Three days of debrief later and ..... wow! God has been so faithful in our lives. None of us are going out of this summer disappointed in God. We have been pursued by his relentless zeal for us and has lit our hearts on fire with a new passion.

He will be faithful to the work He has started in you too, and He is pursuing you relentlessly as well, no matter how aware you are of it. He loves you, He loves you, He loves you and He has immeasurably more for you than you could ever ask or imagine.

Amen.

Mi Hermanitos

photo credit: 1 and 3 by Thomas Sanz

I'm still in Guate. It is still good. (just in case you are checking). Mi hermano (bro) is down for a week, which is sweeeeeeT. We jumped into some crystal clear pools this week, explored some caves by candlelight, ate McDonalds (I'm so embarrassed), drank really good hot chocolate, and got super sweaty in church (dancing). The bro has been utilizing his mad camera skills, which has been a huge blessing. Time lapses of clouds rolling through Guatemalan hillside is a thing of beauty.

We're definitely coming over the hill as far as time in this fabulous country, with less than three week left. I'd be getting super sentimental at this point, except I know that God still has loads more in store for our team before this is all said and done. Looking back does speak loudly of the goodness, faithfulness, and zealous heart. I feel like everyone is going to come out of this summer with fresh testimony.

If you are feeling that the frequency is my posts is inadequate (which is an understandable position to hold) here are some fellow team member's blogs:
Katrina Janzen: Cloud. Forest.
Adam White: Following the Way
Shelby McConnell: Desert Streams
Karla Ponce: thoughts under a summertime sun
Colin Buschman: There and Back Again

Sitting in an Antiguan café, sipping on a melon liquado, watching tourists and locals saunter past, the tip of a volcano off in the distance. National elections are coming up in September and the whole country is full of political color. The contrast to Canada's recent elections are stark, if not downright humorous.

In Canada we put little signs on our front lawns to let the whole neighbourhood know who we are voting for.

In Guatemala people paint their whole house political colors, complete with party logos and slogans.

In Canada political volunteers politely knock at your door: "May we have a moment to tell you about Joyce Murray and the Liberal Party of Canada?" This restrained campaigning is often considered a nuisance.

In Guatemala they drive around towns in pick-up trucks with loudspeakers, alternating between ambulance sirens and political slogans. On weekends they gather large groups of supporters (children in tow) to form parades that march through villages, banging drums, chanting slogans, and letting off firecrackers that reverberate off the hills like gunshots, as if the civil war was starting up again. I guess whatever party throws the biggest party wins.

The madness hardly stops at the local level. The forerunner, The Patriot Party's Otto Perez Molina, is a tough-on-crime former army general who is constantly coming under accusations by indigenous groups for crimes against humanity. His main competition is current first lady Sandra Torres, who divorced her husband to avoid electoral laws that prohibit the spouses of presidents from running for office. She has declared herself the first woman to divorce for the sake of "being married to Guatemala." Her candidacy has been negated by a Supreme Court ruling, but her party campaigns on regardless.

The chaos is to some extent understandable, because the stakes are so high. Security is the main issue, with Mexican drug cartels pushing their trade further into Guatemala, and with a capital city filled with violence. Thirty different political candidates have already been murdered. So when you can spare some time send up a prayer for Guate.

____________

The last few weeks have been hectic, but satisfying. My host family is beyond a blessing. Helena, my host madre, is a chef of the highest order, whisking up plates of typical Mayan food and patiently dealing with my hectic and oft-changing schedule. Our two main projects here are building a house for a local family, and running an ESL after-school program. The house construction is a blast, with the whole family involved, including their grampa, Don Jaunito. He's short (even for a Guatemalan which is saying a lot) and he's getting on in age, but his work ethic and strength puts any of us to shame. ESL is wild, chaotic, and fun as anything with kids always is. As a team we are growing, facing challenges of a new culture, and new lifestyle, and new schedule, and fresh experiences. Next weekend marks the halfway point in Guate, which is crazy! I miss and love you all and will have to right more soon, but I've over-extended my stay, so I'll leave you with this picture of my familia's laundry:

Dudes, I'm in Guate!

...and it is beautiful!!!! It feels like I never left. Relationships begun a year ago are there to be picked up again right where we left off. And the school....THE SCHOOL!!! I wish I could bring you all down here so you can see what it looks like when 180 kids encounter God's love on a daily basis. Or what getting hugged by a hundred little niños every day.

Today we had El Dia de Canada at the school which is, you guessed it, Canada Day! It was a great day of introducing our students and staff to our fabulous country, or at least grossly over-representing its stereotypes (think lots of beaver crafts). I helped facilitate hockey games for each of the grades, and they took to it like a Canadian on skates. Seriously, they got fierce. Then we had a Canadian students vs. Guatemalan staff game, which got fiercer. This afternoon we climbed up a mountain and planted avocado trees.

To summarize: God is awesome, Guate is awesome, I am doing exceedingly well.
Much love,
Christoph

Toilets

Today somebody plugged up the toilet. Since no one was fessing up and since I was feeling extra noble (probably because I was wearing a collared shirt), I took it upon myself to make the bathroom accessible once more. I applied my best plunging techniques, but no repetition of the plunge-flush-slowlywatchitdrain-cycle had any effect. Exasperated by an unsuccessful ten minutes of dealing with crap, I turned to Dave for a solution. He had no greater plumbing expertise than myself, so we stood there and watched the slowly fill up for the upteenth time.

Then Dave said, "We could pray." So we layed our hands on the toilet and said something to the effect of: "Dear God. We'd really like our toilet to work. We all need to poop at some point and it is just a really big nuisance. It would be sweet if you could unplug our toilet for us."

I gave it one more plunge (because I still have doubt that God is weeding out of my life) and then gave it a flush. VIOLA!!! A beautiful, smooth, quick, swirly flush. Thank God for small and beautiful and convenient miracles. He loves us, even when that means dealing with our crap.

This is the best pop. Period. Don't even start to dispute this statement unless you've tried it.

Since apologizing for not blogging enough is so passé, I'll skip it and wow you with...photography!

This is a large portion of our team enjoying a sunny Sunday on Long Point. The asparagus has been shy in coming this spring, so we have spent two weeks of odd jobs - repairing irrigation lines in cherry orchards, splitting firewood, painting, and cleaning out old barns. The weather the last few days has been stunning and I spent a portion of my Sabbath frolicking about the sand cliffs of Lake Erie, communing with God.

The asparagus might be late in coming, but God has been growing in all our hearts at an intensity that has shocked us all and taken us off guard. I heard a number of comments today along the lines of "I can't believe it has only been a few weeks." Keep praying for unity and for God to reveal to us what He is preparing us for and drawing us to.

I'll leave you with this quote from Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation, since he is a far better writer than me, which touches on what God has been showing me:

"In all the situations of life the "will of God" comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law but above all as an interior invitation of personal love... We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation, and seeks our good. His inscrutable love seeks our awakening."

Today is my second full day in Houghton Center and all is quiet. A pick-up truck drives by every few minutes, the swoosh-swoosh-swoosh of giant wind turbines carries on in the background, and everything else is still.

I always get really worked up during exams. Whether I am actually studying or procrastinating, I do it all with a nervous, impatient spirit that can't wait to get out into that crowning glory of the student life - summer break. I bustled through my one day at home after exams, unpacking and repacking, and last-minute remembering. I bustled through the airport and on the airplane I fidgeted between watching TV, reading a book, listening to music.

But now I am in the middle of nowhere, and the middle of nowhere is a terrible place for an impatient fidgety person. So God is slowing down my heartrate, slowing down my spirit, and telling me to walk slower. It isn't hard to do here. There has been lots of planning, praying and dreaming about the next four months, but there has also been copious amounts of good food and company that feels like is family.

Here is a little verse that God hid for me in a place he knew I would find. It is from Lamentations 3:

²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.

²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence,

for the LORD has laid it on him.

Here We Go Again

The blog has been resurrected and re-made. This can only mean one thing. Adventure time! Asparagus! Windmills! Sandyshores! New Friends! El Tizate! Mi Familia Guatemalteco! Coffee!

If none of those expressions seem worth getting excited about to you, then you'd better read the following paragraphs:

I am so excited to have you join me in this latest adventure. I’m spending another four months with Global Shore (www.globalshore.org), one crazy amazing organization. Here’s the brief history: A few years back some asparagus farmers in Ontario decided that God was calling them to be more than just asparagus farmers. Through some miraculous and divinely orchestrated events and relationships they started sending Canadian university students to a small town in Guatemala called El Tizate. Before too long a school in Tizate was started and the ministry of Global Shore was born.

How do I fit into all of this? Last year I joined their summer student team, a group of twelve students who work for the month of May and June in an asparagus packing barn on the sandy shores of Lake Erie, and spend July and August serving and loving the people of El Tizate. My life was changed, truly changed. Ask me about it sometime. It is quite a story.

This winter I got an e-mail asking me if I would consider co-leading the team this summer and that is what I’ll be doing! I am slightly nervous (God’s working on that) and ridiculously excited. I hope you can join us in prayer as we grow together as a community under Christ, and as we live as testimonies of God’s love for the people around us.

So follow along here where there will be pretty photos, stories, testimonies of what God is doing (cause trust me, it is going to be sweet), and maybe I'll even subject you to some of my awful poetry. How can you say no?