Something you don't have to deal with in the States is being alone. Some people may feel alone and that isn't something I am trying to get into today. Actually being alone and unable to communicate is just something that we don't have to deal with. This is something we as a family have had to deal with the past several weeks. Everyone who speaks English that lives here had been gone since Easter. Since that time we have really gotten the opportunity to practice our Spanish and work on communicating with people through any means necessary and do you know something? It has been awesome! Everything from getting water up to our house to being able to go into town to get groceries involves communicating with others and letting them know our needs. This has been a great time in ministry though and God has blessed it. We have more time to be with the orphans that live here and communicate with them because we weren't spending all our spare time with the other gringos. This time has not been without its share of hardship though as my mom decided to head back to the States three weeks early due to some miscommunications and misunderstanding about the way things were going to work when we first moved here. It has been hard to have her be gone.
This phase of being alone only lasted for about 2 weeks as we were surprised by a new missionary who came in on May 1st to stay for at least 3 months after meeting Tom for the first time in March. Then Brian and Cathy Gray arrived on the 4th. If you don't know who they are, check out any video at www.tstamman.com and you will hear Brian narrating.
We are about to do a total about face. We are getting ready to go from being alone, to being inundated with people who speak English. This coming weekend we will have two young ladies coming to stay for two months. We will be heading to Belize for a few days because our first 90 day window is ending at the end of this month. When we get back Josh will be returning as well as another American lady who is coming to live here for at least 3 months. We are very excited for her arrival because she plays piano. Dustin is doing everything he can to teach piano but he realizes he just doesn't know enough himself to be teaching it to children, and the language barrier makes it even harder. Piano is something she will be able to take over for at least a while and maybe give Dustin some more lessons so if she leaves after her three months, he might be able to pick the lessons back up.
We are starting to see some real progress in several of the children who are learning to play instruments and we think we might have the first worship team identified. Once they are identified it will be a matter of giving them time to practice together and getting more proficient and used to playing with each other. We are looking forward to having them start playing during worship at church and hopefully eventually writing their own songs and starting to record in the future.
We are so blessed to be here. We thank you all for your prayers and support for what we are doing here. We miss you all tremendously but couldn't be happier than being where God wants us to be. We hope to see some of you out here in the future to come minister with us, even if it is only for a short time. See what the Lord is doing in our lives and in the lives of those we minister to.
God bless you all!