We just finished our first week of ministry here in Guatemala and let me tell you- my expectations about what ministry should look like on the Race have been completely blown out of the water! I expected to be dirty, smelly, playing with kids, visiting the sick and doing other hard work related things.
What my week actually looked like: The first half of the week, Team Fire Starters spent several hours each day inside, on our computers networking with potential new ministry contacts for future World Race squads. Our squad coach, Seth Barnes, taught us how to network, enter contacts into the database and what we were looking for in a “good” contact. Now, if you know me at all, you must be thinking “wow, Sarah must have been going CRAZY sitting in front of a computer screen in a foreign country full of adventures waiting to happen!” You are correct in thinking so, my friend. The first few days working on this project were somewhat discouraging for me. Immediately after Seth cast his vision for the unsung heroes campaign and dreams of a discipleship center, I was so excited!! Then, I realized this would involve work. Hard work. Rejection. Unanswered emails. Wondering if what we were doing would even make a difference. Feeling pressure to perform and obtain a certain number of new contacts. Whew!
Fortunately, I have some very gifted networking and professional teammates who were able to make some great connections in a few short days, including obtaining an invitation to a conference for pastors in Antigua! We left Santa Cruz del Quiche at 4:30 am Thursday morning to catch a chicken bus to Antigua to make it to a 9 am meeting. Upon arriving at the meeting, we met up with Marco, an amazing Guatemalteco Christian man who believes his purpose in life is to help connect Christian organizations and do what he can to serve God and serve people.
Through English and broken Spanish, I met several men who are involved in or know people in organizations here in Guatemala who serve the poorest of the poor. It was so great to have some human contact and talk to people face to face about what they are doing here and how we could partner with them and help them. In January, this group will be launching a campaign throughout all Guatemala to encourage the Guatemalan people to be more generous and give to the poor.
Fire Starter Women at the Pastor's Conference (Meg, Jen, Kaitlyn, me & Jackie)
The day after the conference, Marco told us he had some other contacts for us to meet. We spent the morning driving around Antigua and neighboring barrios to meet a few of his friends. Our first stop was at a ministry called The Arms of Jesus. It is a school with grades k-6, dental clinic and health clinic. Each child has a sponsor from Canada and are selected by a social worker based on greatest need. Luis has a vision for adding a preschool and expanding the school to include high school. He also told us that for years they had been praying about purchasing surrounding land to expand their ministry but it had been too expensive. Luis remained diligent in prayer, believing that God wanted their school to expand. One day, Luis' landlord called, offering the land for a price they could afford! Another wonderful thing the Arms of Jesus ministry does is build houses for people in the community who don't have a house. This could be a potential way for future World Race teams to partner with this organization! They could “adopt a family,” build them a house and love on them for the month they are in Guatemala. Please be praying for this, as it could be an exciting opportunity!!
After meeting with Luis, Marco drove us to a small barrio called “Pastores.” There, we met this amazing man named Orlando. He works with the elderly in a village called “Barrio del Cruz” that is almost a 2 hour walk from his house!! This village is very, very poor and many of the people who live there have been abandoned by their family or have no one to take care of them for some reason or another. His love for these people is very evident- he even wrote a song about his love for his little barrio and sang it for us. Orlando has devoted his entire life to serving God and serving people who society would deem “unlovable.” What truly amazed me about this man is that he is blind and has been for 20 years!! He is so joyful in the midst of this and believes that if he can serve God better as a blind man then he never wants to see again.
Two awesome, godly men- Orlando and Marco
So many other amazing “God moments” and “God conversations” happened in the past few days- too many to even mention, but here is just one instance in which we have felt God's favor in our networking efforts. You may have seen the volcano, El Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) that has been erupting in Antigua. It just so happens that Team Fire Starters arrived in Antigua last Thursday, the same day this volcano erupted. Coincidence? Maybe. But Team Fire Starters would like to believe that God is going before us, starting fires in the hearts of those around the world. We are just “choosing in” to His plan. It's the little moments like these reaffirm that we are right where God wants us. 
View of the cobblestone streets in Antigua with El Volcan de Fuego erupting in the background!
Please check out my teammates blogs to hear more about what Team Fire Starters has been up to!! (Links to their blogs are on the left side of this page)
