As promised, here’s all your questions answered!
What kind of ministry did you get to do?
My team was assigned to a host family in San Jose Calderas, a village up in the mountains near Acatenango, one of the volcanos in the area. The way World Race ministry works is each team is assigned to a ministry host and we’re just supposed to come alongside them to carry out their vision for their community. Our hosts’ vision was a lot about unity in the community, especially among the 5 feuding churches. We came alongside them in prayer and by teaching free English classes along with bible study to any kids in the area, unaffiliated with any of the churches. We would also do house visits around the village just to hear peoples stories and pray for them and show them what being united in fellowship with Christ can look like as they opened their doors to us in hopes that they will start opening their doors more to each other as well.
How was hiking up the volcano?
Well we didn’t exactly hike, we rode horses lolol. So, it was not hard at all. It wasn’t just a super big volcano (hence the reason you can ride horses up it) so the view wasn’t crazy spectacular or anything like hiking Acatenango, but it was really fun and we got to see a lava field from where the volcano erupted a few years ago so that was really cool. We also got to roast marshmallows in some hot pockets under the rocks so that was awesome. Definitely a cool experience, but nothing too crazy!
What has been the most rewarding part of your trip so far and how have you seen God working on you?
My team was the first team to go into this village for ministry, so a lot of what we did was just plowing the field, honestly not even planting many seeds yet, so we weren’t able to see just a whole lot of fruit yet. (But we paved the way for the next team, go gap V!) With that being said, the most rewarding part for me was the relationship that we built with our host family and our last night there with them. It was so cool to see how close we got with them even though they were our first host family and we were there first World Race team, not to mention the fact that most of us didn’t speak the same language. I even asked one of my hosts what she thought when they asked her if a bunch of crazy “gringas” (white girls) could come to her house every day and she said she had no idea what that would be like but God asked her to do it so she said yes, which is so sweet. I had no idea what to expect going in but the Holy Spirit was definitely present and I know I now have a life-long family in Guatemala! And I’ll kind of answer the second question later on, hang with me 🙂
What was the most difficult part of your ministry in Guatemala and what was the most rewarding part or a time when you felt like “okay, this is where I’m supposed to be” or “this is why God placed me here”?
The most difficult part for me was definitely the teaching English. I’m going to be totally honest, I’m not the biggest fan of that. I know that the Lord is present in it and it’s helping them, but my heart is definitely more for straight evangelism and teaching is REALLY hard when you don’t speak the same language. Yikes.
I already talked a little about the most rewarding part for me but I also LOVED doing devos with the older girls class. My teamie, Bri, and I would teach them together and basically she would teach English and I would do the devos and it was so fun just getting to talk to them (even in broken, southern accent Spanish with Bri having to repeat a lot of things), tell them about Jesus, and the heart of the gospel. Man it’s so good. Here, and in a lot of places honestly, a lot of people know about God but don’t understand having a relationship with Jesus. This is also an honor-shame culture so good works is preached a whole lot more than grace so it’s been sweet to get to share the gospel of grace with them!
What is their biggest prayer need? And what did you learn from this rotation/where did you grow?
The biggest prayer need that I’ve seen for this country is an understanding of grace. The people love so well, they’re so generous and kind, and they have the biggest faith. But from what I’ve seen, a lot of people will say they’re Christians or they know God but they don’t really understand the gospel. You can be in prayer that this country’s heart will just be totally wrecked and transformed by the love and grace of Jesus!
Oh man, I learned so much. The AIM staff here in Guatemala is SO great. They poured into us so so much and I’m so thankful for the way that they loved and led us. I honestly don’t even know what the biggest thing would be. Some things that the Lord brought me through were my identity as a bride, how to fight entitlement and comfort, how to love people more than I love myself, how to pray bold prayers with authority, and how to cultivate real intimacy with the Father and live out of that intimacy in a way that allows me to walk in so much freedom and love. Wowza. And so much more. I don’t even remember who I was or where I came from at this point.
How’s the lady that was really sick that you wrote about in your blog?
Sweet Ruth. She’s so good! We visited her the last day we were in Calderas and she had so much joy. She still has a little bit of swelling in her feet but overall she’s going SO much better. She went to church last week for the first time in months and even got up and sang a hymn. Wowza! He’s a good Father.
Did you get the outcome you expected? Are you ready to leave Guatemala? And is there anything you would change about your trip?
Like I mentioned earlier, we didn’t get to see a ton of fruit here, but I have faith that it’s coming. So I’ll say yes and no? I honestly had no idea what to expect!
I love it here so much but I am PUMPED for Asia. And travel days. It’s going to be so fun!!! Asia is going to be a totally crazy different culture so I’m excited to see what that looks like. And I’m excited to do evangelism in Asia because here most people atleast say they’re Christians so that can be hard to witness to them if they think they’ve already got what you’re trying to give. But in Asia there’s a million and 5 different religions but most of them aren’t Christianity so I’m pumped for deep conversations about God/gods, learning about their culture, and telling so many people about Jesus!
I know that the Lord is the best choreographer of moments so I trust that everything that happened was for my good and for the good of the Kingdom but I honestly would’ve liked to rough it a little more than we did because it was super easy to get comfortable staying at such a nice facility. I also would do a lot more street ministry and a lot less English, but Jesus is the director here not me so I’m just playing my part.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to do?
Honestly we haven’t had to do too many weird things in Guatemala. It’s the most similar to US culture that we’ll be in so the weird is probably still to come. But I will say that chicken buses are a real experience. They’re school buses brought in from the States and tricked out and it’s public transportation for everyone. We’ve ridden them EVERYWHERE. And let me tell ya, those babies don’t stop picking up people when the bus is full. You’ll be 5 people deep in one seat with people in the aisle, their butts in your face, and the money guy still manages to squeeze through everyone to pick up everyone’s money. You move wherever you can move, get wherever you can fit, and you get real close real fast. Basically just picture shoving atleast 140 people on a school bus. And they drive probably atleast 60mph on winding mountain roads, on both sides of the road, passing literally anyone. Honking their horn the whole time and praying no one is coming around the corner. It’s a little wild. Makes you real thankful for bus limits in the States.
What was your favorite/least favorite food that you ate?
Every morning and every night we had two Guatemalan women come to the base to cook breakfast and dinner for us. I have two favorites, one for breakfast and one for dinner. For breakfast my absolute favorite day is beans and eggs. Which sounds gross, I know, but I promise it’s good! It’s scrambled eggs with black beans (refried are the best, but usually we just have black beans) and tortilla chips so you just scoop up a little bit of eggs and a little bit of beans in your chip and it’s SO good, best breakfast ever. For dinner pretty much the whole squads favorite meal is empanadas by far. You get 3 of those babies with some rice and salad, you dip them in some verde sauce (basically mayo and jalapeños), and you’re good to go. I may or may not have eaten 5 one night when we had a lot of extras. Oops.
My least favorite would definitely have to be this soup that they would make for us with a TON of cilantro. Let me tell ya, these Guatemalans love their cilantro but homegirl is not a fan. I also got fed a traditional dish called fiambre that they make for all saints day (a national holiday) at a house visit once and it was not one of my favorites for sure. Picture bright pink noodles with a bunch of weird veggies, eggs, and lots of beets (hence the pink, oof) all on a tostada. Glad I got to try it, won’t be making it at home.
What was your favorite thing about the culture?
Guatemalans are SO friendly and generous. We would go on house visits some days, we wouldn’t plan ahead of time, we would just show up, and people would open their doors for us, pull out chairs for us, sit and talk for hours, and usually feed us something or give us Coke. Something we’ve heard our host say over and over is that God sent us to her and if she had one piece of bread she would give it to us because God asked her to share with us. We’ve seen people with next to nothing send their kids out to buy a 2 liter of Coke or even prepare an entire meal for us, it’s so crazy.
Thank y’all for asking questions and helping me process these crazy last 3 months!
All my love,
Alley
