Wonder.

It takes a lot to surprise me.

A lot.

I am not easily shocked.

I have come to realize that this can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing.

I have come to realize that often poverty doesn't shock me.

At first I thought that it was because I had become accustomed to it over the years so it no longer shocked me, but I now realize that it never really shocked me.

I was exposed to poverty from a young age so it was never a new, surprising, or shocking thing for me.

The poverty in Guatemala rarely shocks me.

That is not good.

It really isn't.

God is so faithful though-I am realizing more and more that God knows exactly what I need.

That is why I am working with teams.

Every day I am working with people who are shocked by poverty.

Some of the people on these teams are seeing poverty for the first time in their lives.

The VERY first time.

They are shocked by what they are seeing.

They ask incredible questions.

They think of things I have never thought of.

They see things that I have looked at before but never actually SEEN.

Have you found that in your own life before? That you have looked at something every day, but never actually LOOKED at it.

You've never actually soaked it in.

Appreciated it.

Taken it in.

You've become immune to seeing it.

In some ways, I have become immune to poverty.

I do NOT want to be immune to poverty.

I want my heart to break for what breaks God's heart.

I want to ache when he aches.

I want to cry when he cries.

God: break me.

Please.

I do not want to lose wonder.

I want to be seeing things with fresh eyes every day.

Let me not lose wonder Lord Jesus.

I just want to share a "quick" update (but if you know me, nothing is ever quick with Michelle)...

Some of the details might not be exactly accurate (ie: the dates, etc.), but that's because everything sort of blurs at this point.

This team arrived Thursday night, we spent Friday morning in the capital city, and then drove to Tactic Friday afternoon.

Saturday was the first work day with this team and we continued our work at Chijacorral. It's really neat to see the progress there. There is still a lot of work to be done, but a great deal has been accomplished.

Saturday afternoon we went to the hospital to pray for the children and new mothers there. I have done hospital visits there quite a few times, but I was really affected this time.

We were praying for a little girl-she wasn't even a year old-and she was severely malnourished.

SEVERELY malnourished.

You could pull the skin away from her bones.

We were in the middle of praying for her and I just couldn't take it anymore-I had to leave.

It hurt too much.

She wasn't hooked up to an IV.

She wasn't getting the hydration she needed.

And she needed hydration NOW.

My heart ached.

I got a glimpse of what the Father feels for his children.

Sunday morning I got the morning off (ahh-blessed rest), and then we went to church in the afternoon.

Church is always enjoyable and I feel so blessed to be able to worship with the brothers and sisters here. Man- we are going to have an amazing party up in heaven one day!

Seriously. It will be incredible.

On Monday we worked at the work site again and then did this team's first day of children's ministry at a Nazarene church in a small community called Pas Molon. We did 4 days of children's ministry there and I was absolutely blessed by the people who came out.

SUCH a blessing.

Beautiful, beautiful children.

I will share some photos later.

We have worked 2 more days since then and finished our last day of children's ministry (with this team) today.

Tonight I had the pleasure of going to a prayer and worship evening at the Impact church in Tactic. We spent an hour praising the Lord through song and prayer-it was a blessing.

That's a bit of a rough overview of everything, but I just wanted to update you while I had a bit of time.

I also wanted to share some prayer requests with you.

Please pray:

-For the team that is here right now. They are working really hard and a number of them have been ill in some form. Please pray that they can stay healthy so they can fully experience what God has for them here.

-For the people who came to children's ministry this past week-that the seeds that were planted would bear much fruit.

-For me to have energy and love for everyone I interact with. I know that I need to grow in patience and grace for everyone I interact with.

-For safety as we travel to Antigua this Saturday.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.

You are all such an encouragement to me.

Blessings on all of you.

Much love,

Michelle

xoxo

Snapshots.

Here are a few snapshots of the past week or so of my life.

Me, in front of La Casa Amarilla (The Yellow House)-where I live.

My sponsor child gave me the top of this traditional dress-called a guipil (say: wee-peel) and the skirt is called a corte. Julie Sawatsky, one of the girls who lives in my house with me, lent me the corte.

I wore this to church last Sunday and my sponsor family was absolutely thrilled. I was actually able to sit with them during the service and worship with them. What an incredible privilege.

This is Selvin. He comes and visits me every time we work at Chijacorral.

I practice my Spanish with him and he practices his English with me.

He blesses my heart.

And yes, he wears TOMS. Someone donated shoes for ALL the kids in all the Impact schools.

And they were TOMS.

That's all for now.

Much love.

Life.

Hello dear ones.

I apologize if some of this is a bit jumbled. It is late and I am tired, but I really wanted to update you all.

I have been in Guatemala for just under 2 weeks-hard to believe hey? It's pretty crazy. It has gone by so quickly, but it also feels like I have been here for a long time.

I am so enjoying the work I am doing here. I feel so privileged to be working with Impact Ministries and meeting so many different people who also believe in what Impact is doing.

This past week has been very busy (it's always busy here...).

We continued to work with the team from Duvall and we had an absolute blast with them. They were such a blessing to us as a ministry as well as to me personally. I'm just going to give a brief overview of our last week. We took the team on home visits, went to the hospital in Coban, played soccer with some of the teachers from one of the Impact schools and travelled to Antigua and Guatemala city.

On Tuesday morning we left Tactic for Antigua where we take each team to do some touristy things. We had a great time there visiting ruins, going to the market and enjoying Antigua. I will post pictures soon.

While in Antigua, I had the privilege of visiting a dear friend of mine-Naomi Heye! She lived in Kamloops most of her life and is also an alum of Kamloops Christian School. We have known each other since I was very little and she is very special to me. She is working in a children's home about 3o minutes outside of Antigua and she drove in to Antigua to see me! It was so lovely. We went for crepes at this fantastic place in Antigua and had a chance to visit for the first time in over a year (I think it's been a year...or maybe more...I struggle to keep track of time...)! I am very grateful I got to spend time with her.

On Thursday morning we drove the Duvall team to Guatemala city where they flew back to Duvall. Me, along with Karren and Rocky Chupa, Arryn Bauder and Eric Valiante (he is a Guatemalan who does a great deal of work for Impact), then took the afternoon off just relaxing and spending time together. It was really great. After we ate dinner we had to go to the airport to pick up the next team. This team is from a church in Charlie Lake- they refer to it as a sort of suburb of Fort St. John (BC). This morning we toured the capital a bit and then drove back to Tactic.

I have such a neat job here. I get to work with short-term teams from all over North America and facilitate them as they serve Impact Ministries. It is so so interesting to see how different every team is. I am gleaning so much from watching teams and how they interact and the positives and negatives of every team structure.

I love that I can meet new, interesting and exciting people and spend 10 days with them, growing alongside them. I find it absolutely incredible that these teams accept me, love me, trust me and bless me in so many ways. I feel so honoured.

I am learning a great deal here and I am so grateful that God brought me here to serve with Impact Ministries.

I covet your prayers as I know I can only serve by God's strength-not mine.

Please pray:

-For continued energy, strength, patience and love for me

-That I would be able to connect with this new team and love on them and serve them as they so need

-That I would discipline myself to set aside time for just me and God

-For wisdom and courage in all my interactions-I want to be a blessing to all that I encounter

Thank you all so much for your support. You are so dear to me.

I would love to hear from you so comment on this or e-mail me-I would love to share with you more of what God is doing in me and I would LOVE to hear what God is doing in your life.

Much love,

Michelle

xoxo

Photos phrom the past phive days.

I hope you appreciate my failed attempt at alliteration...

Anyways.

Here are some pictures to give you a window into my life here in Guatemala.

A photo from children's ministry in a local church. I hope this photo tugs at your heart strings.

This is where we have worked for three mornings this week (and we will be working there tomorrow morning). It is one of the Impact Ministries Vida schools-Chijacorral (spelling might be wrong...)

Me, performing some last-minute, much needed dental surgery on one of the Duvall team leaders: Phil.

*I think I might have a future in the dental industry*-I hope you agree...

Sorry there are only a few pictures here, but it is all I have time for at the moment.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Please message me or e-mail me if you want to know more details about my time here:

m-coxon@hotmail.com

Walking hand in hand with Jesus,

Much love,

Michelle

xoxo

I am in Guatemala.

I am here.

Finally.

Even though I have been here for 4 days now it still feel pretty unreal.

I'm going to just give a quickie update because I need to be heading to bed very soon to get some MUCH needed rest.

I arrived in Guatemala city Sunday night. The trip down was perfect.

Honestly. Nothing went wrong. It was unreal.

It was so unreal that I kept thinking: "I must have done something wrong along the way. Something must be wrong. This can't be this problem free."

But it was.

I got to all my gates on time (one ONLY by the grace of God-I'll explain another day if I have time). All my bags got through. Hermano Eric (he works for Impact Ministries and is super great-he's a crazy/amazing driver and kind of like a Guatemalan uncle to me. Or something like that...) picked me up and took me to SETECA (a Bible seminary right in Guatemala city), slept the night there, and then Les Peters picked up me and Rueben & Martha Sawatsky (they are also working with Impact teams for part of the summer) and then we drove to Tactic.

We arrived in Tactic around 1pm, ate lunch and then the team arrived around 6pm that night.

The team that we have with us right now is from Duvall, Washington and they are a riot. I so enjoy and appreciate them. They are such a blessing to the ministry and I feel so blessed to be working with them.

My job here is so help facilitate the teams, so I am with the teams all day, every day. I eat with them, go to the worksite with them, do children's ministry with them, debrief with them...

You get the picture.

Here is a brief overview of what an average day in the life of Michelle looks like:

Wake up: 6am

Breakfast: 6:30am

Leave for one of the Vida (Impact) school's devotionals: 7:20am

Work on the work site (this means moving LOTS of dirt): 9am-12pm

Lunch: 12pm

Children's ministry 1:30-5pm

Dinner: 6:30pm

Debrief: 7:30-9:30pm

Bed: 11pm

Obviously not every day includes all of that. For example: today we went to a cave (the sinkhole) instead of working on the worksite.

Each day has its routine but is also very different. It is definitely taking a while to adjust to it all in some ways, but at the same time, I feel like I have been here for weeks.

I love it here.

I am living in a house with 4 Canadian girls and 2 Guatemalan girls (all of them teach in the Impact schools) and they are super great. They speak way more Spanish in the home than I expected, but it is super good for me because it is forcing me to learn.

I don't have time for anything more, but I just wanted to give a quick update. I will post some pictures soon (hopefully!)

Could you pray for me?

Some prayer requests:

-For energy. I am so tired all the time and I really want to give all I have to the teams and to Impact.

-For love. I want to love everyone I interact with as Jesus would love them.

-For patience. I get easily irritated at myself because I don't know very much Spanish at all and I really want to be able to communicate with the people here.

-For safety. We are safe in many ways here in Tactic, but I don't want to take this safety for granted.

I love you all and I SO appreciate your prayers and support.

You have all been SUCH an encouragement to me.

Much love,

Mee-shell (that's how the Guatemalans pronounce my name-I love it. My dear 3YZ-my dorm at Trinity-also called me that.)

ONE week until Guatemala!

Hello everyone!
I cannot believe that in ONE week I will be in Guatemala.
I am one of those people that never really believes I'm going on a trip until I am physically on the plane (I know-weird...)
BUT I still am getting very very excited for my trip.
I would really appreciate your prayers for these last few days I have before I leave.
On July 8 I will be flying out of Kamloops for a wedding I am playing music for in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I will be there until Sunday morning, July 11, which is when I fly out to GUATEMALA!
Prayer requests:
-Last minute details (for my Guatemala and Saskatchewan trip) will work out
-I will sleep well so that I can begin my trip well-rested
-I will be able to take time to enjoy my last few days that I have with my family this summer
-I will continue to take time to spend with the Lord
-I will be at PEACE and not stress over things that are out of my control

Thank you all so very much for your support!
Much love,
Michelle