Heart-Cakes

Random story...for one of the girls' recent birthdays, I wanted to make cupcakes, only in Guatemala, the trick with many familiar US-items, is that sometimes they have them and sometimes they don't. So I learned a new lesson: when you can't find cupcake liners, just use these cute little foil heart tins (one random item they happened to have this time around--and they're disposable too!)...only don't over-fill them!! oops! Oh well, they still tasted yummy, especially with the ice cream...mmm... :)

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 :)

Christmas Blessing

I want to apologize to my lack of journaling over the last month. Thank you to all of you who are so faithful to read the journal entries, stay up to date, and pray for the kids here at Casa Aleluya.

I want to share with you all an incredible blessing from this Christmas. Please bear with me, while I give you some background and share this story, so that you can grasp the beauty of this 2nd Christmas of mine away from home. (Hang in there til the end...I know it's long, but it's a testimony to what the Lord has done.)


Two years ago on Christmas day, I was working at a residential rehabilitation center for teenage girls, as a residential counselor (live-in) and was, well, miserable. I was living 2,000 miles away from my family and friends, had not been able to go to church for the past 6 weeks (either due to work or being sick,) nor really even able to find a solid church home, even after living there for 5 months. The girls with whom we were working were often very temperamental and abusive in speech and defiant actions, although they did have their moments. On top of all of that, throughout this day of work on Christmas, the parents who were signed up to bring dishes for our Christmas meal together either only brought enough food for their own children or no food at all, and then the kitchen breaker blew it's spring, so I was left to throw together some brown sugar glaze, box mashed potatoes, and heat the ham we had in the refrigerator, all by lamplight (from the one outlet that was connected to a different breaker) on our (thankfully) gas stove. We finished eating just in time to leave the dishes and run to our 12-step meeting for the night. Needless to say, at the end of the day, I was shot--completely done, and inexpressibly ready for my 10-day vacation that was still 2 weeks away.

In retrospect, it's a bit humorous, and the girls who were there that day later told me they thought it was a really cool Christmas all together, and that they'd appreciated me trying to make the best of it. Still, it was an experience I did not care to repeat. With that memory in mind, I was a bit skeptical, more curious, as to how this Christmas, my second away from home, would turn out. It wouldn't do it justice to say I was pleasantly surprised.


A couple of days before Christmas, they girls and I went to the market in Antigua, armed with our lists in hand, and bought all the supplies we'd need to make our Christmas feast. We had agreed that I would make the turkey and they'd take care of the side dishes (all of Guatemalan tradition, of course.) I have never bought that much food at one time before!

So Christmas Eve came, and handed out all the presents from Mike and Dottie, teams and sponsors to the older kids that morning. Let me tell you, that is a sight to be seen! By noon the girls were all busily working away at chopping, slicing, mixing, and such in our kitchen. (We even had a little lesson on how to sharpen a knife to help them out.) A few of the girls spent the better part of the day in front of the TV, but most of them helped with the preparation in one way or another. I worked on preparing my first turkey without my mom (although she did give me some much needed phone support--thanks Mom!) and while it was baking, some of my TV queens helped put together a few desserts to accompany our feast. They're so cute when they're learning a new recipe; I think it's the most attentive I've even seen them! At about 6:30pm, we all headed over to the back property to watch a pretty impressive display of fireworks, put on by Jack, Ashley and Ryan Ciak. There were lots of "ooh!"s and "ahh!"s and cheering.

Finally the hour was drawing near. (The tradition here in Guatemala, as you may have read on others' journals, is to have the big celebration at midnight Christmas Eve-Christmas Day. Everyone sets of fireworks, then they enjoy the big feast, open presents, and finally go to bed around 3 or 4am, only to wake up to have more fireworks and another big meal around noon Christmas Day. Guatemalans know how to celebrate, that's for sure!) Wanting to keep as much national tradition as possible for the girls, we'd planned to have our big celebration at midnight, with our feast and presents, but we had an added bonus when Alex and Kevin set off another display of fireworks out on the soccer field at midnight.

We all rushed outside to see the show, and as I stood there, wrapped up in a blanket, with my girls there by me, staring up at these fireworks in the midnight sky, I couldn't help but reflect on that Christmas 2 years ago. I realized how blessed I was to be standing there in Guatemala on midnight of Christmas morning, taking part in one of this country's valued traditions, and sharing it with my girls, with whom the Lord has given me this gift of ministry. I thought about how hard I'd expected it would be to spend another Christmas away from my family and friends in the States, and how I'd been so worried that it'd be like Christmas of 2005 all over again, and how wrong I had been in all those expectations. Praise God. I kind of teared up reflecting on all that, and even in realizing that although I'd felt it was horrible at the time, the Lord had used even Christmas of 2005 to bless those girls in the middle of their struggle to start new lives clean and sober. He has been so faithful, in everything, even in the things I don't notice at the time.

After the fireworks, the girls and I went back to our dorm and enjoyed our day's labor in a meal well done, while we all celebrated together. I had one of them read the Christmas story from Luke, as a reminder of what this holiday is really all about, and why we celebrate with giving gifts, as we remember the Greatest Gift of All. After our feast, the girls opened their gifts from me, and were all so gracious--that was an added blessing to me. After our festivities, I let them stay up and finish the movie they were watching, and went on into my room for the night. The house was a HUGE mess, but I decided that the incredible job of cleaning up from the day of cooking and gift-opening would have to wait until morning (well, REAL morning anyways.) I went to bed that night exhausted, but totally joyful and blessed. Still, my very unexpected Christmas morning blessing was yet to come.
I walked out of my room at 7:45am to discover the cleanest living room and kitchen I have ever seen! Xiomara, Blanca, and Ada stayed up after everyone had left their messes, and cleaned the whole thing! I was so blessed and impressed by this act of service from them (as I'm sure were the rest of the girls as well) and thanked them for this gift and their hard work.

That afternoon, Mike and Dottie had the singles over to their house for Christmas lunch, which was another delicious blessing, both of food (thanks to Dottie for the meal and Paula for desserts!) and fellowship, as we were all able to sit around the table and just talk for a couple of hours. Very sweet time indeed.


I want to thank all of you who have prayed, worked, helped, and/or given in one way or another to make all of these blessing at Christmas this year possible...to all the sponsors and individuals who've given gifts, funds, time, energy, and heart to purchase gifts for the children, those who've carried down gifts and supplies (including yummy foods we can't get here,) all the staff who've worked so hard to make this a blessed time for the kids this year, Jack and Carolyn and all who worked so diligently to organize the Christmas bodega while Mike ad Dottie were in the States, friends and family of all of us here who have sent word down in one way or another to encourage us while we're away during this Christmas season, my sweet Mom and Dad who went the extra mile to make sure I had presents from them to open on Christmas morning, Mike and Dottie, who labor so compassionately to give these kids the gift of a Christmas they may never have had before, and who continue, day after day, to pour out their heart and soul as they serve the Lord in this ministry He has given them here, to love and care for these kids and impart to them the gift of eternal and abundant life in Him, through His Son, our Savior. To Him, finally, but MOST of all, we give all the thanks and glory for the blessing of this day we call Christmas, in which we celebrate, in memory of Him, this Greatest Gift of All, who was born unto us that day, in the city of David, "a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

Be blessed in His might, His glory, mercy, and power, as you enter this New Year, and give Him all the praise and glory.

Games, Discovery Studies, and Where is My Toothbrush

Ooo..sorry to not write for so long. The biggest things we've got going on now is that tomorrow, we'll start doing some games with all the kids from Estrellitas and up on the front property, so please pray that all starts off well. I'm really hoping it'll be a great way to give the kids something to do in the mornings while they're still on vacation. We'll see how it goes, but the plan is to do some sort of larger-scale camp/youth group type games every Monday, Wed, Fri through the rest of vacations.

Today I made invitations for the girls and tried to start off the first of the 3 small groups I divided them up into for a "Discovery Study" Bible study. The main idea with this study is to get the girls to really think about the Word they're reading, process and apply it to their lives, without really trying to answer their questions/doubts, but instead to just let the Word speak for itself. We had a little hang up today, and I learned that when you present it as an invitation, that maybe only 1 out the 6 from that group will actually show up. So we put out the word that it's mandatory and we'll try again with the Tuesday group next week. Meanwhile, we'll go ahead with the Wednesday and Friday groups this week, so please pray that it would all go off well and that the study would serve its purpose in that it would drive the girls closer to the Word of God for their answers and force them to acknowledge who He is, who they are, and that they would, by grace, put their faith in the only one way to a relationship with God, Jesus Christ His Son, who paid our debt and in exchange, gave us His righteousness, this pure and free gift of the one true God. Amen.

On a lighter note, the girls have 7 little ones from Los Angelitos here tonight, keeping them very busy. One just came running into my room asking me for a cepillo (toothbrush,) although the ones I have are really supposed to just be for the girls, not their many small guests. I'm not always a sucker, as I've seen the other side of the cuteness coin, but how could I resist little William when he came flying in through my doorway, wiggling his arms around like little lost wings in his oversized shirt and little red beanie (barefoot and with no pants on, of course,) dressed like that? You know you would've given it to him too. ☺


Be blessed,
Ginny