Following Ruth, Becoming Erin: January 2011

My Little Mess

I told you that I'd keep up my blog better this year. So, here's a quick little update. :)
My new sisters, Chana(Roxana Elizabeth) and Mita(Ruth Noemi), have been sick for over a week now and can't make it here today as was originally planned. They will be coming to school tomorrow and Friday, but only for school. They'll start staying nights with us on next Monday. I'm excited to get to know them!
There's been a lot of furniture moving and stuff going on. What was Dad's office is going to be their room, and we've got a set of bunk beds, one of the wardrobes, and some various shelf space and desk-chairs. We also had to purchase some new shelves and clothing storage for Mom and Dad, since what was theirs stayed in the room. We've put up a new shower curtain thing, too. Ought to be interesting since the girls don't even have running water...

Anyway, we had a pretty busy night yesterday with a lot of people visiting and lots of things happening at once; including a leaky pipe, the furniture delivery truck, connection issues with the institute's online classes, visits from a couple families, several important phone calls at once(Seriously, I saw Mom on the cell phone and the home line at the same time. In Spanish? That's some mad skills right there.), you know- just the usual. All in the time span of about 15 minutes.
Isn't it comforting to have a God we can depend on through everything like that?
As I was typing this, Francesca Battistelli's newest song "The Stuff" came on my online radio station. Click Here to listen to it. She starts off mentioning some of those little every day things that really start to get to us; losing keys or phones, speeding tickets, ya know. But I really like her lyrics in the chorus:

"In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I'm blessed.
This is the stuff that gets under my skin, but I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing...
So break me of impatience, conquer my frustrations, I've got a new appreciation, it's not the end of the world...
It might not be what I would choose, but this is the stuff You use."

In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I really am blessed.
More to be posted soon :)
Love,
Erin :)

I'm Getting Sisters!

If you're a facebook friend of mine or my parents, you may have heard some about this yesterday: I'm getting two new sisters!

Back in December when the group was here, after our Chuntrun visits, we became aware of a need, and tried to provide a solution.

The schools in the mountain places like that only go up to 6th grade, if they're that lucky.

Sure, we all complain about school every once and a while. But, if you were given the choice, I highly doubt any of you would decide to stop school when you're only 12. The kids there in Chuntrun, in Cumbre Del Gramal, and many mountain villages have no choice. The girls go to school for 6 years, and then they become full time babysitters for their parents. Soon after, they're likely to become parents themselves. The boys become farmers. That's life for them, and that's really all they've known.

The school here opened 7th grade this year, for the first time. See where this is going? A while back, we'd offered to let one of the Chuntrun girls, Dora, live with us and go to school here during the weeks.

It was pretty devastating that her parents wouldn't let her, simply because they wouldn't have anyone to watch their kids if she was gone.

Mom has a more detailed post on this situation.

We also offered this opportunity to a pair of sisters in Cumbre Del Gramal, ages 14 and 13. Their mother and the younger one came to our house for a meeting, said they'd talk about it, and then we never heard back from them, assuming that the answer was no.

Well the new school year here started today. Yesterday after church, guess who showed up? The girls' parents were there, saying their daughters could come! Noemi(14) and Roxana(13) will be moving in with us this Wednesday. Lots of last minute preparations, tying up loose ends, and such will be going on these next two days!

The girls will be living with us during the week, and going back with their family on the weekends. I'm really excited, if a little anxious about all this. The girls have never had electricity, and don't speak any English. It means some big changes; on both sides. Keeping the work here in your prayers always is appreciated!

... I'm getting two new sisters!! :)

Always,

Erin :)

posted under | 0 Comments

New Years! (... ish.)

One of my new year's resolutions: Blog better. More frequently, less sporadically.

That being said, I'm not going to bore you with a post that drags on forever to recap the past month (longer, I guess) that I haven't blogged about.

Jesus (the preacher in San Ignacio, calm down, people.) has been working with us, and we've started a couple new ministries for the new year. On Tuesdays, we will be making visits throughout San Ignacio to the members and visitors from the church there. We got to do that with my grandparents last week while they were visiting, which was a great experience for all of us.

^^^ Tell me, how many of you have been in a Bible study with a pet goat? ;)

Another ministry we'll be doing with him this year is in Chuntrun. You may have read some of my past posts about Chuntrun, the little "village", if you can even call it that, up in the mountains. I have had the opportunity to visit the school there twice. But in regards to the people's homes there, I've only seen them through the trees from far away. I've wanted to visit the sisters there, it's just a matter of the right time and transportation. This year, though, we will be visiting a house there once a week for a Bible study! I'm really excited about this chance. The first visit for us took place last week, as well.
Natividad and Maria's house is where it took place, and it was an amazing experience. They have no electricity in their home, no running water, not even an out-house or anything. (Just don't even ask how I found that out.) They live very close to the river; you may remember the pictures of the swinging bridge you have to cross to get to the school. There are also several natural springs very close to their house, and they have hoses that carry the water from the springs to their yard. Maria said that they always have water, every time of year.

^^^ This is me with a couple of the Chuntrun kids near the springs.

The Bible study was really good, Jesus did a great job. I'm looking forward to more of this ministry this year. :)

Along with these, we found out today about a super exciting new opportunity we'll be taking part in soon, which I hope to post about tomorrow. Lots of new things this year! So, very late, I'd like to wish all of you a blessed new year.