Swimming Lessons...Life Lessons

Here in Guatemala, drownings all too often.  In the vast majority of cases, the issue is someone is in the water and no one is able to swim.  Bill and Eileen Estle, from Arizona, have been here for the past 3 weeks, and Eileen was a swim instructor.  She wanted to offer lessons to kids and Cindy and I jumped on the idea.  Now that the pool at M2G is up and running we had the perfect environment to teach a group of kids.  We decided to focus on the sponsor kids who attend Galilea.  Because of the depth of the pool, we limited it to students in grades 5 and up.  We also divided the classes between boys and girls, so that the girls wouldn't be embarrassed and could take the greatest advantage of the classes. 

On day 1, many of the kids had a real fear of the water.  But, by the time it was their final lesson, they were all swimming (some better than others, but they were all in water over their heads keeping themselves up).

After each lesson, Cindy took the opportunity to speak to the kids and draw parallels between learning to swim and our walk with the Lord.  A theme seemed to emerge in these talks - Do not be afraid, trust in the Lord, He is with you.  

One little girl, Mirna Lizbet, really stood out.  On her first day, it was a challenge to even get her into the water.  She was so nervous - and stiff! - it was tough to teach her anything.  But, by day 3 she was jumping into the deep water and swimming.  Even though she was afraid, she didn't let her fear get the best of her.  She persevered and pushed through it and accomplished amazing things. 

That was a wonderful life lesson for us all here at M2G.  As we watched little Mirna push herself so she could learn, we were encouraged to do the same.
Life is not always easy, and when it gets tough, we are to look to the Lord for our strength and press on.  We cannot let difficulties and struggles keep us from what we are called to do. 
Who knew swim lessons were so deep!