Greater Things Are Yet To Come

Dylan Billiodeaux

2009-08-06T01:12:00.001-04:00

is now mentioned in my blog.

Hooray.

guatemala: the day by day play by play

2009-07-19T18:16:00.001-04:00

So, I'll start from the beginning.

[pre-trip]
As all trips out of the country with 13 of your sorority sisters should, it started with excitement and anticipation. My parents drove me an hour closer to the airport to stay at Kathleen's house in Davie for our first night together and last meeting before leaving. Immediately upon my arrival to Kathleen's we threw my luggage into her house, I hugged my parents goodbye, and we drove to Chilli's for our last American dinner before Guatemala. It was my second dinner of the night and I ate way too much of course. But what else is new? Then we headed back to the house and basically just hung out and set up air mattresses until the last few girls arrived from Gainesville. Finally around 10pm, the last three girls got there and we had our meeting - where we chose secret sisters to write anonymous notes to throughout the week, got our trip shirts to wear while we traveled, and discussed last minute business. I closed out in prayer and oh man, that was probably one of my most distinct group prayers in my life. I'm not sure why other than that I can just tell you that the Holy Spirit was there. While I was praying I honestly felt like I was floating and there was no one else around. It was pretty amazing. And clearly the devil didn't like it because I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling so grand. But I got through the night and refused to let satan distract me.

[day one]
The next day was it - the day we headed to Guatemala! And it started at 7:25am. Oh man. I think I was in a trance until we got coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Somehow I miraculously managed to check my luggage and get through security prior to the caffeination though…which of course is a miracle in itself. However, after only 1/3 of my coffee I began to feel slightly sick again. Between the discomfort of my stomach and fear that my luggage wouldn't make it to Guatemala, I could tell that the devil was trying to distract me. So I prayed for awhile while we waited to board the plane which was an hour late. But it wasn't a big deal, the time passed relatively quickly. I didn't sleep on the plane but I did sit next to Ashley and Angela, write a note, journal a bit, and get my ginger ale. I always drink ginger ale on planes. It just seems appropriate for some reason. In what seemed like only a short while later, we landed in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I was quite impressed with the airport. It was much nicer than Miami. All of our luggage was there safely! Praise the Lord. After grabbing our luggage, all 14 of us filed out of the airport to meet Spencer, Trey, and Amy from 6:8 Ministries. They helped us load our things onto a bus that was rented and we followed them back to Magdalena. It took a little bit longer than we anticipated because our bus driver was only going about 25 mph for some reason, although no one could really tell you why. It was okay though. It made it easier to take it all in. Guatemala City was like most cities - dirty, busy, loud. The main things that formed my first impressions where the Spanish signs everywhere, the crazy driving, the obnoxious horns of colorful public transportation buses, and the surprisingly cool, brisk air. The honking seemed to follow us everywhere. After about 45 minutes, we finally arrived at the 6:8 team house in Magdalena. The house was quite interesting. It reminded me of Zambia in the aspect that the house was basically outside. Although, at least in Magdalena we were locked in. The house had an upstairs and downstairs each with a bedroom and a bathroom. Upstairs was also a relatively empty room that served to be 6:8's micro-store as well as our meeting room during team time. Our dining area was also upstairs. Downstairs was the kitchen, sink area, and an open area where we had worship and devotions. I ended up staying upstairs with Ingrid, Staci, Ashley, Emily, Katie, and Rebecca. Overall our accommodations were very nice and I was quite impressed because I never expect to stay in such comfortable conditions on mission trips. After putting our things down, we were given a snack of fruit and juice and then we had orientation. During that time we were officially introduced to the 6:8 staff - Spencer and Amy, as well as Spencer's friend Trey who would be helping us out, and the Johnson Family - Brock, Kerrie, Brooke, Maddy, and Jake who partnered with 6:8 but had their own ministry called 12x12 Love Project and lived two doors down. 12x12 Love Project is a ministry out of the Journey church in Jacksonville that’s mission to build 12 houses for 12 Guatemalan families in 12 months. It’s really awesome. After orientation, we headed out for our first form of ministry – a prayer walk. The walk served as an effective way to become familiar with the town and take it all in. In Magdalena the streets are cobble stone and everything is practically on top of each other. Although there is signage everywhere, it is difficult to tell the difference between a home and a business. On our walk, we visited two families. First was the Canta Family. Their home seemed larger than many other homes and they made their living by selling the lesser demanded parts of cows. It was incredible to see the way that they lived and I was struck by how inviting they were. Consistently, every family that we met was so open to sharing their homes with us regardless of how little they had and so eager to tell us their situations regardless of how painful. Before leaving the Canta Family, we prayed for them. Specifically for the mother Sara whose daughter was jobless and son was struggling with drinking problems. After that, we stopped at a much smaller dwelling than the first one. A lady named Carolina and her family lived there. After talking to here for a few minutes, we prayed for her. Her situation of abuse, depression, and suicidal thoughts broke my heart. But at the same time, it was such an awesome opportunity to pray over her and such an encouragement to see her openness to the Lord in her life. After our prayer walk, we went back to the team house for our first Guatemalan meal prepared by our amazing cooks – Johana and Veronica. It was delicious and the whole thing was topped off by the fact that there was amazing Guatemalan coffee with almost every meal! Following dinner, we had our first group worship and devotion session. Spencer spoke out Romans 6:8, Matthew 10:34-37, Galatians 2:20, and Acts 5 about having a die-to-self attitude and carrying our cross daily. It was certainly something I needed to be reminded of. After devotions we had team time to recap the events of the day and discuss the next day’s plans. Then we all went to bed. I slept well with the exception of being woken up twice by the myriad of sounds that could be heard throughout all of Guatemala including cow moos, rooster crows, and bus honks.
[day two]
After finally falling back asleep, my natural time clock woke me up at 6:10, 20 minutes before my alarm. However, it all worked in my favor because when I got up to shower I discovered that there was no water in the upstairs bathroom and even once the pump had filled up it was still going to take 30 minutes to heat up. Therefore, I resorted to showering downstairs and I ended up being ready right on time. Every morning, breakfast was at 8am. After breakfast, we headed to a small village nearby Magdalena called Buena Vista to hold our first day of Vacation Bible School (VBS). Before starting VBS at the local school, we detoured to take a brief look at one of the homes recently built by 12x12 Love. Then we headed back to the school and took a brief tour of it. The tour was brief because there wasn’t much to the building and as a whole it was pretty run down. It consisted of one huge room downstairs which was where we held VBS and a courtyard and about 6 classrooms upstairs. All of the Guatemalan schools were closed that week due to the Swine Flu. Although that seems like a horrible thing, it was a blessing for us because we were able to use the school to hold VBS. The first day of VBS was slightly chaotic because we didn’t know exactly what to expect but overall it went well. We had about 64 kids come on the first day. At VBS we sang songs in Spanish (as best we could) and then Amy told the story of how Jesus healed the blind man. Then we split the kids up into several rotating groups – one group colored, one made popsicle stick blind men, and the other made balloon balls by filling balloons with rice. A highlight of my day was spending a good section of the time with a 9-year old girl named Dinora. I saw her sitting off by herself. She looked kind of sad, so with my broken Spanish I asked her if we could play together. We ended up playing catch with her balloon ball for about 30 minutes. I could tell that just the fact that I took the time to play with just her meant a lot. She was absolutely precious and she will forever be in my heart. All of the kids were so beautiful and the seemed quite receptive to what we were doing there. By the end of the day, three of them were able to repeat the memory verse that we taught them in the beginning. More probably could have if we had let them. After dismissing the children, we cleaned up and had a quick debrief with Amy and Spencer. They told us that we did a really great job but we also thought of ways to improve, which definitely helped during the next few days. After that we went back to the team house for lunch and then headed out to embark upon The Great Tortilla Adventure. We took the van just outside of Magdalena and then parked it along the road. Then the adventure began. We walked through a corn field to finally arrive at the Ixcajok home where we found Rosa and her two little boys – Manuel and Oscar. We all met Rosa who was only 25 years old and Manuel and Oscar eagerly showed us the home that 12x12 had built for them. Those little boys immediately had my heart and we instantaneously became amigos. While the other girls carried the corn, the three of us held hands the entire way back into the city where the corn needed be ground up into meal. After grinding the corn, we then carried the paste back to Rosa’s. After putting the corn down, Rosa began to open up with us and share the issues that she was dealing with in her life. As she spoke in Spanish, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to give the family 100 Quetzals which is $12.50 in American money before I even knew what she was saying. ($1 = 8 Qs) After she finished talking, the girls who spoke Spanish interpreted back to us that 100Qs was her weekly salary and all that she had to provide for both herself and her growing boys. Not only that, but her relationship with her husband was not good at all. He was abusive and cheating on her and trying to take the home that 12x12 had built away from her. After they explained, we prayed and I volunteered. I feel so strongly that God is going to do something huge in that family but more on that will come later. After all of that, Rosa taught us how to make tortillas using water and the corn paste. I was absolutely terrible at it, but it was a very fun experience! As we were patting down some tortillas, I was talking to Ingrid and also found out that the Lord has also prompted her to give Rosa 100Q as well which I took as a confirmation from the Lord that He was really telling us to do so. We asked Amy about it and she presented Rosa with 200Q, which was two weeks worth of salary for her. I could tell that she was just so blown away with thankfulness without even looking at how much we had given her. It just blew my mind what a huge impact giving $25 to someone could be. Just being obedient to God’s call made the whole thing so worth it. We left Rosa with a basket full of warm tortillas and headed back to the team house to change for church. We walked into the church building to the sounds of a Guatemalan lady singing off key Spanish into a very loud microphone. Immediately my flesh began to take over and tell me that this was boring, annoying, and I was going to get anything out of it. And for the first maybe 30 minutes, I gave into that lie by just clapping along to the bad music. But then I decided to change my attitude and I just prayed and worshipped the Lord in tongues and as a result God revealed to me that He calls us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, not in any particular language or pitch. After that, I decided to dedicate that time to Him by reading the Bible which is what I did for the remainder of our time. After their worship was over, we left to go back to the house for dinner. Then following dinner, we had worship and another devotion by Spencer. Spencer talked out of John 6:66 and Matthew 11 about John the Baptist and how important it is to not fall away because of hardships or because of who Christ really is. Then we had a nice long team meeting to plan for our next day of VBS.

[day three]
The next day started off pretty rough. Obviously the devil was not pleased with the impact that we had made for the glory of God on our first full day, so he tried to get us down by attacking Ingrid with sickness. But of course, we know that Jesus destroyed the works of the devil so I prayed for her, and even though she didn’t come to VBS with us that morning she was totally up to coming with us for our afternoon ministry. Along with praying for Ingrid, I was also praying for God to hold back the rain so that we could paint in the afternoon. In the name of Jesus, we can move mountains. So why can’t I move a few clouds when clouds move anyways, right? Well that faith of a mustard seed sure worked, because just for the record – it didn’t rain all day. Thank you Lord! God is good! And He continued to prove that fact at VBS that morning. Although our second attempt at VBS started off a little rough with a pitiful attempt to sing “Trading My Sorrows” and “Open The Eyes of My Heart” in Spanish, we managed to redeem ourselves during the rest of the morning’s activities. We did a skit about how Jesus healed Sara of her blindness. Somehow, I ended up acting as Jesus. It was an honor, I must say. After the songs, skits, and memory verse we broke up into four stations – coloring, making prayer books, sports, and face painting. My station was face painting. Face painting went very smoothly and the kids seemed to really enjoy being able to choose between a cross, stars, a sun, a heart, a fish, and a flower. I was fascinated by the amount of little boys who chose flowers and hearts though. It’s amazing how insignificant gender roles were. But my favorite part of the face painting was when the kids got to look into the mirror or at the camera screen and see their new painted faces. The joy that lit up their faces as we exclaimed how beautiful – MUY BONITA! - they were was enough to keep me, Angela, and Ashley going as we painted the 118 faces of the children who came to VBS that day. Just the opportunity to spend the morning with all of those amazing children would have made me content for the day, but God was not done yet. We still had a house to paint! We returned to the team house after VBS for lunch to find Ingrid feeling much better. After we ate, we headed back to Buena Vista where we proceeded to paint one of the houses that the 12x12 Love Project had built. Half of us painted the outside yellow and the other half painted the inside blue. I was on the outside crew, which was definitely a good thing because I got about as much paint on me as I did on the house. If I learned on thing about myself through that experience, it is definitely that I should not become a painter. The house was cement (which was frustrating for all of the perfectionists among us because we couldn’t get every crevice) and only cost $3000 to build in entirety. I can’t even begin to imagine how many of those houses we could build if we simply stopped spending our money of frivolous things that we don’t really need. It breaks my heart. There is so much possibility for change and yet we don’t do it. And of course, I myself am just as guilty which frustrates me even more. After we finished painting the house, we walked back towards the school where we held VBS to wait for Amy to pick us up. As we walked, the village children began to follow us and while we waited we ended up having an impromptu block party of sorts with the children of Buena Vista. We spent about 45 minutes teaching them English words, taking pictures, playing London Bridge, Ring Around the Rosie, Red Light Green Light, and even teaching them how to Gator chomp! I feel like it meant a lot to them that we were willing to just spend time to talk and play with them in an unstructured, unplanned situation. It was a great opportunity to just love on them and show them how much we enjoyed spending time with them. Not to mention it was such a blast! After a full day of ministry we came back to the team house to wash all of the paint of off our bodies and change out of our dirty clothes. I just baby wiped though and then a few of us took a trip to the bakery before dinner. Then we came back for dinner and following the food, we had worship and devotions. Amy told us her testimony that night and explained how God led her to 6:8. It was really a blessing to be able to hear it because she is only 24, so close in age to us, and to see such an awesome women of God following the Lord’s call for her life is such an encouragement! She also talked about loving God and spoke out of Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 27. After devotions, we had team time where we planned for our final day of VBS. Once we were done with team time, I realized that I hadn’t taken my malaria medicine with dinner and so I took it with some of the sweet bread I had bought at the bakery. Then after that, I took a very well needed shower and went to bed.

[day four]
I woke up suffering from the repercussions of my forgetfulness. The malaria medicine worked its side effect magic of nausea on me. Luckily, I was able to throw up before we left for VBS and once I did, I was totally fine. After that little ordeal, we headed back to the school in Buena Vista for our last day of VBS. When we got there, a line of children eager to enter was already formed outside of the school and many more kids came running as soon as they saw our van pull up. It was so exciting for me to see how excited the kids were. To me, it meant they were being impacted by what God was doing there. We began our last day of VBS with songs. However, we did resort back to the simpler songs that we did on the first day – Hallelujah and Father Abraham. After we sang and had the kids attention, we told them the gospel. Melissa simplified it in English and then Kathleen translated it into Spanish. Then they gave a sort of alter call and two little boys came up for prayer. Then several others came up and we prayed with all of them to invite Jesus into their lives. It was so amazing just to be a part of it, even though our Spanish speakers – Ingrid, Kathleen, and Angela were the ones praying. Just to hold those children’s hands and agree with them as they began relationships with Jesus was such a completely amazing thing. It’s almost indescribable. Following that, we taught them the memory verse of the day – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…[and]…'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Mark 12:30. The children were so receptive and quickly learned the verse. Many of them were able to repeat it for a prize even at the end of the morning. Then we split up into groups. The day’s groups were sports, paper bag puppets, and salvation bracelets. I did salvation bracelets. The kids loved making the bracelets and they loved that they got to keep and wear them. The most awesome part about it though was that as we gave the instructions, we were able to reiterate the gospel message. My prayer is that when the kids look at their bracelets they will be reminded of what Jesus did for them and they will remember what we told them about His love. Sadly, after that we had to leave. It’s always so devastating to leave the kids you minister to on mission trips. It’s difficult to communicate to children who speak a different language that even though you have to go, Jesus will never leave them or forsake them. I pray that they understood. After leaving the children of Buena Vista, we came back to the team house for lunch. The original post-lunch plan was to buy chickens for a family and then deliver them, but those plans changed. You always have to be flexible on mission trips. I think it served as an important reminder that we were subject to God’s plans for the trip and that we couldn’t let our tendency to schedule get in the way of what He wanted to do. So instead of doing that, we went to Antigua for the evening. There we toured a convent from the 1700s. It was very interesting to learn the history and I found the way that those nuns lived absolutely fascinating. They were so isolated from the rest of the world. They actually had NO contact at all with the outside world. My favorite part of our time at the convent was actually when we were looking at a room that used to be used for storage. We sang “Amazing Grace” and “Sanctuary” and it sounded amazing! (I say that as humbly as possible.) It sounded like there were 100 people singing instead of 14. I loved it. After the convent, we went to a market in downtown Antigua. It was so colorful, and beautiful, and overwhelming! There were so many things to look at and I couldn’t make up my mind at all. I did buy a pair of silver earrings though. After going to the market, we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Tartines. The food was delicious, especially our dessert – tiramisu and nutella crepes! Following dinner, we had worship and devotions at the restaurant. I really liked that because it was almost a way to minister to the employees of Tartines. Brock gave that nights devotion and spoke about the dangerous, crazy messages of Jesus and the dangers of being lukewarm. He also shared his testimony about how him and his family basically had everything they could ever want or need back in the U.S., but they gave it all up to become missionaries in Guatemala. It definitely encouraged me to trust God with everything and to be ready to be obedient with whatever He tells me to do. After all that, we returned to the house for team time and then bed soon followed.

[day five]
The free day! I woke up at 6:24 a.m. to a beautiful, clear day. After breakfast, we took a tourism bus to the Mayan ruins. Again, I found it fascinating. To be around something so ancient with so much history just blows my mind. We saw where they used to do human sacrifices and where their temples, sports fields, etc. used to be. It was certainly an enjoyable time. We took an excessive amount of pictures of course. Walking across all of it was quite a work out! But we definitely gained it all back at lunch! We went to this fantastic restaurant called Kape Paulinos. I sat with Angela, Erin, Stephanie, and Melissa and we all shared queso and this HUGE meal special. I ate more meat than I have ever eaten in my life. We had chicken, two kinds of steaks, two kinds of sausage, bread, potatoes, beans, cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, etc. It fed all five of us until we were stuffed and there was still food left over! AND it only cost us 70 Quetzals each which comes out to about $8 per person! It was fabulous. After our meal, we went to a different market than the one we had gone to already. It was also overwhelming but I did manage to buy a bag, earrings, bracelets, potholders, coffee, and a cross. And I must say, I did do some impressive haggling. After leaving the market with all of our purchases, we went to the pet store to buy the baby chickens for a family in Buena Vista. Then we went to a place called POPS for ice cream, which again was super cheap. Then we hung out in the square of Antigua while we waited for our bus. While we waited Spencer got his 2nd shoe shine of the day and we watched a young couple publically display their affection. Spencer said that it was actually tame for Guatemala and that people basically have sex on the streets. I must say I am thankful that I didn’t witness that. Also, while we waited we went across the street to this Catholic church. It was super beautiful and I took a couple of minutes to pray. Although it kind of broke my heart to witness the contrast between the gold and beauty of the church and the women and children begging us for money right outside the church doors. If only the church would give up all of those ridiculous ornaments and realize that Jesus never wanted all of that, He just wants us to be His hands and His feet and help those people. Oh, if only. After leaving Antigua, we came back to the team house and ate dinner (even though I was still full from lunch). If there’s anything practical that I’ve learned from mission trips, it is to not waste the food that is served to you. I eat it all. After dinner, we had worship and devotions. Spencer talked about money and storing up our treasures in heaven, which I felt was super relevant in my life. I love how God speaks through people. Following that, we had a really great team time with the exception of losing one of our baby chickens. But at least it died peacefully in the comfort of Angela’s arms. After team time, six of us went down stairs and did the Dance Marathon dance! It was pretty rock awesome. After all that dancing I was hyped up so I stayed up to journal. And this is where God never ceases to amaze me. After a day of not really doing anything ministry related per say, God showed up as Rebecca and I were journaling and we ended up having this amazing conversation. We talked about wanting what God wants for us, and about Guatemala and missions, and our families and then I was able to pray with her. It was just amazing to see how God ministered to us through each other and just such an awesome time to be real with her. I just love how God wouldn’t let me go a day without using me to minister to someone, whether it was a Guatemalan or one of my sisters. God is good!

[day six]
Thursday started a half hour earlier than every other day because we had to get to The Great Commission Children’s Home in Santo Tomas. Basically it is a ministry started and run by Sean and Glendy McDaniel. They take children who have been abused and abandoned and provide a loving home for them. Right now they have five little boys at the home – Alex, Juan David, Danny, Wheezer, and Nik. Each little boy’s story is absolutely devastating. Sean and Glendy showed us a video that told us about how each little boy got there and it just broke my heart completely. But it was such an amazing testimony to God’s grace to see how much those little boys were flourishing there. We were able to serve Sean and Glendy in a few ways. We basically broke up into three groups. Five of the girls went in to give the babies baths, five girls planted a garden, and four girls shoveled rocks from where the little boys playground was and brought them to where we were planting the garden. I actually left for a little while and went with Glendy to buy my flowers. It was fun to pick them out with her. Then when I came back, we rotated and some girls who were shoveling went inside to feed the babies and I switched to shoveling. Then it was finally my turn to go play with the babies. They were so cute. Then we put them to bed for their naps and went back outside to finish planting the garden and shoveling the rocks. It was def. a huge blessing for Sean and Glendy, and it was such an awesome opportunity to support their ministry and help them do something that they would normally not be able to accomplish while taking care of five baby boys. Ashley also painted a sign for the garden that said “Rooted In Love ΣΦΛ” to put in the garden and we all took a picture with it. After leaving the orphanage, we came back to the house for lunch and then headed back to Buena Vista to set up for the clothing and shoe hand out. We held the distribution at the school where he had VBS. The whole thing took awhile to set up, especially because we had to make more than one trip between the amount of clothing and people we needed to transport. But after about an hour, we were able to let people come in. Of course, that’s when the rain started so we had to improvise and let all of the people in and have them line up on the stairs and come down to get their new belongings. I did clothing hand out, which was hard because you kind of had to just estimate what size they were. The whole thing went smoothly though, which was really good. After we cleaned everything up in the school, we walked into the village of Buena Vista to deliver the baby chickens we had bought the day before. Unfortunately, we lost 3 chickens before we could deliver them but the family didn’t know that. They were just thankful for what we could give them. Once we got there, Amy realized that the chicken coop wasn’t there yet so she went to go get it. While she was gone we talked to the mother of the family and we asked her if we could pray for her. She told us about her son, Espian, who was sitting on the bed. He had severe cerebral palsy and had been lame since birth. My sisters joined me in prayer as I laid hands on him and prayed for his healing, as well as for the family. His sickness made it very hard on them. I am still believing for his healing. By His stripes Espian is healed! By the time we were finished praying, Amy and the 12x12 staff were back with chicken coop so some of the girls went outside to help them, but I stayed inside. Espian had my heart. So, I just sat and talked with him the best that I could. While we were there, several of the little boys that we had met throughout the week came to Espian’s house. We asked them if they were all friends with Espian and they basically said “No, we don’t know him. He’s a stick.” They were insulting him in front of his face in his own home and it completely broke my heart. We explained to Espian that God loved him and that we loved him and we told those little boys that God loved Espian just as much as he loved them. Espian and that family will be in my heart forever. Before leaving Buena Vista, we stopped at a little boy named Oscar’s house. He had helped us paint and been at VBS all week with us, but it wasn’t until then that Brock told us that 12x12 was building a house for his family next! We went and got to meet the entire family. It was great. While we waited for Amy to come get us, we taught the little boys how to do the gator chomp and say “Go Gators!” in English. Then we went back to the team house for dinner. However, before dinner Katie got a text message announcing the death of Michael Jackson so we mourned him by going downstairs to tell our other 7 sisters about it. There’s a video, but it’s not online yet. So, RIP Michael Jackson.. then we had dinner. After dinner we all Gator-ed up and came downstairs for a huge spirit war between the Gators and the Seminoles (Trey and Brock). Gators won, of course. Then we did the dance marathon dance for everyone, worship, devotions, and team time, and then went to bed in preparation for our last day of ministry.

[day seven]
Our last day of ministry was again, another time we had flexible. We were originally supposed to go to the Guatemalan Association of Down Syndrome School in the morning, but things got shifted around so after breakfast we went on another prayer walk. We went to two houses. The first shack was home to Berta, a grandmother, who had severe health problems including ulcers, hemorrhaging, diabetes, heart issues, leg problems, and she needs a hysterectomy but doesn’t have the money to get one. Angela, Ingrid, and Kathleen spent a long time talking to her and praying for her and in Jesus name she will be healed! Her daughter was Matilde, the mother of four little girls – Rosalinda (8), Leslie (7), Johana (6), and a little toddler named Anani. We also met two other little girls who were their neighbors – Maria and Melissa. All of the little girls were so precious. They were all so affectionate and just clearly wanted to be loved on. Leslie has learning disabilities and so we prayed for her about those too. After spending a good amount of time with them, we went to the next shack – home to Clara, Blanca, and Maritza. Blanca is mentally handicapped and was raped at 12 years old. The rape resulted in Blanca’s pregnancy and the birth of Maritza. Blanca works at a factory to support her mother and daughter, but the factory has not been paying her the wages she has rightfully earned. When we got to the house, Blanca was at the factory trying to get her money. We were however able to talk to Clara, Blanca’s mother, and pray for the three of them. The pain that Clara felt in the whole situation of their lives was so evident and you could see it in her eyes and quiet demeanor. It was just yet another family that God broke my heart for. Slightly shaken up after hearing Blanca’s story, we all walked back to the team house to load up the car to bring lunch to the Down Syndrome school. Upon our arrival at the school, we were warmly greeted by it’s owner. I actually never caught our name but she was a great lady. She explained to us that she had a son with Down Syndrome named Jesus, and he was basically the reason the school was started. Down Syndrome is not something that is very understood at all in Guatemala, but the school hopes to change that. Children with Down Syndrome come from hours away to go to school there. It is the only facility in all of Guatemala that deals with Down Syndrome. After getting a tour of the school, we went to a large classroom where the teenagers learn how to do practical tasks, like cooking. There we served and ate lunch with about 9 of the school’s children and members of their families. I sat next to a boy named Gabrielle and across from another little boy named Lardo. They were both so precious. We talked and had tickle fights. After we ate, the lady who owned the school brought each child and their family up one at a time and told us about them. Each child had a fascinating story and each one was so precious. One girl in particular, Nadia, had recently had heart surgery but hanging out with her, you never would have known. She was so active and sweet-spirited. She was just such a blessing. After lunch Nadia, Francisco, and Lardo danced for us! They all love to dance! And then we went outside and just ran around and played ball and loved on them. It was such a great experience. I’ve gotten to experience the joy of being around people with down syndrome, so it was such an eye opening opportunity. I will never forget it! I hope they were blessed by our company because I was certainly blessed by theirs. After leaving the school, we went back to the team house for about 15 minutes to just refresh our selves. Me and Erin snuck away though and went to a store to buy flowers for Amy, the cooks, and Kerrie as part of the 6:8 Staff Appreciation Day we were planning. Then we went back to the house and Amy took all 14 of us to get chocolate covered frozen fruit/ice cream stuff. Then we went to the store to buy food for Rosa’s family and a piñata for Trey’s birthday which was that day. (We had also asked the cooks to bake him a cake.) Then we went to deliver the food to Rosa, but when we got there no one was home. We were really disappointed but we decided to leave the food and a note in the kitchen for her. But while we were writing the note, the gate opened and her husband came walking up. At first I was a little afraid because I thought he would be angry, since Rosa had told us about him but he was excited to see us and he told us that Rosa and the children were right behind him. They had been in town and had come running when they saw us coming. Sure enough, the three of them burst through the gate with huge smiles on their faces. Manuel ran and literally jumped into my arms exclaiming “MI AMIGA! MI AMIGA!.” I hugged and kissed him and could have held on for hours, but everyone else wanted to hug him too. We showed Rosa the food and she was practically in tears. She was so thankful for everything. Then Manuel and Oscar found the pineapple we had bought and basically hugged it for dear life. They were so excited it. They shouted “PINA! PINA!” Then Rosa’s husband talked to us and told us how he was so glad that God had brought us there and that he was trying to change and make everything right between himself and Rosa and himself and God. He knew the devil was attacking them especially at night since we had come to pray for Rosa the first time, but that God would take care of them and heal their marriage. It was so amazing to see how the Lord had already began to soften his heart and answer our prayers. We prayed for them again before we left. Then we went back to the team house and frantically organized all of our things for Trey’s birthday/Appreciation night. Staci and I quickly went to the store and somehow managed to buy candles for Trey’s cake using our extremely minimal amount of Spanish. Then we came back for dinner. Before dinner, we presented the flowers and cards we made for them to the cooks. Then after dinner we did Trey’s piñata (which was shaped like Shrek) and brought out his brownie cake thing and sang happy birthday. Then we had a little break before worship and then when it was worship time we all got up and sang a song a few of the girls wrote to the tune of the Brady Bunch Theme called “The 6:8 Bunch” and it goes:
Here’s a story of 14 gringas
That came to Guatemala to serve the Lord
And then we met our leaders
They were fantastic
We want to let them know

There was Amy, Trey, and Spencer
The Johnsons too and don’t forget the cooks
They learned how much we could eat
And put up with the pictures that we took

They did a great job to encourage and lead us
And helped us learn to love the least of these
All of them have hearts of gold
Just like our Savior
GO 6:8 MINISTRIES!

The 6:8 Bunch, The 6:8 Bunch, That’s the way we became the 6:8 Bunch!

Then after the song we prayed over each of them individually and gave them gifts. We each wrote notes for Amy, Trey, Spencer, and the Johnsons and we gave them gum, and t-shirts, and flowers for Amy and Kerrie, and just a whole bunch of stuff. It was so great to be able to bless the people who had blessed us all week. After all of that, we finally went into our last worship set and devotion in Guatemala. Spencer talked out of John 15:9. Then we had our last team meeting together. We talked about what God had shown us that week and then we washed each other’s feet and prayed over each other. Erin washed my feet and I washed Staci’s. After a long time of just being with each other in the Lord’s presence, we prayed and then went to work on our packing. I packed most of my stuff before going to bed.

[day eight]
We had breakfast at the normal time and after breakfast we did all of our last minute packing and getting ready. We took all of our last minute pictures and said goodbye to Magdalena and goodbye to Amy. Suli, one of the girls from the very first house we visited came to say goodbye. We hugged for a good ten minutes and shed a few tears. It was really sad. Then we loaded all of our luggage onto a bus and got on and then off we went. The Guatemalan airport was really nice. After going through security and everything with relatively no problems, I ate Pizza Hut at the gate. There was also a Venezuelan superstar on our flight with us, so some of the girls talked to him for a bit. Then we boarded. On the flight, we watched “Confessions of a Shopaholic”. It’s a cute movie but the materialism pretty much disgusted me after all that we had seen that week. But before we knew it, we were back in the United States going through customs in Miami and back at Kathleen’s house.

back to blogging

2009-07-01T21:44:00.005-04:00

Well, it seems that I have been on blogging hiatus for almost exactly a month.

Not intentionally of course. It just seemed to have happened.

I feel like that happens in my life a lot. I get on a roll with something, and then the roll comes to an abrupt halt. Although I can not promise that I will continue to blog without fail, the habit of becoming complacent is certainly something that I am trying to change.

In the month that I've been absent from the blogging world, I've been to Guatemala and back. In my next post, I will detail and reflect on my trip to Guatemala.

Mainly, if not entirely for my own sake:
I've been sitting at home for almost half of a week now trying to reflect, even though I know that the best way for me to do that is simply to write it down and that I won't effectively move on until I do so. When I say move on, I don't mean forget. That is another reason I need to write it down. I never want to forget what God did for me and through me in Guatemala. And of course, I want to be able to refer people to my blog when they ask me about my trip. It just makes things easier.

Basically, this entry is just to serve as precursor to my next entry about Guatemala. So, as my blog is titled - Greater Things Are Yet to Come.

He is exalted

2009-06-02T12:24:00.006-04:00

It's been a few days.

Last I wrote, I was headed off to Wet N Wild for the Waves of Glory Battle of the Bands to support my youth band and dear friends, Cadence Worship Band, so I guess that's where I'll start.

Going on the trip seemed so familiar, but yet a little foreign. It's actually been more than a year since I've gone on a trip with my youth group. It's just odd because so much has changed, and you don't really discover these changes until you're on a youth trip. It's just not all clear at weekly youth group. I'm not implying that these changes are bad, there were just relationships that were visible on the trip that I hadn't realized were there. Atleast, I didn't realize they were as serious.

But anyways, other than waking up brutally early to get on the trolley (yes, we took a trolley because our bus is under repair) the bus ride was fairly painless. I got coffee at the rest stop and after that, it was all good. I spent the majority of the ride talking to my new friends and fellow gators - Chris and Eric. They're really awesome men of God and it just seems easier to talk to people who share my knowledge of UF and Gainesville, so it was nice to have them along.

So finally after settling down in Wet N Wild - sunscreening it up, putting our stuff in lockers, etc. I went on a few slides before Cadence played.

Cadence played about 4th out of 14 in the lineup of local Christian bands. I don't even know how to begin to describe their set. In my eyes, they are always flawless but there was just something about this particular time. The first two songs - "You Remain" and "Only Hope" were great as always. But going into their third song, the classic "He is Exalted", there was just a sudden change in the atmosphere. In the midst of our worship, the presence of the Lord just fell so strongly on that place that I was brought to my knees. I literally could not stand anymore. It's almost humorous to think about worshiping God all sweaty and damp in the middle of Wet N Wild, but at the same time it's almost inevitable. There should never be a place where we can't worship Jesus. At the end of their fourth song, "Grace That Takes the Weight", the presence was still so strong that I still felt it pretty much throughout the entire day. Clearly, the judges agreed because they were very receptive to Cadence's music and message stating that "This was what the were looking for." and with one judge weeping, the other crying, and the other not being able to sit back down. Throughout the day, many other talented bands presented their music and worshipped the Lord. At the end of the evening, the winners were announced and CADENCE TOOK FIRST PLACE! It was such a blessing! Especially because we were never really there to compete, just to lift up the Lord's name and honor Him in the middle of that place.

The whole thing really brought to my attention that there is a distinct difference between talent and annointing. Every band that played had immense amounts of talent given to them by the Lord, which was so amazing to see. I don't know anything about the other bands other than that, but knowing Cadence and knowing their hearts and how far they've come, I can tell you that Cadence is annointed to lead God's people in worship. And the annointing will always take precedence over the talent.

Other than the music, the day was very enjoyable and also very annointed. The day was filled with divine appointments, which was totally inevitable because we Cadence ushered the Lord in to Wet N Wild and invited Him to be there early in the day. Specifically, Chris(my new UF friend) and I ended up going on a slide with a random couple behind us in line after we began talking with them. They weren't Christians, but they were there to support another band that was competing. We saw them many times throughout the day, and both Chris and I could tell that just by talking to them, they're hearts were softened to Jesus. The girl and I are now facebook friends. The day was also filled with water slides which was equally inevitable because we were at a water park.

My day at Wet N Wild was certainly a great day and I knew that God wasn't done yet.

Church on Sunday was absolutely amazing, as it always is. Pastor Don Karpinen talked about how "In the Kingdom of God, you can not decide you can only discover." and about discovering the direction God is bringing you, and not trying to change that direction just because things get tough. He talked about a lot of awesome stuff and again the message was def. annointed.

After church, I got the opportunity to hang out with my best friend from middle school, Alexa. She goes to school in New York and lives in Virginia, so I only get to see her once a year if I'm lucky. But I was really blessed to get to hang out with her twice while she was down this time, and we had a fantastic time as always. There's a lot I could write about our relationship but it would take forever and the love that the Lord has given me for her is something so intimate I'd rather not write about it. Basically, it's just amazing for me to see how far the Lord has brought her and I am trusting Him to finish what He has started. The highlight of the whole day for me was that I was driving away, the Lord made me turn around and have her come back outside because He told me to pray for her. I'm not sure why because it's not like anything I can visually see changed, but I was just really excited to be obedient to what He said.

Then after that, I went to my friend Michelle's house to say bye and pray over her before she left for a medical mission trip to Senegal, Africa yesterday. She also prayed over me for Guatemala, which was just such a blessing. Her whole story about how the Lord orchestrated the entire trip just blows me away because I know how difficult it was for me to get everything together for Zambia. So I'm just so excited for her.

Then yesterday, I basically just slept and worked and then attempted to learn how to play guitar and beatbox off of YouTube which was a fail. The exciting thing about yesterday was that I cashed all my checks for Guatemala and mailed in my final payment! So that's all set.

This week promises to be rather uneventful. I'm mainly just sleeping all day, working in the evenings, and finding new non-profits and organizations to follow on Twitter.

I'll probably post again after youth group on Thursday, unless I get really bored and feel like writing about any old random topic.

:)

more than enough

2009-05-29T20:50:00.002-04:00

So, I'm really excited and yet simply in awe right now.

Particularly in the past two weeks, I've been trying to raise money for my mission trip to Guatemala. I was trying to work for it by doing car washes but that wasn't really working out effectively due to the immense amounts of rain we've been having lately. Plus, it's been rather difficult since I'm the only one down here in Boca going on my trip since the rest of my Phi Lamb sisters are in Gainesville. I've been trying really hard to just hold on to God's Word and trust Him to provide the money. It's been tough because the money needs to be in by June 6th.

But of course, today when I got home from work I had a letter that contained a check from one of my campers from the camp I worked at last summer. He had seen my need for money through my Facebook statuses and responded to that need.

I am just so overwhelmed right now by how amazing the Lord is. He is so faithful in everything that we just lay down at His feet. His Word never fails.

These are just some verses that I am dwelling on in response to all of this:

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 4:19

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:38

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

I just needed to write that all down. Oh man! God is good! All the time!

Anyways, I'm going to Wet 'N Wild Orlando tomorrow for their Waves of Glory Battle of the Bands concert because my wonderfully, amazing, talented, friends in Cadence Worship Band are playing so I'll blog about that when I return.

[the first post]

2009-05-29T12:41:00.001-04:00

It seems that a lot of writing begins with rain - novels, blogs, articles. Whatever type of writing it may be - it starts with the rain.

Maybe it's something about the rain that prompts people to begin writing and I guess I'm just another case.

I think for me, it's the rain-induced boredom on a summer day at home in Boca Raton, Florida that brings me to begin this blog.

It's not that I have absolutely nothing else to do, but I think this time has come.

As a Public Relations student at the University of Florida, I'm starting to realize the importance of blogs in my prospective profession. I've been reading a few off of PROpenMic, a social media network for those in the Public Relations field and I finally caved. So here it is. This is my blog. I haven't thought of a fitting name for the blog or gotten creative yet, but I will soon. It will all come together as soon as I get really into this, which I will - especially if it keeps raining.

For now, I guess I'll just say a few words about myself. My name is Raychel Manko, but it's actually not spelt with the "y". It's just a thing that caught on in 7th grade and has stuck with me. I like it better. I feel that it fits my personality, but I can't explain to you exactly why. Eventually, one day I may legally change it. Or maybe not. But for now, it's Raychel - atleast on anything unofficial. I'm 18 at the very moment, but I'll be 19 on July 11th. In the fall I will be going into my second year at University of Florida as a Public Relations major with a double minor in Elementary Education and Organizational Leadership for Non-Profits. The combination isn't as random as it may seem. Basically, I hope to combine my talents and passions to do public realtions for a Christian non-profit humanitarian organization that aids children in poverty/orphans. It's a pretty specific goal and I have the Lord to thank for that, as well as for everything else in my life. If there's anything important to know about me, it's that my relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important part of my life and that everything I do is centered around my firm belief in Jesus as well as the intimate personal relationship that I have with the Lord. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior on July 4, 2004 and my life changed drastically for the best from that point on. Everything I do is for His glory, not my own. And I do a lot. I tend to be one of those people who is involved with everything. I like to keep busy. Of course I like my down time, but for the most part I derive my joy from being busy, around people, and glorifying God in what I am doing. For the summer, I'm mainly just working at St. Andrews Estates South Retirement Home as a dining room serve - a job which I have held since April 2006. I'm also going on a mission trip to Magdelena, Guatemala from June 20-27 and I am very excited for that. Other than that, I am pretty involved at my church, Victory Christian Center, and with my amazing youth group, Radius. Up at UF, I am also involved in a variety of organizations. I am employed by Housing for the Fall09-Spring10 school year as Peer Mentor for the Leader Scholar Program in Trusler Hall. I am in a Christian sorority called Sigma Phi Lambda. I am in Public Relations Student Society of America. I go to Campus Crusade for Christ meetings. Next year, I will also be joining UF Student Society for Human Resource Managment and prospecitvely be doing the internal public relations for that as well as joining Gator Non-Profit Professionals. I'm pretty excited about everything the coming year at school holds. Other than all of that stuff, basically I am a 4'11", SUPER outgoing, fun-loving, only child originally from Boca Raton, Florida. I enjoy the beach, drinking coffee, singing about anything about everything anywhere always, helping people, and a whole lot of other stuff.

I can pretty much assure you that my blog is not going to be about any certain topic specifically. It's not just going to be about University of Florida. It's not just going to be about Public Relations, or about God, or any one single subject matter. It will be my thoughts, the events of my day, essentially my life.

It should be good. I like my life. Hopefully those of you who end up reading my blog will too.