Interns in Guatemala 4

Greetings from Guatemala City!
Today our team is resting at the Buckner office after the week in Xela. We were able to take a side trip to Lake Atitlan in Panajachel on Friday and Saturday. The view from our hotel was amazing with two volcanoes towering above the lake. We enjoyed a boat ride across the lake to Santiago where we shopped at the market. Time has flown by so fast here. We are gearing up for our last week of ministry in Guatemala City! All of us are healthy now, except for one. But all of us are very tired. Please pray for extra strength and energy.

¨The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.¨Psalm 28:7
One of my prayer requests for this trip was that God would make me feel what the people here in Guatemala feel. I did not just want to coast through the trip as a tourist, but I wanted to be emotionally connected. This last week we spent in Quetzaltenango (Xela for short) and worked in three different orphanages. Last Sunday we visited the government orphanage first and I walked out of there dreading the week. The kids were so rough! They tackled, wrestled, fought, lied, and stole, and seemed to get enjoyment out of it. But as the week went on, it was very apparent that those kids, in spite of their craziness on Sunday, were sweet and lovable. God allowed me to connect with one little girl. Her name was Isabel and she was probably about a year and a half. I spent a lot of time holding her, playing with her, and talking to her throughout the week. When Thursday came and it was time to say goodbye, I told her several times I loved her and placed her in her crib as she started crying hard. A sob caught in my throat and I left the nursery with tears streaming down my face. I felt so helpless. The rest of that day I clung to the promise that God loves Isabel just as much as He does me. He knows where she is all the time and has a plan for her life. I realized that that experience with Isabel was an answer to prayer. God allowed me to ache and feel helpless because that is how these orphans feel all the time. But the difference is that I ache with hope. When my heart feels helpless and overwhelmed, it can trust in the Lord and His strength. And because of that, I will praise Him. I pray that God will, in spite of my selfishness, somehow convey His message of hope to these dirty, smelly, crazy, rejected, helpless, beautiful children. That is why I am here.
Julianne Kelley
Oklahoma