Where God speaks ALL languages

Hello all my dear friends and family. I have been in Guatemala for almost two weeks! Orientation is over. Curriculums, lesson plans, and classrooms are done. All we need now are some kiddos. Tomorrow is the day! So much has happened this week, but school finally starts tomorrow and I feel more and more blessed with every minute to get to be here and love on these kids.

Xela is unbelievably beautiful. God's beauty is so evident everywhere you look. Blue skies, huge plush clouds in the mornings and then loud, powerful downfalls in the afternoon. 

This is the view from the school's soccer fields on a clear day! The beautiful city of Xela.

We have had many adventures this week. We did find an awesome market called La Democracia. There are unending blocks of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, as well as clothes, and bags, and anything else you could ever want to find. It is beautiful the way all these people work from sun up to sun down to support their families. 

Several booths in La Democracia.

A few of the teachers needed to make a trip to Wal-Mart (yes, there's actually a Wal-mart here!). However, the errand that is Wal-Mart is not as simple and convenient as we're used to. A trip to Wal-Mart requires riding in a mini van with 25+ people for about 20 minutes. People are hanging out windows and sitting on laps. AND, it is usually raining and flooding which is an added adventure. I'm not worried about hydroplaning or floating away though because we're pretty well weighed down. I pretty much am laughing the whole time because it's just extremely comical.

These are my wonderful friends/teachers, they had a London poster for free pictures! So of course the white people had to make a scene.

There are 3 forms of public transportation around here. The chicken bus...need I say more. Microbus...which is about the size of a minivan and it is more about efficiency than customer service. The micro will be maxed out yet they still stop to pick up more people! Finally, there are large yellow school buses we call Rutas. The story with these is, when they are too dangerous to drive in the U.S., Mexico buys them, then when Mexico is done, Guatemala buys them. These are very much an adventure as well. Life is never boring around here.

This morning we went to an amazing church. We went with our host family and the business manager from school. It was called Palabras en Accion (Words in Action). The service was about 2 and a half hours long, but so Spirit-filled. Ushers walked around scanning for those who needed Kleenex the whole service. It was amazing the way these people surrender and love God. They were crying out to Him the  entire time. One of the lines in the songs we sang was "todos lenguas" or "all languages." The God we worship in Texas, in New York, in California, Guatemala, Africa, China, is the same huge, powerful God. These people live their faith. Everyday they endlessly love and serve, yet they are the ones that feel blessed. We serve an international, multilingual, loving, eternal God.

Palabras de Accion. That concrete slab-looking thing is a waterfall. Hundreds of people were in here today worshipping.

Please pray for this first week of school! It will be crazy and new and overwhelming, but I only get one first day of my first year teaching. I'm ready to laugh at myself a lot. A very good chunk of the teaching staff are teaching for the first time tomorrow, so I know we would all appreciate prayers.

I will post even more pictures on my facebook so check that out too!

Nunca una vez,
Ms. Ellsworth

P.S. Karis, I found this on the church across the street! Even spelled right!