Guatamala life!

howdy y’all! i know it’s been a little bit since my last blog and i’m so excited to jump into more of what i’ve been up to!

a little refresher i’ve been in Guatemala for the last couple of weeks, staying at Adventures in missions base camp doing ministry, hiking volcanoes (🥳) and just being in community as a full squad ! I want to jump into it basically just describing what me and my squad have been up to, but FIRST, a praise report! dun dun dunnnn

I AM FULLY FUNDED!!

As you guys have been following along on this journey you know i have been fundraising for awhile, trusting the Lords faithful hand to provide and HE DID! i just want to sincerely thank all of you who have supported me and helped me get to finish this crazy journey in my life. Whether that was through donation, prayers or encouragement, your partnership through what the Lord has done during this season means so much! Thank you bunches, i feel so grateful and loved by you guys, The Lord has been so faithful!

annnnd now moving on into my ministry here in Guat! My team has gotten the opportunity this past two months to work with a group called Dar Par Dar. (which means give to give) I think what has made this ministry so unique is just the range ministries we got to be apart of every day of the week. Whether that’s studying scripture and annotating verses, helping teach english or a kids P.E. class, or bringing our testimonies to the streets of Antiqua.

Every day is so unique, so i want to give a deeper and more descriptive look into what our week looks like with Dar Par Dar day to day!

Starting off strong with MONDAY:

We go to a coffee shop called Serve Hope. A Christian based store that’s an open space for church meetings, worship sessions, coffee drinking (of course), Bible teachings, and just conversations! Green plants and ferns hold hands with string lights on the walls on the balcony above, follow a metal stairway leading down onto the front floor base. The smell of coffee beans and the music of conversation paint the space. This is where Dar Par Dar records worship music and has open worship nights! They also have teachings every Monday morning, which is what starts my day there. Annotating scripture and hearing more insight into culture, the church, the Bible and how we can relate that into the world! THEN a house visit follows! We’ve gotten to be blessed by getting to visit the same family every Monday for the past three weeks. There is so much blessing in building a connection and relationship alongside with sharing the Lord. To me, it feels more personal! We enter in with the greeting “buenas!” and hear it back with familiar smiles, Spanish conversations, and a plastic stool which we set up to encircle around. Our voices fill up the next little bit, guitar strums side by side praises in Spanish, scripture spoken off of the printed sheets passed out, and laying hands of prayers for the mothers and their children. They request prayer for their kids, for safety and for protection. The kind of desires that show the value they have for family. And most times, at the end, i’ll see some tears sliding off of faces. From the teenage girls that sit together and from mothers holding their toddlers in their lap. A gentle touch of the Father. An emotion of feeling known after maybe not knowing what that has felt like. An encouragement that fruit is starting to bear. hugs and “gracias!” cue our leave until next Monday

TUESDAY: Tuesday! A School day! My attempt at coaching P.E. day! My team of eight, splits up into teaching English and P.E. or what the little kids like to shout – “physica!”So i help out with P.E.! My knowledgeableness of the english language after speaking it for about 19 years is pretty good don’t get me wrong, but hoola hoops and shark and minos is better in my book. anyways.

Our ministry leaders Daveed and Chicho lead the kids into some type of activity. Duck duck goose, cone jumping, squats, stretches, and my personal favorite, hula hoop jumping, follow. I think on Tuesdays my word count of the words “Vaminos’! and “correr!” (means to run lol) go up at least 70%. I demonstrate the obstacle courses and clap high fives, yelling encouragement and directions to the little kids that run by excitedly. Our time starts with the kids at 8 and ends at about noon. We gather as a team, hugs and high-fives, then leave the school onto some more house visits in the community around the school!

WEDNESDAY:

Welcome to what is called Prayer Mountain day! Dar Par Dar has been working on a project up there, building a space for families to visit, connect in community and be with the Lord in solitude and his creation. We have been going there every Wednesday to help out with whatever project they’re working on. Including stripping bark branches to be made into fences, raking away grass to clear way for corn to grow, AND, my personal favorite- herding sheep! technically there’s only four that live up there but one time i had to chase them all up a hill and sheep are a lot faster than you think they are.

I wish i could bring you guys there to see it, because i don’t think i could do it justice on here haha.

But here’s a little snippet description i wrote in my journal about it

March 22

“let me just describe my whereabouts to you right now. I’m on a mountain. A really dusty one. At the end of the pickup truck ride, when the dust settled, and the air cleared, my gosh it’s gorgeous. On the way up there’s this tree that looks exactly like that one from the jungle book, if ya know ya know! I’m sitting at a wooden table, looking out onto a prairie mountain hilltop, bushes in line looking like dotted splotches of paints, the kind of boot brown and fern green hill that Maria would sing on with her arms swung wide. above me are towering pine trees. Cradling little pine ones between their fingers. There’s trails above and below and above and the air smells like chopped wood. About 20 minutes ago we had eagles and falcons encircling the pale blue dusty sky. I don’t think hearing an eagle’s cry is ever going to get old. Like ever. The Lord has blessed me with the craziest views, even after traveling across three countries the earth never fails to bore me with its beauty.

Thursday-

Thursday’s are called activation days. On these days we stick together as a squad in the morning, and go to a worship and teaching service put on by the staff here at base. Whatever we learn about in the teaching leads into activation, putting into practice what we discussed. Whether that’s diving deeper into intercession at the base as a squad, or splitting up in our teams to practice being the ‘light on a hill’ to the streets of Paramos or Antiqua.

I’ve been given a lot of chances through that to step more into boldness, something the Lord has been teaching me since South Africa! Sometimes spreading the light of Christ means finding comfort in the uncomfortable. This past Thursday i got to take a step further in that. I had a chance to share my testimony alongside two of my teammates with a man in Antiqua who was traveling. I think there’s something so cool in taking a stance or a jump for something you believe in, even if it’s not in a place where everyone will agree. He had been reading a white hardcover with a picture of traffic lights on the cover. It was called – Green lights, a book about the green and red lights of life and the importance of pursuing the “green lights” or opportunities of life and not wasting time. It was a good lead way for us to transition into asking if he believed in a higher power controlling those green lights, and into our faith. The man was so open and receptive to hear our stories and we got to pray over him after, that the Lord would reveal himself to him in the same way he did to us. The conversation was so fruitful and eye opening to the boldness the Lord gives us when we ask Him. Continue to pray for him!

Friday/Saturday:

Fridays are our rest day, normally spent in scripture, prayer, and conversation atprayer mountain. Back of the pick up truck goin up, and then back of the pick up truck goin down! Saturday’s are spent with our Dar Par Dar hosts, gathering at one of their homes for worship and reading of scripture. Then debriefing about what we read as a whole. A time to reflect on what the Lord wants to show us individually through the Word! That cues the curtain for the end of our ministry again, until next Monday!

Thanks ya’ll for taking time to read about my adventures here in Guatemala! The Lord has really blessed me so much in my final country on the race and still continues to. Through the truthful fruit of meditated scripture, through the laughter and high fives from the kids in the villages, through the strangers’ eyes who are receptive to hear the Lords heart, through the sparatic downpours at our base, that punch and pound on the roofs above our heads so loud we can’t even talk five feet away, through the mothers that open up their homes to strangers that share the heart of the Lord. Through it all and so much more, the Lord has been so good with our time here.

I had been told before coming on this trip how fast it was going to go and it’s so true. Please pray for me and my squad’s transitioning back into the states and into our last week of ministry in Florida! Have a g

lots of love!! Maddie 🙂