My Reading Blog

In my last post on 10/17/17, I wrote about the anticipation of my 5th trip to Guatemala with Thrivent Financial and Habitat Guatemala.  Today and for the next few weeks, I'll write about my experiences from this trip. The first year that I went, I felt a lot of anxiety about traveling outside of the country and not knowing what to expect.  But after the last four year, I felt more comfortable in traveling and working in a foreign country.  I still haven't learned to speak Spanish, but somehow communication is accomplished. We began our trip flying into Guatemala City.  It took us an unusually long (about an hour) to get thru Customs.  The lines were long, but we met some nice people along the way including some soccer players from India who had been traveling for two days to get to Guatemala for their match that day. After gathering everyone together (there were 13 of us), we headed to Antiqua for the night and then to San Lucas Toliman for the rest of the...

The day is quickly approaching The packing has begun The airline tickets were purchased many months ago The itinerary is in hand Immunizations administered Checklists almost complete The anticipation is growing Saturday we fly from Fayetteville, AR to Dallas to Guatemala City.  There are 16 of us from various parts of the U.S. meeting together to work with Thrivent Financal and Habitat Guatemala, building a home or working on smokeless stoves.  This will be my fifth trip and as with each of the other trips, I look forward to working along side the Guatemalan people to help improve their lives in a poverty burdened country.  In the following weeks, I'll be sharing this experience with each of you.  We pray for God's blessings on our team as we share those blessings with others.

Three of my friends have been enthralled with the cards that I create and give out.  I suggested that they, too, could create masterpieces.  I attend a card class on the last Tuesday of every month.  We make five cards, have a light lunch and a glass of wine and lots of chatting and laughing.  I asked them to join me.  They were ecstatic and ready to join in the fun. I picked them up at 9:30 a.m. and headed to my friend's house who has everything ready and waiting for us to make our creations.  One of the gals had worked on cards before, one had done scrapbooking and the other hadn't ventured into this world yet.  JoAnn was cautious and wanted to do everything exactly like the sample card.  Stamping is an art and takes practice, but by the end of the class she had gotten the hang of it.  Even though Glo has done a lot of crafting, she too had difficulty with stamping, but progressed quickly.  Lavon, who had done cards before, struggled...

The leaves slowly drift to the ground The grass turning brown The mums in all their glory slowly fading The aroma of a wood burning fireplace The days ending earlier and earlier The sun moving to the south as it rises in the sky The coolness in the air each morning The hummingbirds deserting their feeders  The beauty of an early morning sunrise and sunset As one season comes to an end, A new one begins Preparing, waiting, smiling at us with  new colors and landscapes Fall is here.