Week 3/4 Time is flying!!

HI y’all sorry for the week long hiatus, glad to be back in action sharing what is going on in my Guatemalan life!

The past few weeks have been crazy busy and I couldn’t be happier about it! God is moving and we have all been working hard for His Kingdom. God has been faithful in answering my prayers to hear more of His voice and I can’t wait to hear more about what He has to say about my life, purpose and identity. Lately He has continued to speak to me through the Word and through folks we have been serving with in ministry. It has been awesome to see the correlation between what all my friends and family back home had to say about my purpose before I left and what people here have had to say as well. I think He has been urging me to step into a season of growth and making better use of the spiritual gifting He has given me while also helping me to develop confidence from a place of discipline and humility. If you all have time and want to read a wonderful section of the Bible I recommend reading Job 32 through the end. Elisha may be a new favorite for me as a biblical character. I love his patience to wait for others to speak while also stepping up in confidence to bring glory to God and not himself. From chapter 38 and on you’ll get an incredible description of Gods sovereign power and really see just how in control of everything He is. It’s a great reminder that everything in life is better in God’s hands than in our own.

Now for ministry updates. This week Guate started school and this is a super exciting time not only for us but for the kids who get to attend school. We have been tasked with teaching English (thank goodness it’s not Spanish) as well as phys ed. We will be involved in this ministry every Tuesday until the end of our time here and I have to say it will be a day I look forward to every week. The kids are so respectful, receptive and full of joy it has been a great display of what God meant when He called us all to become like children. We get the chance to pray with them after every class and share stories from the Bible and it is just a great way for us to connect with the community. After school we have soccer practice which again is a great way to spend time with the kids and just have fun. They often times are working with their families so any chance that they get to play and just be kiddos is really special and treat not only for them but for us too.

Over the last two weeks we have started to build a house for a family in Patzun a neighboring town to the one in which we are staying. We have helped by moving materials up the mountain including sand and rocks for their concrete. Everything is built out of blocks here so I have very little experience with this type of building but it has been such a blessing to be able t out my body to work. I love doing manual labor and it has been a huge help to the crew so I am very grateful for this opportunity. Yesterday the family invited to stay for lunch and we got absolutely spoiled! We have chicken, rice and green potato soup. I have no idea what the green potatoes were actually called but that was what we settled on. Again it was another great display of the generosity and hospitality of the people here who love and treat everyone like family. Last week when we were helping out it seemed like every kid within a quarter mile radius of where we were working stopped by to pitch in and lend a helping hand. These guys were half my size and carrying about as much as I was and had a smile on their face the entire time too. It was a great example of how we should be living in community and serve with a joyful heart.

Today (Thursday) we went and served at the AIM base. It was spring cleaning for them so we tore apart the whole base and did some deep cleaning. It was a perfect balance of work fun and fellowship. It was so good to see the people who received us in a few weeks back and gave us our intro to what our time in Guate would be like. Time has been flying as of late and we are really settling into our roles and adapting to the culture. Over the past few weeks we have made so many friends and connected with lots of different ministries it will be really tough to leave when April 4th rolls around. Random verse to close things out, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18…. Words to live by. Love you all and hope you are well, God Bless!