ATL- Ask The Lord
Adventures in Missions has this really great concept of missions placed throughout our trip, and it is ATL. ATL sends for ask the Lord. That means for a day or however long, your team and you do not have a set ministries to work with, a place to stay, or any plans. With your team, you pray and ask the Lord to reveal to you where He wants you to go minister and who He wants you to minister to. The purpose of ATL is to lean into God and trust in Him, as well as learning how to hear His voice.
Right before leaving Guatemala, our squad broke into new teams and we had the opportunity to do four days of ATL. I was placed on the all girl team which I am super pumped about. My new teammates are Mazi (Worship Leader), Josie (Storyteller), Yu-Mei (Treasure), Payton (Team Leader), Caroline (Squad Logistics), Lexy (Squad Leader), and Me (Squad Logistics)
Our first day of ATL my team and I had the awesome opportunity to spend some time with my original team’s ministry host, Jeofrey. He graciously opened up his house to my team and we got to spend time in fellowship with him and some other friends from ministry. The Lord opened the door to remind us and our friends, that we are people too. Missionary is a job title that follows you 24/7 and can often times make you feel like you are constantly in “work mode.” Being able to hangout with our friends and go to the movies was really the Lord taking time to minister to us. Taking time to remind us that He is in control and He is the one who saves people, not us. So what may have seemed like a day off was really a day for our team and our friends to minister to each other through fellowship.
Day two of our ATL the Lord asked us to spend the morning at Jeofrey’s house instead of leaving early that morning. While Jeofrey and his roommate went to church we they allowed us to have our own church service that morning and we spent the morning pouring into each other and choosing each other. That afternoon we hit the road and went to an Air B&B for the rest of our time in Guatemala. That day the Lord asked us to take the time to hear each other’s testimonies, pray for one another, read His word, and take communion together.
Day three of ATL we spent the day in Antigua. We spent time evangelizing to locals in the area. Some of the team prayed over the city of Antigua and interceded for the rest of us while we evangelized and prayed for the chains of religion to be broken while standing in a Catholic Church. During our evangelism two of my teammates and I got to witness and evangelize to a man who was heavily bound in the bondage of addiction. It was a very sobering experience for us as we witnessed demons tormenting this man and so much spiritual warfare happening. The Lord blessed us with the opportunity to share the Gospel and feed this man, and I have faith that the Lord will reveal Himself to that man.
Day four of ATL was our sabbath. In the morning Yu-Mei and I went to the Hope garden in San Antonio and we joined in on the Hope staff Bible study that another World Race squad was also at. Then we stopped by a coffee shop that is owned by Cali and Roberto, a local missionary couple who works with Worship Room, to say goodbye to them. After that Payton and I went into Antigua and spent the afternoon together. That night our team went to play pickle ball (don’t worry Sharon- I only watched) with some of our ministry friends and got some dinner together!
With my new team being an all girl team, I was super excited to see how this would go. One thing that we knew for sure going into ATL was that the Lord was asking us to choose each other and love each other well. Sometimes the Lord ask you to pour into the people around you. Long term missions is not always what you think, that’s why asking the Lord to guide your ministry is the best way to go. Thank you Jesus for giving my team the opportunity to pour into each other and our ministry host, and evangelizing in the community we all love so much.
