I’ve been in Guatemala a WHOLE month now. It’s true when they said the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days because time feels like its flying by!
I have loved Guatemala though! The country is so beautiful and the people are unique, intriguing, and so so funny.
Through this past month, the Lord has spoken into my heart Truth about my identity. He has brought the word “hope” into my life and is pushing me to pursue and understand the hope He holds. God is teaching me about grace and forgiveness and healing, and is digging up hurt inside my heart and replacing it with the warm fuzzy joy and love He has for me. He’s calling me into a season of resting in His love and is using his love to mend any wounds, and his love to handcraft me day by day into a more beautiful creation.
With so much happening in the past month, here’s just a glimpse into my life here in Guatemala!
Home sweet home! This is the AIM base where we are living. We have clean water, bunk beds, and there is an amazing staff here to pour into us and disciple us. We hand-wash our clothes behind the building in a pila, and then hang them on a clothesline (or the fence) to dry. It’s such a blessing! Each day this places becomes more and more like home.
Each morning we walk about a mile to Llano, the village we do ministry in. The first part of the walk is alongside the road, where you can admire the mountains, the corn fields, and the flowers along the way. We pass multiple stands that sell grilled corn, served alongside lemon and salt.
The third weekend we were here, a few of us packed our backpacks and headed to the beach to celebrate Mary Grace’s birthday! Survived the rip current (although it was a close call… yikes. If you know, you know) and had one of the best weekends jumping waves, surfing, and loving the country we currently live in.
One Monday when we got home from ministry, the boys had the dining room/living room marked off and told us to come to dinner dressed up and without our shoes. So they took us into the dining hall team by team and washed our feet, then led us to a table covered in flowers with a letter, speaking Truth and love, written to each of us. They served us dinner, and afterwards cleaned up, moved the tables for us, and we all swing danced. They’re such amazing men, and we love them so so so much.
On Wednesday’s and Fridays we teach English in our ministry hosts garage and in a field down the street. These are two of the boys in my English class coloring Batman worksheets while we review colors.
This is Melanie, one of the younger girls. She’s not even a little bit camera shy.
Axil, Carlos, and Julio- all troublemakers but you can’t help but love them.
We ended the month having debrief in a town called San Pedro La Laguna, on the shoreline of Lake Atitlan. Debrief is a week where we spend resting and processing the previous months. We spend time with leadership and debrief with our teams throughout the week.
During our free time, a few of us took a boat across the lake to San Marcos and went cliff jumping!
This past Saturday, a few of us girls woke up at 3:30 AM to hike a mountain and watch the sunrise over the lake. In the distance, you can see Volcan de Fuego erupting, with little puffs of smoke coming from the top. It was one of the best mornings of my whole life!
Through the past month, I have loved learning about how creative God is. He created the world and said it was good, and then created us and said we are very good. And we stand looking over creation in awe and wonder, and God looks directly at us and feels exactly the same way. How incredibly wonderful and amazing is that? Love that about Him.
The past month is just the beginning!!!! There’s so many more adventures to have, so many more people to meet and pray with, so many more kids to laugh with. So much more happens beyond these pictures, and I wish I could share it all.
Thank you everyone for all of the support.
Please reach out if you have any questions or just want to talk. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have some good ole Guatemalan wifi.
– haven
