I do want to take time, however, to share about our last couple of weeks before we left Guatemala. On July 26th, Kris and I went from family-of-two to family-of-nine as we picked up our new family for the coming year, the McKinneys and their "nanny" Nina. Pretty much from the moment the four McKinney kids stepped out of the exit doors of the Guatemala airport, our hearts were stolen. And as we spent some time over the next week helping Mark and Katy get settled into Antigua and learning some of their rules of parenting, we were both overwhelmed and inspired by the work required for and the beauty inherent in such a large family. From Katherine's obsession with toes and "little piggies" going "weeweewee," to Eliza's bluntness and humor beneath golden ringlet curls, to Mary Helen's and Drew's nighttime shows and robot dances, Kris and I have realized that we have quite a year of adventure and learning ahead! And truthfully, we are really looking forward to it... not just because of the kids, but also because we are looking forward to the adult companionship that we will enjoy with Mark and Katy and sweet Nina. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with this community, and as we anticipate it will be difficult to leave friends and family in the States once again at the end of this month, we are thankful to have something and some "ones" to look forward to!
We forgot to get a picture with the McKinneys before we left for the States, so we had them email us a couple. The one above was taken in the U.S. before they left, and the one below is from Antigua, with the addition of Nina.
After our week in Antigua with the McKinneys, I was blessed to have a visit from one of my former roommates and bridesmaids Elizabeth Roney, or "Zab" as we affectionately call her. Kris was supposed to have one of his best friends join us as well, but he strangely came down with a horrible degenerative muscular disease from a tick bite and was put on bed rest that would not allow him to make the trip to Guatemala. We missed Rick and Amanda dearly, and we're hoping they can reschedule for a later date! Anyway, I will touch on a few highlights of Zab's time with us: such as the (what felt like) hundreds of times that we hiked up the steps to our house carrying large, heavy boards to build a dividing wall for the McKinneys house, or the morning Kris and the others left us without a key to get into the block storehouse for my dental curriculum materials and she helped give me physical and moral support as I stacked up concrete blocks and pulled myself through a small opening between the wall and the roof to finally get inside (kids, don't try this at home!), or the night that she got to experience our house once again becoming a "hotel" as we housed a young girl that had been bitten twice in the foot by a poisonous snake (the nurse was able to give her some shots of antibiotics and other than some pretty bad swelling, she made it out okay). Throw in a movie night for the kids of the Valley, a visit to the local market, and her attendance at a Valley water meeting, and overall, I think Zab really got to enjoy a pretty authentic Guatemalan experience!
However, the reason I titled this post "Living Missionally in the States" was because I wanted to wrap up this post by briefly bragging about what Zab is doing through her business in the states. This is her story as I know and have heard it... all the facts may not be exactly on-target, but it's a story worth telling, nonetheless. Zab was a fashion design major from Lipscomb who struggled to find a decent job right out of college and, instead of getting discouraged or giving up and pursuing some other career path, took the bold step of starting her own clothing business... and doing it creatively! Here are two really creative aspects of her business: (1) She uses "recycled" fabrics to make her clothing, mainly involving t-shirts from Goodwill-type stores but also, as an example, including a large flour sack from Ghana that she uses to make an adorable sun dress; (2)She works with groups of women in foreign countries (right now including Honduras, Ghana, and Haiti... but she's also currently looking into options in Guatemala... woohoo!) as they help sew the clothes that she sells through a fair trade type of work relationship. I love what Zab is doing, mainly because every time Kris and I talk about our decision to live as missionaries in Guatemala, we make it a point to emphasize that you don't have to leave the United States to live missionally; you can use your profession wherever you are to serve others in a selfless and creative manner... and Zab is a perfect example of this! Elizabeth's clothing line and more information about the mission of her business can be found at http://www.lizalig.com... from my point of view, she is helping to transform the fashion industry, one piece of recycled, fair-trade-produced clothing at a time.
Not the best picture, but the only one I took during the whole week Elizabeth was with me...
