We Have Visitors!

On Saturday my parents and John arrived in Antigua. Then on Tuesday, Elliott's brother Aaron came to visit too! Elliott and I decided having them in town was a good enough excuse to take a week off from school. We have had a great week of exploring and learning. I don't have much time to write because we are about to go to dinner to celebrate Aaron's 23rd birthday, but I thought I would at least share some pictures from the week....

Dinner in an old convent

Enjoying the beautiful views of Volcan Agua

Visiting a coffee farm...Elliott is hard at work turning the drying beans

A hike up to the top of the city, Cerro de la Cruz

Playing soccer with the Breul boys

Today we hiked an active Volcano...what an experience...we will post pics and stories soon!

10 razones para mudarnos

Well, we´re moving across town. We arrived in Antigua with the intention of living the whole time with a Guatemalan family to maximize our immersion experience. We have really enjoyed our time with Familia Roma in the northeast corner of Antigua, however for the reasons listed below we have decided to move on... Apartamento 2 de Callejon del Espiritu Santo here we come!

Razon 1:
I can handle two twin beds smushed together for a week or so, but after that my feet miss Lindsay´s feet too much. It´s time for a cama para dos (bed for two).

Razon 2:
We expected to be part of our Guatemalan host family, but they see our presence in their guest room more like a source of income than an opportunity to welcome us into the family. We totally understand their position considering they have three new random guests about every three weeks. They´ve been hosting students for twelve years, so inevitably they have had to establish some healthy boundaries. They prepare separate meals for us and either the husband or wife joins us to chat, however they don´t eat with us. It´s a little awkward and we´ve decided we would actually talk a lot more spanish at meal time if we were alone.

Razon 3:
You may recall that we met an awesome family when we were in training in Colorado who are studying spanish at the same time, in the same school as us. You may also recall that they too will be serving in the DR beginning this summer. Over the past two weeks we have grown even closer to John, Sally, Jake, Riley and Lucas Bruel. Last week an apartment opened up right next to their´s so as of next Tuesday we will be their new neighbors! We are so excited to continue building our friendship, practicing our spanish and having tons of fun with them. We feel incredibly blessed to be given this opportunity.

Razon 4:
The apartment has an extra room with two twin beds (don´t worry, our´s has a queeen), an ideal location for family to stay when they come visit! In fact, over the next month Lindsay´s parents and brother, and my parents and brother will all be visiting us in Antigua! The beds will be put to great use! We can´t wait to see them all!!!

Razon 5:
Our new living situation will provide Linds with much more control over her diet, which is very important to controlling her hypoglycemia.

Razon 6:
Señora Roma is an excellent cook, but Linds is waaaay better. Time to put back on some pounds that I´ve lost. Estoy muy flaco.

Razon 7:
We eagerly await the opportunity to establish a home and "nest". While this desire won´t be fully fulfilled until we arrive in the DR, our new apartment will provide a much better interim nest than our little room in a strange house.

Razon 8:
Washer & Dryer

Razon 9:
Did I mention the queen bed?

Razon 10:
Jacuzzi (just kidding)

We´ll post photos soon!

Antigua

Sorry we have neglected our blog lately...and thus have neglected you. We are still alive, and are enjoying our time in Guatemala. We arrived here last Wednesday and hit the ground running. We spent the first few days exploring the city, and then started our classes on Monday. We go to class each day from 8-12, and then have a few hours of homework each afternoon. I have only been in class 2 days but I can already tell I am learning a ton! We each have our own teachers. My teacher's name is Merli and Elliott's is Marcos. We are living with the Roma family. They live about 6 blocks from the school. We have our own private room (with 2 twin beds- pushed together of course) in the upstairs of the house. We have a great view of the mountains and see the sunrise each morning (yes, we have to get up very early). We eat all of our meals at the Roma's home. Our "madre" is a very good cook; her dad used to be a chef. We will write more detailed posts soon and include some pictures- we are just trying to get used to life here and our days fill up quickly because of our Spanish classes.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we adjust to yet another place (We calculated that we have slept in a total of 10 beds in the last 2 1/2 weeks!). God is faithful and helps us along.

A Tribute

It is hard to believe that we leave MTI in the morning. We are completely drained emotionally and are ready to get some rest, but are very sad to leave our friends and community. Yesterday we had a memorial service for Karin, Jessica, Isaac. It was a beautiful tribute to their lives that were lived so well. All three of them lived with passion. They are an inspiration to us.Please continue to pray for Scott, Andrea, and Em. You can read about their progress on the following sites:
Andrea and Scott
Em

prayer & grief

Sunday evening we arrived back at the MTI training center after a wonderful trip to Santa Fe to meet dear friends. We were severely blind-sided by tragic news- earlier in the day six of our classmates were in a horrific car accident as they drove from Palmer Lake to Golden to hear Philip Yancey speak.

We soon learned that two beautiful women, 42 year old Karin Jordaan from Pretoria, South Africa, and 21 year old Jessica Pety from Duluth, Georgia, died on the scene of the accident. The others, Scott (29), his wife Andrea (28), their 18 month old son Isaac, and Em (24) were all rushed to area hospitals. On Monday morning, Isaac also went home to be with the Lord.

Andrea has multiple injuries, including a broken clavicle, a broken jawbone, two fractured vertebrae, two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg and some internal injuries. She has undergone multiple lengthy surgeries and had a plate placed between her C7 and T1 vertebrae this morning. More surguries await her in the coming days. Her vital signs are strong, and the doctors are encouraged by her continued recovery.Scott has a torn rotator cuff and was transfered out of the critical care unit into a hospital room this morning.

Em also underwent surgery to repair fractured vertebrae. She is now breathing on her own and is recovering as well.

As you can imagine, this has impacted our community here at MTI in many ways. Although we only knew these friends for 2 weeks, we quickly grew to love them as we were all on the same journey and shared a common call and passion for missions. Our hearts are heavy. We miss them, and we wish they were here with us. The staff here at MTI has done an incredible job of allowing us to process the tragedy, grieve the losses, and rejoice that Karin, Jessica, and Isaac are now in GLORY with their Savior. What a roller coaster ride it has been. But, it has been such a life-giving experience to walk through this with such a loving community.

Please, please, please pray for the continued healing and protection of Em, Andrea, and Scott. Pray for Scott and Andrea as they grieve the loss of their only son. Pray for the families and friends of Karin, Jessica, and Isaac. And, pray for us as a community walking through this time of great sadness.

Jessica

Karin

Isaac