Americanos beat the Guatemalans!!!! by Katy Peterson

Last night, there was sweat, there was rain, there were tears, but most importantly... there was victory over the ASELSI Guatemalan soccer team! Yesterday we woke up bright and early to the lovely sound of a rooster ... at 4 am now i know how my dad felt living in Georgia. We went to the school we had painted the previous day and performed skits, songs, and testimonies (which were shared by Andrew and Katie A, they did an amazing job and i know both their parents would have been proud) then we split the kids up into 5 groups and played games! (there were about 20 kids in each group, all in 6th grade) many laughs and smiles later we came back to ASELSI where we did home visit... that was a once in a life time opportunity for me. there was one man in the home that my team visited he has 3 daughters and 1 son (one of his daughters born blind) his son had 3 children and his oldest daughter had 2 children, the 2nd oldest daughter had 1. so he was a grandparent of 6 children. He shared with us that his son was taken to jail, because he was a taxi cab driver and one day bad people got into his cab and the police thought he was with these bad people, so they arrested him, the mans wife then decided to go and safe him, and then she was put into jail as well. leaving 3 children father and motherless. leaving the grandparents to take care of all of their children and their grandchildren. i learned yesterday what the true meaning of a man was, and for the first time what a pray of desperation sounded like. when we ask the family if we could pray for them, i bowed my head and closed my eyes, like i always do, but all the Mayan family (who believed in God, surprisingly) dropped to their knees, and Katie B started praying i heard yells and cry's of plea towards the lord, it was so overwhelming that it brought me to my knees and i couldn't help but plea to the lord to bring this family back together. partially the little girl who's father and mother were in jail touched me, if you could have seen the look in her eyes as we were talking about he parents, you would have been heart broken too. we parted by giving them gifts, and hugs and went back to our hotel were we prepared to play the ASELSI soccer team, ... now did we really win? ... no, but we were sure the most entertaining to watch! best in show goes to....... the Los AMERICANOS from Virginia (and Minnesota:) pictures of the pray visits should be up shortly:) hope all is going well back home, i can tell you this, my life has been changed once again, and i know your children won't be coming back the same people they left as. Love you Mom, Dad, Char, Alex, Courtney, Isaac, Christina, and little Liam!