a February well spent

Happy freaking March 1^st! Here's a few things that happened in the month of February:

February was ¡feliz cumpleaños! month for 3 of our 4 residents in this household. Melissa, Richard, and I celebrated our birthdays and friends came to party with us!

Finished this book with tears in my eyes and conviction in my heart, and have since picked up this hilarious and thought-provoking one written by one of my favorite bloggers. Can I just say I LOVE being out of college and LOVE reading books for fun?!

We’ve been continually blessed by the people we’ve met here. So many families have reached out to us in different ways—one of those ways being inviting us over for dinner at their house. Through these acts of kindness, Zach and I have had the chance to get to know our neighbors better and hear their stories and eat great food. We love stories and we love food. Hurray!

I had the incredible privilege of joining Dr. Rivera and Dr. Erick and a nurse who is also my friend, Patty, on a teeny tiny little missionary plane to a community in the mountains of Quiché. The flight only made me slightly queasy, but it was an amazing ride with breathtaking views, as you can imagine. Spending a few days in this village attending to patients in the clinic was like a childhood dream come true for me. I am so grateful for that opportunity. Would love to do more of this and may have another chance down the road.

I’ve been venturing out in traffic more. We live in the capital, not in a village, so you would think they would have some road rules here… nope. So I usually let Zach or somebody else drive because I’m a big baby and don’t want to DIE in a car wreck. But yes, I’ve been trying to drive more…

We got MAIL! So fun to receive, and what an encouragmentJ

I talked with both Grandma Labenz and Nana Menchaca last month!! Woop woop! Nothin like chats with  grandmasJ 

I saw my first scorpion. Terrifying. Haven’t seen once since though, gracias a Dios.

This month Zach has reported more confidence and ease in teaching students in the classroom. I think a lot of his insecurities at the beginning came from knowing that a majority of the students in his Spanish classes already speak fluent Spanish because they’re missionary kids and have lived here their whole lives. Needless to say, Mr. Borchardt always finds ways to help them improve their grammar and other skills. :)

The kindergarten girls at Prince of Peace continue to be as cute and craaazy as ever during our hour craft sessions! 

We had Dr. Rivera over for supper on Valentines Day. I have grown so fond of this goofy and father-like doctor I follow around all the time, so I wanted the people I love to have a chance to get to know him, too. It was wonderful! Zach did a good job being the translator, as Dr. speaks minimal English and the Jeffersons speak minimal Spanish. We are all learning!

One Saturday I decided to devote the afternoon to writing a song and putting it to music, and it was successful. Haven’t tried to do that in over a year, and it felt really good. I write songs just to play them for nobody, but it is just something I really love to do when I’m able. Plus sometimes one just really needs a few good hours of alone time with a piano and some thoughts to elaborate on…

3 words: Sunday night worship. You just have to come visit to know what I’m talking about. It is one of my favorite parts of the whole week.

Helping at the clinics continues to be such a joy to me. At Prince of Peace, Dr. Rivera and I are busy the whole time seeing patients, but at the clinic in Palín there can be a lot of down time—which is not bad at all because it is in those moments that I get to practice my Spanish with the staff there. I love them sooo much! Am praying/thinking hard about how I can specifically help this clinic in a big way before Zach and I have to leave… stay tuned for that…

The night we “crashed” somebody’s Quinceañera (big celebration for a girl turning 15): We were invited by some friends, thinking it was only a family get-together. When we pulled up to the address we had written on a piece of paper, there was loud music and fancy decorations (fancier than our wedding!) and people in their best dresses/suits. We were a little late and walked in the back, and everybody turned and looked at us. Zach and I looked at each other and both thought, should we slink away and pretend we never came? But our sweet friend quickly came to our aid and escorted us to the very front (Zach was wearing jeans and, why didn’t I put on a dress?!) and we ended up really enjoying the whole night! Everyone was so kind to us, the girl who was being celebrated (already forgot her name!) was beautiful, and our friends hooked us up with 3 Guatemalan doctors and their phone numbers in case we ever needed something. Now THAT is hospitality! We were so blown away. And yes, the cake really was good.

Adios, February 2013. 

Kristen

ponderings of my heart

This weekend we had no plans, and it’s been wonderful. Richard and Melissa went out of town to a missionary conference, so Zach, Lola, and I had campus/home to ourselves. We watched movies, made smoothies, and let the dishes in the sink pile up. Zach wrote lesson plans, I worked on my resume’s cover letter, and we went for a jog on the soccer field to relieve stressss.

Yes, the whole job search thing is truly upon us, and of course I’m not ready for it yet. It’s almost time for us to start doing adult things like apply for jobs, and I’m like, how did it get to be the end of February already? So not ready for this, like I thought I’d be. I’m reluctant to start planning for what’s to come in May because I’ve so embraced our lives here. I’m comfortable and challenged at the same time. I feel good here, I feel at home. And I look forward to what the weeks bring because I am always learning. I am working on trusting that God will soon provide a place for us that is just right. Not necessarily that is just right for us, meaning somewhere that we’d really like to be, but that is right for Him to work in and through us. I suppose He can work in and through us anywhere. There are always people to serve and love, always opportunities to be a light. I just want to be there, in that place where He is. And so I suppose I’ll just keep doing that here until we get there. And in the meantime we’ll fumble our way through job apps and apartment searches…

I won’t lie that the question of ‘What if we stayed here for a bit longer?’ has not crossed my mind on many, many occasions. I have wrestled with this and have asked my husband to wrestle with it, too. It’s a lot of things, but mainly one of them being that the nursing work and people I’ve got to know inside of that work have made such a strong impact on my life. Getting to know Dr. Rivera through Prince of Peace opened up another opportunity to work alongside the staff at Clinica Salvatore in Palin, the clinic I believe I’ve mentioned in an earlier post. What draws me to this place are the workers and their mission. Every single person on team there (there are 10) shares a vision to reach the rural community by meeting basic health needs and sharing Christ’s love at the same time. It is the kind of work place I can see myself being a part of. They have welcomed me like family. The clinic has plans to add on a pediatric dental clinic, a chapel, and a section for births and post-partum. They dream of hiring more nurses, a nurse director, and recruiting teams to come from the States to help with construction. The main doctor talks about starting as early as May, and a huge part of me longs to stay and actively participate in its growth and see lives change.

Victor (dentist) and Auri (dental hygienist). love them!

the general medicine room i spend the most time in with Dr. Rivera

this is the community; i am looking off the clinic's upper level

another view

The chances of Zachary and I staying seem pretty unlikely at this point, but the idea isn’t entirely ruled out. The main issue with staying would be making enough money to still be able to pay our student loans bill every month. Also, what would Zach do? Would he teach? And being close to our families in Nebraska is definitely a strong desire we’ve both always shared. We've had this desire to live in the same city as our siblings for so long, and thinking about not following that dream in order to follow something else feels... painful almost. I have literal dreams about family members. I miss my dad and my mom and my brothers and sisters and Borchardt parents so much that it makes my heart ache. We long to be part of their daily lives. Getting coffee weekly, going to football games, making dinner for them in our new home...

But after awhile, the tugs on my heart here in Guate seem to be all too frequent. Makes it hard to ignore them. So I am feeling a little confused. The most important thing I need to remember in all of this is to be extremely communicative with Zach about what I'm feeling, and him with me. It is so crucial that we be on the same page. That we talk, be practical, and pray together for our future. If both our hearts aren't in the plan, we will not be as effective, no matter where we end up. We are trying not to get too worked up about what's next, and just wait for God to whisper. We will apply for jobs in the States as planned. And above all we want to be obedient.

We know that the end of our time here would not mean the end of trips to Guatemala, and there are always ways to help the causes dear to my heart in Guate without me actually being present there. I do know that the Lord knows all, sees all, and understands all. I give up my dreams to Him and will wait to see what He will do with our lives.

I'm sorry that this reads more like the pages of my journal than a blog post! If you read and would be so inclined to pray, I would give you 5 hugs, a secret handshake, and a Quetzal. Whoever you are, dear reader, may our God bless you and keep you and just love on you so much this week.

Kristen

update: kindergarten

Hello, lovely people!

It’s just another night at the Jefferson/Borchardt casita. Everyone’s tired from their own long day, so we’re just kinda hangin out tonight. Zach and I really enjoy living here with Richard and Melissa. They show love to us on a daily basis in all kinds of ways. Really generous people, fun to laugh with, share meals with, and go places with. We love them!! Both couples we’ve had the privilege of living with since we got married have demonstrated such incredible hospitality, so Zach and I have been learning from the best. We can’t wait to do this for somebody else someday.

A lot happens in a week and a half (my last post). I recently started working with 4 kindergarten girls at Prince of Peace several times a week. After class is over with their teacher at noon, I arrive with art supplies and we just have fun being creative for an hour before lunch. These precious 5-6 year olds come from home situations where they didn’t have the chance to just be little girls; they had to grow up fast, you know? And without affection or even basic needs. So I was offered an opportunity to just play with them; to let them express themselves through art or to play dress up or decorate cookies or paint nails or whatever. It’s super fun. J Their names are Haylin, Rubí, Paola, and Estrella. I don’t have any pictures yet, but here's a quick video I took the other day! Haylin (dancing) and Paola (singing with bubbles) are the ones trying to get the camera's attention:

Becoming more involved with Prince of Peace in this way has opened a huge door for me to get to know the place better and all the girls who live there. I’m learning so many names and faces and personalities, as well as how the Home runs and stuff like that. It is a truly remarkable place. Every time I pull up to the drive, there are beautiful little girls all around to greet me with hugs and kisses. They want to hold my hand and ask me how I’m doing. They want to practice their English or talk about ‘mi esposo,’ (my husbandJ). They beg me to stay for lunch and ask when I’ll be coming back. I can almost not believe how much love they have in their young little hearts, when they’ve been denied love in their pasts. But I know that what I see is a product of God’s grace. Transformation through love is the business of God, and there is a lot of that business going on at Prince of Peace.

Take a minute to check out the website here and see some of these beautiful faces I'm talking about!

http://www.princeofpeacegt.com/

Ok…I only made it this far tonight… will have to write more later when I'm actually awake.

Love, Kristen

medical mission to the coast, and remembering Chloe.

What a great week! I had the privilege of spending 4 days with a team of doctors here on the coast (we were in the Monterrico area at the very bottom) :

The days were long and hot, but we saw many patients and really enjoyed one another’s company. Was a really neat group of both Americans and Guatemalans. Felt so spoiled to have this chance to join them and learn from them, and they let me travel, stay, and eat for no charge!

We had clinic in the laid-back, dirt roads, hammock-hanging, animals-running-around-everywhere, coastal community of Taxisco for 3 days, and did clinic in a church in Palín on the 4^th day. Both communities were  so kind and welcoming to us. Really beautiful people.

A majority of the conditions presented were: diabetes issues, parasites, women’s reproductive health stuff, and babies with fevers. I did get to see an incredibly massive tumor on the upper thigh of a man with AIDS; that was really sad. He needed a hospital, and the nearest one was an hour and a half away! There were also some extremely high blood sugar patients that needed IV infusions, which we were able to set up right there in the building we used.  This community of several thousand only has 1 little pharmacy, that’s it.

I went back and forth between working the pharmacy with these lovely ladies…

…and translating at the Integrated Health station, the place where patients wait for their medication, receive health education, and hear the Gospel presented to them.

I also got to do some nursey stuff with the sweet nurse from the States, Hatsie. We took patients as they came in and did weights, blood glucose checks, and blood pressures, and pregnancy tests every once in awhile.

This is my new friend from Canada, Diane:) Awesome woman who lived in Sevilla, Spain when she was about my age. She was actually visiting Sevilla in September, at the same time we were there!

Where we stayed 2 nights, right on the beach.

We ate all our meals here at a home belonging to one of the families in the community.

 Where the ladies slept. Our room had a BAT that got inside. It flew around at night above our heads. Scary!!!

 At the end of our 2^nd day, I just felt like talking to someone from home, so I dialed up my daddio and we chatted a bit before he told me the news that my sweet dog of 5 years, Chloe, had died the day before. It was so unexpected and the story pretty tragic and I just stood there on the Pacific coast and cried for my puppy. I still can’t believe she’s gone, really. She was mi amiguito, my buddy. We spent so much time together chasing each other around the kitchen and taking walks in the park and snuggling in my bed or on the couch. She was like one of those humanish pets people go on about….kinda annoying really, when people talk so much about their pets like I’m doing now, but truly, when I was sad or upset or nervous, she was always there. When I was happy, she was happy with me. My family’s been through a lot in the past couple years, and she was our “little piece of consistent joy,” as my dear friend Anne put it. It sucks that she’s gone. It really, really, really sucks.

Last September, Zach and I were on the Atlantic coast when we heard about his Grandma Ruth’s death. Once again, hearing about the death of someone I cherish this past week, I was standing on another ocean’s shore. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but maybe it’s God showing me that He loves me. Both times that I’ve grieved for someone lost that I loved in the past 6 months, I’ve been on the edge of His great, big, crashing-waves sea. I feel so devastated at first, but I look upon that ocean and am reminded that He is mighty. That He is the Author of life. He tells the waves what to do, he ends and begins lives, and he steadies my heart.

The rest of the trip was good, except I was just bummed out about my dog. I love my new Guatemalan girlfriends for letting me cry on their shoulder that evening. I felt really silly for crying about my puppy when Guatemala is just full of grungy, homeless, skeleton dogs running around everywhere. People can barely feed their families, let alone feed the dogs that just keep multiplying. They’ve never bothered me so much in the past, but for the rest of the trip every dog I saw just made me so sad!

Am missing my mom this week and really wishing I could be with her. She needs nurse Kristen, as her hand is pretty mangled from the Chloe accident, and her heart broken, too. Wish I could just see everybody. Ryry’s birthday is Monday, so Ryan, if you’re reading this, I LOVE YOU AND YOU’RE ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIENDS. You’re an awesome man with a spirit for adventure and a passion for music and love for others. Enjoy your first beer ever in your whole entire life ;) 

peace,

Kristen

immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Eph 3:14-21

The Lord has been my strength and my song this week, and these words have been the lyrics. I remember first being drawn to these verses during our first week in Guatemala, and they’ve just kinda stuck. I asked a lot of God when we got here: ‘God I want to do this and I want to help with  that and oh please if you’d just let me bless them in this way or that way…’

It’s dawned on me since that my pleas were of good intention but showed that I hadn’t thought things all the way through just yet. He gently responded, ‘My child, I love you deeply, but you should know that you will not be doing anything, for it is I who will accomplish Love through you.’

Oh, how I love Him so. How I love this all-powerful God who doesn’t need me or you but uses us anyway, with our little faith and halfway decent abilities and the scales on our eyes and our sinful tendencies. We have so many limitations, but yet what He looks for is that enthusiastic heart and a desire to do good and bring healing to the world He cares so much about. And He says, Okay, I can work with that.

So I’ve been learning, and He's been merciful. Been waking up earlier than I’m used to (this is difficult, ha) and immediately my mind starts racing with anxiousness for what the day holds. But as soon as I can remember to, I ask Jesus to steady my heart and try my best to just give the day up to Him. And those days that I remember to do this? Those are the most blessed days!

This week I was given awesome opportunities to learn and grow every single day. Some of those days I was asked to step outside my comfort zone. And other days I was right inside my element. The Guatemalan doctor (Dr. Rivera) I’ve been assisting at the Prince of Peace Girls’ Home clinic serves at another clinic in Palín several times a week. Palín is another town about 20 miles away, but it takes at least an hour with traffic. Isn’t that sick?? I’ve been accompanying him there lately, as there’s been an American group of doctors here on a mission trip for 2 weeks. Working alongside their team and the Guatemalans who normally work in that clinic has been just awesome. Everyone is so kind and loves the Lord and just wants to see lives changed, physically and spiritually. All that drive time to and from during the week has allowed me to get to know Dr. Rivera and another nurse, Susi, really well, and I am so thankful for their friendship! They answer all my questions about their country, and we laugh a lot, too. :)

Something really cool that happened one day last week was that I was not asked but basically told by the mission team coordinator that I was going to be the interpreter for the pastor whose role in the clinic was to provide health education/share the Gospel to patients while they were waiting for their medication after receiving their check-up. At first I balked and did the Moses thing, giving him a really confused/scared face and starting to explain that I was not as good at Spanish as he somehow thought I was (I hardly know this dude) and that there was already an official Interpreter on his trip and why wasn’t he going to use her?? In my mind, I said NO WAY. But strangely, my head started nodding on its own and I just replied in a tiny 13-year old squeaky voice, “Ok, I’ll try…” and pretty soon patients started lining up at the door. And there I was, sitting next to this old white-haired pastor, and looking into the coffee-brown eyes of Guatamalan mothers and fathers and their children. And I translated. Every sentence. God gave me this peace and strength to withdraw from my brain all the Spanish I knew and put it into the words the Pastor was saying. I have done a little bit of translating for Melissa at the orphanage, but I’ve never done this much before, and for such a crowd. It was nothing short of intimidating at first, but eventually I started to feel more comfortable, and then later, just blown away at the courage God so faithfully gave me.

Some other highlights of the week were Zach and I getting to help some teachers lead a field trip to the zoo! ANIMALS ARE SO CUTE. So are 4^th graders. It’s a close tie. And last Wednesday I began a rather large process of performing physical evaluations for all 60-ish girls at Prince of Peace. I haven’t even reached the halfway point yet, so there are still a lot of girls to meet! I record heights and weights, medical history/allergies, vision tests, and a basic head-to-toe exam. I’ve enjoyed this so much, getting to know names and faces and personalities of all the precious girls at PoP. I am so in love! Praise God for that place.

Would love to share more with you, but time runs short. If you feel at all inclined to pray for Zach and I, we would be so blessed by that. You can pray for Zach's learning and teaching in the classroom, and for my safety as I travel to the coast with the doctors for the next 4 days. And for both of us to be continually challenged in our faith and that we would be obedient to love God, each other, and others in all that we do. Love you guys! 

Kristen

two loves. (by Zach)

I love Spanish. I really do. I enjoy the fact that I can just pick up a book in a language other than English and start reading. I am happy I can communicate with someone who might not know how to even say, “Hi, how are ya?” That’s okay though, because I got the good ol’ Cómo estás down.

Learning is something I love as well. I love picking up new vocabulary words while reading those Spanish books and then realizing it when one is used in a Spanish conversation I’m having. Heck, I even delve into heavy philosophical and theological blogs and books for fun to search out the height and depth and width of all that can be known about God and us, which by the way still remains mysterious in many, many ways.

Teaching is something I’m getting used to… Well, of course I’ve done it before in the states. I’ve been in various American classrooms for more than 100 hours observing and teaching and planning. I’ve made connections with students and been to their activities and events. This seems different though. I’m here to stay (sort of). I’ll be with them for the longest time I’ve been with any class. I also stay at the school all day and get to see behind the scenes of planning and preparation as well as school politics and teacher-to-teacher relations. It’s all very interesting, confusing, and a little stressful at times. I’m slowing diving more and more into this behind the scenes world though. Pretty soon I’m sure I’ll be up to my ears in juggling curriculum, lesson plans, student behaviors, grades and assessments, principals and administrators, parents and sponsors, and classroom instruction and learning. All seems overwhelming at first for a guy who loves Spanish and enjoys learning.

I guess the trick is to have those two loves be the motivators. Sure it takes a bit of time to write out lessons and prepare materials. Sure maybe sometimes it seems like it would be easier to just bypass all the hoops that teachers need to jump through to plan trips or obtain special materials for their students. Of course nobody likes to correct misbehaving students who might be disrupting the learning process. I guess that’s what ALL of this is though, The Learning Process. In order to display my love for learning and for Spanish and in order to pass on those two loves to my students, one must endure the banality of the system and the behaviors, negative or otherwise, of the ones involved. In the end, it’s a beautiful thing when students enjoy learning and rejoice in the material they have learned. Just like God recreating the world, The Learning Process is going to be slow and painful at times, but the rewards will far outweigh the trials.

May I come to rejoice in all of it because all of it is language and all of it is learning.

color.

This past week has been such a blur. Everything is so new and interesting and fun. We thank the Lord for safety, overall health, cold medicine, new friendships, adventures, and new ways to be challenged and stretched.

Husband had his first day of student teaching this week! And he looked fiiine. Here he is with his teacher, Claudia Fuentes:

He promises he will get on and write for our next post, so GET EXCITED.

I wouldn’t even know where to begin describing the week. Here’s a collection of words and pictures:

We’ve been awed, sitting on a giant porch with a majestic view of the sun going down and creating a gorgeous sky-painting with the clouds over the volcano Pacaya, with Christian brothers and sisters around us, worshipping God with our voices and music.

I’ve been speechless, standing on a hill, looking down below at the City’s dump, big yellow trucks filing in and people fighting their way to the front for the ‘good stuff.’ The smell is nauseating and there are hundreds of big, ugly, black vultures swarming overhead.

I’ve been queasy, yet remained strong and standing, as I assisted Dr. Riviera in prying off the infected toenails of a frightened teenager, squirming and shrieking on the table as he hugs his mother and they both cry.

We’ve been frustrated, to see that the little boy who was selling chocolate in the mall before the movie a couple hours ago is still here, and it is 10 o clock on a Friday night, and he is still by himself and eating McDonalds in a booth right next to us, finishing his work day. We talk and he says his parents are at home. He will take a taxi. He can’t be older than 10.

We’ve been amazed, that some of the children at the orphanage I described in the previous post are finally going to be able to go to school for the very first time at 7 years old, because they have a sponsor who has given in faith, and it will be received in love.

I’ve been out of breath, running around a weedy soccer field with laughing children, playing freeze tag and speaking broken Spanish but more importantly, learning the language of love, which defies cultural, status, age, and religious differences.

We’ve been grateful, living with an extraordinary couple who have huge hearts and are so helpful to us, they show us around and take us on new adventures and have made our transition to a new country an incredibly smooth one. Wow. Blessed.

I’ve been totally lost, trying to understand why on earth a recipe would call for the burning, yes burning on purpose, of random ingredients (tomatoes, bread, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and more) and then blending them up and mixing with chicken to pour over rice. But hey, it tasted good.

Some photos!

some pictures i snapped at the orphanage:

a day trip to Antigua last Saturday

Lola:)

sunset over volcanoes.

another one of Antigua. breathtaking.

Zach and hipster Guatemalan lady.

beautiful yellow flowers that hang everywhere.

drinking coconut water out of a coconut!

Peace, amigos!

-Kristen