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

Benefit Concert=HUGE SUCCESS

Thank you all for your tremendous support!
The Benefit Concert was SUCH a SUCCESS and I cannot thank you all enough.
OVER $2,000 was raised- Praise the LORD!

Thanks to all of who helped, thanks to all of you who came, thanks to all of you that wanted to come, thanks to all of you who sent me encouraging messages, thanks to all of you who financially supported me, and thank you to all of you for your continual prayer and support. That covers ALL of you!! I am overwhelmed by the support I am receiving from all of you.

Many of you bought CDs last night (THANK YOU) and many of you have talked to me and ordered CDs. If you would still like a CD ($5 each), please contact me (m-coxon@hotmail.com OR comment on this post) and we can figure out how to get a CD to you.

I leave in 2 weeks! I will be in Saskatchewan for a few days for a wedding and then I will be off to Guatemala on July 11! I appreciate your prayers throughout these last few weeks of prep as I have MUCH still to do.

Keep checking out my blog as I will continue to update it.

Here are some current prayer requests and praise reports:
-Praise the LORD that the Benefit Concert was such a success and for the support so many of you have offered
-Prayer that I will use wisdom in how I spend the little amount of time I have left before my trip
-Prayer that all the last-minute preparation details get figured out
-Prayer as I work on other things I need to get done at home before I leave for the summer

Thank you again for your continued prayers and support.

Blessings,
Love,
Michelle

Benefit Concert=THIS Wednesday!

Hello dear ones!
As many of you know...I have a benefit concert coming up VERY soon!
TWO DAYS!
I am getting very excited about it so I just wanted to remind all of you about it so you could be excited with me:)
Here are the details again:
It is this Wednesday, June 23 at 7pm at Southwest Community Church. It is a minimum donation of $7 to get in and children ages 10 and under are FREE.

ALSO:
Something very exciting:
Recently, with the help of a great teacher and friend-Mr. Sandro Cuzzetto-I have made a CD of 5 of my original compositions. I will be selling them at the concert for $5 each-so bring money for that!
If you are unable to come to the concert but would like a CD, let me know, and we can work something out.

Blessings to you all!
Thank you for all your support.
PEACE.
JOY.
LOVE.

Benefit Concert-June 23

As many of you know: I love music.

I really love it.

A lot a lot a lot.

I love it so much that I have chosen to study for (at least) 4 years (I just finished my first year!) at Trinity Western University in Langley BC.

Anyways, my point is that when I was thinking about fundraising for this trip I was trying to think of what I have to offer that people would be willing to pay money for.
Haha.
Odd way of putting it, I know, but I thought that it made sense to do something I love and share it with others and in doing so raise money for my trip!

So, I am putting on a BENEFIT CONCERT!

Yes I am!

Here are the details:

When: June 23 @ 7pm
Where: Southwest Community Church [700 Hugh Allan Drive], Kamloops, BC

It will be an evening of music and sharing about my trip. I will be playing and singing as well as some other great musicians will be performing. It should be a really lovely evening. It would mean so much to me for each of you to be there. Entrance is a minimum donation of $7/person and children ages 10 and under are FREE. 100% of the money raised from the entrance donations will be put towards my Guatemala trip.

I am very excited about this concert and I hope that you can join me.

Please invite anyone you know who may be interested!

And feel free to ask me for more information if you need.

Blessings to you all.

Glorious rain.

I live in Kamloops which is considered to be a semi-desert. Which means we get very little precipitation. Which means we get very little rain.
I love the sun, but I actually don't mind the rain. It is beautiful.
Especially when it rains hard. Really really hard. The kind of rain that you think will make the roof cave in.

I used to be so scared of storms when I was younger. Ask my family. I was scared of rain, wind, waves, thunder, lightning. It was a paralyzing fear. So much so that it inhibited me from living my life.

I can remember one time when my family was visiting South Africa (I was about 11 years old) and we went to this fantastic ocean-side restaurant. I think it was called the Brass Bell. Now, this restaurant was not your typical ocean-view restaurant. It was so close to the water that during high tide the waves crashed onto the massive windows that took up most of the wall space. The waves were taller than people! It felt like at any moment the windows would shatter and the sea would engulf you. It was incredible.

But not for me.

This absolutely petrified me. I could not for the life of me understand why my parents brought me to a place where I could die at any moment. Not only did we go to this restaurant, but of course my family had to sit RIGHT beside the window so that we could actually feel the waves shake the windows. My family knew I was scared, so to take my mind off things my kind sister Anthea decided to take me to the second floor where I could watch the waves.

Great idea Anthea. Let's WATCH the waves kill us. That will make it far less scary.

Well, you probably guessed that this just increased my fear because on the second floor I could feel the whole building shake and my natural assumption was:
Shaking building: I am going to fall off and die.

Super rational Michelle.

Once Anthea realized this was only making me more scared she took me back downstairs. I then proceeded to spend the rest of my time at the restaurant sitting as FAR away from the ocean as I possible, which happened to be the bathroom.

I let my fear of the waves completely ruin my time at the Brass Bell. I could have enjoyed my time with my family but because I was so busy being scared I had no time to appreciate the beauty (or the food!) around me.

I have long got over my fear of extreme weather and I look forward to going back to the Brass Bell and standing on the second floor and delighting in the fact that those waves no longer have a hold on me.
But I am realizing more and more that I have so many other fears. Most of these fears are not as noticeable as the fear I just spoke about, but there are often just as paralyzing.
For example: when God asks me to go pray for a person, my first response is to freeze up. I get scared.
But then I think: what's the worst that could happen?
Here's a list of possible bad outcomes:
1. They don't want prayer.
2.Or maybe they think I'm weird.
3.Or *worst of all* THEY DON'T LIKE ME.
Uh oh.
That would be terrible.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but that is honestly a fear that holds me back from so many things. The fear of not being liked.

Why do we as humans so long for human approval?

Think about that for a second.

Oh Jesus: I want to live for your approval only.
Help me take your hand and face the storm.
I want to dance with you in the glorious rain.

Impact Ministries

Here is the link to the website of the ministry I will be working with in Guatemala:
http://www.impactministries.ca/

I will post more details later about what I will be doing while I am down there.