All 47 of us plus our 3 squad leaders made it to Guatemala. We flew into Guatemala City on Thursday night, and at the airport we broke up into our teams and left for 4 different locations within Guatemala. My team (Agape) along with another team (Mighty Love) hopped on buses and made our way to Antigua. Our squad leaders will go from group to group within the month, and they have started with our group for the first 6 days!
We are staying in a house in San Pedro, which is just outside of the main city of Antigua. The house is in a gated community with a guard and our house has a gate around it as well. We have a nice fenced in yard with grass and trees, and some of the girls have taken advantage of it and put up hammocks! I feel very safe and our host even said it’s safe to go for a run with a buddy! YAY!
Our host, Luis, is extremely nice and hospitable. He wants to make sure we have all that we need and wants us to explore the country we are in. There are 3 volcanoes around us. 2 of them are active, and one is not. The one that is not active is called Volcan Agua and we are going to hike it one day! I am so excited for that! Our host also wants to take us to the beach (Thank you Jesus! You all know I am a beach girl), and he is going to take us into town and give us the history of Guatemala. What a great man he is! Helping us get the most out of our time here.
There is ministry team from Honduras staying where we are for a few days. On Friday they went to San Juan (which is about an hour from where we are staying) to teach teachers about God and how to be a good example to their students. We went with them and sat in on the teaching and were responsible to do an activity with the teachers to help them interact and get to know each other. We played a fun name game that we all participated in! After the teaching we went to a local park where the Honduras team did a skit and preached while the rest of us walked around and passed out tracks (pieces of paper describing who God is and explaining how much God loves people). With the little Spanish I know I was able to communicate with the people I passed these papers out to and ask them if they have Jesus in their hearts. Many of them were happy to receive the papers and a smile! : ) I am always giving smiles! It’s the universal language.
Saturday was our off day, so some of us started our day with a workout (YES PLEASE!) and then my team did a devotion together! It was the perfect way to start my day! Later all of us took the local bus into Antigua to get lunch and walk around. The city has cobble stone streets, colorful buildings, ruins of churches and other building throughout, and beautiful architecture. It definitely lives up to its name Antigua (Antique).
This is my 5th time in Central America and my first time to Guatemala, however this country is similar to Costa Rica and Nicaragua where I have been before. Because I have been here so many times, a part of me feels at home. It’s familiar, which is comforting. I am extremely grateful I am starting out on this long journey in a place I am familiar with. It makes it a little bit easier. Nevertheless, I still have not wrapped my head around the fact that THIS IS MY LIFE. I am living in Guatemala. I am not just here for a short-term mission trip. I feel like I am. I am here to stay for an entire month and I don’t leave to go home after the month is over, I head to Honduras. It’s exciting! I am not scared or nervous, I am looking forward to all the places I get to go and explore. God is all over the world and I have the opportunity to see his beautiful, unique creation all over!
Thanks to all of you who have made this possible for me!
This week we begin our ministry. We will be working in 5 different areas- teaching about values and character in 5 different schools per week, translating the curriculum into English, working at an elderly center, working with children who have cerebral palsy, and business administration helping the organization we are staying with market their church and programs to the local community. I am excited for what is to come, and the people we will meet!
I AM IN GUATEMALA!!!!
Continue to pray for my team and the rest of my squad and our host and his ministry here!
God Bless YOU!
