Saying good-byes again

I hate saying good-byes. I guess we all do.
You may remember the names of my best friends in Guatemala, Ginni and Kevin, from my very early blog posts. They are missionaries. We all knew that the day would come where we'd have to part, but we tried to ignore the thought. Ginni and Kevin are new onto the mission field too. We arrived at language school at about the same time. Ginni and I became surprisingly close, surprisingly quick. We lived in the same house for the first few weeks, and shed many a tear on each others shoulders.

Anyhow, last weekend looked like it would be our last chance to see each other. So, they asked if I'd like to come with them for the weekend to see their ministry which is on the edge of Guatemala's largest dump/land fill. It's many many acres large. Their ministry is to the people who live on the edge (literally) of the dump under pieces of cardboard and scrap metal and work in the dump as they go through all the trash to find food to eat and left over things that they might be able to re-sell or recycle. It's probably one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. Ginni and Kevin were quick to point out (again) that they have a nice, organized, well stocked clinic that's in serious need of a nurse since their previous nurse recently completed her commitment to the ministry. Of course, I too have made a commitment to the orphanage for a minimum of one year, and they understand that I need to keep my commitment unless God himself says differently. And I don't think that's going to happen. Anyhow, it was really nice to spend the weekend with Kevin & Ginni and to meet the other ministry workers. Really great folks.

Imagine this with me...a tire rim grill. Yep, you take the large tire rim of car or truck from the dump, then turn it so that it lays flat like a plate. Then you weld some re bar to the sides of it form a stand for the grill, and "Wah-lah!" you now have a grill. I'll try to put the picture on this blog. One night we had shishkabobs (how in the world is that word spelled?) on the grill...yummy! And at night Ginni, Kevin and I would watch a DVD movie on the computer (thanks to those of you who gave or loaned me your movies!) You know, it just felt so comfortable, and almost "normal".

So this week is probably my last week of school, and I'll need to say good-bye to my other friends, including my friend from Taiwan, An-Hui. An-Hui (AKA Amelia) is going to cook a meal for me on Saturday for my going away meal. She's so sweet. And I think another friend and I will take our teachers out for lunch on Friday after my exam. And I'll have to say good-bye to the wonderful climate/cool temperatures and bright colors of Antigua, and God's incredible volcanic mountains.

I had to say good-bye extra early to another new friend, John Nichols. He's a missionary to this town, and been living here for a few years. Such a nice guy! If you could look up "sold out for God" in a dictionary, it would list John's name. John said his last good-byes about 2.5 weeks ago. He died at the age of 49 from a heart attack, his 2nd.


Just to keep you in the loop, there's some discussoin of my actually coming back for more language school, possibly as soon as September for about a month or so. There's a big project that I need to assist with back in El Salvador that will end at the end of August. We'll see. Returning to school is the LAST thing I want right now...but ultimately it would probably be best for me down the road. One step at a time for now.