Noah Is A Bobblehead!

No new pics today as we didn't want to get the camera wet. We went to a waterpark that was about an hour away from here. Noah had a great time and we finally saw what the Guatemala rainy season is all about! It rained off and on pretty much all day, but that doesn't really matter when you are partying in a waterpark! It had a wavepool, another regular pool, and a pool with slides, various types of buckets dumping water on you and other fun kid-friendly stuff.

One funny comment from Noah today: As we were riding through Antigua on our way to the park, we have to ride over all cobblestone roads. It's quite the bouncy ride, and a difficult one to make if you have to go to the bathroom as I did the other day! Anyway, as we were riding on the cobblestone roads, Noah told us that his head was "bouncing around like a bobblehead doll." He continues to crack us up!

Another God moment: On the way to the park we found ourselves in a dense fog. We prayed that God would remove the fog for us and literally within seconds the fog improved dramatically. We went from not being able to see even 5 feet in front of the car to a pretty good visability. Lauren said that the missionary life demands such prayers, that often you are on your way somewhere and something like really hard rain, fog, or random huge piles of sticks left in the middle of the road block your path. You just have to say, "Lord, I'm going to need you to take care of this for me..." and He does. How awesome! I said maybe we should pray for a million dollars since God was in a habit of answering everything immediately down here, but for some reason everyone thought that that was not the way it worked!


After the waterpark, we stopped at a place called Serita's for ice cream. Lauren had an altercation with the owner because her "egg nog" ice cream was in her words "disgusting." He wouldn't let her get another flavor, so she took a napkin and removed the scoop of "egg nog" and placed it on the counter. Oh that Lauren!

Tomorrow we will be going to a mega-church with over 10,000 people!

MARVIN & KELLY CONQUER GUATEMALA...ALSO LICE WASHES MADE EASY!

1 Corinthians 4:20: "For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power."

Okay, so we returned to the girl's school of Proximos Pasos today in the little village of Santa Maria de Jesus (as a reminder, the village on the volcano!) Now, you would think that having made such a big splash with my fat gut that these girls would remember everything about us. Well, sadly no. When Lauren asked them what our names were, Jaci was "Kelly" and I was "Marvin." My first thought was "who is this Marvin and did he have a bigger belly for drum beating? Because I can eat more donuts if that's what I need to do!" So after a hearty chuckle, we reminded them of our real names and we got to work!

We led the kids in "You Are Good" and it was such a blessing to see that these little girls had written down the lyrics, studied them and practiced the motions. It was such a great worship experience for us and the kids! After the singing was done, Noah assisted in giving each class some cookies after serving on the worship team.

After that, Jaci, Noah and I presented some of the school supplies that GCCC's Kids Avenue had donated for our trip to the school's staff. We then took some pencils, pens and erasers and presented one of each to the 74 girls at the school. They were very thankful and presented us with little wooden Guatemalan dolls that they had made for us.

Then came the moment you have all been waiting for...the LICE WASH. The day before we had gone the the local pharmacia and bought the lice wash and shampoo (as well as latex gloves!) All 74 girls of the school lined up and got their hair rinsed by a hose, and then the staff (including Jaci and Lauren!) donned latex gloves and massaged some lice shampoo into their heads. It had to "sizzle" on their heads for 15 minutes, and then they came through again and were

shampooed and rinsed one more time. ALL of these girls had lice. Some of them hadn't washed their hair in a month. Two and half hours later, the lice wash was done and the ladies looked "muy bonita." Lauren actually got a lice egg on her tongue in case you were wondering (no word on whether or not she added ketchup or mustard to her delightful feast!) To my knowledge Jaci did not partake in such a grand meal. The girls and Carlos from the staff were dancing to Caedmon's Call songs while they completed the wash, including appropriately "Volcanoland."

Noah entertained some of the girls with his various karate/fighting moves that he likes to do. He has truly been a trooper during this trip.

As we were preparing to leave the school, Mirna, the principal came up to us and presented us with pens that had crocheted covers that read "Proximos Pasos." She thanked us for sharing with the girls and bringing so much joy to them. She also told Jaci that the girls and staff will be praying for healing for her MS. The power of the Holy Spirit in that moment was so powerful that Jaci, Lauren and I were reduced to tears. I put at the beginning of this blog the verse that the "Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." In that moment the beauty of the loving bond of the body of Christ was made manifest and the power of God was present in that room. That they would care so much about us and find what measly few things we did for them as a source of great joy and happiness has blessed Jaci, Noah and I more than they could ever know. Isn't that just the way with our Lord though? Just when we step out in faith to do something for Him, He returns the blessing 100 fold.

We left the school for the last time, as we will be visiting the boys school on Monday, and it was bittersweet. It is our fervent hope that we will be able to return to these precious girls again and spend more time sharing in the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

I sit here at the computer a very blessed (and yet pleasantly plump and bald) man. My God loves me so much that He blessed me with my family, my church, my friends, and my country (but not hair or thinness.) He also found favor enough on me to allow me to be blessed with an experience like this. In the epic adventure of this life of faith, I pray that He allows me many more such adventures. It is an awesome blessing and priviledge to serve Jesus Christ. Drink it in my friends!

Tomorrow, we will be enjoying a little vacation day and going to some big water park that they have down here. Needless to say, Noah is very excited about this. Thank you for continuing to read this blog and praying for us. Your prayers are appreciated and deeply felt.

God Bless!

A Big Belly for the Lord!

Today we went to Proximos Pasos (The Next Steps) a Christian girls school in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, which happens to be located ON the volcano! The weather continues to be beautiful--"Forever spring" here in Guatemala during the rainy season. We haven't had a drop of rain since arriving! On the way to the school, we stopped at an outlook to take pictures of the volcano yet again (I will never tire of seeing a giant volcano silently screaming the awesome majesty, glory and power of God every time I look at it!) There happened to be some clouds covering the top, and Lauren prayed that God would remove the clouds...literally within seconds most of the clouds were gone!

Once we arrived at the school, we were a little nervous. Not speaking Spanish and all, we weren't sure what to expect. We were introduced to the girls, and then the girls had a little worship service where they sang some songs to us. It was awesome to see their little faces lighting up as they sang about their Lord.

Then it was our turn! We went from classroom to classroom to teach them "You Are Good" a favorite from Kids Avenue...but in Spanish. Noah became a member of the worship team helping to teach them the motions to the song. One of the little girls really captured Jaci and my hearts. She sat in the front row and was so excited about the songs that the joy of the Lord literally jumped off of her face. The look of being so lost in her joy and love for the Lord on this precious little one who in the eyes of the world is so insignificant was something burned forever into my mind and was something of priceless value to her Creator. As the saying goes, "when you worship, God smiles"...well He must have been beaming this morning.

I am happy to report that the language barrier was broken by my big fat stomach. I started giving high fives to some of the girls and they were so eager for any kind of affection or contact with us that it just made your heart break for these little girls. How precious they are to Christ! Well, in doing this little game, some of the girls began poking me in the stomach. Now, I have never thought that my love of food and hatred of all things exercise related would ever lead to serving the Lord, but as you can see in the above photo I became quite the drum set for these young ladies. Pass the donuts, AMEN! It just goes to reinforce 1 Corinthians 1:17: "preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." We need only to allow ourselves to be Christ's hands and feet and HE will work through us no matter what barriers we face! He'll even work through a fat bald guy's belly.

I have to say that the girls seem to be rather fond of Noah. They giggled and smiled and could be overheard saying "novio" about him (it means boyfriend!) Noah is really getting to see some of the hardships that others face. After the school, we went to a house that the appropriate technology team from Mission Impact (led by a wonderful Guatemalan man named Margarito) was building a brick stove in. This family would literally bring wood into their house, set a fire on the floor and cook dinner. Their houses have very little furniture, and are pretty much like a dark and dirty basement would be. They have so very little, but they reflect a radiance of the Lord that I can't explain. 1 Corinthians 1:28 does say: "He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him." All of our ipods, cell phones, a/c, material possessions, power and accomplishments are indeed nullified when you see the joy of a Christian living in these conditions. If only we were so content and allowed the joy of the Lord to so permeate our lives!

I also wanted to say that Lauren really shines down here. Psalm 90:17 says, "may the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us--yes, establish the work of our hands." God has firmly established this work in Lauren's hands. It's not just that she's so fluent in Spanish, but rather it's such a blessing to see someone who has discovered the purpose that God created for her and flourishing in the power of His calling. It is the Lord working through Lauren, Jeff, Terry, Gerber, Mirna and the others at MI that establishes His kingdom here in Guatemala.

Jaci has also truly shined here. Her eyes lit up today at the school when she was working with the kids. There is such a childlike innocent joy that radiates from her face when she is really engaged in doing the Lords work that is so beautiful to watch and makes me proud to be her husband. In addition to working with the girls with music, Jaci was also called upon by MI to take a bunch of pictures of the girls and the staff for their yearly calendar. How awesome that the Lord allowed her to work in an area that she loves so much! God really demonstrated that in our own weakness, He is strong. We were a bunch of gringos who know very little Spanish, and yet I can't help but think that the smiles and voices of this precious little girls were bringing such a giddy joyful grin to our Savior's face today. As 1 Corinthians 1:25 says "the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength!" What a blessing to know the all-powerful Savior of the world loves each little smile and hears each cry!

In other news, we got lost in Antigua today and were wandering around for a while trying to find Lauren's car. This is why Jaci and I will never apply to be on the Amazing Race. Not exactly walking GPS devices now are we? Don't worry, we were able to find Burger King alright! Then later tonight, Noah got to see Domino's pizza delivered via motorcycle!

I can't help but think about coming back next summer with a team of people to work in the schools (hello Kids Ave people!) and to help the appropriate technology folks (hello Nick Strohl!) There is such a need down here that you just feel so compelled to do something...anything that you can about it. Pray about it folks, because we'd like to take a lot of you down here next year!

Your feedback has been such a blessing to us, just to know that you care enough to read about the adventures of a few crazy gringos living in the shadow of a volcano!

God Bless You!

HOLD THAT PLANE!

Well, the Hughes family re-created some scenes from the cinematic masterpiece Home Alone. That's right, we were the LAST people on both our plane leaving from Newark and our plane leaving from Houston. The first one was because we arrived late, the second...well, we were pressed for time but we decided that a stop at Wendy's was important.

Now, the frenzied dash for the plane stood in contrast to the glory of listening to praise music on my ipod while flying above the clouds. Talk about the glory of the Lord!

We arrived in Guatemala around 1:30 and got settled in at Lauren's house. Her street is VERY STEEP. Now, I have done the BIGGEST LOSER workout DVDs, but I'm going to be honest--walking her street tires me out!

All throughout today we felt God saying...I am with you. His glory was revealed in the beautiful landscape of the country. Personally, I love volcanoes. Love them. A few years ago I was disappointed when Mt. St. Helen's failed to erupt. Gerber, another missionary with Mission Impact, who picked us up, told us that he and some friends hiked to the top of the volcano (a 5 hour trip for fit people...that would take me days!) I now have a new goal: get fit enough to bring some people back here and hike that volcano!

The majesty of the volcanoes here is really beyond description. To me, seeing the clouds wrapped around the top of the volcano just looks to me like what it must have looked like to the Israelites while Moses was meeting with God on the mountain. Of course, those clowns were busy worshipping gold cows every two seconds. When I make fun of them, God like to point out to me that we are often like those Israelites. Worshipping the "golden cows" in our lives while missing the all-encompassing glory that is literally standing right in front of us in the person of Jesus Christ. We long for beauty and yet somehow so often miss the beauty of our Savior. God pointed out to me today in Colossians 1:17 that "in Him all things hold together." The same hand that raised that volcano holds the unborn baby, the poor and downtrodden, marriages, churches, ministries, countries. We so often miss that and like the Israelites seek to make "golden cows" in an attempt to fix things, when we need to realize that God is the one that holds things together not us! We attempt to serve two masters while saying we only want to serve the Lord. If we put half the time into serving the Lord that we do serving ourselves, can you just imagine the possibilities?

Psalm 86:11-12 says: Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give ME AND UNDIVIDED HEART that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord with ALL MY HEART. I will glorify your name forever!"

The volcano reminds us that we don't have an UNDIVIDED HEART towards God. We look at God with one eye and fashion golden cows with another. It is too easy to lose sight of what's important. I pray that all of our eyes can be opened to this truth that we may worship the LORD with ALL of our heart!

Tomorrow we will be going to an all-girls school and working with the kids. We'll blog about that experience tomorrow night!

God bless!

PACKING & PRAYING

With our trip only a little over 24 hours away, we are currently working our way through the packing process. We are attempting to squeeze all 4 big boxes of school supplies that Kids Avenue donated into suitcases without surpassing the weight limit. As a result, we are going to pack less clothing for ourselves and do some laundry at Lauren's house during the week to create more space for the supplies.

The Mom and Dad in us are beginning to worry about our two little ones that we are leaving behind in NJ for an entire week. That is probably the most difficult part of the trip. They'll be in good hands (Grandmom, Aunt Julie, Nana & Pop-Pop) but not seeing their little faces for an entire week is a bit rough, especially on Mommy!

God has provided the finances for the trip (praise Him!) We are looking forward to using this blog to updating our friends, family and supporters back in NJ about our trip. The plan at this moment is to try to blog each night with updates and some of Jaci's pictures.

Just wanted to share one verse God brought to my attention as we prepare to leave:

"For He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence for precious is their blood in his sight." Psalm 72:12-14

It has been such a blessing of ours over the years to see how God has continued to deliver us from seemingly hopeless situations. It is such a precious promise to know that Jesus came to rescue us all. He didn't see differing values on people based on social standing, ability, accomplishment, wealth, appearance, race, etc. He saw the inherent value and dignity of each life and the Bible reassures us here in the Psalm that the blood of the afflicted, needy and weak is precious in His sight.

He loves the poorest of the poor in Guatemala with the same powerful, all-encompassing love that He has for those of us lucky enough to live in the United States.

It's our hope to be able to be God's hands and feet in sharing this precious universal truth with the people of Guatemala. I can hear God saying to each of us in the words of the song by Tenth Avenue North:

"My love is over. It's underneath. It's inside. It's in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can't feel.
The times that you question, 'Is this for real?'
The times you're broken. The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.
Well, My love is over, it's underneath.It's inside, it's in between.
These times you're healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you're falling from grace.
The times you're hurting. The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
The times of confusion, in chaos and pain. I'm there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I'm there through your heartache. I'm there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My pow'r alone. I don't care where you fall, where you have been.
I'll never forsake you, My love never ends. It never ends."

What a friend, king, redeemer, and Savior we have in Jesus!