I have a ton of new updates to share with all of you! I have officially met my first fundraising goal of $5,000! Thank you for everyone that has supported me so far in prayer and finances, I could not have done it without you.
Korynn Wolcott and I hosted a kickball tournament as a fundraiser. It was so much fun and it felt great for everyone that came out to support us. It encouraged me that there were many people behind me in my decision and that wanted me to succeed.
Here is a picture of most of the people that were on my team. Even though we didn’t win the tournament, we had a lot of fun!
This past week I got the chance to go to Guatemala for a mission trip along with 17 other people. Getting to know each of their hearts more was amazing. I can’t describe how close of a team we were and how God united us to do His work in Guatemala. I am going to go day-by-day and tell you what we did each day.
Day 1: TRAVELING
We started out with 15 of us driving in 2 vans from Lubbock TX, to Dallas TX. On the way we got some chic-fil-a, got a flat tire, and almost got in a car accident due to some other cars and their road rage. We arrived to the Dallas airport and met with our 3 other members that were already there waiting for us to arrive. We then boarded our flight to Houston. We arrived in Houston and then got on another plane to Guatemala City. When we arrived, we met with our host that we were staying with named Mike McComb. We got on a bus and he took us to our hotel for the night. By the time we got in bed, it was about 1:30 Guatemala time. A long day of traveling.
Day 2: TRAVELING
We woke up and had cereal with warm milk which was a new experience for us. Cereal with warm milk?! Yes, I did say that. After breakfast we packed up our bags again and got back on the bus. We had a 6 hour bus ride ahead of us going from Guatemala City to Nebaj, the village that the Missions Center was at. While on the ride, a lot of us experienced motion sickness, including myself. The roads were completely different that that of the U.S. Lets just say they were very bumpy. When we arrived in Nebaj we got the night to relax, eat dinner, and have a devotional/worship. We definitely could feel God’s presence was already in the place of Guatemala. After devotional, we finished preparing for VBS and then went and got some sleep.
Day 3: TRAVELING & VBS & ROOFS
We woke up day 3 pretty early. Got some breakfast in our stomachs and started preparing for another morning of traveling. We got in the back of 4 pick up trucks and had to hold on to rails while standing for around 5 hours. While the views were amazing, the roads were not. We got banged up and bruised up several times. But in the end it was all worth it. We continually encouraged each other, played road games, and had many laughs. Once we arrived to our first village, the girls and Tommy went to the local school and put on a VBS for the kids. They had about 95 kids there. As a group we had chosen to do Daniel and The Lions Den as our theme. We had a little arts and crafts where the kids got to make a mini lion. We put on a skit of the story, and we sang some songs in Spanish along with playing some games. While they were doing VBS, the rest of us guys were helping them put a roof to the first church in that village. After the VBS was done, they came to the church and we prayed with the Guatemalan people in that village. Many of us cried because we could feel the presence of God and knew that this church was just the start of what was going to happen in that village. Although none of the kids had accepted Jesus during VBS, we knew it was going to be okay because Jesus had a plan for them. After that, we went to a church about 15 minutes away from there and put on another VBS. During that, We had 5 people come to know Jesus, 4 of them being kids. We had another devotional while eating a bowl of noodles with some sort of weird ketchup. That night we slept on the concrete floor of the church.
Day 4: TRAVELING & VBS AND CONCRETE
We started the day off at about 4:30 with a bus honking extremely loud and waking all of us up. Lets just say we didn’t get a ton of sleep that night. We woke up around 6, eat breakfast, and got back in the pick up trucks. We drove about 2 hours to another village. We had VBS and we also poured concrete in a church. While we were pouring the concrete, Mike got a call and said 2 kids had accepted Jesus during VBS. So I remember stepping back for a second and praying that more would keep coming to Jesus. Not long after that, Mike gets another call and 5 more had committed. A few minutes later 5 more. By the end of it we had 15 come to Jesus. Our team was amazed by what Jesus was doing to the children of Guatemala. When we finished pouring the concrete, we went down to the VBS and had some fun with the kids. We taught them dance moves, played Limbo, and even taught them a little bit of English. Luckily we had 2 teammates that new some spanish so it was a little bit easier to communicate. After that, we got back in the trucks for another 5 hour truck drive. We arrived in Nebaj and eat dinner, had another devotional, and then got some sleep that was very needed.
Day 5: CONCRETE & CONCRETE & CONCRETE
Finally, a day of no traveling. We slept in a little bit, woke up and eat some breakfast, then got to work on putting concrete into a patio for the missions center. This was a challenge for us. We started out strong, had a couple of assembly lines, and very encouraging hearts. After a couple hours we could tell that we were getting tired. We all had to let our pride down and say that we needed to switch positions so that we could be more effective as a team. We took a break for lunch, which was very needed. Almost the whole time, it was raining so we were drenched along with having concrete all over our bodies. After lunch we got right back to work. We had finally found the right positions for each of us making us the most effective as a team. We had so much team commaraderie and encouragement. After we cleaned up with some showers and eat dinner, we took a 2 mile walk into the village to attend a church service. It was cool seeing us Americans and the Guatemalans worshipping the same God in the same room with our hands held high. A couple of us got to share our testimonies in front of the church and Tommy got to share a message in Spanish! It was a very powerful night in that church and an unforgettable experience. We walked back in the rain and then had another devotional and played some card games.
Day 6: TRAVELING AND SHOPPING
We got up and got back in the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to Panajachel, Guatemala. Once we got there, half of us eat some pizza while the other half had some tacos. We were very excited to eat some food that we always eat in America. After that, we got checked into our hotel there and then we got our wallets out and went shopping. Many of us got some Guatemalan coffee and things to bring back to our families. It was a lot of our teams first time bartering with people. It was very fun and a great experience for our team. That night we had our final devotional with Mike and the rest of his family. We got to share memories we had on the trip and experiences we had encountered. A lot of us decided to bring back the socks and sandals look, which was very interesting…
Day 7: KAYAKING & BOAT TOUR & TRAVELING
We woke up early and went Kayaking. We kayaked with a great view of the some of the volcanos in Guatemala. Somehow we didn’t end up getting to wet which was awesome. After the kayaking, we went and got breakfast then got ready for a boat tour on the lake. We got on the boat and went to a mayan village where we got to see what a Catholic church looked like in Guatemala. It was very different than what it looks like in America. We got back on the boat and headed back to Panajachel. We got one more hour of shopping then we got back on the bus for another 5 hour trip. We were heading back to Guatemala City for the final night in Guatemala. We arrived, had some dinner, and wrapped it up with the last devotional of the trip where we encouraged one another and prayed for each other. Many tears were shed and many friendships made.
Day 8: FINAL DAY OF TRAVEL
We were down to our final day, but we knew it was going to be long. We arrived at the airport about 10am and our flight left about 12. We arrived in Houston and had a 5 hour lay over. We got to taste some Whataburger and Panda express along with some milk shakes, foods we definitely missed. We got on the flight to Lubbock around 10 and finally arrived to Lubbock about 11:30 that night.
It was an amazing trip and I will never forget the friendships I have made and the people I met. Guatemala is forever a part of my heart and my teams. I also got to share this experience with my girlfriend, Alexis. We both shared our testimonies at the church that night and got to experience God independently but also together throughout the trip.
Thank you for reading this post and I will post another one before I leave to Training Camp in a week!
