Our month in Guatemala ended way too quickly for our team. We left Panajachel and Mi Reto church after a particularly sweet Thursday evening church service that greatly blessed my team. We bid our goodbyes and went back to our house for a couple of hours of sleep before we boarded our bus to Antigua at 4am. We arrived in Antigua with team Crux just before 7am on Friday morning and our large bus that would hold the entire squad was due around 8am to transport us through El Salvador, Hondouras and then onto Nicaragua. Our original plan was to spend the night in El Salvador near the capital and then on Saturday make a final 12 hour push through to Managua where the teams would separate and find transportation to their own ministry locations. This plan was canned by the bus drivers (there are two- one to drive and one to sit on a wooden stool beside him) who seemed confident that we could go the whole way in just shy of 16 hours if we didn’t stop at all so Kelly and I got on Skype outside of Pollo Campero, the fastfood chicken restaurant with free wifi and quickly arranged some last minute lodging for the night with one of our contacts in Nicaragua who owns a hotel. The Lord was already providing. Outlook positive.
Our bus ride began pretty routine with the whole squad pretty excited to be together and even more excited to have a bathroom on our private bus so that the trip would go faster without constant stops. I dozed contentedly as the bus rolled through Guatemala. Then right around noon our airconditioning system on the bus went out. No big deal. We’re used to being hot. The windows get popped open and all seems well. We cross border number one into El Salvador but no passport stamps which we always secretly look forward to. Oh well. I eat amazing pupusas at the border for one American Dollar. Surprisingly the dollar is the currency of choice in El Salvador. That makes our evening meal stop at Burger King easier. I eat icecream for dinner because I can and its only 50 cents. A lot of us have forgotten what American money looks like. That is a weird feeling.
Around the time it starts getting dark our bus drivers begin to change their minds about going all the way in just one night and ask us if we want to find somewhere to sleep or if we want to sleep on the bus. Sleeping on the bus is a tempting option just because its free but we know it would make for a rough night. The other option is to try and cross border #2 into Honduras before 9pm and then see if we can make it through to Guatemala. The only risk with that is a national curfew in the country of Honduras because of some political upheaval and we’re not so keen on the idea of spending the night in Honduras. So Kelly, Kyla and I go with the bus drivers on a hunt for a location to house 48 people plus 2 bus drivers. The first place doesn’t have enough water for us to use the bathroom. Bummer. We have no internet access and no SIM cards to call and cancel our reservation in Nicaragua. Double bummer. Bright spot: Around 10pm we find the perfect location just a few blocks from the Honduran border. A cozy little hotel with room to sleep 24 comfortably and just a few cockroaches on the walls but seems relatively safe. Sounds great. We squeeze 48 people in with classic World Race style and plan on leaving the next day at 5:15am. Just a few hours later we’re all right back on our sweaty bus crossing the border into Honduras. Around 7:30am we are approaching the Guatemalan border but there are miles and miles of tractor trailer trucks backed up along the side of the road. We find out the border is closed and we don’t have a way to exit the country. The option to turn around and go back to El Salvador is quickly eliminated after learning that ALL borders in the country have been closed. There is no way out. What now? Because we are a bus full of “tourists” we are given permission to cut to the front of the line and talk to someone at the border. When we get to the border we get the same answers. No way out. Our response: LET THE PRAYER BEGIN! A few of us leave the sweaty bus to find a SIM card to get on the phone to AIM and let them know the situation and try and call the US Embassy in Honduras and Mark and I split off because there is a rumor of someone near the border having internet. We find the internet in some random house down the road and begin emailing and downloading Skype. Awhile later Mark thinks he hears his name being called and we see Kyla and Jeff running down the road looking for us. “They’re opening the border for us!” Kyla says. We take off running back to the bus not knowing the full story of “how?” and “when?” but knowing we aren’t going to let that bus leave without us.
After only 4 hours of waiting at the border we crossed over to the other side singing worship songs and thanking God for hearing our prayers. We only had to wait 2 more hours to get our passports processed to enter Nicaragua and then we were on our way to Managua. Around 8pm we got to Managua. One team had lodging arranged, 2 teams had transport to their ministry location and the other 4 teams (mine included) were still trying to figure out where we were going to stay the night. A hostel had offered a large room but no bathrooms. Rumors started spreading of the Hilton afew blocks away. No way was that going to happen on our budget. But two men on our teams MAJORLY surprised us all and agreed to pay for our rooms at the Hilton from their personal money. It wasn’t exactly World Race style but after about 40 hours on a sweaty bus we loaded our pack onto a dolly to be carted up to our top floor room at the Hilton. That night we all slept on beds that looked like clouds and enjoyed air conditioning and thanked God for bringing us into the country He promised- not just the Hilton- but the safe passage to Nicaragua.
I’m not in the Hilton anymore. That was just one night. My team is with team Holy Banditz this month in Granada, Nicaragua. We are staying at the AIM Base here and working with a variety of great ministries. We’ve recovered from our travel days and are in full swing working at a dump, nursing home and some children’s schools in the area of Granada.
Please be in prayer for our squad as we minister this final month together in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
