Hey! Sorry for going MIA for a bit . . . Guatemala was a hectic month. Heh. You know you are a World Racer when you refer to your months as countries and your countries as months. Anywho, you are probably wondering what went on in Guatemala. Well, sit tight and I’ll tell you all about it!
After month four debrief in Valley of Angels, Honduras, our teams were ripped apart and mended back together with different people. Team Intentional Love, consisting of Jessica G., Britt Charles, David Hamilton, Bryan Throgmorton, Trish Bansky, and me, are no longer. Britt and Bryan moved up into squad leadership while Trish and David were relocated to different teams. Jay and I, though, got to stay together. Yay! Now, before you get yourself worked up wondering about why this happened, just know that massive team overhauls are VERY normal around month four due to squad leaders being raised up and new team leaders being raised up. So . . . yes. Team changes.
They stuck us in a large room and had us close our eyes while new team leaders came around and marked our hands with a pen. Then we were sent off on a scavenger hunt to track down our new team leader and, thus, our team. I ran into a little problem though. I had a black and a green heart on my hand, which was confusing since it is supposed to be one symbol/color per team leader. I left the building in a confused daze, wandering around the patio. Many of my squad had already found their leaders, but I couldn’t find mine. Due to a minor mistake, I believed Jhacky was my new team leader, but it turned out she drew pink hearts, not green/black. Bummer. I keep wandering around and, not being able to find my leader I start searching out others with the same color symbol as mine. Eventually after wandering around long enough like a lost puppy, I found Megan Brooks. My new team leader. It was funny when I made this realization because I had come to the conclusion she would be my team leader even before I found out she’d been asked to be one. Another funny coincidence was that she was originally from P squad as well, like Britt (my old team leader), and she had been told by God that I would be on her team (like Britt) even when I was still on P squad. Funny how that happens.
ANYWAY. So, my new team is team United Difference, consisting of Jessica G. (Jay), Jessica H. (Jessie), Gwen Debaun, Meg Brooks, me, and Taylor Russ, who has actually just been called home from the Race. We call ourselves Undis for short. It’s funny. Laugh.
So, Guatemala. We lived in a quaint little town called San Raimundo about two hours outside of Antigua. We worked with Morning Glory Christian Academy, run by Mrs. Lori. We lived in a large apartment-ish house thingie along with several other people including a short term team that was with us for the first week, and several interns, Bayli, Alexa, Jamie, Michael and Rosie. The majority of our ministry was spent at Morning Glory just loving on the kids and playing with them during recess and, if we could make out the Spanish, help them with their classwork. I stuck with two different classes: the 6 year old class of Senyo Carmen and the 4 year old class of Senyo Lucia. I spent most of my time with the 6 year olds, though, just building relationships with the kiddos.
Beverly, me, Axel, Estephania, and Darlin
(From left to right and front to back)
Darlin, Kaeli, Nahomi, Oscar, Dulce, Estephania, Gerardo, Emy, Luisa
Jennifer, Katerin, Kuko, Andy, Axel, Jose, Alba
Oliver, Randy, Daniel, Henry, Joselyn, and Yenedit
Not gonna lie, these kids were my favorite. I especially love Beverly, whom I unfortunately did not get to say goodbye to because she wasn’t there on the last day, but I wrote her a letter that Rob agreed to translate and give to her. Sidenote: many of the kiddos at Morning Glory Christian Academy are available for sponsorship . . . I am actually pretty sure all of the kids in the class pictured above are up for sponsorship. If you are looking into sponsoring a kiddo, I would love if you’d sponsor one of these guys. They are truly some of the most loving kids I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
While at Morning Glory we threw a Mother’s Day dinner celebration for the moms of all the kids at the school and we also threw a school dance for the older grades, which was actually a lot of fun! We also got the opportunity to work with a few interns from an organization called Casas Por Cristo. They are super neat guys and girls and it was a huge pleasure getting to know them. A shoutout to Lance, Hans, Garrett, James, Savannah (Silver), Sydney, Heather, Brandon, Tyler, and Waylin. You all are super awesome and I feel so blessed having gotten to know y’all! At the end of the month these guys even threw a little bonfire for us and we all got to hang out on our last night there. It was awesome.
During our stay in Guatemala we got to visit Antigua twice and Guatemala City once. I’ve been looking to buy a guitar, but my budget is kind of on the cheap side, maxing out around $85. There was a guitar store in the mall at Guatemala City, but I really didn’t want to go in because I’d been told I wouldn’t find a good guitar for less than $150. But Gwen convinced me to go in anyway and, wouldn’t you know it, there was a beautiful blue Washburn on liquidation for $88! God is so good. So I bought it, then I looked into buying a case . . . which they didn’t have and would have to order for me. The only problem was, I wouldn’t be going back to Guatemala City. So I left without a case and prayed that I would be able to somehow find one. The next day I asked Mrs. Lori if she knew of where I could get a case, but she apologized and said that they currently had more guitars than cases, but to ask her husband Kennel. So, I asked him and he asked me to bring my guitar over so he could look at it. So I did. When I walked in the door he looked at my guitar and pulled a guitar out of one of his hard cases, took my guitar, and laid it in the case. Then he told me I could have it. I nearly cried. As I walked out the door with the case he called me back in to give me a shoulder strap, and later that week Rob gave me some picks. It was just REALLY cool to see how God provided.
I’m still processing Guatemala and I’m hoping to catch up on blog posts. We are in Thailand now working with Phang Nga church in Khok Khloi, just north of Phuket. We are only on day 2 of ministry, but it’s been nice. It is very hot and humid, but despite that I love it here. Hopefully I get acclimated enough not to get heat-induced migraines by the middle of the day everyday.
Hmmm. I think that’s all I got! To my Guatemala peeps! Michael and Rosie and Alecka and Bayli and Jamie and Rob and Lori, I MISS YOU GUYS A TON! Y’all have truly blessed me in this season of my life! I will hopefully be able to sort out my thoughts at some point and get some more blogs up, but until then . . .
Sidenote: I am currently at $11,608 in my funding and I need to have $4,642 more into my account by July 1st to be fully funded by the goal! Thanks to your support we have gotten this far and I would be so grateful if you would pray for my funding and support me financially if you are able. We only have a little more to go. Thank you!
