I have been back in Guatemala for almost two months now. It’s been a crazy two months already, but every step has had its purpose and reason. Every lesson, good and bad, has made me stronger. Every hard time has shown me that no matter how hard it gets, there is always a peace in the storm and a reason for the battle I am fighting.

 As children of God we are called to live outside of ourselves, to live for a purpose bigger than ourselves. We are called to live for others, to live as a mirror reflecting Christ and all He has done. We are called to live a life that looks different, to not be like the rest of the world. Someone read me a Jim Elliot quote today that said “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me”.  We should be so different that when people see us they would stop and question what is in us. Because if we lived in the wholeness of all Christ is, we would live lives of freedom and of completion. We would no longer question what we are a part of and our life callings would be clear. We are all called to battle at the front lines; to fight for the ones who don’t know Christ, the ones who are still bound by the world.

My prayer lately has been that God would bring out the areas in my heart that are not yet given over completely, the things in my life that are still rooted in the world. Something I was journaling the other day was that I no longer want to look like the world; I don’t want to base who I am off of the scales of the world or on the lives of people around me. I don’t want to find satisfaction in anyone or anything but my Creator. I am sick and tired of the emotional roller coaster that this world takes us on, saying that we are not fit for this or that. That we don’t have enough skill or education to do something. That we are too young for God to use us yet. Whatever it is, we seem to have an excuse or reason that keeps us from expressing all that God is. The God that is in the Bible took the least of them and made them His, the weak and made them strong, the misfits and used them to change the world. All of the disciples of God were under the age of 21 and were the unlearned, underdogs of society. But yet He chose them, built them up in Him, and made them world changers. There is no obstacle too big for God to overcome. If we would just trust in God and give ourselves over to Him, we would find a reason to live and a fulfillment that will last a lifetime.      

Hennerys suit

I wanted to share a story of how you supporting me impacts and helps the individuals in Guatemala and changes their lives. One day one of our students Hennery came back to our dorm after being in the mountains to visit his family. He seemed really sad and not himself. Later that day we found out that he went home to try and ask his family for money for a suit that he needed to be able to graduate for high school. He goes to a privet school and to graduate from that school you have to have a special suit that cost about $150 US. He had no idea how he was going to pay for it and felt like he just wasted 5 years of his life in school and now couldn’t graduate because he did not have a suit. Later that day when all of us interns where talking we put our money together and bought Hennery his suit. When we told him that we were going to by him his suit he all most started crying (people in the mountains don’t usually show much emotion, so that was a very touching moment). He kept asking us why we were doing that for him. And we were able to tell him because God put him in our lives for a purpose and that God cares about his future as much as we do. That anyone that lives under our roof is our family and we want to see them succeed. So the money you give me enables me to buy things like this for people that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

I want to go down to Guatemala for at least one more year. I fell that this year will be a very important year for me in deciding where God wants me permanently; if that is in Guatemala or somewhere else. For me to be able to stay in Guatemala for one more year I need $8,000 more. If you would like to give a donation and want it to be tax deductible please write a check out to Front Line Kids and send it to me (please email me at amandaculver911@gmail.com for my mailing address). Or you can give online at www.youcaring.com/mission-trip-fundraiser/guatamanda/234327 but if you give online it will not be tax deductible.                                   

(All of us with Hennery the morning of His big exam)

Coming home

Well, I have been back in the States for about a month now. I am not going to lie it took me some time to get used to being back. I love being here with friends and family, but it was really hard for me to see the difference between the life of the people that live in the remote villages of Guatemala and the life we live here. Even in there poverty and struggle to live, their lives seam to be so much more carefree and simple.  We seem to have everything but are so empty and feel we have no purpose.

As many of you know I am going back to Guatemala for another year. I will be leaving in November. I really feel that this year is going to be a big deciding point in my life.  I will be making a decision if I am supposed to stay in Guatemala and have a more permeate position with Faith in Action or return home. I love Guatemala and the people there. Some of my favorite things I have done are working with the kids and people in the mountains just living life with them. Working in the clinic helping with medical care and dentistry has been a real favorite too. I have loved helping with a few sick and malnourished babies and kids that we have had. With the ignorance of simple diseases and lack of knowledge of basic medical care, people and kids die of thing they should never die from. I have a growing passion for the kids and teens in Guatemala. I have loved working with sick babies and watching them get healthy with just some basic medical care. And I love being in our high school dorm with the teens helping them with anything from craft projects to homework; and just living life with them, being an open ear, and just being there to be a friend. There would be nothing I would change about my year in Guatemala and I can’t wait to go back.

Keep checking my blog because I am going to write a few of my highlight stories and favorite memories from my year that I have not shared yet.                                 

                            This is Maria a little girl we had the first mouth I was in Guatemala.
                                                                                                                             

                                                            Helping with dentistry.

 

A little malnourished Boy that we were able to help get the proper medical care and medicine he needed.

 

                                                    One of the students in the dorm.

                                                       All of the kids in the dorm.

Village baptism and wedding

Life here has been awesome! Every day has its adventures; every one of them and special in their own way. Last week we had a baptism service in the mountains with a team from Michigan. It was a beautiful service and so awesome to watch the villagers make a stand for their faith.

“Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also, raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him form the dead.” Colossians 2:12  

After the baptism we went to a wedding. In the mountains people don't get married, and if they do it's normally after living with one another for a few years and after having a couple of kids. The couple that got married last week was the first in all the history of Pinalito to be married before having relations with one another. They were an amazing testimony to everyone in the village. The church was packed out to the point that there was no more room in the church for people to sit or stand. They had a sermon on marriage and its importance before God. Then the happy couple was marred.

As a lot of you know I am continuing my internship for one more year in Guatemala. I am still raising money for this. If you would like to donate please email me at amandaculver911@gmail.com for info on how to give. I want to thank you all of you that have donated so far for me to stay for one more year. And more than that, everyone who has be praying for my throughout this year.

Dear Family & Friends,

I hope your year has been full of adventures, new friendships and growth as mine has. Many of you know I have been living in Guatemala for the last eight months. God has done so much in my life. He has taken me from being lost and not knowing why I was put on the earth to falling in love with Jesus, having a joy in my heart like never before and giving Him my life to do with as he pleases. I have discovered so much about myself and my Savior in the past eight months; it has been the best time of getting away from everything and everyone I know and just being content with growing in God and letting Him teach me what lessons He needs me to learn.

I only signed up to intern in Guatemala for one year, but as the end of my internship here drawls to a close I have been praying to see what God wants me to do when it is over. God has given me a real heart and passion for foster kids, especially for the teens in foster care. My ultimate heart and passion is to work with teens in foster care. But as I have been praying I feel that God has been telling me to give Him one more year of my life. So I feel like I am supposed stay here in Guatemala for one more year.

My time here has been an amazing time of building a platform that is going to last me the rest of my life. I have learned the love of God and have felt His love like never before. I have learnt that true happiness has nothing to do with what things you have; no, I have seen quite the opposite. I have seen people that pretty much have nothing and barely make enough to put food on the table yet they are some of the happiest people I have ever met and some of them are the most in love with God that I have ever seen. They choose to look past the circumstances that they are in and choose to trust in God and thank Him for what they have.

I would like to stay here in Guatemala until August then go home to Colorado for a few months while the missionary family I am staying with is in the States for rainy season. Then I’d like to return to Guatemala in November and stay for the year. To make this possible I need to raise $15,000. I need $3,000 before May and $12,000 before November. If you would like to contribute please make your cheeks out to Front Line Kids with Amanda Culver in the memo and send them to Renee Culver at (if you would like to donate email me at amandaculve911@gmail.com for my address . All cheeks are tax deductible.

I have a blog that I keep updated once a mouth so you can see what I am doing. If you would like to hear about what I am doing over the months go to www.guatamanda.blogspot.com.

                                                             Thank you for all your prayer and support while I have been here.

 With Love,

Amanda Culver                           

Holiday Adventures

As I promised, here is a blog all about my Holiday Adventures. For Christmas the festivities start at 10pm on the 24th. The morning of the 24th was full of cooking up a feast for that night, hot chocolate and a Guatemalan desert (a holiday treat here, it’s a piece of sweet bread that is stuffed with a pudding like mixture then dipped in egg whites and fried then put in a melted sugar liquid.) Guatemala gave us a nice chilly day, prefect for Christmas it was in the low 70’s here. I have no idea what I would do with snow right now!! I got to help Melvin (the dorm mom at our high school dormitory) with all the cooking. We made a turkey and a special rice (I can’t remember the name of either dish) An old lady up the road from us made some special Christmas tamales! Yum!! Then that night Aneval’s (the dorm dad at the high school dorm) family came over for the Christmas feast. Aneval, Melvin and their daughter Hemena and Aneval’s parents, brother and sisters have all become like family to me I often refer to them as my Guatemala family. At around 10pm that night we had a big feast and more hot chocolate. At exactly 12am and I mean exactly (it’s probably the first thing that has ever happened to me "on time" since being here) every one shoots off fireworks; you name it, it was shoot off that night in Guatemala. There are no restrictions to fireworks and what you can and can’t have if you have the money and can buy it then you can shoot it off! It was one of the coolest displays I have seen! After that we opened a few presents then went to bed! On the 25th I had a wonderfull Skype chat with my family back home. It was an awesome Christmas adventure full of new traditions


New Year’s was a lot like Christmas. I helped Melvin prepare the fest for that night; yes another fest! We went to church that night they have a special New Year’s Eve Service. Then after church some of Melvin and Aneval’s family came over and we feasted on the delicious food! Then again at exactly 12 am on New Year’s Day the whole city was full of fireworks!

Will that was my Holiday season! I hope your holidays left you with as many new memories as mine did!