I’ve been thinking about how I am going to write this blog for a week, and I don’t think there is any way to put how amazing my time has been in Guatemala and the crazy things that God has been doing onto a page. I’ll try my best, but my experience here has been so beyond words.
Lets start with our ministry at Academy of Future Leaders. Our time at AFL has been so so sweet. We were there every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and we grew to have the sweetest relationships with the students and teachers there. Even thought we were “just teaching english”, we were building amazing relationships and demonstrating the love of Jesus every day that we were there. The last month or so, our last two classes of the day were conversation classes, which I absolutely loved. Some days, we would have super sweet deep conversations about faith, life, and anything else. I loved getting to know every single one of the students. Other days consisted of charades, would you rather, and laughing so hard my stomach was sore at the end of the day. I loved our time here so much, and I will miss it a ton!
Our other ministry was Birdhouse Foundation. Even though we only went to this ministry on Tuesdays, it was so hard to say goodbye. We partnered with a ministry called Casa Shalom, and the girls there were so sweet. They truly poured into us and encouraged us so well. I learned so much and grew from watching the girls at Casa Shalom, as well as Emily and Tulio from Birdhouse. We did house visits in the morning, and every single house visit was so sweet. We got to encourage and pray for people in the villages, and I always loved them even though house visits are challenging for me. In the afternoons, we would do a children’s program, and we connected with the kids so well even though we were only in a village for 2 weeks before moving to the next village. It made me want to cry every time we had to leave a village because the kids were always so sad that we wouldn’t be there next week.
Last but not least, evangelism! It is so challenging for me, but I have seen by far the most fruit from evangelizing. It is so scary to go up to random people and share the gospel with them, and I always get so scared that I am going to look crazy. At the end of the day, even in no one gives their life to Jesus, it is worth seeming crazy to plant seeds (1 Corinthians 3:6). Almost every time before AFL days and Thursdays, we would go out and evangelize. We would pray about what to do with the time, and God showed up every single time. On one day, a student from the school came with us to evangelize. Him, my teammate Kennedy, and I went out together. We stopped to talk to a high school age guy sitting alone on a park bench. He was smoking and had been drinking. He was super open to talking, and we just started a conversation with him. He wasn’t a Christian, and we shared about Jesus with him. We told him about the gospel and Jesus’ love for him, and he gave his life to Jesus on that park bench. That is so worth looking weird and getting shot down. There are so many other cool stories like this throughout my team and the rest of the squad. God has not stopped blowing my mind since I’ve been on the race. I’ve seen healings, lives given to Jesus, and grown in my relationship with God so much. God isn’t just moving in Guatemala, he is moving like this in the States too. You just have to want him to.
Something that I have learned so much about during my time in Guatemala is the importance of spending time in the presence of God. This is something that I have taken advantage of most of my life, and it’s mostly because I didn’t realize the privilege that it is. In the Old Testament, only the high priests could go past the veil and into the presence of God. They had to go though a whole cleansing ritual and sacrifices, so that they wouldn’t die in the presence of God (Leviticus 16). When Jesus died for us, the veil was torn. We not only get to be in the presence of God that could kill the high priests in the Old Testament, but we get the Holy Spirit inside of us. That is amazing! Jesus died so that our sins could be forgiven, but also so that we can be in a relationship with him! How often do we really do that though? I used to dread praying, but Jesus died so I have the chance to. I have learned to love prayer so much because I realize the importance of it and have seen the results of it. Prayer isn’t just a one way conversation. He speaks back we are usually just too busy with life that his voice gets lost in the chaos. I have personally seen the fruit of prayer and intercession, and I love getting to spend time in the presence of the Lord.
Exciting Updates:
Currently we are in Antigua, Guatemala for a week long debrief where we talk about our time in Guatemala. We will leave next Tuesday the 17th! We will have about 5 days of travel until we arrive in Heidelberg – Wc, South Africa. I am so excited for South Africa and our ministry there! I’ll update more about that once we get there and know for sure!
Please reach out if you have any questions or just want to chat about how things have been going!
My phone number: 812-929-5410
