Buenos Dias (good day in Spanish) everyone, this is an update from the Month of March. We have seen the goodness and faithfulness of God since we have landed in Guatemala. Remember that for those of you who don’t have time or don’t want to read the entire Newsletter, I will be posting a paraphrased newsletter at the end.
Guatemala Begins
We had our longest travel day ever headed to Guatemala. We started in Johannesburg, then we went to Qatar, and then we went to Miami, and then ended in Guatemala. We had more than 25 hours in the air alone. After our traveling was over we spent a couple days resting to prepare to reunite with our parents after 6 months. Some of us were exited and others were anxious. I invited my stepdad to come to Guatemala. I felt like the Lord was telling me that he needed to come. When we met in Guatemala it was amazing. We sat down after getting him situated in his room and were able to catch up on everything. We then spent the rest of the week exploring Antigua and its beautiful culture. I introduced him to the people I have had the privilege of spending the past 7 months of my life with. I was able to pour into him and show him all the Lord has done in me. It was such a fruitful opportunity to be able to show my stepdad a small portion of what I have been doing for 7 months. It was a bitter sweet goodbye. Knowing how much I will miss the time we were able to spend, but at the time knowing he is going back home to pour even more into the rest of my family. After he left we had our debriefing for Africa. All of our mentors and coaches came to pour into us, which also allowed them to see the growth since Thailand. We got to hear some of their testimonies and we were able to share with them some of our testimonies. Encouraging one another with stories of how God has moved radically through sharing the gospel. During our week of debrief we went to lake Atitlán to cliff jump and swim. Debrief ended with saying goodbye to our coaches and one of our mentors. Our other mentor stayed with us for another 2 weeks and was able to pour into us as a squad. After she left both guys teams realized that we needed to step up into leading the squad better. We started by being on the same page with timelines and other rules that have been given to us to follow. As the men of the squad we started making it our priority to be on time and to be without reproach. This has allowed for us to better lead the women and point them back to Christ in all things.
Ministry
We are partnered with a ministry called One Way. Every week we go to two different villages. The first 2 days of the week we go to a village an hour and 30 minutes away. We go there to pour into the community and help them in any way they need. We also teach the village kids soccer and Jesus. For the second part of the week we go to a closer village where we go to houses in the village to visit families, teach soccer, teach school subjects, and teach them about Jesus. When we visit the families we are always greeted with warm a welcome. Sometimes these families have a meal for us just to show how grateful they are for us coming to visit them and talk with them. Every Thursday, instead of going to our normal ministry locations, we have a teaching on a specific topic and then we are given time to put it into practice. Ministry has been extremely fruitful in Guatemala and we have never experienced anything like it.
Crazy Stories
A Sunset with sunflowers-
Our first week we had a teaching on hearing the Lords voice. We went to a town nearest to the Adventures in Missions base where we put this into practice. We were put into groups for the day to practice hearing the Lords voice. We heard two things from the lord. One was an image of an orange sunset that represented “a season of grief was ending and a season of joy was beginning” and the second one was “flowers”. I then said how God gets my attention a lot of times with sunflowers. So we decided to start walking to a nearby flower stand that happened to have sunflowers. As we are walking this man starts pouring out his life story to one of the people we are with. This caught their attention and they had to stop to listen to this man. As he is talking he begins telling us how his house burnt down and how he has been grieving because he can’t provide for his family. He then started to tell us how around the same time his house burned down, his leg was injured and he can’t put much weight on it. He told us that he takes medication so strong that he has to take it at night or else it will affect him severely during the day. He then started telling us about his family. We asked if his wife liked flowers and he said she loved flowers. At that we split up while one group prayed for him the other group went to get sunflowers at the nearby flower stand. After we grab the flowers we went back to the man. The other group was still praying fervently and we both join in praying for him. After about a minute or two of praying we we ask him how his leg is feeling. He told us that it was better. We then asked him to stand on the one injured leg and jump up and down. He said it didn’t hurt at all. He then told us that it hurt the most when he stepped up on to a curb. We then asked him to step up on the curb right next to us. He gave us his cane and stepped up on the curb in faith that he was healed. He then started walking around us with no pain and without the use of his cane. He was at a loss of words and was completely healed.
The Gospel in a Panini shop-
A couple weeks later, after the healing of the man, we went back to Antigua so a couple of the guys could get tattoos. We walked around for a good hour trying to find a place but everywhere was closed because of Holy Week. As we are walking around trying to find a place for tattoos we stumble upon a small family owned restaurant. We decided we were a little hungry and stoped in to grab some food. We started ordering in Spanish and the guy taking our order starts speaking perfect English to us. We were all surprised and started asking him how he new English. He then started asking us where we were from and why we were in Guatemala. This then opened the door to tell him about us traveling the world to tell people about Jesus. After we mention a little about why we were in Guatemala. He continued asking us questions about Jesus and what we believed. We learned that he was catholic, but has a heart for missions. We ordered our food and invited him to sit down with us. As we ate, we continued answering the questions he had and at the same time showed him the love of Christ by the way we interacted with each other. We talked with him for 2 hours about who Jesus really is and what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus. We then had to leave because we had to get back to the base before curfew. Before we left we prayed over him and told him we would be back. We were late to curfew because of traffic, but we got to have an insane story to bring back to the squad.
Paraphrased Newsletter
After our longest travel day ever we got settled into the Adventures in Missions base in Guatemala. We then moved over to Antigua for two weeks. The first week week in Antigua I was able to see my stepdad and pour into him. The second week we debriefed and rested. We then started our ministry with One Way going to two villages to teach the kids about Jesus and soccer. We experienced a miraculous healing of a man’s leg and our faith has grown exponentially.
I hope y’all enjoyed reading this months Newsletter. March has been incredible and we have seen God move in crazy ways. I would also like to let everyone know that I have an opportunity this summer to work with a youth camp in Pennsylvania. I will be working with kids who have a difficult home life and need positive role models in their life. I am also getting ready for a mission to Nepal and India coming up in August. I am beginning to except donations for both of these opportunities if you feel led. Thank y’all so much for all your support over the past year.
