Back Home!

Yes, home to the States, and now back home in Guatemala. Life starts getting a little more complicated when you start referring to more than one place as "home," but then Jesus did warn us about that as a risk of following Him when He said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." (Luke 9:58) Elsewhere, in Philippians 3:20-21, Paul reminds us, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." So praise God!

It's hard to believe that nearly 8 months have already gone by since the Lord carried me down here! Since I last updated you guys on the blog...

I had the pleasure of hosting a few friendly visitors from CA and Switzerland, as Carol, Helen, and Miriam were all able to be here at the same time--sweet time of fellowship and a blessing to me! Thank you to all of you who sent down notes and donations too--it was a sweet to hear your kind (and some of you funny) words and receive your generous gifts. We will soon have another group from PBCC down here in May, so thank you all who are supporting and praying for them as they prepare to come down. Please keep lifting up them and their trip.

I was also blessed with a wonderful month in the States, both in Texas and California--sweet and restful time spent with family (even a surprise visit with my brother, H.B.! By the way, that was so cool how God worked out the timing to that!), and a packed, but fun and refreshing (in a different way) time with friends and family in CA. Many thanks are due...just to name a few: thank you to the Silverado girls, who opened their home to me while I was out there, (and of course, to my wonderful parents who hosted me for the 2 weeks I was in TX--I love you!) and thank you to Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob who so generously loaned me their car, so I had transportation while in CA too (thank too, to all those who gave me rides here and there--some far, some near--when I didn't have a vehicle.) You all together have been such a blessing to me and made it a sweet time of a visit--thank you all!

The girls started high school (it's our HS equivalent, with more of a career-track focus) and have now finished their first quarter...some successfully, and most with room to grow. (Ps--We could definitely use your prayers in this.) We've now instituted mandatory study hours 4 days a week, so hopefully that will help.

Through several moves in and/or out, we are now at a total of 17 girls in our dorm, who seem to be getting along well with each other. Our dorm itself is pretty well situated; we are just waiting for the fixing/replacement of the hot water heater for the girls' bathroom, as it's had one issue after another since we moved in. A recent visitor has offered to sew curtains to replace the sheets the girls currently have hung upstairs to help divide their space and give them a bit more privacy. So, we're pretty well moved in and settled.

In January, we closed in the area next to my bedroom, so I now have a living room area. After I returned from the States, I bought a couch and love seat, which is has been a great addition, since now the girls come in and hang out a lot more. A couple of nights ago, they came in after school, and after chatting for a while, one of the girls suddenly asked me, "Ginny, how did you come to trust Christ?" Talk about an open door! Praise God! So I shared and eventually the conversation turned to, "How do you know if a guy is a good guy or not?" and later on to challenging them to start reading the Bible daily. Those are my favorite times...those and the worship nights...

As many of you have read in my recent emails, after about a year-long battle and waiting, the Lord has finally brought about, in His perfect timing, the healing of Genesis, a 10 year-old girl here at Casa Aleluya who was in need a kidney transplant. Her 19 year-old sister, Danisa, was the donor, and the surgery, which was last week, went perfectly. The doctors even found Genesis' appendix about to burst, so they went ahead and removed it during the operation. Both girls are now recovering beautifully, and we have nothing but praises for our Lord, the Great Physician, who has brought this all finally about. "Finally," to us, but to Him, in His perfect timing. He has used this past year of waiting and the trials of one surgery date after another getting canceled (due to sickness or infection,) to bring about great and amazing things here at Casa. One of those things has been the development of Monday and Friday night older kids-led worship sessions. Several of the older kids have stepped up and taken leadership in organizing and initiating these events--they went to Mike with the idea about 2 months ago and have been going strong with it ever since. More and more children are coming to salvation through these nights and the ministry the Holy Spirit is working out in His willing servants, as the kids praise Him. Not only that, but more kids are stepping up into leadership, even transforming the atmosphere on our pre-existing Sunday morning and Wednesday night Bible and worship times, and they are passionate! It's so awesome to see them worship because so many of them go all-out and lay everything they have and are before the Lord! So we see that this whole time of waiting for the Lord to bring about Genesis' surgery and healing, He has been at work in His children to do a much greater thing that what we could have imagined through all of this, transforming the kids' (and ours, as staff) hearts, growing in this whole place a spirit of passion for the Lord--to be sold out for Him--, humility, prayerfulness, gratitude and thankfulness, and faith.

The Lord has also blessed me with the provision of church in Guatemala City, where I've been able to find some fellowship outside of Casa Aleluya. Please keep me in your prayers as I look at becoming more involved there and discern how to balance that with the work the Lord has first called me to at Casa. Please especially pray that it would be an added blessing to the work at Casa, and not take or pull away from it. Please also continue to pray for friends for me and fellowship with like-minded, like-aged believers, especially in my time off, as this has been a struggle for me lately. Praise God though for His gift of my new friend Christine, who's volunteering with the Peace Corps in a town about 2 hours away from me. She has already been a blessing to me in the short time we've known each other. (Thanks Christine Broesamle for connecting us!) Please also pray for her safety, as she's in a lot more rural of an area. A praise is that, while the team who's coming May 10-18th (please lift them up in your prayers as well and praise God they are able to come down!) is here, we'll be able to go visit her and minister to her through fellowship and possibly to her host family too.

Well, I could write a paper--oops, I already did...well, I guess I could write a book, then--on all that the Lord's been up to here, but instead I'll say that if you want more on the day-to-day life details, please check out my Casa Aleluya online journal, which I try to update at least once, if not a couple times weekly. You can find the link at the bottom of this blog site, as well as in the update email I just sent.

Be blessed and enjoy to the utmost our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Thanks for joining in this journey with me, in all your prayers, love, in-person visits, gifts, and faith for the work the Lord is doing here in this place. Blessed be His name!

much love,
Ginny :)