I adore Guatemala. The country has already blessed me with so many memories, and I have another month to make more. These are my five favorite days from my first two months in Guatemala:
5. Crazy Day of Ministry – Tuesday, October 23
This Tuesday started out as any normal Tuesday would on the race. We went into our ministry city of San Luisito. We met up with JJ, our man of peace in the city that has created a lot of connections for our ministry, and we went out to go build connections. We visited an old woman who at first could not see clearly when we asked how many fingers from a couple feet away, but after we prayed for her she could correctly call out fingers from across the room.
We got to meet and speak life into a couple of other different families where restoration was needed. This lead to tears and some heavy emotions but also a lot of healing and growth. The highlight of the day for me was when we ran into Emiliano. Emiliano was a man that I had invited to our bible study a couple weeks prior when we first met him and he was drunk. At the Bible study he admitted that he wanted to change his life and we got to pray over him. What made this day special was that when we ran into him he seemed sober and he actually asked me to go and share the word of God with a family that he knew. So we went with him and ministered to that family with him.
The day ended with my favorite dinner that the base makes, emponadas, and a wicked awesome sunset.
4. Beach Day – Sunday, September 30
The start of the day was the best part of the beach day for me. Waking up to watch the incredible sunrise with some of my favorite people is something I will never forget. Seeing the colors streak across the sky while listening to waves roll in on the black sand put me in a state of awe for God’s creation.
The rest of the day was also full of new experiences. I (tried to) surf for the first time in my life with an instructor that spoke no English other than “Go” and “perfect position,” which he yelled frequently.
I never loved the beach before that weekend, but there was something about the deep conversations with my squad mates or hammock naps or the sunrise or the surfing that makes me remember this day with fondness.
3. . Day of the Dead – Thursday, November 1
My most recent blog covered this day’s ministry in detail. Not only was it fascinating to see the cultures and customs celebrating Day of the Dead, but the fact that we got to use that as a platform to embody God’s love made the holiday that much cooler.
What my last blog didn’t tell you is that the hospital visit was not the only thing we did for ministry that day. We also went to Bola De Oro, my activation town, and visited Gloria. If you’re not familiar with Gloria then you can go back and read a blog that I wrote about her. Gloria was doing better than the last time that we visited her! She was walking around and had started chemotherapy. It was so encouraging to see Gloria up and able to move around. Thanks God.
Not only was the day special because of Day of the Dead, but we also celebrated one of the staff’s birthday. We celebrated by playing a bunch of crazy competitions that included karate chopping vegetables, or eating mysterious foods as fast as possible, or wrestling for the possession of a cow tongue. Overall that day was jam-packed with a wide variety of emotions and experiences.
2. Hiking the Indian Nose and Cliff Jumping – Friday, October 12
We had a week long debrief after month 1 that we spent at Lake Atitlan. The lake itself is incredibly beautiful, but my favorite day of debrief started with us waking up at 3:30 in the morning. We had to get up that early for our hike up to the top of the Indian Nose, one of the peaks overlooking the entire lake. The view of the sunrise was incredible and our hike included a cup of coffee and some bread just to top off the experience.
But my day didn’t stop there. After getting back from the hike that morning I ate chocolate pancakes for breakfast and then went cliff jumping a couple hours later. I loved Lake Atitlan and I loved debrief, so getting to spend one of those days doing awesome adventures with some of my fsquad makes this day one of my favorites.
- Doing Ministry with Seth Barnes – Friday, October 19
So Seth Barnes, the founder of Adventures in Missions and the World Race, came to visit us at our base in Guatemala with the board of directors. We usually have a bible study for devotionals on Fridays but this time Seth and one of the members of the board, Miguel, gave us a teaching about fatherhood. Miguel told a really vulnerable story about his father which added up to an incredible lesson and experience.
After the teaching we went to our ministry and most of the board of directors joined us. We split up into groups. My group was me, Ethan, Blake S, Seth Barnes, and JJ. It was so interesting to see how Seth went about ministry and he was also pouring new lessons into us as he did it. The family we visited and prayed for that day was emotional and we were able to pray big prayers for them with Seth’s incredible vision.
The day ended with the pleasure of having Domino’s pizza for dinner, and that night our team stayed up late and had had some of the funniest conversations when we were getting ready for bed. I think that those small things make some of the best memories as much as the big adventures or ministry moments do, and that’s why I put it as my favorite day in Guatemala so far.
