracotta, orangish-yellow, and sea foam shade of green, making us a very typical looking Guatemalan household. The girls have chosen the name "Rosas de Saron" (Roses of Sharon, with reference to Song of Solomon)--we usually try to pick names with some biblical reference. Funny story: some things get lost in translation...or something like that...

The other night, the girls were looking through the Bible for dorm name ideas; amidst them all shouting out ideas, from the logical to the absurd) here is the conversation surrounding one name that didn't quite make it past the drawing table (translated for your convenience:)

(Girls:) "Las Gacelas de Dios!"
(Me:) "The 'ga-what-as' of God?"
(Girls:) "Gacelas!"
(Me:) "What's a 'gacela?'"
(Girls, confidently assuring me:) "Oh, it's like saying, 'my beloved,'"

I wasn't convinced, but they insisted,

(Girls:) "It's in Song of Solomon 2:7; look and see."

(General murmuring and a few other random ideas being blurted out, while I look up the verse...)

(Me:) (Chuckling as I read to myself, then aloud, in Spanish and English side by side, Song of Solomon 2:7, and realize the true meaning of "gacelas":)

"'Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.'

Girls, a 'gacela' is a gazelle."
(Girls:) (puzzled looks...)
(me:) (how do you explain to a group of teenage girls who've never even heard of a gazelle, much less seen one, that they were attempting to name their dorm "The Gazelles of God?"
"...you know, like a dear...the animal."
(Girls:) (uproar) "OHMYGOSH! No, no, no, no--gacelas, no! Nevermind! Something else!"

...hence, "Rosas de Saron."


In the past 2 1/2 months since I arrived, I have seen the Lord answer some pretty significant prayers:

* friendships and fellowship: Alison--having her around has been a huge blessing to me--someone like-minded, about the same age, to hang out with. I've really been enjoying getting to know her and spend time together, especially as we both have Thursdays off and usually spend the major portion of the day together. I'm also getting to know some other folks on staff better, as well as make a few other new connections outside of Casa Aleluya
* transition into dorm and being at Casa in general: really, it's gone quite smoothly, all things considered--there have been a few bumps so far, but we're all learning...
* communication: although this is still a HUGE prayer request, even the 1st week I was here, I saw some of the issues we as a staff and organization have regarding poor/lack of communication being addressed, at least brought up in a non-gossipy, but rather productive manner, and we have addressed these issues at least once more since then. Now the next step is that we would act on the issues we discussed...
* relationships with the girls, that the Lord would prepare the way for these to happen: before moving in, I was given a list of the girls' names who'd be moving into the new dorm, and since I didn't really have a lot of other things to do, it was easy to find time to pray for each of the girls (almost) every day leading up to the move in. I know this, in addition to helping me learn their names!) prepared a place in my heart for each of the girls beforehand, and I have been really surprised at how easy it has been to get to know most of them, even the shy or more stand-offish ones. We've gotten to have a few good quality conversations with some of them, and spend a good bit of time just hanging out together.
* provision of financial support: as you may have read in my blog, the Lord brought in every last penny, and thensome--thank You Lord.
* my room: I have one! (and a bathroom!!!) I've even been able to corner out a little area to use as my kinda ghetto, but cute kitchen--almost like college, except better :)
* funds for Genesis's kidney transplant surgery (set to take place on December 10th): as of this last week, I believe, all that's needed upfront has been provided--praise God!
* Esmelda, from the last blog entry, was able to move to a better/safer place with (one of?) her sisters a few weeks ago. Angie has been able to take her to church a few weeks as well. Thank you for praying for her and their situation. Please continue to pray.
* and many more details and everyday life provisions!

Some ongoing and current projects and prayer requests:

* Genesis: please keep praying for her health and prep for surgery, as well as for Danisa, her older sister and kidney donor ,especially right now as Genesis has an infection that could delay the surgery if it doesn't clear up. Also, starting Dec 1st, the kids will start a 24-Hour prayer tag-team for Genesis, Danisa and the surgery, until hem come home from the hospital, healthy and healing post-surgery--please pray for the kids praying and praise God for their faith to pray--AND for the one boy who told Mike, "I want to sign up to pray, but I think I need to be saved first," and then accepted Christ as His Savior!
* "Romans Road" and Galatians 3 Memorizing: I've challenged the girls to memorize these verses and passages within a certain time frame, for the prize of getting to go to the water park nearby, and for the whole Gal. 3, to get to go on a special trip to a really cool water park a few hours away. Pray that they'd desire to learn these verses for the joy of knowing the Lord's word, and that the Lord would indeed write His word on their hearts through this. Also, pray Mike lets us go to the waterpark(s)...it was a normal thing to use as a reward of this kind, but it got abused, so that taking kids was becoming a regular occurance, so Mike shut it down with the exception of for good-grade-rewards. I told the girls before all this went down and haven't told them otherwise yet, as I'm hoping Mike might see this as a worthy reward and not just abuse of privilege.
* Morning games: we're planning to start overseeing some large-scale summer camp/youth group-type games for the kids on the main side of the campus in the mornings, maybe a couple of times a week for the rest of vacation (through early January.) The plan is to start it up after the current large team who's here doing a soccer camp with the kids leaves after this week. Please pray for all the details/supplies/etc. to work out, for the kids to have a safe and fun time, and for creativity and self-starter-ness for me (leading this up...doesn't come very naturally to me)
* Discovery Study: a Bible study I want to do with the girls in 3 small groups, geared towards non-believers, 5-weeks of sessions--major hope is to get them really processing what they're learning, thinking about and discussing it, deciding what they really think about it, and deciding (whether they're going) to trust Christ--I've pretty much got it ready to go, but haven't started it or told the girls about it yet.
* Budgets for the girls: praise: I had time yesterday to finally make up a worksheet specifically designed for the girls' expenses to give to each of them, then hope to have time to sit down with each one individually to work out something concrete. Praise: some are interested, at least see the need...no it's not the best use of your money to spend it all on chips--surprising, I know, but true. Biggest complication: most of them don't have a steady income, although they (sort of regularly) get money from their sponsors--I need wisdom in how to help them plan for spending within the constraints of an unpredictable income.

If you're interested in keeping up on a more day-to-day (although not every single day) basis, you can check out my journal entries on the Casa Aleluya website @:

http://casaparaninos.com/newsandevents/staffnewsandupdates/vine/

To get an email notification (contains the latest journal entry text) of each time I update, you can go to http://casaparaninos.com/micasa/ and click the "Sign up for a MiCasa account now!" button in the middle of the page, which will walk you through the steps of setting up your own Casa Aleluya account. This will also allow you to see more detail on each child's background story. Once you have an account, you can log on and click the "E-Updates" link on the left-hand sidebar menu to sign up for email updates to any/every staff journal. Meanwhile, I'll still try to keep my blog updated with general info and pictures as I'm able, but the Casa Aleluya journal is really where all the action's at. :)

All of that said, I'm posting this entire update on the blog as well, just in case you lose this email or something. Thank you all so much for all your faithful prayers, financial support, love, and words of encouragement (which is sometimes just saying hi!) I couldn't do this alone (without you--you are the Lord's provision for me!) I hope you are all well and that you're able to see how the Lord is working in each of your lives and the lives of those around you, and that you are each able to worship Him and glory in His glorious name alone. May His name be praised among all the nations, amen.

love,
Ginny :)
Phil. 1:2-12, 27-28...honestly, just read the whole book--it's awesome (word of God...of course it's awesome)--and it's short--go for it--I dare you.