First Week in the Villages

Hello everybody,
I know I just posted a blog post a few days ago, but we've already done so much since then! So a few days ago, we met a pastor and his wife who are both from an indigenous village. They are extremely sweet, and I am so glad to have met them. They took my whole team in and fed us some delicious home-made food with giant tortillas called "clayudas", and home-made agua de horchata. There was so much work involved in making that simple meal, I just couldn't believe it. So, please keep this Godly couple in your prayers. They are just awesome!

On Tuesday, we went to the children's home and let me tell you, it was amazing! These kids are so sweet. When we first got there, I sat on a picnic table carrying a children's bible story book. Out of no where, a ton of little children ran up to the picnic table and started climbing on top of it, (and me) to get to the book that I had in my hands.They really don't have many toys, so they were very excited to see what kinds of stuff we had for them to play with. After having fun with them for a while, I had the honor to read them the story of "Daniel y Los Leones" from the bible story book. The story was interactive, so they had a lot of fun with that. Afterwards we sang and danced and had a blast doing it! The kids were sad when it was time for us to leave, but they were really excited to be able to rip some pages out of the coloring books that we brought so they could color throughout the week. We should have a chance to go to the children's home at least once a week, so I'm really excited about that! Please pray for these kids, that they may keep these stories that we share with them in their hearts.

Now for the village, at last! Bailey (my partner for my assigned village) and me had our first official day in our village. While we are there, we are helping with a huge project that a missionary couple down here is working on. They are translating stories from the bible into the indigenous language of the village. The people in the village speak both their native language, and spanish. Most of the people can not read, so the missionary couple down here have been able to record many bible stories in this native language for them to listen to. But, the recorded stories that we have so far are only rough drafts, so that's where our job comes in. Bailey and I must go in to the village and ask the people if they would be so kind to help us with our project. They listen to a short story, and then they retell the story in Spanish. This helps us make sure that the story that they heard is accurate, and without error. The dialect of this language varies from village to village, which is why we need to make sure that our recorded stories are correct. Once all the recordings are fixed, we can distrubute them to the village. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to be apart of this amazing project. I know the end result will allow the people to hear to gospel in their heart language for the first time. Praise God for this life changing project that is in the works!

This past week, we were in our village for two days in a row. The first day, we met some local shop owners, and distrubuted flyers to the kids for an upcoming sports camp that will take place in their village next week. The kids are really eager and excited, and so am I! Day two, we had our ipod and speakers ready to start the backstory project. We were rejected by many people who were not interested in helping us, but God still opened some doors for us to share with a few people. One woman, invited us into her humble home and was enthusiastic to help us. She listened to the creation story, and re-told it to us in Spanish. It was a really great moment when she told us that that was the first time she had ever heard God's word in her native language. She told us that we are welcome to come back at any time. I know that God placed this woman in our path, so please pray for her and her three small children. Pray for our friendship, and pray that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we may share God's powerful good news with her the next time we see her. Pray that she may not reject the gospel, but that she will have a burning desire to know more. This woman has been heavy on hearts since then, so please pray for her.

More prayers:
-Please pray for this village that God may place the right people in our path that will be open and receptive to his word.
-Pray that Bailey and I may have favor, so that people will welcome us and not reject the good news we have for them, or the project we are working on.
-Pray for career missionaries that live out here with their families. I'm only here for two months, but they have been here for years.

That's it for now! I should have another update next Friday! Thank you everyone for your prayers, and for supporting me through this awesome time in my life! I read a quote this week from a deceased missionary and really liked it. "An entire lifetime is worth the salvation of one soul." That quote, and being out in the villages has made me realize that the harvest is indeed plentiful, and the workers are few. Please pray for clarity for me to know if God is calling me to career missions work.

I love you guys,

-Karen (:

To God be the Glory!