Hello sweet friends!
First of all, the Lord is good and He is faithful. Wow. Oh my soul.
So this past Monday, all of the teams that make up our squad received our ministry assignments. What that means is that we all found out what exactly the next 3 months here in Guatemala are going to look like— well, sort of.
Let me start by telling you all a little bit about the vision for Adventures In Missions here in Guatemala that one of our base elders, Kevin, shared with us on Monday morning. So pretty much since AIM started ministry here, it has been all teaching English in the local towns. For Guatemalans, learning the English language is a HUGE opportunity. Even if they don’t make it through the local public school system, just knowing the English language sets them up for so many more opportunities for a better life because people who know English can get much better jobs than people who don’t. Since Guatemala and especially the city of Antigua is a pretty big tourist destination, those who speak English can get jobs in hotels, as tour guides, taxi drivers, they can work in call centers, and many other things that allow them to make a decent living for their families. Although American parents generally have much bigger plans for their children than becoming a taxi driver, here that is a very honorable career and something people, especially in the villages, strive for. With that being said, teaching English to local kids and adults alike is a huge ministry opportunity because it brings honor to families and allows them opportunity for a much better life than they could’ve had before.
However, in the past year or so, the Applegates (our base elders) and the staff here at AIM Guatemala felt like God was leading them to something different, something bigger. So, as they began praying and vision casting for this community and their role in it and just listening for the Lords voice and His vision for this community and this country, Kevin said that he looked out at the mountains surrounding the base and at the lights of all the little villages and towns going almost all the way up the mountains and he felt God saying “That’s where you need to go”.
So, that’s where we are going.
This week, many of our teams begin pioneering ministry in villages that have never been reached out to by world race teams or likely any missionaries. Lots of Guatemalans are “Christians” and follow God but don’t fully understand the gospel, so we are getting to go into these villages for the first time and begin to plant seeds and create lasting relationships with the people there. We will love on them, build community, serve them, and point them to Jesus in every way possible. Then when we leave, Adventures in Missions will carry on a relationship with these communities and continue to pour into them and live out the gospel to them. It’s beautiful. God has a beautiful plan for this country and we are honored to be a part of seeing that come to life!
With that being said, let me tell y’all a little bit more about specifically where myself and my team will be serving.
The Holy Spirit and the AIM team has entrusted Talitha Cumi to be the first team to go into a rural village high in the mountains called “San Jose Calderas”. Y’all, this village is beautiful. The most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life. It’s at the base of Acetenango, a huge volcano that lot’s of tourists hike, it’s surrounded by mountains, you can see for miles around, and you can even see Fuego, the volcano that just erupted a few months ago, from the village. Also, God’s heart is there and that makes it even more beautiful.
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 and 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 saying “this area is mine”, etc. 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 on Tuesday 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 once the kids get out of school. Then on Thursdays we will mainly do house visits, help women with chores, pray for families, etc. and serve the community that way, and on Fridays we will teach English to adults such as the tour guides and people like that 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.
As our team has been praying for this community and asking God what His plans are for it and what His plans are for us while we’re here, here are some of the things/visions we’ve gotten:
- Elli got a vision of the clouds opening over the village and the Holy Spirit just pouring out over the people.
- I keep hearing the words light and life and seeing the streets of Calderas just filled with people in community, talking and laughing and sharing joy with one another.
- Savannah heard the word light and felt like our team is going to bring light and joy with us because of how close we are as a team and how close we are to the Lord.
- Bethany saw our team as being big sisters to the kids and daughters to the women and bringing family values and Christ like community to the village
- Maleah saw a mom who just needs someone to see her and needs someone to listen.
Here are also some of the specific goals and dreams that we’ve set for ministry in Calderas:
- We want to see legitimate miracles happen. We know that the power and authority that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us and we want to be a team that walks in that authority and uses that power to see people be healed and crazy things happen to bring glory to the Lord and show off His power.
- We want to see the kids that we’re teaching learn and learn to love scripture, so we plan to use different verses to teach English and teach the gospel
- We want to intentionally plant seeds of unity among the leaders of the community and the leaders of the churches while also being an example of what being unified in love for one another looks like
- We want to light a fire in their community but also equip them to keep it going
- We want to do women’s ministry throughout and hold an event at the end where we pamper them, wash their feet and paint their nails, and just make them feel seen and loved and see them become a community in themselves (we might have to fundraise for this so stay tuned)
- We want to see the tour guides learn enough English and learn enough about the gospel to be able to use their platform as guides to build the kingdom
God has such beautiful, big 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. Honestly I am so amazed and wondering how on Earth I got here and got to be a part of this. God, y’all. He’s amazing.
It’s honestly also a little terrifying that we are the first ones to go to this village and we have so much freedom to do whatever we want to do there. We get to set the precedent for what missions looks like, for what the gospel looks like, and for what Jesus looks like to these people. Wowza. Holy Spirit, are you SURE you trust me with this ????
Please please 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 comes to San Jose Calderas.
The Holy Spirit has invited myself and my team to be a part of His ministry in the physical sense of actually being His voice and being His hands and feet, but He’s also inviting you and I’m inviting you to please be a part of this beautiful story of redemption that He’s writing for this village through hard fought, war-time prayers because it is going to be a war. It’s beautiful and it’s awesome and it’s going to be so fun and so sweet to teach kids and play soccer and pray for people, but Satan is going to be right there too trying to win over hearts just like we are so please fight for them alongside us!
As Paul says in Ephesians 6:18-20, “pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak”
All my love,
ABM
