So, I’ve gone gluten-free; in reality 3 out of 5 of us have gone gluten-free. I know it’s the new bandwagon in the U.S. but let me assure you, it is not trendy here in Guatemala.

So, why in the world would I choose to go gluten-free? Well, my stomach has bothered me my whole life and for the last few years I knew I should probably try going Gluten free. But in reality, I LOVE GLUTEN. In fact, I believe I was addicted to it.

After going to the states and eating at every restaurant that I had been missing, I returned to Guatemala feeling quite sick. I was happy mind you, just sick. So I decided to “cleanse” for a few days. We’ve all done it, the post-vacation diet of fruits and veggies, but I was craving bread. I needed motivation to stay with my healthy foods for just a few days…this was not going to be permanent. So I bought the book (on my iPad of course, I have yet to find a bookstore) Wheat Belly by William Davis.  Wow! It offered the motivation I needed. He said, the first few days you will crave bread like a chain smoker craves a cigarette!

So, I stuck with my “temporary” healthy eating for a few more days. And something that I never expected happened, I stopped craving bread and I felt better than I had felt in years!! I had mixed emotions. Obviously I was happy to feel so good, but I was sad, because I realized that the very food I craved and ate often was the very food making me sick. I could not turn back.

Todd and Emily have joined me to support this lifestyle change. Todd has not noticed much difference, but Emily, who has always been skinny but had a little protruding belly, came to me just yesterday and said, “Mommy, my big tummy is gone!” After reading Wheat Belly I believe she was bloated from gluten.

Why am I sharing all this with you? Well, not to over spiritualize this, but I was refusing to give up the one thing I loved not realizing it was the very thing hurting me. I see this in my spiritual life too. I tend to want to hold on to the very thought, action, or sin that I think I need in my life; not realizing it is the very thing holding me back…This whole journey has been quite eye-opening.

What are you holding on to that is really hurting you?

Sisters have been on my mind a lot lately. I know two older sisters here in Guatemala, never been married…buying one cinder block at a time and praying for three years that some one would build them a house, and we have teams helping to build a house for them. I love these ladies.

Then the other day I met 2 more sisters, 15 and 17. They live alone since both their parents died. They live in a 1/2 finished block house with no bathroom ( they use their aunt’s bathroom) and a piece of lamana leaning up against the wall as a make shift roof to cover the open flame they cook over. They have a bedroom, the only real room in the house, with a small, old bed that they share.

We took the young sisters up to see the older sisters. The older sisters have Jesus, and a house. The younger girls have neither. I can offer them Jesus but I can’t build them a house because they aren’t the official owners of the land. I stood and cried, my heart breaking, as I talked with the older sisters about the younger sisters.

Tears that I could not live how they live, tears that they don’t know Jesus, tears that I dont kow how to fix their physical living situation, tears that God led my Katey to meet the older sister, tears that my kids don’t have to live that way, tears that these young girls do. Tears that I didn’t take them home with me, and more tears that they probably would not have come. So many tears.

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:18

Recently, I had someone tell me that the things which I now consider “normal” would probably be very interesting to people who do not live here in Guatemala. Today, as we were running errands in the city, I started looking at my day with that mind set. Here is just a small snap shot of my day which was so close to my old normal and yet so far…..

Katey, Todd and I went into the city to run some errands. We decided that we could do one stop shopping if we went to Eskala Mall. It has a newly renamed store….Walmart.

I could not find the makeup I needed so I bought a different brand and hoped it would work. They also don’t have bottled water by the case, so we grabbed an arm full of individual bottles and hoped to make it to the cart without dropping them. I could not find a few of the items I needed, but I made a mental note of the items I saw that they had not carried before.

We spoke Spanish in the checkout line, paid in Quetzals and headed out of the store. The store opens up to the inside hallway of the mall, which looks like any mall in the US, but we now had our Walmart cart. We left the mall and headed for our car, passing a security guard with a very large gun in his hands.

After loading up the car, we decided that we were hungry and it was well past lunch time, so we opted to grab a quick lunch at the mall Pizza Hut. This is not the food court Pizza Hut but the sit-down kind and it was cleaner than any Pizza Hut I’ve ever been in. The manager asked us, in Spanish of course, if we wanted to be able to see the TV and we said yes. It seemed the whole restaurant was there to see the TV. Barcelona (Spain) was playing Manchester United (England) in soccer.

Imagine everyone in the US being either a Redskin or Cowboy fan. No other teams even come close…. That is what it is like here. Just about everyone is either a Real Madrid or Barcelona fan and today only Barcelona was playing. Since leaving our house earlier in the day we lost count on how many Barcelona jerseys we had seen. Every TV in Walmart , every radio that had a plug, was tuned to this game.

As I headed to the Pizza Hut bathroom, Barcelona scored and the whole restaurant (including Todd) went nuts. Even the kitchen staff was out of the kitchen watching the TV (which made me wonder how long it would take to get our pizza…but it came quite quickly).

I ordered Pepsi Light (Diet Pepsi) and it almost always comes in a can. This time it was a fountain drink….I was so excited. “Do you have free refills, I asked?” No. Since moving here I have found only one restaurant that had free refills. Todd and Katey ordered bottles of water, which they call agua pura (like your going to order agua impura) and does not come with refills. So the old trick of ordering water to cut down on your tab does not work here.

I have not had Pizza Hut since moving here, so we decided to splurge and get the stuffed crust. It was good, the crust was stuffed, but on the outside of the crust was cheddar cheese. We enjoyed our meal, our non-refillable drinks, and the game (Barcelona won in case you missed it) and then headed home.

In the evening, a mom and four of her 7 kids stopped by to say they did not have enough food to eat. This is such a struggle for us. We know the concept behind the saying, “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day but if you teach him to fish he eats for a lifetime”. But when they are standing on your doorstep at 6:30pm in the dark and in the rain with 4 of their kids, ranging from ages 12 to 3 months, there is not time to teach fishing.

We invited them in, introduced the little ones to our cat, fed them popcorn and chatted in Spanish. Then I packed up a lot of food (some that I had just bought at Walmart), hugged them and prayed with them. The mom cried, we gave them bus money and sent them on their way.

And as the evening was coming to an end, I thought to myself: “What a normal Saturday.”

I am not always content with the new normal, but the Lord is working on me, which brings to mind the part of Philippians 4:12 that says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” ……That is my prayer.

Have you ever had to adjust to a new normal?

These are our smaller stoves being put in houses in the pueblo of San Pablo, across Lake Atitlan from Panajachel.

Before:

After:

The women are believers in Jesus, the father is a witchdoctor

Before:

After:

This sweet lady has terrible pain in her legs. I got a chance to lay hands on them and pray for healing for her.