Dec 1 by Lisette

My name is Lissette and I am the Tia of the girls in Independent Living. I am in the center of the photo with Maricruz on the left and Fabiola on the right. I am 38 years old.

I am reflecting back on this trip because we don’t have much time left on this trip – about a week. The truth is that I feel like this trip has been for a long time. Many times I didn’t know what hour it was or what day it was or what date it was. Some days were here and other days were in another place and this seemed difficult but it wasn’t. Each family had sacrificed to make our stay as comfortable as possible. It qualified to me as 5 star service. The families have given us an example of unity and what a family should be and of service and humility and love and sacrifice.

To work at Prince of Peace has been a great blessing to me. Every day is different and a different experience. But to go to the US is something very special. I know for certain that this trip will in some way change me life.

God has blessed our lives through each church and person in a personal way. I don’t have the words to express my gratitude and my joy to God. It has been a time of surprises and incredible moments and has been super special.

To know the US has been beautiful but it is also good to know that we will return to Guatemala in a few days. Good bye and God bless you.

Nov 26 by Myra

My name is Myra and I will write about Thanksgiving Day of our trip in the U.S.

We were together in the house of the sister of Mrs. Lana whose name is Kerry and Gary Cox. They live in Springfield, Missouri.

It was also a very good day because the sons of Miss Kay and Dr. Jim were with us and they were a lot of fun. It was also a very special day for Don Pablo because it was his birthday and we celebrated it also.

We ate turkey and ham and much more and I enjoyed it very much because all of my family shared the day and the food together. The thing that I especially liked was that David, Benjamin, and Mark Hines shared the day with us and we had fun together and they are like my brothers because I realized that they were worried about and took care of each of us. This day was so special for me because I felt so, so happy to be there and share with all of my family.

This day of Thanksgiving here in the U.S. is very important because the whole family is together and share food together. The family of Miss Lana was there. This taught me something very important – that it is very important to share with family good and bad times and it makes us better people.

Nov 21 & 22, by Judith

Hello, my name is Judith, in the picture above I am on the left with Miss Kay and MariCruz.I am 18 years old and have lived at Prince of Peace for about a year.

Saturday, Nov. 21 in the morning we had a conference in Richmond, KY and it was very interesting since we talked about how to be friends and girlfriends and boyfriends. Afterwards, we ate lunch and then we went to the business location of Mike Eckler to say goodbye before traveling to Morehead, KY We arrived at about 6:30 p.m. at the church and we had dinner with the people who were waiting for us to arrive. After eating, we went to a basketball game at Morehead State and later we had an outside fire and I talked to some people there and had a good time.

Sunday, Nov. 22 we awakened early to be at the church and we had a good service. We had a good lunch and afterward, we saw a movie. We waited until 5 p.m. to visit a university with people from the church. A man from the university welcomed us and led us to the 3rd floor to visit a class where people were practicing the somba dance. My friends and I began to dance also and it was a lot of fun. Then we returned to the church for another service. We went to bed so that we could get up early the next mornig.

Nov 17th by Joselin

Hello. My name is Joselin and I am 16 years old.
I am very excited because today rode a horse and we got to see the farm of the parents of Alicia Sanders, wife of Mathew Sanders.
We arrived at the house of Bill and Linda Hill, Alicia’s parents and Mr. Paul immediately asked Mr. Bill if we might ride horses. Mr. Paul and Mr. Bill left to get the horses and when they returned with them, we were very excited. Mr. Paul and Mr. Bill helped us up into the saddle and we began taking turns riding the horses while the men led them.
Later, we rode around the farm on top of a trailer with wheels and some hay on it. It made me very contented to be on the farm.
Later, we went to the farm next door to see really small goats. These were very beautiful and sweet animals and I was very contented holding them.
Later, my companions and I rode something like a small car with wheels (4 wheelers) and all of this was like a dream from which I did not want to awaken.
After much laughing, playing games and fun, we had a large outdoor fire and ate hotdogs and marshmallows and it was all very good. I enjoyed it a lot.
Later, we sang and danced the gallina all together and sang a song for the Lord.
It was all very special and something that I would never be able to imagine to do. It is a great opportunity that God has given me and has permitted me to realize.
I will never forget this day and how we laughed and shared together. It was fantastic!
Thanks you Lord for permitting me this gift.

Nov 16th by MariCruz

My name is Maricruz and I am 18 years old. I have just graduated from High School and when I return to Guatemala I plan to work to earn money toward attending the university. I want to be a lawyer.

I am writing about what we did on Nov. 16 on our trip.

This day was planned to visit the Creation Museum. We were waiting for our tickets to go into the museum and Miss Lana told us that we could have our photos taken. The photos were for our group to remember our trip. Some had their pictures taken in front of dinosaurs and others in front of various designs and landscapes. Each person was able to buy their own photos at the cost of $5.

Later we looked at all of the exhibits. One of the things that I liked most was that all of the videos were about how God created the universe. And if it weren’t for Him, nothing of ours would be made.

Then we had lunch in the museum and some people had sandwiches and others had pizza. Everything was fun.

The dinosaurs are creatures that I have wondered about. I have asked “why?” Now here I was able to realize the wisdom of God because if these animals existed now I think that we ourselves would not exist. God knows how to do things.

I am very grateful to each person who has been a part of making this visit to the museum possible. First I give thanks to God for this great trip He has given us and to all of the people who didn’t know us but have opened the doors of their homes to offer us hospitality. God bless you.

Nov 14th by Esperanza

My name is Esperanza Itzep and I am 20 years old and on the 21st of December I will complete 21 years. On the 23rd of October I graduated from High School having studied to become a Bilingual Secretary.

I want to study Business Administration in the United States.

During this trip we have had the opportunity to go to many pretty places. I will tell about Nov. 14 when we went on a picnic that was called tailgating before the Eastern Kentucky football game. The game began at 1 p.m. and it was a beautiful day – not too cold and not raining. We enjoyed the game very much. We were given T-shirts that advertised EKU to wear. The truth is that I never understood this game. Darrell Brock and Mike Eckler tried to explain it to me but I couldn’t get all of it.

This was a great experience because never in my life have I been to a game such as this.

I give thanks to God for giving me this opportunity to know many people so wonderful to my life. I will never forget this moment so great.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. In truth, I don’t have words to describe this. I am only able to say that many people here have much love for us.

Thank you for reading this – you are very special to my life. I love you.

Nov 13 by Ana

Hello! My name is Ana and I am 16 years old. I was born in El Salvador and came to Guatemala to live when I was 8 years old and came to Prince of Peace at 10 years of age.

The people who help us are North Americans and they are very good people who have given us the opportunity to be here.

I am supposed to tell you about my day on Nov. 13 and I am a bit late in telling it to you.

In the morning, we went bowling and this was the first time for me to do this game. In Spanish we call it boliche. This first time to bowl wasn’t a good time for me because my fingernail got caught in the ball while it was in the air and it was very painful. But the rest of the time was very fun.

Later in the day we went to visit the Horse Park in Lexington, KY and we saw some horses there. We were able to pet them but I didn’t like this because they didn’t smell good. My friend really liked to pet them though.

The best part of the day was that all of my family was together and we had a lot of fun.

The Horse Park mentioned by Ana is where the Equestrian Olympics will be held in 2010 and we were able to see much preparation being done for these events. Kay Hines