Vanessa in Guate

Church was great today and I enjoyed it even more because of a technical mishap! haha. While we were singing the last song of the opening music set the electricity went out, but everyone kept worshipping and it was just really nice to hear everyone's voices praising God in English and Spanish. We sang "mi corazón te ca ntará Jesús, Jesús//my heart will sing no other name Jesus, Jesus." The sermon was great, it was on perfect love casting out fear. (1 John 4:7-21) I loved the sermon because I can sometimes be described as timid, but I definitely step out of comfort a lot because of God's call. My sister in law always reminds me that in jr high I wouldn't even spend the night at a friend's house, and it's true! I wouldn't do anything and I was really quiet - I'm still quiet when I first meet people but eventually you can't get me to shut up! haha, but now here I am living in a country that is not my own and I'm living in a house with a ...

Today Facebook reminded me that 5 years ago on Valentine’s Day, I received the news that I was accepted to attend college at Azusa Pacific University. Praise God for all of His providence! As I’ve said in previo us messages, God has offered a hope that transcends my elementary school goal of simply surviving. 5 years ago I was a senior at Anaheim High School, and I got into the only school that I applied to - APU. The professors and faculty of this university taught me so much (and I still don’t know much, haha). I was able to attend a school that has professors who fear and love God. Professors that pray for the semester on the first day of class, and for the lesson during the class hours. Professors that ask you if you need prayer for anything, or invite you into their homes to meet and fellowship with their families. I am forever grateful for a Christian education, and the preparations that God was ingraining in my life throughout my 4 years at APU. I’m grateful that God ...

Hello! I arrived in Guatemala with Papa Pastor (Jason) on Monday night. We were exhausted because we left the US at 6am and arrived in Guatemala at 6:30pm (4:30pm back home) and finally got to Antigua at 9pm so we grabbed dinner and slept as soon as we could. We woke up around 7am Antigua time the next morning then we went to Centro Linguistico Maya to finalize my homestay with my family and my class schedule. I’m going to school Monday-Friday from 8a-1pm. I’ve finished 3 days of Spanish and I’m living with an amazing family! The picture above is the inside of my family's house. When you first walk into the house you go into the living room then you walk a few feet to be outside again where all of the rooms surround the outside courtyard area. I love love love the family that I'm staying with! They’re professionals at hosting students because they’ve done it for 30 years and they are so kind and open to teaching me more Spanish as well as more about their cultu...