HARMAN FAMILY - HEADING TO GUATEMALA!!!

We are the Harman family:  Britt and Jodi, Mickey (14), Pierce (12), Clint (12), Kate (11), Meg (8), Morgan (4) and Reagan (2).  We have lived in Indiana most of our lives, with the exceptions that Jodi lived in Ohio for a while as a kid, and we lived in Florida for a few years after we got married.  

This past fall, we planned a trip to Guatemala to visit Mark and Gina.  Our trip came and we had no idea what to expect. We didn't really know what we would be doing and really just wanted to experience life with the Schmidts...the reality of their daily life in Guatemala.  Boy, did we ever get the experience.  We had no idea how overwhelming it would be for us. There was so much to take in. Every night we went to bed exhausted, but filled. We didn't even realize it, but we were catching the vision, and God was moving in us in an amazing way. 

On the way home on the airplane, Britt wrote this draft to Mark (which he didn't send to him until a month after we returned):

Mark,

I found this in the drafts of my gmail account.  I wrote it on the airplane on our way home from Guat.  I had all of this rumbling around in my head and wanted to write it down before I forgot.  

Things I liked about our Guatemala trip:  happy little kids in spite of their circumstances, trips in the mule, pizza in Antigua, driving to the grocery store, duck. The weather (really), the view from your roof, seeing things get done that only God could do, delivering milk, Corinne, Isaac, Eli, Bryn, my little buddy Cruz, speaking Spanish (me llamo es. . .? can't believe I said that. I am a dork), coke in a cold bottle.

As I head home I am wondering if your family visiting my house would have as big an impact on your lives as visiting your house has had on mine.  I'm pretty sure I know the answer.  

Britt

P.S. I thought you might enjoy that.  I think about you guys and what you are doing there constantly. Today in our church we were talking about Compassion International.  A line I picked up from some of their literature is that "When the darkness of abject poverty engulfs a place, the devil takes over."  It made me cry thinking about the people we saw and met when we were with you, and the battles you are fighting.  I was having a conversation with a friend and in that conversation, it came up that his grandfather had 21 brothers and sisters and they lived in a 2 room house.  I thought of Gelver and his family.  That was just in the span of 1 hour.  There are countless other examples I would tell you, but I don't want your head to get too big.  Does this happen to everyone who visits you?

This conversation started the ball rolling to get us to the point where we are today.

After we returned from Guatemala in October, we knew God was trying to tell us something was going to change. We just didn't know any details. We didn't know if that trip was preparing us for something specific overseas or just a change in how we lived here. After several  conversations with the Schmidt's and and lots of prayer, we both felt such a tug on our hearts for the people of Guatemala.  So a week in December after a long conversation with the Schmidt's on Skype, we went on a date and both of us agreed and couldn't get around that God was telling us to go to Guatemala and serve. It was just rather daunting and humbling for us to think that God was asking us to do something that only weeks previously seemed overwhelmingly impossible (and rather crazy).

So, this summer or early fall, we will be moving to Guatemala to join The Schmidt family in serving the people of the village of Buena Vista.  It has been a big decision, one that involves leaving behind family and friends that we are very close to, selling our house and land that we have become very attached to, as well as selling our business that we have owned for the last 10 years.  It has been a decision though, that we have not regretted making.  We know there will be a lot of work in the next few months wrapping up our life here in Indiana.  We know that when we get to Guatemala there will be even more work.  We also know that God has plans for us that we can't even imagine, and we are amazed and excited that God has chosen to use us.  We ask for your prayers as we move forward.  Pray for us as a family leaving everything that is familiar to us.  Pray that God will give us wisdom as we get ready to move.  Pray that our family will continue to be effective where we are right now.  Pray for our future ministries in Guatemala and pray for our DeepStream coworkers.

For a snapshot of some things we will be involved in daily, check out www.educatebv.com  

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