Hey everybody! On Monday, my team and I got assigned our ministry for the next 3 months so I wanted to let you all know what it is and how God has already shown up this week
Our partnership this next 3 months is with an older couple in a small mountain town called Calderas. Calderas is this cute community at the base of the famous volcano Acatenango (it’s no longer active in case you were worried). The towns revenue streams consist of farming on the steep hillsides and the tourists coming in, wanting to climb the volcano. To get to our ministry everyday, we take a 30 minute ‘chicken bus’ ride up the mountains. A chicken bus is just an old school bus from the states that has been decorated here in Guatemala. My ears pop everytime we take the bus because we gain 1500 ft in altitude.
The couple we’re partnering with, Angel and Elsa Lopez have lived in Calderas their whole life and want to make it a better place. The biggest problem in Calderas right now is that the 5 churches in the community fight with each-other. The pastors try to poach people from other churches to increase attendance at their own, and have created a culture of division throughout the town. If someone goes to a different denominational church, you don’t usually associate with one another. This is turning people away from church altogether so that they aren’t placed into a certain “clique”. Angel has served as a community leader for a good part of his life but wanted people from outside the community to avoid making matters worse. We have been asked to promote unity among the churches, however we aren’t sure how to do that yet. I’m praying for the holy spirit to give us some guidance.
Another big part of our ministry is to teach English. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons, we teach kids. And on Fridays we teach English to the volcano tour guides that live in Calderas. On Thursdays, my squad and I take a class from the staff at the base where were staying. They teach us activation, which entails different ways to walk in the Spirit to make our ministry more effective.
This past week, we walked around Calderas and prayed for the Lord to show us who we need to pray for and what. We were talking to this lady and a few people on my team got the idea from the Lord to speak into her identity through God’s eyes. She was telling us about her life, how she got married at 13 years old because she was pregnant and had been kicked out of her house. In many cultures, if a mom re-marries, if the new husband doesn’t want to take care of her kids from a previous relationship, the wife is required to kick her children out of the house. This is what happened to Marta, the lady we talked to. A few people on my team told her she was loved and that her past didn’t define her future as well as how God views us as holy, even though we are far from it. She didn’t have this huge reaction or start crying, but you could tell she felt the Father’s love. It really blew my mind that the Holy Spirit moved through my team like that. I’ve never experienced anything like that, I can’t wait for it to happen again and again this week in ministry.
We have a lot of flexibility with our ministry, and lots of time where we don’t have scheduled things. This is both awesome and scary because it’s allowing God to do what he wants us to do. It’s scary because I’ve never relied on Him like this before, but I guess this is the time to do so.
I forgot to mention this last week on my blog, but IM FULLY FUNDED! Thank you to everyone who has donated, I seriously could not have done it without you! If you want to still donate, I would really appreciate it if you could donate to one of my teammates who still need money. You can find their blogs on the left side of your screen under “Meet my team”.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
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For wisdom for my team on how to unite Calderas
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For the Holy Spirit to BLOW OUR MINDS this week
Thank you all for reading!!
Love,
Bri
