Hey, everyone!!!
Here’s an update on my first week of ministry in Guatemala:
As I informed you last week, my team and I were assigned to a small village called Calderas. In this town we will be teaching English and sharing the love of Jesus to the locals. In this blog, is a more detailed run down of what our weeks in Calderas will look like.
Our ministry hosts are Angel and Elsa Lopez, two leaders who have a huge heart for the Lord and their community and want to see those two things come together. Their main vision and prayer for the community is unity. There are 5 churches in Calderas, but they are all feuding. There is a lot of hostility and hatred towards people who go to different churches. Angel also shared with us that there is a lot of jealousy and territorial fighting in the community among tour guides, so our main goal for ministry is to unify the community in light of the gospel.
Logistically, we don’t have a lot of assigned ministry. We met with community leaders to talk about what they wanted and what times/places we could do things and we decided that we would hold English classes (with the intention of also integrating spiritual teachings) for kids and adolescents Monday through Wednesday from 2:00-3:30. On Thursdays we will do what is called “ATL”, which stands for “Ask The Lord”. This means we will take time in the mornings to pray and ask the Lord what He wants from the day. Consisting of mainly house visits, helping women with chores and praying for families, we will basically be serving the community in a way that brings glory to God. On Fridays we will teach English to adults such as the tour guides and people who have an interest in learning English for their jobs. So we have some things planned, but we also have a lot of freedom to be led by the Holy Spirit and serve in whatever capacity we feel led to do so.
We had our first week of English classes and it could not have gone better! On our first day of class, we expected to have a max of about 30-50 kids. That was a major underestimation. We has 118 kids show up to class on our first day! As chaotic as it was, it went so, so well! I quickly learned that the kids in our classes are not at all like school kids in the U.S. These kids are SO eager to learn and are dying to take notes. They have caught on so quickly to everything we’ve taught! In week one, (three days of class), we were able to teach them the following words/phrases:
-Hello -My name is_____.
-Goodbye -I am good
-How are you? -all the basic colors
-How old are you? -how to count 1-20
Every time we get off the bus in Calderas, the kids from our classes come outside to see us. They say “Hello” in English and think it’s the greatest thing ever when we respond back in English. Though it may not seem like much, taking the time to learn their names and being patient enough to teach them brings such a smile to their faces.
God has such beautiful dreams for this community and I am SO excited and honored to be both invited and trusted to come alongside the Holy Spirit to make those dreams a reality. It’s going to be so beautiful to see the Lord equip us and send us out to really pioneer His dreams for this village.
Please be praying for us as we dig into what God’s plans are for this community and set out seeing those things come to life! Pray that we’ll be able to love and serve them well and honor Jesus in everything that we do. Pray that lives will be changed and eyes will be opened. Pray that this community will be one that comes to know Christ as their one true leader and becomes unified in love for each other because of their love for Christ and His love for them. Pray that the chains of jealousy and hostility will be broken. Most of all just pray that whatever God wants from us, that we will be obedient to that and that His Kingdom comes to Earth and down on San Jose Calderas.
