el milagro primero

the first miracle of the journey is that i actually arrived in one piece. seriously. it seemed like nearly all forces were working against me... except the Force that matters most, apparently, 'cause i made it! Gracias a Dios!

here's how it went down: i got sick (sensitive tonsils, swollen glands, chronic headache, sleepless nights, aching body & pure exhaustion) the day before i left my parents’ house in Connecticut. i called AA at the last minute but decided that it wasn't worth canceling/postponing the trip. i bit the bullet and literally threw all my stuff together to go anyway. (can you tell i was starting to drag my feet?) i took the train down to NYC, lugged my tiresome body through the streets & subway to a friend's house in Queens, and slept only 6 hours before taking a cab to LGA amid a snow storm. (thankfully, i wasn't on the flight from LGA to Charlotte that day, or the trip would have really been canceled.) what followed should have been a 6-hour trip through Miami turned into a 15-hour one with 6 delays!

several times i'd asked myself: had i pushed my own agenda to go? was i going against God's desire? or was all this just the Enemy's attempt at discouraging me? there's a fine line there, but i'm confident (hopeful & trusting) that God will humble me, stretch me, strengthen me and teach me to depend more on Him than ever before... in fact, He's already doing that.

in the end, my contact in Guatemala City was there at the airport to pick me up. she & her brother quickly embraced me as a sister in faith, whizzed me off to their little town just south of the city (up & down the hills, through the darkened streets, past a few stumbling night-owls, safely back to their home), and welcomed me into their family.

so here i am. somewhat rested, healing, and trying to jump into the culture & the language with both feet. sí, completamente en español. ay ay ay.

all this is MUCH easier said then done. believe me... so please continue to pray for protection, discernment, wisdom, Divine appointments, cultural sensitivity, and expedient language learning. also, i'm about to take off again, moving forward into the unknown abyss of this journey, by continuing on to Quetzaltenango (Xela) tomorrow in order to enroll in a language school for a couple weeks.

the next miracle is that God hooked me up with another host family there -- one that my new Guatemalan brother here knows.

to be continued...