Shining Light Abroad Ministries

I am not even sure of all of the details of how Decker and Martha Terry became involved in my parents lives and now our lives.  They have never been to Guatemala, but they are faithful supporters of our ministries.  When I become worried about the future, they are some of the people God uses to remind of how He provides.  God reminds me that my contacts are not His contacts.  God reminds me of how His people understnd the eternal investment. We received an email from Mr. Terry asking for prayer for Mrs. Martha as she was taken to the hospital.  Mr. Terry sent us this email last last night:  She is off her B-pap mask a/o this A.M. and breathing w/oxygen through her nose @ 96% level.   PTL!   The question is…. will her improved condition hold while sleeping….. and will the doctor’s tracking and adjusting of her new/old new meds while drawing off fluid…over 16 lbs. plus, thus far achieve lasting effects.  Will you join us in praying for Mrs. Martha?  She is a prayer warrior and they know the power of prayer.  God has used this precious couple to change the lives of many people in Guatemala.

Since we have Rebekah as an extra pair of hands, we are taking advantage of accomplishing things we normally can’t do on the weekdays.  Our week has been busy as many of the teachers completed their second interview by teaching a “model” class with the kids at the center.  We thought we had all of our paperwork ready for the Ministry of Education, but we need several more to complete it.  Thankfully, God is using people to help me in the process. I could never do it by myself.

We left about 7:30 am on Thursday morning to take care of some business for the school. Many of you know the ministry of Casa Aleluya and they graciously met with us about some of the details for operating a school.  We are thankful to Dr. Mike Clark and Billy for their willingness to help.  We spent the rest of the day buying some library books, fabric for uniforms, and pricing computers, printers, etc.  We found one store in the city that has decent prices on books.  However, they are still more expensive than in the states.  Wondering what you could give to help the school?–Spanish Books!  We were home at 7:30 pm.  Long day in traffic, but successful day.  Did I take enough money to buy the fabric–nope!  Soy had to return to the store on Friday to pay the remaining balance for the fabric.  It only takes 1.5-2 hours to get there!

I do not celebrate my birthday as a general rule.  How many times can you celebrate turning 25?  On Thursday, we celebrated my birthday by spending 12 hours in the city with Telma and Daisy!  Yesterday, I had finished a teacher interview and I was meeting with several people about the paperwork.  Daisy told me there was a problem with a couple of the boys inside the center so they needed me.  When I walked in there were 63 sweet children each holding a flower and shouted “Feliz Cumpleanos” followed by loud fireworks which is a necessity to celebrate a birthday in Guatemala.  My first thought was “Oh this is sweet of Daisy and Dayana” (meaning they bought the flowers and gave them to the children). However,  when I discovered the children had all walked off the bus carrying the flower they had brought especially for me, I was a bit overwhelmed.  Some stood with a single daisy and some had hand-picked bouquets of flowers.  Even the “rowdy” boys looked so sweet in that moment!

Sorry for the long post.  I now need to save the kittens as Audrey is in charge of them.  Why do children always wake up at 6 am on Saturdays?

My girls were excited that people from one of the teams visited them at their school!  It makes them feel extra special.