Greetings from Guatemala

In a previous blog, I mentioned that my husband and 16-year-old son were just returning from a mission's trip to Guatemala, and at some point, I would blog about that. Instead, you are in for an extra special treat. Tony and I had asked Nick to write a letter to his supporters thanking them again for the money they donated as well as relating to them the experiences he had. He went above and beyond in his letter, and I would like to share it with you. It truly touched my heart to see the impact this trip had on his life. Enjoy!

January 23, 2008

Hey guys,

Sorry this is late. I have had a hectic couple of weeks after the trip to Guatemala. I was sick with pneumonia last week, and now this week I am paying the price in mounds of homework. So, finally I have a breath of fresh air to do something other than school. Again, I am very grateful for all of your support. Without you guys, I wouldn’t have been able to have had the great experience in Guatemala.

As you may or may not know Guatemala has a rugged terrain; it was very green with active volcanoes everywhere we looked. We saw many fields of corn and other plants. Most of the time, these fields were on slopes or on the side of the volcanoes. Travel around these mountains was tough and took twice as long as it would in a non mountainous area. The house, Agua Viva, we stayed in was elevated over 7,000 feet above sea level. So, as you could imagine we had a little less stamina then normal.

Agua Viva is a home for children that are not necessarily orphans. Most of the kids had been either court ordered, or sent there by a parent or neighbor. The children there are very kind and loving. One would never know that they had been in difficult situations at all. The kids are very patient. Even though I have almost 4 years of Spanish under my belt, I still struggled with the language. They would wait for me to figure it out, or they would try to say other words that I could maybe recognize. So, I was able to understand the week through bits and pieces.

(Women selling their wares in the marketplace)

The home was divided into 5 houses. The houses are from littlest to largest Casa Samuel, Casa Ruth, Casa David, Casa Ester and Casa Josue. The house I got to know the most was Casa Josue. The Casa Josue ages ranged from about 10-18. We played jokes at breakfast, lunch and dinner; we played “futbol,” or soccer and basketball; and we painted trees and classrooms and just hung out. These boys, just like in the rest of the houses, were very obedient and helpful. Every time we went to do some work, there were some of these boys asking if they could help. Even when we weren’t working, they would ask if we were going to later on in the day.

(Nick is the non-guatemalan looking guy)

On this trip many strange things occurred that veteran group members said that they had never experienced there before. The first thing that happened was that one of our group leaders got food poisoning on the way to Guatemala. When we arrived, she was hospitalized at one of the hospitals and ended up coming back that night. Also, on one of the trips outside of the home we experienced a power outage. It wasn’t noticeable because it was daytime and very bright outside. When we got back to the Agua Viva there was no power there either! We had dinner by candle light and had to use flashlights for about an hour until the power came back on. Another strange occurrence happened on the last night we were in Guatemala. At our going away ceremony there was an earthquake right in the middle of the program. All the kids were unfazed because they were used to them. Last, but not least was the weather. While we were there, the group members who had been to Guatemala before had never experienced such cold temperatures. Most of us were not packed sufficiently, so we had to make due on one pair of pants and a light jacket. Overall these odd happenings made for an interesting week.

(Nick in the church service)

One of the best experiences I had in Guatemala was playing soccer with the kids. It was fun to try to watch them handle the ball and score, except when I was goalie. They play every day, and a couple of us were lucky enough to join in on two of these games. They were fun, and the kids laughed at us a lot but we had a great time anyway. The games we played were like close football games. I bet that many of them could come here to high schools in America and dominate.

I took away many things from this trip. One thing that really stuck out to me was the patience that they had. There were no clocks there so you couldn’t tell time, unless you brought a watch. They never seemed rushed to do anything. I found myself trying to find out the time countless times. We just seem like a really fast paced society here in America. When I was in Guatemala, I didn’t worry about tomorrow. All I cared about was what I was doing in that moment. In Matthew 6:34 Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” I think that we all could apply this to our lives. We don’t need to worry and stress out about tomorrow; we just need to think about today.

Thank you again for all of your support. I hope you were able to catch a glimpse of what I experienced on this trip. It was fantastic, and I hope to go back again. I am sorry for the lateness of this letter. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Nick Carlsberg


I am so proud of this maturing young man. I pray that God does amazing and mighty things in and through his life as he follows after Him. You know, there are moments when we wonder if our children are "getting it"...that the most satisfying and complete life is only through Jesus Christ. We so desire for our kids to mature and grow in Him, for them to hear our words and model after us (most of the time, that is)! Many times we think all that we are attempting to teach them is going in one ear and out the other. Then we have these glimpses, these snapshots they show us...it's enough to make a momma cry!