DStilled

School’s Out For The Summer

Happy Summer Break everyone! That’s right, Shalom School is on vacation for the next two weeks. With the way they do school, the major break is in the late fall and our “winter break” is now. It amazes me that I’ve already been here for almost four weeks. I now have less time ahead of me here than behind. Wow. I bet a lot of people are realizing this about the summer as a whole too. (Yes I’m aware summer officially started like 5 days ago)

I just got my tax refund back and have made my first purchase. Jars of Clay has a members only double cd that they put on sale and I bought it. A couple of years ago they did a concert in Nashville with an orchestra playing a bunch of songs from the first two albums. I’m hype for it. I also just acquired the first demo album they put out BEFORE the self-titled cd that everyone knows about.

Well, now that I’ve got all this free time I need to use it well. Sam, Jennie, I, and others are going to Antigua, to a volcano, and some other fun things but that’s not what I meant. I want to take advantage of the time to prepare for my last bit teaching and leading devotionals. I REALLY want to preach in Spanish a couple of times before I have to leave. That means that I not only have to do preaching preparation but I really have to work hard on my Spanish flow and pronunciation. I can get Ivan to help me translate some notes before I go on.

Last Saturday Jennie and I gave our testimonies at the young adult meeting for Shalom, Fusion. Both of us had Ivan translate for us and everything went smoothly. For Mon and Wed Devos I headed up an obra or a skit. Well, one of the guys that was supposed to be in the skit didn’t show up because of a miscommunication and I performed in his stead. That’s right, I have officially done drama in two languages. It was fun and people laughed so I think it went over well. On Monday right after Mark finished speaking, I felt as though I should stop trying to listen to everything in Spanish that was happening and just pray. So I bowed my head and had one of the most powerful and intense prayer times I had in a long time. I let loose everything inside of me and poured it out onto the kids. After about 8 minutes the Devo was over and I lifted up my head and saw over 20 students standing up front after making some form of decision or commitment. Praise God!

On Thursday, the kids had their last day of school but for the sixth graders it was retreat day. Every grade gets a retreat to this cool hotel with a pool for one day during the year and the last day of school was the sixth graders’ turn. Jennie, Corey, Melissa, and I all went to help out. I headed up organized game time and shouted out things in Spanish to kids who laughed at me and pointed to one of the leaders to help translate. Much of the day was spent in the pool. Us leaders joined in and had fun. MAN did the cool water feel great! We played chicken fight, toss the sixth grader, and a form of water polo. Jennie got to spend some quality time with a girl that we all prayed for because she seems to be at the stage where God is something she might be interested in.

Friday was Teacher Appreciation Day and Mark went all out for his hard working soldiers. The day started off with a bus ride from the Shalom to Mark’s neighborhood’s country club. We had a worship service with Sam and Jennie leading up the music and Mark led some sharing time about the year thus far. Then we went to M & A’s gym for a hard endurance Tae Bo/Kickboxing class. We were all sore Sat morn. After some futbol we went back for lunch and two games. One of which was Musical Chairs. Then all those who wanted went bowling. Sam beat everyone because we were playing with bumpers. He nailed like three strikes after hitting the bumpers! The following day was Rueben’s birthday party with Ivan and Sam as clowns and a giant #2 pinata. Ahhh…the vacationed life.

Filling some bigger shoes…Spiritually

I added some pictures in the GT section. I added commentary to all the pics in the past that didn’t have commentary to check them out too. Also, saw Batman Inicio today and it was fantastic!

Hi Everybody! Hi Dr. Nick! Another week or so goes by and my life is so great once again. Here in GT I have made great new friends young and old. I have been serving the Lord everyday morning, noon, and night. I have gotten closer to friends I miss and my Spanish is vastly improving. To check on visuals for all the information I’m giving you and more be sure to check the GT gallery for new pictures every now and then. I’m learning not only about how God works in His world and church but also how people work. The culture shift has been fascinating to a psych major like myself.

On Friday the 10th, Mark and Andrea arrived in GT City with their son Reuben. Sam went to go get them during school and left me to teach two and a half of his classes in computer. Well, the internet didn’t work so I couldn’t teach the scheduled email material. They already knew as much as I did in Word and Excel so I told them to open Word up and type something different. I taught them how to write a limerick. Hopefully you all know what that is but if you don’t then here’s the quick run down. It’s a five line poem with the first, second, and fifth lines having many syllables and rhyming at the end. The third and fourth lines have only a few syllables and have a different rhyme at the end. Por exemplo: The once was a man named Sam. He liked green eggs and ham. Once he started. He really farted. And was force to say “S’cuse me maam.”

So there’s like this TERRIBLE smell coming from the bathroom here at the Mission House for the guys’ area and it won’t go away. We are investigating the exact problem even still but until then we keep the door shut and the bathroom window open. Well last night we found out that one of the main reasons why there have been a LOT more bugs in the house and we have been covered with mosquito bites lately was that the window we opened didn’t have a screen and they were all coming in that way. So what’s worse, the mosquito bites or the awful smell? Right now the smell seems to be winning.

I preached for the first time ever on Wednesday for the Devo for roughly 150 7-9th graders. Ivan translated for me and it went over well I think. Ivan said they were paying really good attention even though I was talking about pretty deep stuff. I used the phrase “That than which no greater can be conceived.” – a philosophical term used by Anselm to prove the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. Anyone out there want to translate that phrase accurately? be my guest. Seven kids came up afterwards to make public professions or commitments! I felt humbled and honored to be God’s messenger. I have never actually led anyone to Christ before and to see people respond to something that came out of my mouth was…well odd. I taught on Psalm 111 and the topic was making life decisions. I basically said that the most important choice to make is to follow Jesus and all the other ones should trickle down off of that. I really enjoyed preaching and can’t wait to do it again, however doing it in Spanish might be a different story. Jennie and I are giving our testimonies tomorrow for the young adult class.

One last quick thing. Ivan has lots of pants that he loves of unusual fabrics and custom cuts. Sam and I call them hot pants and pretend we really like them. They’re cool and all but not quite our style. However, we have decided to find our own style. No, don’t worry, not in pants, but in suits. Yesterday Ivan took us to fabric stores and we picked out jet black English cashmere for like 23 bucks. This morning we are going to a tailor to get measured and stuff and have the suits made. The whole price for a custom tailored suit will be like 65 dollars!

Keep praying for me and any other missionaries you know of. We all need it for safety, language, open hearts, discerning minds, situations both good and bad, for encouragement and stamina, and direction and purpose to be driven by JesuCristo. Amen.

Here I am…Send me.

It’s been nearly a week now and I knew if I had my chance, I could make those people dance and maybe they’d be happy for a while. Well, that’s not quite true. Turns out one of the things that I have learned about the culture I am now in is that dancing Christians don’t exist. At least they are not suppose to. If you think dancing in Baptist churches is bad then imagine bringing an open bear into the sancutary (did I just type bear? goodness wouldn’t that be weird! anyway i meant to say beer) and that’s how the kids look at me when I groove at school. Needless to say I stopped immediately. It reminds me of when I used to grove for like the entire meal at the Pav before Agape.

Jennie and I arrived in Guatemala last wed night smoothly and Sam and Ivan picked us up at the airport. Quick story about the travel day. Jennie and I arrived super early at Cincinnati to fly to Dallas-Ft. Worth (the city of my and Garrett’s birth!) We got there wonderfully after a delay on the runway and right before we landed the flight attendant came up to tell us where our connecting gate was. B-14 she says. We get off and go directly to B-14. Jennie stays with the carry-ons and I go to make sure we don’t have to do anything with our checked luggage. The nice man says we’re fine and I decide to use the restroom. Well the nearest one is next to B-4. I walk down and while I’m still in the quietness of the restroom I hear, “Will Daniel Stillwell, Jennie Barrows, and Seashell McPhoon report to gate B-17 for immediate departure to Guatemala.” I darted out and ran the ten miles to Jennie and she looked incredibly content. She hadn’t heard a thing in the din of the terminal. (God thing that I went to the bathroom? I think so) So I grabbed my stuff and some of hers and ran best we could and caught the plane guy just as he was giving up on us.

We have all had some pretty sweet God moments but the best for me was Sunday morning church. The first sunday of every month they have extended services with baptism and communion. (Yes I tasted alcohol for the first time ever. It was the same tiny plastic cup we use in the states with 80% wine and 20% grape juice) The singing was amazing cuz I was singing in spanish and worshipping at the same time. The baptism and communion were cool because I was included even as an outsider as part of the Church. The sermon was amazing cuz it was a guy would drove three hours each way to go the Shalom Mission School and learn about Jesus. It made me really grateful that I can so easily have access to the best schools in the world, seminaries included. The talk was on what the church was both to christians and non, and Kenneth was there to translate since a team from Oklahoma was there.

Sam and I are living at Mark and Andrea’s house while they are still in the states. Jennie is at Andrea’s brother’s until M&A get back and then she’ll live there. School schedule is 7:30-1:30. We get up at 5 every morning and leave the house by 6 and here is a real kicker–we are in bed before 9:30. I got to do some of my first spanish teaching today in Andrea’s English class Sam is subbing for. My spanish is comming along but it is still so hard to communicate with people that don’t speak slowly or clearly. Sam took Jennie and I to fun Antigua on Sat and showed us around, the salsa bars, the place he lived at, and other touristy things. We will definately go back for some late night salsa dacing, or at least the atmosphere.

Praying in spanish aloud in front of dozens of natives is intimidating. So much so Sam doesn’t even like to do it. But I’ve braved it twice and I’m sure I’ll have to a ton more times before this is all over. So pray for me will you please. Pray that Spanish comes along well for the three of us. Pray that Jennie and I get into the programs where God can use us the most. Pray that Jesus really walks besides us throughout the day to truly love the kids and other teachers. Pray that we all come to Him daily in the Word and Spirit. If we don’t depend on Him for everything then this entire trip is sorely lacking in purpose and power.

Thank you for supporting me with your prayers and keep checking for updates and pictures. I will have a whole new Guatemala gallery for these pics.

Bye bye Miss American Pie

So very sorry I haven’t updated it so long. I have indeed betrayed my faithful checkers. I apologize. My month of May was very busy and wonderful.

I finished school at UVa with finals week. I took the hardest test I’ll ever take and got a D on it. The rest of them went well. Especially my Drama final. I semi packed up and came home only to find my parents had moved. But not completely. So the next week and a half I was devoted to moving with an occasional hang out time with Lex peeps. We had Ryan’s birthday, graduations, Mark and Andrea came into town, and all the while I was still moving in. My mom had a friend from Meechegin (that’s Michigan to non northerners, donchaknow) and then there was lots of settling in with yard work and hanging mirrors and china cabinets, etc.

I went to Lousiville Presbetyerian Theological Seminary and had a campus visit. I met with head of the Marriage and Family Therapy department, ate lunch with the President, and everyone else they could schedule me with in a day. The place is AWESOME and even though it’s much smaller than I’m used to (150 students) it seems like a great fit. I really feel God calling me to seminary after UVa and this seems to be the place.

Well, I’m leaving on a jet plan. I don’t know when I’ll update again. Cuz I’m FINALLY GOING TO GUATEMALA!!! I’m sure I’ll get settled soon and start getting used to the language and the culture. But I’ll do my best to include you all along the way. Pray for me and Jennie as we join Sam, Mark, Andrea, Kenneth, and all the Guatemalans to serve the Christ by being His hands and feet. Adios!