Newsletter is Done!!

Good news everyone! :)
My newsletter is finally, completely finished! I was having trouble getting it printed and looking good. Trust me, it was worth the wait ;)
Hoping to hear from all of you... please, email me, facebook me, call me... i want to know what is going on with all of you as well!
If you're reading this thinking, "yeah, she's just saying that," or "She's not talking about me," I actually am talking about you! Really. I know that you are praying for me and being interested in my life, and i want to return that! I want to pray for you and be connected with you, even if I don't see you :)

So! God sent bad weather at just the right time! I was supposed to work tonight, but I'll be making a list of addresses and sending out newsletters tomorrow! Praying that my letter finds you well :)

~ Justine

New Haircut! :)

Newsletter!

Howdy Folks! :)

I just finished an outreach report newsletter, just for you! If you're reading this and you would like to receive a copy, please email me your mailing address or comment below. It's really sweet looking.. i'm proud of it! :)
Here are some of the pictures that will be on it:

Playing with kids at Tierra Nueva daycare

Blowing bubbles at Casa Shalom Orphanage

Giving my testimony at a church

Acting out the story of Elijah and the widow

Cute kids at Tierra Nueva daycare

Piled in the back of a van

Catching bubbles at Tierra Nueva daycare

Performing the Clincher drama at a church

Home Sweet Home...

It's so good to be back home :)
Nice to see so many familiar faces, and thank you so much for being interested in my life, people! :) I would absolutely love to tell you about my time in Guatemala and Texas, but I don't want to push it on any of you... haha :) so if you want to hear stories, please ask!!

Guatemala was wonderful and warm... it's currently sunny here at home, but there's at least a foot of snow on the ground and a biting cold breeze.
We spent our last week in Guatemala at Puerto Barrios and Livingston... beautiful areas! very hot, very humid...lots of fun creatures that like to sleep with you (cockroaches, small lizards, fleas, mosquitos... etc.). We were able to put on a few services at local churches, worshiping with them and offering prayer at the end. Wow! there is power in unity and prayer!
I was also able to translate pretty well by this time... even translating English prayers into Spanish! ... God is so faithful. He literally gave me the words. it was so good.

My favorite, favorite thing was the last children's ministry that we did... we went to an orphanage, and the next day we went to the area school that the orphan children attended. While we were at the orphanage, I met a girl named Katherine. I did her hair for her, and we just sat and talked for awhile. And I felt this prompting to give her my promise ring (it's a silver ring that says "true love waits"). So... I did. It fit her left ring finger perfectly, and i explained what the significance was. and she was so happy she almost started crying... she hugged me so hard! and she wouldn't leave my side after that. :) We also bought all of the kids Happy Meals from McDonalds, because we wanted to bless them, and they hardly ever eat meat. They all ate their french fries slowly, one at a time. it was precious.

So the next day we went to the school and were pleasantly surprised to see those kids again with their classmates. And we were able to hold an assembly with all of the kids, and share some funny clown skits with them, which was so fun... doing the clown skits was one of my favorite things! And Katherine came to me and gave me a huge hug, and showed me the ring :) It was so sweet. I love that girl. She's only 14, but you can see wisdom beyond her years in the carefulness and jadedness of her eyes... she's been through a lot.
That same day, a few people on our team were invited to climb a coconut tree and throw some down for us to eat. It was so cool! we had to use machetes to open them and drink the milk... it was pretty good! :)

All in all, outreach was great! I really got to experience God's heart for the nation of Guatemala. Everywhere we went, I could feel God's love for the people we encountered. It was so amazing.
Now that i'm back, i've started working at a factory 50-60 hours a week, because here's my next step:
~ God is calling me to do School of Evangelism!! :)

This is a huge undertaking, and a big step of faith, because I have to raise $6,000... This Month!!  I'll be working as much as I humanly can, but I can't do this alone. Please be in prayer, that God will speak to people about supporting me...pray that he'll speak to you about how you can help! Whatever you do, please pray!!! I'll be sending out newsletters in the next week to keep people updated, and I'll do my best to keep this blog updated as well! :)

Thanks everyone! love ya!

Clown Skit!

The Clowns! (minus Andrea)

The Final Stretch....

Wow... I can't believe we'll be leaving Guatemala for Texas in 8 days. This outreach has gone by so fast! I have loved the time we have spent here in Guatemala City!
Tomorrow we are leaving here to spend a week in Puerto Barrios, which is on the coast... hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out at the beach. I'm pretty tan now, but it would be nice to just relax at the beach :)
We have spent time at a lot of really cool ministries:
YWAM Guatemala, Casa Shalom, a soup kitchen....etc.
We were really able to be fairly consistent in our ministry because we got to return to the same places every week, so we really got to know the people we were hanging out with. 
The places that affected me the most were definitely the orphanages... wow! What precious children! If I had the means, i would be coming home with like, five kids. Each time we went to an orphanage or the garbage dump, i spent time with a precious, darling little child, and it broke my heart to leave them. The kids from the garbage dump were really dirty and starving for attention, and some of them were so emotionally wounded... I spent 2 hours trying to get this little girl to smile, and she had been hurt so badly by someone that she barely looked at me, and at some points she looked like she wanted to smile but she didn't know how. :( I finally convinced her to let me pick her up and swing her around, and she told me she liked it and wanted me to do it again, but you couldn't tell that by her face. Then I told her she could come sit in my lap, and she was really really hesitant... it was so sad. I told her i was her friend and i wasn't going to hurt her, so after awhile, she let me set her in my lap. She was sitting up straight and rigid for a full 15 seconds, and then she relaxed and leaned back against me, and eventually started petting my arm. That was one of the best moments of outreach!! I got to show that little girl that someone does care for her, and that God loves her. wow... still really makes me cry :)
There was a 1 month old little boy that i met at an orphanage, named Diego. His face had little white bumps scattered on it, and he had a few crusts on his head...i wiped him off as best i could, and just held him for three hours. He fell asleep, woke up hungry, i fed him and burped him, then he fell back to sleep. and he was the most precious little boy with the sweetest little baby laugh, and he was really ticklish :D I just prayed over him the whole time, that God would be preparing a family for him and keeping him safe... he was so sweet.
Before this outreach, our team was praying, "God, break our hearts for what breaks yours."
and he did. :) and we will never be the same!

Soup kitchen serving line :)

My friend from Tierra Nueva Daycare :)

Hello from Guatemala! :)

What a wonderful country! :) Everything here is so different and interesting and beautiful. We are blessed to have the most flavorful fruit i have ever tasted, for every single meal. I have really enjoyed being able to have quiet times in the hammock on the rooftop balcony. It's been sunny and warm almost every day. 
We've been working a lot with the homeless and with little kids, which has been really fun, really challenging, and really different. I think that ministering to the homeless is really difficult. We had the opportunity to hand out snacks, sleeping bags, and water to the homeless in Houston, and I just found myself really not knowing what to say. Now we're doing the same thing in a country where we don't speak the language. This is one of the many examples of how God is continually pushing on the boundaries of my comfort zone. :)
Today I gave my testimony for the first time on outreach, at a small church, and i was so nervous. Speaking through a translator takes a lot of the pressure off :)
Anyway, I really like it here a lot! I've had the chance to brush up a lot on my spanish, and learn (what feels like) a little. :) 
I also discovered that i have allergies to the black smoke/smog/exhaust that is all over in the city... my throat got really scratchy and my head is really stuffed now. I was getting headaches, but those have gone away, for now :)

Please be in prayer for:
- Andrea and Andre, a young mom and her son on the team. He has a broken arm and was struggling with a really bad cough for awhile, and it's really wearing on both of them.
- My health... it would be really nice to be able to breathe properly...i want to show off my soccer skills! :)
- direction for after outreach...
     -Come back for School of Evangelism
     -Work, go back to college
- Finances

Thanks everyone! I'll try to update more frequently! :)

 

We had to push our van after it broke down on the highway :)

Stateside Debriefing

Hey everyone! 
I'm back in Lindale on the base for today, then i'll be leaving for Guatemala tomorrow! So excited!

Houston Stateside outreach was awesome! We had the opportunity to minister in several churches and with several ministries reaching out to the homeless. I wish i had time to write about all of the great things that happened, but here are a few awesome things.


 Highlights: 
- I learned that quiet times are *imperative* on outreach. If i went without for a day, it was very obvious in how i acted and in how i felt. and each day, my quiet times were exactly in line with what i needed to hear to get through the day! it was amazing :)
- We were able to put on a vacation bible school after school in two of the poorer neighborhoods, and we were really able to love on the kids and show them God's heart for them.
- I also had the opportunity to pray for a girl (I felt like God was pointing her out to me) and she ended up crying because i prayed exactly what was on her heart without her even telling me about it. Praise God! She ended up bringing her younger sister up to me for prayer later on in the week because we did a chapel service at her school. God really brought a lot of healing through that!


All in all, stateside was really awesome! pray the same for Guatemala! :)
Love you all, and i'll update again as soon as i get a chance!

 

Photo of the Clincher Drama

On the brink...

Wowzer... almost done with Psychology...!!!!
almost.
I need to catch my breath.
Christmas with my family has been really great :) i love those guys. I'm sad to be leaving tomorrow... it seems like I just got home. :(
However! Exciting things are in store!
Dec. 29 ( i think... :D) i leave for Houston to do street ministry, which is going to be awesome!
January 11 ( i think... :D) we leave for Guatemala!!! *SO* excited for that :) and I'll be gone from home until sometime after Feb. 20th...back just in time for my Birthday ;)

Hope ya'll had a great Christmas! :)

Taking a break from decorating the dorm :)