2013: closing chapters.

2013, 
you brought me a lot of joy and a lot of sorrow. During your time I learned, grew, trusted, had faith and grew in strength. God gave me you to learn and trust Him completely and as I look back at the rear view mirror, I see that now. With you He brought me new friends unlike any I have ever had before and He closed chapters in my life. Though you were bittersweet and I am glad to see you go-I am so thankful for all of the God things, both the blessings and the trials, that happened and made me grow. I am filled with an inexplicable JOY and peace as I watch the final moments of your time here tick by, and am filled with so much excitement and curiosity to see what God will bring with 2014.
Two-thousand and fourteen, I welcome you with open arms and cannot wait to see what this next chapter holds!


Goodbye 2013, hello 2014.

Reality.

For the past three years I have had the privilege of leading a discipleship group for three, beautiful, now sophomore girls. Our group started out as just two (yes, there really were only two girls in the class!), grew to four and then this year shrunk back down to three. We've grown together in our journey to know Christ better and learn more about who God is, and have had a lot of great times together. Today was one of those days.

This year our vision with our groups has changed a little bit. We want to grow closer to the Lord together, but we also want to impact our community by showing them the love of Christ. Each group has chosen a 'project' or part of the community to partner with and it is our goal to build lasting relationships with them. My group (since there are only three girls plus me) teamed up with the sophomore boys and headed to Zone 7. We were going to an AMG project, Verbena, and also the headquarters for AMG Guatemala.

At 8:15 we piled 19 people into a 15 passenger van and started our commute from the school to the project. Kids on the floor in the trunk, lots of people in rows meant for only 3; but the kids were excited and that just didn't matter to them. Half an hour later we pulled through the gates and opened the doors to a whole new world for these kids (and us too).

We walked in and asked how we could serve them, and we were fully expecting to be asked to do manual labor. We were. They asked us to paint some walls and to move some lumber around, but about halfway through cleaning the walls so that we could begin the painting we were told that the kids were on break. Not only that the kids were on break, but that we could go play futbol and love on them while they finished their recess time. So we went, and we loved on those kids and played with them for the short time that they had left. It was so awesome! The kids were so excited to have us there, and we were even more excited to be able to share that time with them!

reality

Recess ended and the kids returned to their classes. We were waiting for the smaller groups of children to come out for us to play with. During this time of waiting patiently :) We took the kids to the wall that separates the project from the reality of many of these children. If you walked to the wall and looked to the right, you saw one big cement 'building'. At first glance many of the teens thought this was an apartment building. It isn't though-it is actually part of the cemetery. If you look straight ahead, you see shacks upon shacks and buildings that are falling apart. This is where most of these kids live; in this world that we only imagine to be in movies and books.

our team :)

hugs

These kids though, they are offered hope when they walk through the school gate every morning. They are shown love through the people who come to work every day to teach them about Jesus. They are given a chance to have a future. They are fed and nurtured physically and spiritually. Words can't describe how awesome this is.

Long story short, the teens left and were impacted. We left and were changed by the reality that surrounds us daily here, but left knowing that our God is a god of great things and has each one of these little children in His care.

Schools in session!

Summer is over. For most people this would seem like such a sad thought, but for me knowing that brings a lot of joy-I love my job. But before I start in on what the start if my school year has looked like, I'm going to back up a few months though and fill you in on my summer and what has been happening in my life for the past few months.

June.
In June I was blessed with the opportunity to go to the States with my mom and siblings. It was such an amazing time full of visiting with family and friends, catching up on their lives, and just altogether a refreshing time. Time of meeting new family members, watching friends get married, graduations; it was wonderful.

seeing family and friends!

so awesome to see this girl graduate :)

got to spend the day with Myles and Alyssa!!!

met this cutie!

July.

We started our flight home from the States on July 3rd, had a 18 hour layover  (yes, you read that correctly-18 hours). Our layover happened to be in Georgia, and the AMG headquarters is in Chattanooga, so we had some wonderful friends from AMG come and take us to their home in Tennessee for the night and bring us back to the airport the next morning :)

This is us, after landing in Georgia and beginning the 2 hour trip to Tennessee in a 8 passenger van, with 8 people, plus seven 50 lb. suitcases and 7 carry-on bags...It was a tight fit :)

 The rest of July was spent enjoying a little free time with friends and family here in Guatemala and working with teams. We had several teams join us here this summer and getting to know them and helping translate for them was amazing. I'll use one of the teams for an example. We had a team from Pennsylvania come to work at one of our schools and home office, La Verbena. Some of the team fixed up an office and made it look great, another part of the team worked in the English department and spent time with the students, and then the part of the team that I was helping with was the part that was giving haircuts to the kids. This means washing a lot of little heads, combing out a LOT of really thick hair, and giving haircuts that we were not even familiar with. BUT, the kids were happy, their hair looked great and I think that we left more blessed by serving them and their smiling faces. Here are some of the kids!

Here are a few of the 5 year old girls. The one with the big bow is named Katherine. I cant remember the names of the other two little girls.

So ends the summer months. A very busy, productive summer. Which might seem sad to some people, but for me the end of the summer marks the beginning of the school year. Here's my August so far!
August:
We kicked off our start to the school year with a faculty retreat! Almost all the teaching staff at CAG and our administration gathered together and had times of worship and seeking the Lord together. We had the opportunity to hear testimonies of some new teachers here and how God has worked in their lives. Can I just say how thankful I am to be able to do this?? I know without a doubt that it is something that I often take for granted-being able to worship freely; it is a privilege.
Following our retreat we had a week of meetings, meeting new staff, getting our feet under us for the coming school year and then before we new it it was Wednesday, August 14th and the students were all walking through our classroom doors at 8 am! What an exciting thing! For me, I had 8 wide-eyed, nervous, quiet 5 year olds creeping in to the classroom to see what Kindergarten is all about. It's day 3 for us, and they have definitely started to come out of their shells and are having a lot of fun!
This school year I am back in the Music department, teaching Elementary Music (K-4) as well as one high school class (Worship Arts). I am SO excited to see what God will do with this school year, and how He will be at work in my life, the lives of my coworkers and the lives of our students.

Faculty Retreat: we had to act out the story of Noah' Ark!

First day of School!!!

Here are some ways that you can be in prayer for me currently:
-Health and safety: Its the start of the school year, so sickness is going around and as a teacher that is not something you want (for you OR your students!)
-General: I am in need of a car. I had been using a car that my parents had, but we sold it a few months ago and since then I haven't been able to find one!
-Teaching: That I would be able to teach my students well, and be able to show them the love of Christ and teach them about Him daily. Also, pray that we have more people willing to come and serve at the school. We still have a few holes that need to be filled in here.

I appreciate all the prayers and encouraging words from all of you. If you feel led to support me financially, I have a church that has decided that my support can go through them, and they will send it to me. How it will work is, you would need to mail the donation to the church, and if its a check specify that it is for Abigayle Wilson support in the memo line; if its cash-then just a note. The church just wants to be sure that all the donations that are sent actually make it to me and not to something else. The address for the church is:
New England Bible Church
60 Chandler Road
Andover, MA
01810

As far as taxable deductions, and the end of the year you will have your tax deductible receipt sent to you for your tax purposes.
I will be sending out newsletters/updates as often as I can to keep everyone interested informed. If you would like to be on that list feel free to let me know :)

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it!

In Christ,
Abby

playing peek-a-boo with this little one in the market :)

big move!

Well, it happened! After a lot of praying and searching I found my apartment. It's about five minutes away from the school which makes commute in the morning rather short and sweet :) Here are some pictures of the place for you to see if you want to!

 My Kitchen

A little note

Bets came for a visit

 

Welcome home!

There it is! Hope you enjoy :)

Open Doors

I think that most everyone who reads this post already knows me, but for those who happen upon this and don't, here's my story.

God called me to the beautiful country of Guatemala when I was just seventeen years old. Of course, me in my little mind, thought this would be for a short six months that God would use to grow me in my character and to serve Him through missions. I started volunteering two weeks after I moved to Guatemala at the Christian Academy of Guatemala, four days a week and one day a week at a children's home. Quickly I fell into the routine of serving the Lord by loving on these people that God had surrounded me with.
Those six months flew by and I found myself with my family on a plane to return to the States for the summer. Throughout the summer I spent time getting things ready for college, spent time with friends and family and more than all of those things-praying. I prayed that God would show me what it was that he wanted me to do with my life. The go to answer at that age seems so obvious-go to college. Right? WRONG. Well, for me it was anyways. I continued to prepare for school, but decided that instead of moving to Chicago in August, I would go in December. I packed everything up in pretty little boxes ready to be shipped and hopped back on a plane eager to arrive back to the country that I love so much.
I remember the plane hitting the landing strip and just thinking, "I'm home!". It was one of the most exciting moments in my life, because I think it was in that moment that I knew this is where God wants me to serve him for the time being. (This is also the moment I decided I would earn my whole degree online for those of you who are wondering what I did about my schooling :))
I was't sure what I would do for ministry because I was planning on staying for just a few month before I would return to the States for school, so I hadn't set up very formal plans for the months that I would be in country. I had talked to the recruiter at CAG earlier in the summer and they had offered me a job (for the time that I would be here) teaching music, so I accepted. But, something still wasn't completely settled in my heart. So, I kept praying.
One day during a in-service meeting, a teacher lifted a prayer request that God would bring a teacher to work one on one with her young son...and I knew God was opening this door to me, telling me to walk through it, have faith and trust Him completely. I went up to this woman after we had finished our meeting for the day and told her that I had been praying, and that I'm willing to fill the position. That was one of the most amazing moments in this journey so far-because God answered both of our prayers that day.
That year (2012) proved to be challenging in new ways for me. Finding a good balance between studying and preparing for classes proved to be more difficult that I thought it would be-but I can see now looking back how God was using that to grow and teach me.
December came and passed, and I stayed in Guatemala 'for another six months'. And another. God had called me I realized, not for six months, but for as long as He wants me here. Those first six months have now turned into almost two and a half years!
In July of 2012 I began collecting the paperwork necessary for residency here in Guatemala. In August, I filed and now I've been approved and am waiting for just a few more details to finish up. I have a full-time position at CAG still, and I plan to work there next year as well. God has also opened my heart to work with team ministry, helping translate and working alongside groups that come to serve here short term.
As God continues to open these doors for me and reveals to me what he wants me to do to bring glory to his name, I would appreciate your prayer. I believe that our God is a God who hears and answers our prayers in his timing. As I continue my work here, I ask you to pray for those I come in contact with and that God would touch their hearts; for safety, good health, courage and financial support. Knowing that you are praying gives me peace as I continue the work that I have been called to.

Beyond your prayers, if you feel led to join me by financially supporting me, please email me at:
abbyjoyw@yahoo.com for more information on that.
The cost of living as a single person here is about $1,000 per month. I want to open this invitation for you to participate. This is a journey that God has called me to, and I greatly appreciate any level of support you are able to offer.

I want to thank you SO much for taking the time to read what God has been doing in my life and for your support through prayers.

Abby