There's no place I would rather be, but here in Your love.

My time here with the Fickers has been going by so fast. I can't believe I have less than a week here before I have to leave and go back home. It's so hard to think about leaving here. I'm sure it's not going to be easy. God has opened my eyes this week and I've realized that it's not just the kids at the home that have my heart, but it's the people of Guatemala in general. He has given me such a heart to want to serve these people and I can't imagine doing anything but that. As many of you know, I feel called into missions. I know that the timing isn't right just yet, but I know that when I go home, it will be a time of preparation. A time that God will use to get me ready for whatever it is He wants me to do to serve and bring glory to His name. It'll be hard to leave here, but I know that, for now, it's what I need to do.

Monday was a pretty relaxing day. Rachael and I spent the morning in the clinic organizing meds and supplies to get them ready for the clinic on Friday. The other clinics that the Fickers do have meds and supplies already there in the clinic, but for the one on Friday we have to bring everything with us in these two big bins. So we restocked everything in the bins and got it all ready. We also counted out kids vitamins into little baggies to hand out and we made a skin cream for scabies. It's made with sulfur and vaseline so it smelled great :) Afterwards we organized a cabinet in the clinic with all these books and Bibles. They just got lots of Spanish and Quiche Bibles so we unpacked those and put them away too. Every Monday afternoon, everyone gets together to pray for the ministry. It was a great time to just come before God and lay the ministry at His feet and ask Him to use it for His glory, to lift up the needs and requests before him and worship His name. It's awesome that they commit to dedicate such a long time to praying every week.

Tuesday we went to the clinic in Chiminisijuan. It's the rainy season so the roads get washed out and really bad. We drove for about half an hour and then parked and walked the rest of the way, which was about another thirty minutes. We took a short cut that's a trail through the woods and then got back to the road. It was good that we didn't drive because when we got back to the road we saw a pick up truck stuck in about a foot and a half of mud, trying to dig themselves out. Duane drove the four wheeler through with the supplies that we needed and we got there without any issues. The setting of the clinic is beautiful. It's a cabin that the Fickers built up there on property that was given to them. (There's an awesome story about how God worked and how they got the property and started to do clinic up there and you'll have to ask me about it sometime :) We saw 76 patients in about three hours. Armando (one of the translators that works with the Fickers) gave a message in Quiche before clinic started and then we started to see patients. I helped to weigh the babies in the nutrition program and record their weights and hand out food. It was hard to see some desperate mothers asking for beans and oatmeal, saying that they had no food in their homes. After all the babies were weighed, I worked with Lesley as she saw the general patients. I did blood pressures and blood sugars and also learned from her a lot. I got to see some ear infections and hear pneumonia and mix medications and things like that. Then we cleaned everything up and headed back down the mountain. In the afternoon, Rachael, Rachel and I walked into town to get ice cream and then we planned on going to Katie's house and having her drive us back the rest of the way. But she had already left her house to go to the Fickers for worship that they have every Tuesday night, so we ended up walking like almost 5 miles by the time we finally got back to the house. We played snaps and laughed a lot though so it was okay :)

Today was the day that the Fickers take their sabbath, or their day off. I haven't really allowed myself to have a day off since I came here because I don't want to miss out on anything. But, it was really nice to get to sleep in and catch up on emails and just spend time with everyone. I read on the patio in the shade, listened to a really good Francis Chan sermon, spent a lot of time just reflecting on how awesome God is for blessing me with a heart for this place, and we walked down to the river and spent some time there. Then we watched a movie and played cards. Overall, it was a great relaxing day. And tomorrow it's back to work organizing things in the storage room of the clinic and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are clinic days. And Monday I fly into the city to leave. There's a worship song that keeps playing over and over in my head and the words really resonate with how I've been feeling.

"There's no place I would rather be, no place I would rather be,

No place I would rather be, but here in Your love.

Here in Your love.

So set a fire down in my soul, 

That I can't contain, that I can't control.

I want more of You, God. I want more of You."

Also, as we "speak" there is a giant bug that I trapped in the bathroom. It's one of those huge ones that makes a big crunchy sound when you squish it. I trapped it in there by closing the door and smushing the rug up under the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door. But when I moved the rug I found the bugs child, a smaller version of itself, not quite as ugly. So I bravely killed that one and am hoping that the other one doesn't escape in the night to crawl on me as I sleep. You can pray for me :)