Hey friends and family!! Well, we officially have two weeks left in Guatemala! One week left of ministry, and one week left for debrief! Our time in Guatemala has been flying by way too fast, so let me give you an update on all that has been happening!
I don’t think I’ve told you guys what our ministry week normally looks like! We usually have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off, and do ministry Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. As you probably already know from my previous blogs, every Thursday we get together as a squad and go evangelize in the local towns and villages! So, my team works with Reindom ministries, so every Tuesday and Friday we start the morning around 8am in Sumpango at the Reindom house. My team and our ministry hosts get together for about two hours for a time of worship and prayer, which is so Holy Spirit led. This is time that I treasure so dearly as we all just come together to start off our day and look at Jesus. Some of the people that work with Reindom don’t speak English, and it’s so sweet getting to worship and pray in different languages. There’s no language barrier in the Kingdom of God!
After our time of prayer and worship, we all hang out for a few minutes before driving to the Reindom school in the Santa Marta village. Some of us cook, and some of us clean for the kids to come at 1pm. Once the kids come, some of us sit in the classrooms with the kids as they eat, and some of us help serve them lunch! I love being able to serve them! We could easily make them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but the kids get so excited to eat a nice warm meal. Some of the meals we’ve made them in the past have been spaghetti, chow mien, chicken and rice, and chicken alfredo. We also always give them juice or horchata, and homemade tortillas with their meals!
After they eat lunch, some of us go wash all the dishes, and some of us clean the classrooms and start teaching either Bible class or English class! I LOVE teaching English. I had no idea I’d love it as much as I do. It brings me so much joy to be able to teach these kids, and I’m sure it’s so exciting for them to have a “gringa” teach them English haha! To be honest, they have no idea I’m learning these words in Spanish as I’m teaching them in English! So more like I’m teaching them, and they’re teaching me! It’s so fun though! I’ve gotten to teach them emotions, seasons, shapes, parts around the house, and common phrases! Normally I’m paired with another girl on my team, but yesterday I taught an English class by myself! I felt a little intimidated at first. A young girl who just graduated high school, and is the farthest from being fluent in Spanish, in a classroom full of Guatemalan kids trying to teach them English. These kids are so sweet, and listen so well! I truly love the days I get to teach:)
After classes for the day, we get to hang out with our ministry hosts until Manuel (our van driver) picks us up to take us back to base. We normally make it back to base just in time for dinner at 5:30pm. Different teams on my squad are on a cleanup rotation, so after dinner if it’s my team’s turn to clean, we’ll clean the kitchen and community bathrooms, do the dishes, and sweep and mop our common room. Team time starts at 7pm and normally lasts about an hour. Team time is just a time set aside for our team Monday through Friday. We either have Bible studies, feedback (which is just an open floor of communication for individuals or the team as a whole can look more like Jesus), share testimonies, and just have fun together! After team time, I’m normally pretty tired from a full day of ministry so I’ll just shower and go to sleep!
So, I explained what Tuesday and Fridays look like for ministry, but Wednesday’s are by far my favorite. Wednesday mornings with Reindom we do a ministry called Kingdom Table in Sumpango. Our day normally starts around 8:30am. Two of us work in the kitchen and help make the food, and the rest of us walk the streets of Sumpango and invite people. Kingdom Table is a ministry for the homeless where we get to welcome them in, worship, pray, do crafts or games with them, share a message with them, and feed them a nice warm meal. All kinds of people come to Kingdom Table. We get old people, families, drunk people, single men and women, kids by themselves, and we welcome all of them. I struggle trying to connect with the older people as they probably don’t even know what google translate is, but I just smile, which probably does more than we think!
After all of the people leave, we clean and wash all the dishes and the Reindom house. After everything is clean, my team and I get to just rest and hang out with our ministry hosts for about two hours! I love this time!!! Our ministry hosts have become my best friends. It’s crazy how much someone can be your best friend when you don’t even speak the same language. I love all of them so dearly, and am dreading our goodbye tomorrow.
Around 1:30pm we drive to the Reindom school in the Santa Marta village to put on a Bible club for the kids!! This is so fun! We set up chairs, speakers, and games, and welcome the kids at 2:30pm! At Bible club we dance, play games, have a message, and prayer and worship. These kids have the sweetest relationships with the Lord that is beyond precious. I feel like often times kids ministry and Sunday school in America can look like just singing fun songs and playing games. Which I thought was normal for kids until I saw the level of intimacy with Jesus that the children of Guatemala strive for. I feel as if often times we think kids can’t handle being moved by the Holy Spirit. I thought that way! Until I say these kids firsthand being WRECKED by the Holy Spirit. Like them being on their knees, crying, praying, and just worshipping Jesus with everything they have. One time during Bible club, we gave a message on how God loves the nations. We then went into a time of prayer and worship, and called forward all the kids who felt like the Lord was calling them to be missionaries. These kids come forward one by one as my team and I got to pray over them. I felt God specifically highlighting this one little boy to me. He was on his knees, and his face to the ground. After I prayed over him, he sits up, leaving a puddle of tears on the concrete in front of him. I don’t remember his name, but his beautiful heart for Jesus was truly so admirable. I left Bible club that day with a whole new fire for kids ministry. It doesn’t have to be all games and fun songs. Kids can have intimate relationships with Jesus, and my prayer for American kids is that it would be normalized for them to strive to be close with Him in such a real way. That they would encounter what intimacy with Jesus truly looks like!
While that’s what our ministry normally looks like, last week we were able to put on a VBS for the kids of Sumpango! This was so fun! We danced, worshipped, prayed, did crafts, and played games with the kids! Every morning, we would walk the streets and invite people. Which looked so different in itself. We would see a family and go invite them, and the parents would then just hand us their kids… then we would walk them all the way across town to VBS. It was crazy how willing parents were to just pass their kids over to random American girls. The first few days there were hardly any kids which broke my heart and made me feel a little discouraged. Then one morning, I felt prompted to pray for an over abundance of kids, and GUYS. GOD IS SO GOOD. Emilee (a girl on my team) and I were standing on the street outside the building where we were doing VBS, hopefully being able to welcome the passing kids and families, when out of nowhere, a GROUP of kids come walking down the hill and start filling into the building!! It was amazing! VBS week was so sweet, and I loved getting to pour into the kids of Sumpongo.
Time to catch you up on some fun things my squad has been doing! Last weekend I got to hike a volcano!!! It was crazy, and so beautiful! We hiked a little over 4 miles, straight up a dormant volcano called Acatenago, and got to see an active volcano called Fuego, right next to Acatenago! It took us about four and a half hours to hike up, we stayed the night up there, and hiked back down the next morning. At night, you could actually see the lava erupting from Fuego! It felt so unreal to be so high about the clouds, watching lava erupting from a volcano a mile away. I added some photos below, which don’t do justice to how beautiful it truly was. Once I hiked down, I realized that I probably won’t hike another volcano in my lifetime. It was fun and beautiful, but I think I’m good now! I can say I hiked a volcano haha!
My squad and I were also able to celebrate thanksgiving together!! It was so sweet getting to make new memories with my second family this year! That morning, we ran a Turkey Trot together and played football and soccer! In the afternoon, Emilee and I were able to go to a coffee shop to connect to wifi and call home (I miss you mom and dad). Once we got back to base, we moved the tables outside, decorated really cute and fallish, dressed up and took photos together as a squad! We had some girls from my squad make mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and they got nine rotisserie chickens. After dinner together, we had ice cream and watched Christmas movie! Thanksgiving this year looked different for all of us, but it was so sweet and special! (I’m leaving out the part where I totally asked a local Guatemalan what they were planning for thanksgiving:)
K SQUAD LEAVES FOR SOUTH AFRICA IN TWO WEEKS!!! Our squad will be split up into our teams for our time here, and going to different parts of South Africa. My team and I are combining with another team on my squad for ministry, and we will be partnering with a separate ministry called Circuit Riders! We will be traveling across South Africa doing a lot of kids ministry, worship/revival nights, and youth group/high school ministry! We don’t know a whole lot of logistical details yet, and my heart is slightly breaking to leave Reindom and all the sweet people here in Guatemala, but I am SO EXCITED to start ministry in South Africa!
Some things you could be praying for:
- PEACE!! Peace and comfort as we prepare to leave Guatemala!
- Reindom!! Our ministry is an incredible ministry, so just be praying for all of the kids and everyone involved with Reindom!
- my sweet family!! I miss them more than words could ever say, so just be praying for my incredible parents as they support me from miles away.
- homesickness!! It’s pretty rough guys. Thank you Jesus for blessing me with a sweet family to miss so dearly.
- safe travels to South Africa!!
FUNDRAISING UPDATE! GUYS I AM 94% FUNDED!! Which means I only have $940 left to raise! Thank you guys SO MUCH! Your support is greatly impacting the nations, and my personal growth with Jesus! You guys are incredible.
I love you all so much!
Ashley:)
