Q of D

"Because much is given to us, much is expected from us"
-Theodore Roosevelt

5 months and Still Forgetful

So I brushed my teeth this morning, as usual, but rinsed from brush with faucet water...big mistake.  Even after nearly 5 months of routine, I still fall back on my old norms.  In case you didn't know, don't use faucet water for anything that goes in your mouth (it's lake water, which receives the flushes and drainage).

I'm now using my back-up brush.

The past two months....

It has been a while since I (Jenny) have posted, so here is an attempt at a very quick, comprehensive summary of the past two months (give or take).

December: Worked almost every weekend, sometimes 10 hours a day putting together food baskets to give out to needy families. While we gave out about 1,300 food baskets, there were still many families begging us for food, and each day became increasingly more difficult to say no. Draining, exhausting, and confusing. Still dealing with many unanswered questions from these few weeks.
Christmas: We LOVED having family visit us. We packed the days full so they could experience our daily lives, meet our new friends and neighbors, and enjoy the beauty of Lake Atitlan. It was sad to see them go, but we're so grateful that they came!
Home: We moved to a new apartment in December. It was a difficult decision, but we felt it was necessary. While we really miss Santiago, we're hoping to continue to see him regularly. Our family was able to visit him in his home while they were here. He graciously borrowed a table, chairs, and glasses from his neighbor so we could have a place to sit and drink Cokes with him and share tamales. It was a great time of community.
Health: A few weeks ago David was the sickest I've ever seen him. It was terrible (and I'll be honest, scary) to see him so ill. We ended up having to take him to get a shot to reduce the number of times he was vomiting. He's fully recovered now, thank God. I've stayed relativily healthy, except for waking up with huge bug bites on my back, arms, neck, and face. Still not quite sure what is eating me at night (and why David doesn't have a single bite), but I now wear bug spray to bed. Blah.
Church: Our church pastor and his wife went home (Florida) for Christmas and most of January, and asked David and I to lead the Sunday gatherings while they've been gone. David has done a great job sharing from his heart, but it's Saturday night and I'm not sure what we're going to talk about tomorrow...
Spanish: While we've both come a long way with our Spanish abilities, we're looking to challenge ourselves at home. We're thinking of implementing Spanish Thursdays (in honor of you AU friends).
Books: Thanks to a very generous and awesome and sweet friend (I will not embarrass her here), we were gifted with a Kindle for Christmas! My parents and brother loaded it up with books and brought it down to us. I've loved having so many books at my fingertips.
Meals: Many of you have probably heard how we eat a basic diet of black beans, carrots, and potatoes. Well, thanks to our parents and the many groceries they brought down for us (how I've missed seasonings from the States, BBQ sauce, and granola bars!) and thanks to another generous, kind, and very thoughtful friend who sent us a Christmas package, we've received lots of yummy meals and treats! We feel like we're eating like kings!
Community: We feel blessed to live here, but definitely miss our family and friends back home. Email and Skype are wonderful, but not the same. I have come to dread facebook and barely get on because it often depresses me to see so many people I love so far away doing so many things I can't be apart of. I knew that this would be part of the deal when moving overseas, but there have been some difficult days. Thank God for my wonderful husband who listens to me when I'm lonely and plays games with me when I miss our old game nights with friends.

Well, I guess that wasn't as short as I intended, but now we're all caught up. ( : 

Q of D and Change

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
   -John Wooden

John Wooden hit it right on the spot with that quote.  We've all been faced with the challenges in life where we're lead to make a decision: to change or not to change?  Life changes are often the most difficult navigations we experience, because we get comfortable.  Changing creates the evaluation of who or what we were before the change, which opens up the possibility of reputation being redefined.

History is an interesting thing.  We get to look back and witness the mistakes, receive insight about the way of life, put ourselves in other people's shoes.  What would I have looked like hundreds of years ago living in Mayan culture?

 It's interesting to think about the history of buildings.  What did the building withstand?  What technology or man hours were needed to build it?

 Hundreds of years later, it's still beautiful.

Q of D

"Only a life lived for others is worth living."

                            -Albert Einstein


It's always interesting to think about who said these famous quotes.  I mean, I would have never thought of Einstein outside of his scientific genius...


I guess there's more to everybody than simply what they "do".

S of D and Aside from Rights

Philippians 2:6-8
"Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.  When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross."

What do you take from this passage?  Share your feedback with comments.

I can't help but think about the rights and privileges we strive to achieve in our own culture.  Is it time to lay aside our rights and simply live to love, to think of others better than ourselves?

Philippians 2:3-4 "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."

Q of D

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" 

- John Lennon

Come to Senses

I like things to make sense.  I can talk about my plans or my dreams, and I make them make sense, because if they did not make sense then I would not know where to begin in obtaining those dreams.  As a reader, you probably already know where this is going...God does not always make sense.  Yes, I agree.  But God makes it clear, in many ways, that He is not going to make sense.  One example, for me, is through the story of the man who wanted to follow Jesus but decided he did not want to give up all that he owned materially (Matthew 19:20-22).  Does that make sense?  Why, with God being so powerful and mighty, would God need someone else's things, or ask someone to give up those possessions?

These are my thoughts.  God does not need them; God wants to be acknowledged as the prize, or the all you need in life.  We are not to live the day to day life to gather up more things, in fact, in the Old Testament it speaks of the forbidding to simply gather up tomorrow's food today (Exodus 16:15-21, 23-31)  I can not imagine having to live each day as it comes in our culture today. I mean, in some cases, we buy food a year before it gets eaten, what would we do if we were given an instruction like that in Exodus?  We buy meals that come in boxes and take less than 5 minutes to both prepare and eat...take the box out of the freezer at noon and be out the door for work at 12:05.

So how are we to live in today's material world?  I believe the biggest issue within our society today is that we lose sight of God when we consume, not because consuming is a sin, but because when was the last time we had to "rely" on God, ask Him for our daily bread, or seek Him as a Grand-Prize.  When was the last time we intertwined God the spirit with God the physical?  When we consume, we begin to live upon our own understanding, our own abilities, and our own things.  We have instant access to our phones, entertainment, transportation, you name it, but we struggle as a whole to uplift and glorify the Almighty with prayer, loving our enemies, helping the homeless, etc.  We gather up our things, stalk up on food, and still worry about the next day, or complain about how busy our lives are and make it seem impossible to eat a nice meal with our families.

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."

Do we have so much that we forget to lean not on our own understanding.  Maybe we were not given the freedom to make things make sense.

Q of D

"When God is working in one life, He uses it to influence another life."
-author unknown

That goes to say that regardless of what phase we are in in life, God is always working around us and influences us.

Amen.  Never give up.

Thank you for visiting!

We have been busy touring Guatemala!  Our parents have been visiting throughout the past weeks, so we've been able to share our environment with them and introduce our cultural adjustments.

Dad and I shared a platter of meat...so when they brought it out, so put empty plates in front of us...his had a humorous image of a lonely tomato.

There are several of Church of God congregations throughout Guatemala.  This one is in Santiago Lake Atitlan.

We enjoyed the most spectacular McDonalds.  We're told it's the only McDonald's in the world that does not have the signature "golden arches" outside...because it is Antigua city code not to allow "corporate" signs.

 The Durica's plus Chris hiked Volcano Pacaya with the Tri-S students from AU.  Unfortunately, Esther was not feeling good that day so could not participate...maybe next time.

We are very grateful for the opportunity to have them visit, and appreciate greatly the sacrifices they made to take the time and use the money to make the trip possible.

It is my understanding following the trip that everyone is contemplating a move to Guatemala because they liked it so much!  Ha...