Video Blog #1

A friend of mine asked me if I could do a video blog. I decided that I would interview two of my good friends here in Antigua. In this video you will see Joanne, a friend of mine who I traveled a lot with in Guatemala and helped her teach English at the school, and Mustafa, my best friend in Guatemala.

Currently, I am in the states not only to renew my visa but my mom is very sick and in the hospital. I am with her right now, in fact. Not sure when I will return to Guatemala, but I am hoping it will be very soon. I miss being there already!

I hope you enjoy the video and please comment!

 

 

 

 

Just Excuses?

I have been talking to various people about coming down to not only visit me but explore Guatemala and, of course, volunteer some time, too. I heard so many excuses, some valid some not so much. Someone had a wedding to go to this summer? Someone had camp? Someone has kids? Someone just couldn’t miss the fairs this summer? And someone just had to see the fireworks for July 4th? What? That last one actually made me laugh. Every weekend, if not everyday I hear or see fireworks in town. It is practically a daily occurrence! 

See for yourself!

I’m not writing this because I am “complaining that people won’t come down.” I’m writing this because I see time and time again people hide from what God really wants them to do. They find every excuse in the book to try to get out of things they don’t want to do or are too scared to do themselves. Believe me. I can see an excuse from a mile away. How? Because I am the queen of excuses, but when it comes to doing things for my Lord, I have to obey. That is why I am here in Guatemala. I’m not asking you to do the same thing I did. I’m not asking you to quit your job, leave your family and everything you know and love behind to do something what God wants you to do. No. I’m just asking you to take a week off of your daily and work life, come down to paradise and do some work for the Lord and explore the beauty of the world? How hard is that really? 

Now I understand that money is a big problem for some. I know a few people who are excluded from this post because they have the desire and gumption to be here, but they just have the lack of funds. I also know that these people will be here or do the work of the Lord somewhere in this world once the time comes. 

I truly think that the others are being like Moses. Moses, you ask? Yes. Moses. When God first asked Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he told God many, many excuses to get out of it. He was scared. He gave God many excuses such as he wasn’t qualified to do the job, not educated enough in religion, didn’t  think it would work, it’s not his gift, and he  didn’t want to do it. What did God tell him after each excuse? “I will be with you always.” What you lack, he will provide. When Moses asked about God because he didn’t know enough about him, God responded, “I am that I am.” The best way to grow in knowledge is to step out in faith.When Moses starts to doubt God saying he didn’t think his plan would work, God said, “It will work!” Then God gave him ways to show the Egyptians that Moses meant business….you should know what those are. When Moses said that he simply couldn’t complete the task, God told him that he would give him the gifts to complete the job. Lastly, Moses begged God to send someone else. This is the one I hear the most. People tell me that it is great that I am here doing this but they could never do anything like this. If I can do it, YOU can do it!

It is nice to be a representative of sorts of my church and community but wouldn’t it be a lot better if we could say, “Look at our town! Look at the loving people who live here! Look at what we do and what we accomplish!” Even if Guatemala isn’t for you, look into what you can do in your own community. I’m sure your neighbor could use an extra hand cutting grass, buying groceries, painting the front porch, or just someone to talk to? 

Something to think about: “I wonder how many people are living miserable lives right now because they refuse to do what God has told them to do. Rather then moving forward, they continue to make excuses. Instead of obeying God they try to come up with reasons why they shouldn’t have to obey. Instead of trusting God’s promise they trust their fears. Are you one of those people? “

“If you want to be greatly used of God you must be willing to follow wherever He leads you.  It’s time to stop hiding behind the excuses we are so good at making. It’s time to stop resisting and start following. It’s time to stop saying, “I can’t” and start saying, “He can”. It’s time to stop debating faith and start practicing it.”

I’m sure I will be getting a lot of comments on this one. Would love to see all of your perspectives on this issue.  

Credits for this post:
Exodus 3:12-4:18 
 http://www.unionchurch.com/archive/060301.html

To the Beach!

Lots have been going on with me. So let’s not waste anymore time and get down to business!

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to go with two friends (Joanne and Terri) toMonterrico,Guatemala. I had never been there before but always wanted to go, so I told them yes! Actually, to tell you to the truth, I sort of invited myself when I overheard them talking about going the week before. They were happy that I did go and I was happy for the opportunity. Also, Terri brought her “Guatemalan Family” along. It is a mother and 5 children. Terry sponsors one of the girls for school. This was the first anyone in this family, even the mother, have ever been to the ocean. They were ecstatic about going. Happiness all around, I guess.

One thing no one warned me about was how HOT the sand was there. You see, the beach in Monterrico is a black sand beach. I had never been to a black sand beach (that is one reason why I wanted to go) and I assumed that it would be just like any other sand on any other beach, just like inFlorida, for example. When we first got to our destination we put our bags down at a table at the restaurant on the beach we were going to stay at all day, and the people in our group started heading out to the beach. Knowing me, I wanted to grab my camera, so I was one of the last people out on the sand. I took my sandals off and started walking onto the sand. I think I made it 6 steps in and froze. Wow. I couldn’t believe how hot that sand was. Have any of you been to a black sand beach before? Have you encountered this feeling? The bottom of my feet where piping hot. Scorching hot! I turned around quickly to get my sandals but the damage was already done. My feet were not the same for the remainder of the day. Once I did get my sandals on, it did give some relief walking to the water. Take a look at the pictures I took!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, this is the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

 

 

It’s not a swimming part of the ocean. More for surfing.

 

 

The Guatemalan family that went with us.

 

The restaurant where we stayed all day.

 

Volcan Fuego…up close!

Do you see the face on top of the cliff on the last picture???

In other news….on Sunday, my mom was hospitalized. This has caused major stress on me this week. My mom has an auto-immune liver disease called Primary Billary Cirrhosis, or PBC. They are saying that her liver levels have gone up drastically and she is due for a liver transplant a lot sooner that we originally thought, maybe even this month. This disease isn’t any news to any of us; we have known she has had this disease for at least 12 years. As of right now, I don’t know what to do. I have been stressing out over the situation. Should I go home now? Should I wait it out? What would you all do if you were in this situation? I ask family what I should do, and all I get is “I don’t know.”

 

Today, I received a letter from a wonderful lady from my church. She is someone I really look up to and is a great Christian woman. It made me smile getting a letter from her today. J

 

I’ve worked a lot on my book, but as usual, I’m stuck again. I need to write at least 30 more pages to reach my goal.

 

So, in a nut shell, that is what is going on with me right now. What is going on with you?

Is it Soccer or Futbol?

This past week at Nuestros Ahijados, the children of the school (The Dreamer Center) were able to attend their very own soccer (futbol) games and cheer on their fellow classmates. We had a boys team and a girls team. Every day the entire school would walk to the soccer field, which was about 10 minutes away. I had a couple kids from my classroom in each team, which was very exciting to watch! I didn’t get any pictures of this because silly me forgot to bring my camera every morning, but I did see people from our school taking pictures, so I will be able to “borrow” those when they become available online. As in all of Latin America, Guatemalans are very serious when it comes to futbol. In the bleachers the children and adults alike were chanting and singing songs they knew and loved. Ole! Ole Ole Ole! Ole! Ole! Haha! It was very fun! Oh and I forgot to mention: The girls and boy both went on to the finals. The girls won their tournament and the boy lost by one point. I was so proud of them!

Yesterday, I took my friend Joanne and her friend Terri to Casa Santo Domingo. They had never been there before and I had been there twice so I was able to share some knowledge to them that I remembered from my past two visit. It is very beautiful. So beautiful that I wouldn’t mind getting married there some day! Take a look at some of the pictures below and you will see what I mean.

                                                                                          Birds of Paradise Flower

                                                                                        Huge flowers at Casa Santo Domingo

                                                                                                         Me at Casa Santo Domingo

                                                                                                 Isn’t this place beautiful??????

                                                       Inside the crypt. They made me go down there ALONE!!!
Below: Painting found inside the crypt.

                 Above: NO this picture is not at CSD. This is La Bodedanga, the supermarket I shop at once a week.

To learn more about Casa Santo Domingo, you can go here: https://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt 

It has been very quiet on there lately. Please leave me a comment when you visit my page! You may comment on whatever I mentioned in my posts, or leave me a message! Whatever you like! I write this blog for YOU!

If any of you want to send me mail, care packages, etc. here is my address in Guatemala:
Lindsey Mercer
Casa 35 Calle del Manchen
Colonia Flores del Manchen
La Antigua Guatemala, SAC
03001
Central America

Please let me know in advance if you plan on sending me a care package because I have to trek across town to and pick it up and then walk back with it. No bueno. Also, when sending a care package, do not send any perishable food. It will go bad before I receive it. It will take around 2 weeks for me to get the package. I do believe mail will be sent to where I live.

Thanks for reading my blog and I will post a new update soon!

P.S. I ended up not going to Mexico.

. Me in the mercado today with a huge pinata!

Semana Santa – Maundy Thursday 2012

Semana Santa Break

It’s been awhile since I have last written any updates, so I thought right now would be a good time to write….considering it pouring down rain again. I just got home so that I good because I STILL don’t have an umbrella. My mom told me to hold off buying one until I see her in May….maybe. Not sure if I can old off for another month or so, mom, but we will see.

The processions have been going on virtually everyday this week. They are very, very interesting. Nothing I have ever seen before and feel very lucky being here in La Antigua this time of year to see it! The people here take Holy Week, or Semana Santa, very serious here. So serious in fact that the school I work has been closed all week. By the time I go back, I will have been off 9 days! I’ve spent some time with my friends Mustafa and Joanne this week, so that has been nice. The two of them need to renew their visas this month and are going to Mexico next week to do that. They asked me to go with them, but I’m not sure yet. I don’t think it really is in my budget, but we will see. What would you do? I’ve never been to Mexico before.

I have a video that I will post on here soon of the procession that went by my house. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the fombras they make during this Lent season. Very beautiful!

 

 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Easter Season! I’m sad that I am not able to spend it with my family and church family back home, but at least I am able to participate in the Semana Santa festivities here. It really is like a carnval here! (WOW! As I am typing this, the rain is pouring so hard. I can’t believe it is raining this hard.)

 

Okay. Please comment on here and let me know how you all are doing! Por favor!