So Guatemala has been beautiful and the people here are super nice. There so hospitable and friendly people it’s amazing. The sunsets have been so gorgeous too!
We had a few days to get settled in and get used to being here. There is a groups of kids every tuesday who come and play soccer at the base and we got to play with them during there break and they are so fun. Even with the language barrier we were all laughing and having a good time, giving them piggie back riders and playing volleyball with them! Some days look like tanning as a team and reading our bible or going into town to our favorite coffee shop cafe melendrez, to playing basketball when we’re bored.
Then we have activation days on Thursdays which is where we worship, have a message, then go and activate it in town. It’s called ask the Lord. I was super nervous for it with the language barrier and talking to strangers. My team mate and I bought someone coffee and here instead of just talking about God right away, you have to ask them about there family and build a relationship first. Also there version of christianity and catholicism are very different than ours. They don’t have a relationship with God really or even open there bible. Catholicism even worships other Gods. It was also really hard to see all the street dogs, I love animals and I just want to help all of them. Then we had a team movie night which was fun. We have team time every night except weekends.
We got to meet our ministry hosts and my leader Kayli did the same ministry during here race 3 years ago. We met with this girl who helps with the feeding program we’re apart of, she is super sweet. At first the language barrier was hard to get used to, but both of our hosts know spanish so they translate for us. We got to learn her story and just get to know her while making tortillas. Then we went to the school where we will teach english in every tuesday. To get to ministry every day we ride in the back of a truck up the mountains which is really fun and one of my favorite parts of being here so far. Then on saturdays are our adventure days so my friend and I went and explored antigua and got a tour of some ruins which was incredible. We also went to a diffrent coffee shop and they are incredibly beautiful here, they are covered in vines and super fancy. Even the mcdonald’s and taco bell are fancy here, they have fountains in them, their own cafe and just a lot more on their menu plus it’s healthier. Everything here is so much cheaper as well, one american dollar is equal to about 7.5 of there money.
On sunday I got a tattoo from one of the bases friends Diego, I got one on my wrist that says agape in my leaders handwriting. It means Gods love and it’s a good reminder for me!
Then we had our first day of our other ministry, it’s on prayer mountain it’s pretty far away but the view is amazing. We spent the morning praying and worshipping. Then we did manual labor half of my team moved rocks up and down the mountain and scooped sheep poop. The other half we organized two sheds and moved heavy equipment. There were so many spiders which is one of my fears so that was scary. But we managed to have fun with our ministry hosts and get to know them better.
The next day we went and did house visits which is where you pray where you should go and go into peoples houses and get to know them. This one lady owns an avocado farm and we talked to her for a while. She’s the sweetest lady ever. She gave us coke, cake because it was two of our team members birthdays, and a bag of avacodoes. People here are so welcoming and anyone will let you in whenever you knock and drop everything to talk to you, it’s so awesome because you know in america that is not a thing if you don’t know them you just ignore them. Then we gave a girl a ride to her work and we got to see how the potato farms work here. Then we went and taught english, I was with 3-5 year olds and they don’t know english, and my internet wasn’t working so I had to communicate in other days. I played with them and colored we had fun.
The next day we went to a village that spoke a mayan language which there are 23 in guatemala. So we communicated playing with them and they know some spanish. We were there for there pe class. We played tag, played with hula hoops, and piggie back rides. They are the sweetest kids at first they were super shy but they warmed up to us. We had stretches and relay races. I think the most fun part of the day is when we’re in the back of the truck playing games with my team passing time to get to our ministry we always have good laughs.
On thursday it was activation day again, but I stayed back because I wasn’t feeling good. Part of my team got to witness a miracle which is so awesome. They prayed for this blind man and when they were done praying he had his eyes staring at them saying he can see and it was incredible. I’m excited to see more miracles. Then for our team times they have been super silly which is so awesome about my team, they are the funniest people I know.
On friday our last day of ministry we met with the girl who does the feeding program and it’s one of my favorite days it’s more relaxed and more relationship based. Everyone knows I ask a lot of questions so that’s my time to shine 😂We split up and half our team went with adirke to do a house visit. I stayed and made tortillas and we were getting better at making them. When the team got back my team mate cimmie did the worm for our host which was hilarious. Then we sang her a song, party in the usa. She sang us two spanish songs which was beautiful. Then we had feedback friday with our team and it’s to help encourage us and to give us a higher calling, it was super sweet. Also one of the other teams did a prophetic word night and they spent 3 hours praying about the whole squad and covered the persons name and wrote about what they were hearing from God. I got a whole page of encouraging things and i’ve been trying to figure out what i’m doing after the race whether it be a missionary or an elementary school teacher and it had both on the paper. It is crazy what God can do!
Then yesterday we had another adventure day and me and my friend Izzy went to this place called megapaca which is a thrifting place it was relaxing.
God has been teaching me to live in community and it has been beautiful.
Prayer requests I have
To give me energy for this week of ministry!
Thanks love you guys
