This Pilgrim's Journeys

As I've been working on the prep for my August mission trip to Thailand (check back in to read my posts about it!) I've been looking up what clothes to wear, useful long-flight tips, etc. Although I've traveled to Guatemala and Germany, Thailand is a completely different ballgame. I've found some good stuff, except for one thing: the info about traveling wearing skirts is sadly lacking. And in case you need a heads up on why this bothers me, I wear skirts, not pants! So...yeah. Everyone's recipe for a "comfy airplane outfit" and suggestions for good attire include ingredients I do not use: leggings, yoga pants, and pants/shorts in general. Sigh. So...what are comparable, skirt only-outfits? Good question. And I could find absolutely NO answers. So I decided to write a post on some travel tips for girls who wear skirts! While I might not have found the perfect airplane outfit or what I should wear to Thailand yet, I have had experience traveling in sk...

Day 1 Since our friend Kristen is in her last semester of college, and we never did get to see one of her volleyball games, my friend Miranda and I finally went to visit her and see one of her games! Which meant a weekend road trip to Rhode Island, of course! We left Friday, September 23 around noon, and we drove in six states before reaching our final destination: Pennsylvania (of course), New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts (no, we didn't get lost, the highway just literally goes into one and then back into the other). We got there around 8:30 and it had since grown dark; thankfully, we still found the house and a place to park. After being introduced to her housemates and dropping off our stuff in her room, we hung out in the kitchen, eating some of the stromboli she had made and chatting about what was going on with all of us. I was in charge of photographing all of the state signs we passed - here's just a few! The house th...

There it was, that day again. Waking up to an almost-packed room and finishing it up and hauling the suitcases down the stairs to the front hallway. Sigh. The cooks had made breakfast for us that morning - it was similar to last year's, with eggs, beans, bread, watermelon, and sweetbread. Afterwards we finally got a group photo - the rest of the week, since there were so many of us, it was hard to get us all together at once! And finally, on to the airport. Thankfully, all four vehicles (we were all following the luggage truck, since he knew how to get there) stayed together and none of us got lost along the way. All of that "fun" airport stuff came next, and then we were on the plane. I had a fun seat again - sitting with Miranda and Kyle. When we landed in Houston, it began a very long and at times interesting adventure: 1) Almost first thing, while going through customs, we had to deal with a super-rude and incompetent lady. That was a mess. 2) As we were w...

Church day!! Because there were so many of us, we didn't all fit in the normal section of chairs that we occupy. So a few of us sat in a nearby section. Worship was of course wonderful, and things started happening about 40 or so minutes in. Then we saw some people praying for Karen, so Miranda and I went to pray for her, and then Katy was also crying, so we prayed for her as well. Then back to a little bit more worship. Before the sermon, one of the pastors-in-training spoke on something that God was telling him, and then Julio started his sermon. To try and keep a broad explanation of the topic (his sermons are long and split into many different points), it was on the importance of reading the Bible. After church I found Madelin (I had seen her earlier but then she left for kid's church). She gave me a smile and a hug and and I handed her the bracelet and the look on her face was worth it as she asked, "for me?" (in English!) and I responded, "Sí!" The...

Wow. The night before I got a lovely 8 hours of sleep since Saturday was Antigua tourist day. It was a nice, relaxed morning. On to Antigua! Hugo came with us (to keep Grandpa company when he went to visit someone), which was awesome because he got permission for us to park in the parking lot of his friend's hotel! So then we led the group to the park to get their bearings and split into groups. I ended up traveling mainly with Miranda, Kristen, and Ryan, although we frequently met up with other groups along the way. I got about half of what was on my list that morning (which was what I needed for other people, such as coworkers, my niece, my mom, a bracelet for Madelin, etc.) as well as a few things I found interesting for myself. Grandpa and Hugo were with us for part of it, especially when we were searching for the jade jewelry store that we had gone in last year but couldn't find anywhere this year. So frustrating! At 1:45 we all met in the park and led the group to our...

First of all, may I note that when Friday arrived I literally could not believe it was Friday already, and had no idea where the time went? I don't think I've ever had a week in Guatemala go so fast! For part of the morning we split up again, with Kristen, the men, and a few adult ladies going back to San Bartolomé to do some more work and give out blankets and stuff while the rest of us went to a new school for ministry. And since all of the guys were at the work site (minus Ryan, obviously), Miranda had to drive the other van! It's ok, all went well. ;) (Well, all except for that rude little Guatemalan cut off...gotta love those Guatemala drivers.) At this school the youth did the Superhero skit first, and I think it was their best performance yet. Then Carly gave her testimony - which she had already written in Spanish - and then they did the signs skit, which also went fabulously. Then Nic gave his testimony as Katy translated. Ryan then did a little talk on the meani...

Breakfast was yummy this morning - sweet bread that we had bought the night before. Seriously, that stuff is so good! Then we packed lunches and headed out, this time with Hugo and his younger sister Katy, as well as Marvin (Jr.), who goes to Luz y Vida (Julio and Jodi's church) who is a professional painter (he also plays drums really  well; he played at church on Sunday). Because yes, we painted. We went to the public school in Yalú (had a good time traveling over those rutted dirt roads through town) and while most of the guys and Kristen worked on a chicken house for a man, the rest of us painted walls at the school. The top of the wall we painted light blue, and the bottom dark blue. The light blue paint was no problem, because it was water-based. But the dark blue...ughh, yeah that was oil-based. So that made things interesting for some people who even got it on their legs. (Thankfully I managed to be careful enough to not get too much of that paint on me, just the water-...