Day 17, June 22nd, 2009

I forgot to tell you about something funny that happened last night. Well, yesterday, we decided we had exhausted our de-chocolatized diet and so boldly set out in search of the creamy, hard delicacy. We were standing outside of a store when a car honked, summoning us to turn our heads. With the window rolled down, a young man held his cell phone up and snapped our photo as he whizzed by!

This morning, we had approximately 2 hours between breakfast and when we loaded up the van to go swimming, during which we perused some stores. I bought Brant a machete, and we visited the Roman Catholic church, where people were burning incense and kneeling in the dark interior, beseeching the spirit of a saint or ancestor. It was a sad sight to behold- people so deceived they thought they had to do this- thoguht they must seek the favor of the deceased souls in order to secure ease in this life or the next. Couldn't they see the statue of the Savior before them? Wasn't the answer in sight?

I stood there, awed by Satan's success in this place. Masquerading as the Lamb, he devours daily those souls as they bend their knees in what they think is Christianity. I had always heard of ancestor worship, but never before had I confronted it firsthand, standing helplessly on the sidelines with a vast language between me and these lost sheep. Suddenly, God opened my eyes to a gaping need- a need to reveal this deception for what it is and the presentation of the Good News.

The van finally picked us up, and we made our way up the mountain to a remotelocation where there was a pool right on the mountainside. A house was right next to it, as was a pavilion with plastic tables, a hammock, and Christmas lights. Laura tried plugging the cord in, but immediately pulled it out when she heard a static sound. However, when she inserted it into another outlset, we found that we heard not static, but a small music player rigged to play Christmas carols when the lights were plugged in!

The water was very frigid, and only a handful of us were brave enough to actually go in. Literally, Kris-Ann could not stop chattering forever and Adriana dove in and was like, "Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!" Eventually, our bodies adjusted to the temperature change and we managed a few games such as Knot and Marco Polo. A couple of us got burned, but it was really fun1

Back at the church in San Miguel, Arvid sat us down at 4:30 and conversed with us about what we'd learned on the trip. Many people brought up great lessons aobut dealing with pride, lesser-possessions, etc. But Rachel really hit the nail on the head for me when she said that depending on God was her biggest lesson. She gave a few examples, like when Abby got dehydrated in Stiquisislaj (sticky-SEE-slah), a village in which some of us stayed.

"I'll admit, I was scared," she says. "I was really scared. I had no idea if she needed serious attention or how we'd get it or anything."

Fortunately, God put it on their hearts to pray and Abby got better soon after that. Also, Rachel related something I totally agree with- trusting God on those twisty, turvy, unpaved roads where there's sometimes not even an inch between you and death.

Also, God has shown me what little others have, and how much I can do without (I went days without a shower because water availability was sporadic). It really shocks me now as I think of our culture- so upscale seems even gas stations and roads and cars. We live in a world where stuff defines success- they live in a world where success defines itself. For many Central American families, this might be as simplistic as putting food on the table. I think plunging from one to the next with only a four hour plane ride in between might be a little difficult. I pray I will soon get over it, but not forget this lesson.

Today, my primary thought is that I would like to be a more faithful Christian. I want God to teach me to depend completely on Him for everything, and to follow His lead for the rest of my life.

In Christ,
Brittany Goodrich

A Song- Not Yet Titled

Today I decided I was in the mood to write a song, but we were about to leave for the hairdresser's, so I grabbed a notebook and pencil and prepared to get my creative juices rushing through my brain and out my arm. For an hour, I sat there....a big zero. Nope. Nothin'. Zilch. Not even love songs- and my late-at-night-in-front-of-the-bathroom-mirror ballads are hits, ya know :).And yet I wanted desperately to write a song.

Well, after a good deal of no productivity and yet not having the attention span to finish my Gulliver's Travels reading, I once again deemed it an honorable hour to take my writing weapon into my hand and wound the purely white page with whatever my imagination happened to barf out of its recesses.

And this time I had a theme (thank God...maybe it wouldn't be so terrible after all). As of late, I've been learning about complacency and the dangers that accompany it. Inspired by both my experience with it (or, rather, my struggle to defeat it), the thought of who God wants me to be, and Britt Nicole's song Walk on the Water, I set my pencil upon the paper...and came up with this. Tell me what you think.


What am I,
Doing here,
Starin' out the window?

Watching life,
Pass on by.
It's just another day.

Never once,
Have I thought,
Or cared about tomorrow.

It'll be gone before you know it anyway.

CHORUS

But how do I,
Even know,
That I'll live to see tomorrow?

How can I,
Be assured,
I'll live throughout the day?

Father God,
Yes, I know,
Your footsteps are hard to follow.

But I'd rather die tryin,
Than live,
This way.

How can I,
Live a lie,
And say this is how You made me?

When I know,
Deep inside,
That I was made for more?

Father God,
On my knees,
I beg You to forgive me.

For choosing to simply waste away.

CHORUS

So I'm left,
Standin' here,
Starin' out the window.

Watching the sun,
Slowly set,
On another wasted day.

And since there's no,
Guarrantee,
That I'll be here this time tomorrow.

It's time to start livin' the right way.

Yeah, livin' the right way.

Ooooooo.....


So there it is! But I also need your help! As you can see, this project as of yet needs a title, so if you could please suggest one by leaving a comment (look at the bottom of this post), that would be great! Thank you, and God bless!

My Two New Albums- Words of Praise and Bubblegum

Hey, ya'll! Well, as I mentioned in the previous post, I have done a bit of fiddling around on iTunes trying to create mix cds from the music arsenal I have stored there. As of late, I have two new creations- Words of Praise and Bubblegum. Here are their synopsises, as well as the playlists:

Words of Praise-

Having grown up in a Christian home with the love of my Savior all around me, I saw it as both an obligation and a pleasureable bit of service to give back to God with music. As a result, I selected a group of songs that are amoung my favorites in the Christian genre- ones that I believe both bring glory to God and challenge us to be all we can for Him. The true Christian is one that serves God in humble reverence, always trusts Him, and never fails to follow His will. I wanted this album to reflect that.

Lifesong (Casting Crowns)

Remembering You (Steven Curtis Chapman)

What If (Nichole Nordeman)

Satellite (Shaun Groves)

Speaking Louder than Before (Jeremy Camp)

Yours (Steven Curtis Chapman)

East to West (Casting Crowns)

Revelation (Third Day)

Should I Tell Them (Shaun Groves)

Why (Nichole Nordeman)



Bubblegum-

Being a huge fan of the pop-culture tunes that blare from the radios, cds, iPods, whatever, I decided one day to create an album of all those songs. Originally, only teen pop was going to be given a home here (hence the name Bubblegum). However, when I realized that my teen pop consisted mainly of Jonas, Demi, Miley, David Archuleta, and a couple Jordin Sparks, I had to rouse my imagination in order to save my listeners from dying of boredom. And so the boundaries expanded to include some Jordin Sparks that borderlined the teen area as well as a Leona Lewis song....aaahhhh, so what? Might as well throw some Taylor Swift in there, too!

By the end, I was defining my creation as songs that had burned their way through the pricky brambles of criticism and made it to the top largely because of teen support. Now for the name...how could I adjust the name? Well, nothing was coming, and since everyone but Taylor is a pop artist, I thought, Hey, so what? Bubblegum it is, and Bubblegum it stays.

Burnin' Up (Jonas Brothers)

A Little Too Not Over You (David Archuleta)

One Step at a Time (Jordin Sparks)

Fly With Me (Jonas Brothers)

Love Story (Taylor Swift)

World of Chances (Demi Lovato)

Battlefield (Jordin Sparks)

You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift)

Lovebug (Jonas Brothers)

Here We Go Again (Demi Lovato)

Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis)

White Horse (Taylor Swift)

Crush (David Archuleta)

Catch Me (Demi Lovato)

No Air (Jordin Sparks)

A Peek Upon the Past- My Latest Hobby!

The other day, my creative streak got the best of me. As some of you already know, I LOVE music of nearly all types and my iPod is literally loaded with songs, videos, and even TV shows released by my favorite artists. I've even written a song or two and would love to get my hands on some music-making computer software.

And then yesterday it hit me- I could start a hobby of burning songs that I select and carefully arrange into albums! Now, of course I won't be selling the albums and all the songs I use will be already paid for, but I thought they would be interesting just to have. Also, if you're intrigued by a particular theme, I plan to post as many of my song arrangements that I can on here so that you may duplicate my work by purchasing the songs for yourself and burning your own CD.

As usual, I already have a thousand ideas running through my head, and I can't wait to share them all with you! But, I have actually begun one of the albums, and have decided to title it A Peek Upon the Past.

A Peek Upon the Past is just that- a backward, reminiscing glance at who we once were. For this selection, I have decided upon four artists whom more or less defined the twenty years that elapsed between 1970-1990; namely, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, the Bee Gees, and Chicago. Last night, I went through many CDs and trialed many song combinations until I came up with the following:

Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson)

Desiree (Neil Diamond)

You're the Inspiration (Chicago)

Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)

America (Neil Diamond)

Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away (Chicago)

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Michael Jackson)

Tragedy (Bee Gees)

Hard Habit to Break (Chicago)

Thriller (Michael Jackson)

Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)

Look Away (Chicago)

September Morn (Neil Diamond)

Day 16, June 21st, 2009

Yum, yum- good eatins'! Seriously it was (and, yes, that's a leaf)


Elina (left) and Carey (right)- two girls who hung out in my and Jodi's hotel room for a while



The clothes-washing station at the San Miguel church. They used something similar to this to wash our dishes as well.

Today, we rose bright and early, dressed and had migrated to the church for breakfast by eight. Ester fixed us up some oatmeal (which actually contains little substantial matter and is of a more liquidy constitution), a bit of wakash (or soup), and a handful of eggs as well as pitchers of coffee. Gobbling it down, we found a full hour on our hands before church commenced. although a cold, dreary fog dictated the sky, we made our way over to the market that forms every Sunday in San Migueal. We found nothing of interst, however, and made our way back to the church.

With a stream of people still steadily trickling in, the worship started. a few items of note here. In this service, there was no real "worship time", it was interspersed between prayers, a speech, and the sermon. Another observation is that the people rarely stand to sing, and are even less likely to clap after a song. Arvid later explained that, for some reason I can't remember, it was not considered the best thing to do.

The brothers and sisters in Christ were very welcoming to us here as well, and honored us many times with their thanks to God that we were here (from what few words I extracted from the K'anjob'al monologues).

Another great opportunity we got was to sing for them. We had prepared three songs last night, and performed them, for which they broke their silent tradition and clapped (Arvid guessed they had figured out it was an okay thing to do in our culture). We did the following songs:

1. Kal Watx' K'ane, Alleluya (a K'anjob'al song to the tune of Battle of the Republic, of which we sang the K'anjob'al chorus, the English verse and chorus, and then the K'anjob'al chorus again).

2. Txojxa swatxil kecab yetoj Dios- this was a chorus we did completely in K'anjob'al, butchering it so badly Arvid told us to do it twice because the people didn't recognize it as K'anjob'al.

3. Lord, Prepare Me- last night, we had a singing festival in Kris-Ann's room led mostly by Kris-Ann. When she and Abby did a harmony on this song, we all fell in love with it because the voices complimented each other so well. So, with Kris-Ann and Abby leading, some of us took melody and others harmony and we sang away.

Another neat custom they have is paying money to God for birthdays. Depending on how old you were, you would give a certain amount. Teh idea appealed to me, however, since God has granted us each year of life and it is only appropriate that we return thanks.

It didn't take long for me to get completely lost and bored during the K'anjob'al/Spanish sermon. The reason I say Spanish is because the pastor would switch into it at critical points in the sermon, most likely to ensure that everyone, including us, got as much out of the sermon as possible. But since I didn't speak very much Spanish either, I just ended up reading my Bible and tryng to pick up a few words or phrases out of the speech.

Then it dawned on me. We hadn't been brought to church that morning just to say we had attended- we had been brought to experience the spiritual stagnation of not having God's

Word in your own tongue. If the pastor's sermon had left me bored and uninterested, is this the same reaction we want for the Word of God amongst those who know nothing of Jesus' saving grace? We are left with two choices- translate the Bible or watch the people perish.

After that, we ate and Arvid went over some things for us to think about.

Oh, and we got to see Marie Sabet, Dorcas, and Ana again. God has truly blessed me!

In Christ,

Brittany N. Goodrich

Praise and Prayer

If you had a whole life to live, what would you do with it? That's the question (in so many words) that I have been asking myself lately. After all, I will be turning seventeen in March- I'm not exactly an adult, but I'm not exactly a child either. However, I am also old enough to know that God has put me here for a reason- and that reason should be as carefully and well planned for as possible.

As a result, my parents and I have begun a search for ministry experiences that will both suit my interests and help me in my career later on. After several investigations, we came upon Bread of Life Ministries, an organization stationed out of Dallas that has an orphanage in Romania. I knew they were looking for a grant writer, but when I finally read their missions statement, I was amazed; their mission was nearly identical to my own idea of what I want to do as a missionary! I clicked volunteer and submitted my application.

Many questions flooded my mind. Would they want a sixteen-year-old? Or did they need someone older? Was this even realistic, since I am in high school?

Well, early this morning, I received an e-mail from a man at Bread of Life ministries. He began by saying that his wife was a pioneer home-schooler back in 1982, when home-schooling was something no one did. He sounded thrilled to have found this common ground with me, since I had touched on my education mode in my application. In retrospect, I thank God for giving me the words to say!

In addition, he guessed by our area code that we lived in the San Antonio region, and said that he made it down there once a month whenever he was not in Romania. Since we are 300 miles away from Dallas, he foresaw the distance as a problem for when we must exchange materials. However, since he is in San Antonio once a month and we are in Dallas at least once a month during the hockey season, I pray that all will turn out all right.

Lastly, he told me that all I had to do was send him my address and he'd send me the Grant Writing Request Packet. He asked me to watch the videos and talk to my family about it, since this would be a family endeavour that I would lead. Then, I would respond to him with my decision.

As you might discern, I was super-excited- he was practically offering me the job! God had not chosen to show him the difficulties that would arise from hiring a sixteen-year-old, but instead the benefits had been placed in his head! I am greatly encouraged by seeing God work in this way!

But if you would also pray for me and my family...that we would seek God's will in this and that God will open and close doors as needed. All of us are a little worried about the time and pressure it might involve, so if you could pray about that, too, that would be great!

Thank you and God bless!

Day 15, June 20th, 2009

Woman models Mayan baby carrier



Me holding the baby


Jodi holding the baby

From left- Xamen, Ester, and Xunic

Editing 1 Samuel

Coya (the village we stayed in).

Another image of Coya

The church we stayed at in Coya

Mountain view from the church

The church courtyard where we were lodged (the second room on the far left is the room where Hannah and I stayed. Sam and Raymond were across the courtyard, which is not pictured)

Today, we rose at 6:35 sharp and prepared ourselves for the day. Ester was already in the kitchen, playing a K'anjob'al worship station while she worked to fix us a scrumptious breakfast assortment of eggs, tomatoes, peas, and tortillas. Accompanied by cups of coffee with a healthy dose of sugar mixed in, it was a unique meal to chow on.

During this time, Sam recalled something- we had forgotten to make our village map as the handbooks told us to do. Having eaten all we wanted, then, the four of us set out to trek up the unpaved path for a bit and identify our surroundings.

Before we got far, however, a man hobbled out from the shadows. In slurred English, he stammered out a few sentences, asking Sam where he lived, and then proceeding to tell us everywhere he's been in the States. Then, he shook our hands, and when he got to Hannah, he said, "I love you, Baby."

My companions were already walking, so I darted up to Hannah and asked, "Did he really just say 'I love you, Baby?"

"I think that's what he said," she replied.

By then, you could say I was a little creeped, but, thanks to God, a lingering walk and breathtaking views stole my attention and cleansed me of my fear.

He did spot us again when we were returning to the church. Having been talking to a fellow Guatemalan, recognition lit his as he called out:

"Pray for me because I love you because of this lady."

My first instinct was let's get out of here, but quite a different thought ran through my mind next. We should pray for this man- that God would open his eyes to the truth of His Word. After all, he is a person created in the image of God, drunk as he was or not, and God loves him. Will you join me in praying for this man and others like him?

At long last, the van came to take us back to San Miguel. Having crammed three groups of villages, we cozied up to one another and hung ten for the long haul.

We met Arvid at the same hotel we had left, and removed our belongings from Sam and Raymond's room, where we had moved it to minimalize the cost. Heading over to the church, we sared our stories of village life and then got to see a very neat scene- real Bible translation in live progress! Arvid had brought his correction of 1 Samuel, Chapter 1 with him, and, together with head translator Xunic, went over it with us looking over their shoulders. Explaining to us a bit aobut how this part of the translation was accomplished, Arvid spoke to us in English and answered our questions.

Next, came time for Xunic, Xamen (pastor in Coya), and Ester to share their testimonies and such (the latter two having traveled from Coya after we had left). They kept repeating how happy they were that we came and that we are one big family in Christ. Xunic even made the comment that it is uncommon for believers from so far away to meet each other, and so he was gald to ahve the chance to meet us. By the end of it all, I was nearly tearing up. We couldn't have asked God for more hospitable hosts- and He gave them to us. I stand both weakened and strengthened. Strengthened by the faith of my fellow believers, but weakened beneath the strength of God Almighty, Who brought us here together.

In Christ,

Brittany