Yalu and the Future

We're back! The last two weekends we spent out in the village of Yalu having end of the year meetings, planning the upcoming year, feeding 300+ kids, fiesta-ing and more fiesta-ing. 

Los ninos of the head cook(Edwin, Ana, Rosa, Leslie)

Gregg giving out multivitamins

A Mayan woman washing her clothes in the pila

Spaghetti day!

Us with the in-coming Missionaries, Gerry and Barb Norman

Cooking the Christmas Feast:
Fried Chicken and Rice Krispy Treats

Pinata at the kids Christmas party

Check the rest of our Yalu photos here.
Besides having a great time this past week, God also really spoke to Gregg and I about the rest of our time here in Guatemala. Pretty consistently over the last month both of us have been struggling to feel content for multiple reasons including; being away from home, being in language school, thinking about where to volunteer our time, missing friends and family, etc. One of our thoughts was that we just need to start getting more involved doing the work that we came down here for. So, a few weeks ago we decided to make something happen and start volunteering with different organizations where we had been excited about the projects being done in public health and microfinance. Though this seemed like a good idea at the time over the following few weeks we have both just felt that something was "off" about the jobs, we have not been as excited about the opportunities as we had expected. Looking back it is clear that we really just rushed into making commitment because we felt like we needed to hurry up and get to the real reason we are here. 
Once we got out to Yalu however we automatically starting feeling better, like we were supposed to be there. In the various meetings we had we learned that  1. Mano Con Mano is going to partner with a church nearby that wants to do some really amazing things in the community including public health stuff and microfinance!  and 2. The current directors decided to step down starting in January and the incoming directors aren't coming till April after they finish language school in Costa Rica. So, long story short, we decided to commit the majority of our time in Yalu! We are both really excited about the things God is doing there and we think this coming year will bring some really exciting changes in the village that we want to be a part of. Anyways, definitely more on that as we figure out what exactly we will be doing but just wanted to keep y'all in the loop. 
This week we are just going to be hanging out in Antigua, finishing up language school, and trying to get in the Christmas spirit. Tonight we are heading to the Erickson's to watch a Christmas movie so that will definitely help. We also will have more time to update this thing so check back again soon. Merry Christmas and God Bless!