25 days of Thankfulness

November 1st.

There are 25 days until Thanksgiving, and my birthday. Every 7 years they collide. Last time this happened I was 17 and annoyed that I had to share my birthday with this holiday. This time, I think it's pretty cool.

For the next 25 days I will blog about something I am thankful for, a new thing each day.

1. Right now I am extremely thankful for this team of people:

I believe that God put this team of near strangers together for such an amazing week, and I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it. Each person, gifted in their own way got to use one of their specific gifts this week. I saw it as each day unfolded, I watched tears, laughter, silence, discovery...

Roark, 11.

Started off as an observer, like any little boy would during his first days in a foreign place...

He didn't stand back for long, he played like a big brother with Pablo, the little boy his family sponsors through Compassion International

He made friends with the boys at the school, language barrier wasn't an issue

His big brother heart came out again with sweet Javier who lived next to the school

If you ask me and Drew, that little boy, left Guatemala a young man...with a changed heart and lot of new friends

Jared and Amber

Jared owns his own remodeling business, and even though laying tile in Guatemala was vastly different from laying it at home, I'm not sure what we would have done with out his skills and tile wisdom :)

His tattoo's were also a hit, one boy actually started buying the gum with little tattoos in them and put as many as he could on his arm, just like Jared

Amber is a hair stylist and generously shared her gift with some teachers, students and neighbors of the school. As Amber was cutting hair and Jared was mixing cement just a few feet away he told her that he never thought they would get to do their jobs in the same place at the same time :)

Jared and Amber are hard workers and have such beautiful hearts. They were a huge blessing to me and Drew as friends and teammates on this trip. We loved getting to watch them use their gifts and fall in love with a new place and new people.

This post is getting long... so I will only share one more

Laura

brought along, Roark, her oldest of 4. She left the littlest 3 at home, but her huge mom heart was with us...

I watched her see Mom's who had nothing but gave of themselves everything, with eyes full of respect and a knowing. She wanted to encourage them and even though they spoke different languages, she did. I watched as these women were seen by her, not just looked at or photographed, she saw them, they felt seen.

This mom lived in a house the size of my bedroom. She has 7 children. Laura is looking at their homework :)

Laura meeting Pablo's Mom (the family her family supports through Compassion International) Our translators hadn't arrived yet...this is them seeing each other with no words.

5 of the 7 beautiful kids who lived next to the school. Laura would have taken them all home, plus their sweet mom if she could have

Laura was the only mom on our trip. God knew how He would touch her heart differently than the rest of us, and He also knew only she could see, do and feel certain things, people, situations that we couldn't.

He not only used the beauty that she is as a mom to the 4 kids she has here, He used a 5th piece of her story as well. Laura and her husband Josh have a baby girl in heaven. Her name is Pearl and she would have been 5 in June.

This is Laura and Beatriz. Mayra is translating because earlier this week using the little spanish Laura know's and the little english that Beatriz does, they each shared that they had a baby in heaven.

Now that Mayra was there to translate the conversation got to move past their shared heartache to sharing hope. Laura told her that she was brave, that she was praying for her...

She told her she didn't have to be afraid, and that she was a beautiful Mom

Beatriz melted into Laura's knowing embrace, there in the middle of construction, kids playing and staff coming and going they held onto each other

Minutes later they exchanged contact information and said goodbye.

I hugged Laura and she said, " We are all the same."

These are just a few reasons I loved this team. These are only a couple stories that I could tell. There were 5 other people on this team who I could write about as well, I am just so proud of our team and thankful that God truly gave me eyes to see as He used each of them in His way. Our trip didn't go exactly as planned, but it went exactly how it was supposed to.

Day 1- I am thankful for Drew, Jared, Amber, Audrey, Carolyn, Laura, Roark, Dan and the amazing week we shared in Guatemala