Every morning we have breakfast at 7:00 AM and which means that I should be up at at least 6:40 so that I have enough time to get ready but I don’t I usually wake up with 5-10 minutes to get ready. Which is pretty normal for me since even when I’m at home I wake up at the last minute possible sometimes. Once I have gotten up and dressed I will go have breakfast which is almost always a hit. Once we are done with breakfast we have time carved out for us to do devotions and the devotions that I have been doing is reading about the cruxifixction of Jesus, I have read about it multiple times but each time I read it, I find something new about it and I also find it very interesting. When I get done with that I spend a little time just thinking about things or I will continue reading revelations. I have just started to read revelations. I have never actually fully read the entire book, I have only read a few verses from it. And I figured I would start reading it now, I am still in the beginning of it so and I look forward to continue reading it and learning about that chapter. Once I am done reading that I wanna continue to read other books fully throughout the next nine months and even after that.
After that depending on what time we have to be at ministry we will either leave during devotions or we will leave like a hour after devotions and during that time I will either continue reading revelations or I will start a movie or I will journal. It kinda just depends on what I am feeling during that time. Once it is time for us to leave we will get on the bus and its about an hour ride to our ministry village. We do have to take 2 buses to get to our ministry spot though which is what usually makes it take 1 hour to get their. Because sometimes you are waiting a little while for that second one to show up.
Today for ministry we did some house visits, went to a birthday party that we got invited to, and we also did our afternoon tutoring session with the kids. When we did house visits we would go to the houses of the families that attend the afternoon tutoring. We split into two different groups, the group that I was got to go to parts of the town that we haven’t been to and also I didn’t know about since you are climbing up so high. When we would house visit with the families we would talk with them, they would tell us how they are doing a little bit about their families and what they are going through. After that we had the opportunity, to ask questions if we wanted to and if we didn’t have any questions or if they got answered afterwards we would pray for them.
I’ll be honest praying for someone that I had just met did make me some what uncomfortable, like I don’t even really like praying in front of people that I have known for years. This is whole praying for people that you just meet or that you come across has taught me that, although it is going to be uncomfortable at first since I am not use to it, but the more that I do it the more comfortable I will get with the idea. Sometimes they will have prayer requests or things that they would like us to pray for and I would pray for those things but I also felt like that wasn’t enough so I would pause for a second and then continue praying for them but that one second sometimes feels like the longest second and it also feels awkward. The Lord has been teaching me that it is okay to not be comfortable praying in front of others, but that over the next 9 months I will get more and more comfortable with it and I will be able to do it like second nature.
Another reason that I do have some uncomfortableness about it is because I always feel like those who are around or that are listening to my prayer are judging me on how I pray and the things that I am praying about. Which I know I shouldn’t even worry because I know that they aren’t judging me but I have always been afraid of what others think about me and how I do things that it has affected talking and praying in front of others.
After the house visits we went to a birthday party that we were invited to for one of the girls that attends the afternoon tutoring sessions. She was turning 12 years old, and it was a surprise for her. She didn’t know that we would be there so when we started to sing to her she started to cry. The family fed us lunch, it was a traditional Guatemalan meal, which consisted of rice that had some other things in it, chicken, squash, corn tortillas, and potatoes. They also served us this drink that I don’t remember the name of but what is consisted of what rice, milk, cinnamon and some other things that I don’t remember. I’ll be honest the food we had was really good, I wasn’t a big fan of the drink that we had but I did make sure to drink all of it.
I have been learning to eat foods that I would never eat if I was back home. For example I have been eating rice, corn tortillas, and veggies. Like I can tell you right now 3 weeks ago if you told me that I was only allowed to eat those things I would honestly just never eat again because that is how picky of a eater that I was, well I still kind of am that person but I have been learning to eat what I am given because there are some families that don’t have the option to eat everyday. Although I have tried everything except for 1 thing, and that thing was our tuna. Each day we have to make our lunch sandwiches and I know I don’t like sea food and especially tuna. I didn’t even try the tuna sandwich because I knew that I would not like it. Other than that I have tried all the food I have been offered. Mom you should be proud I am breaking my picky eating ways. I am eating my veggies and I am also eating rice.
After the birthday party we went to do our regular afternoon ministry. Today we had the younger kids and man oh man do they really tire you out. Today we did some activities and then at the end they had a story time and they used puppets. The activities that we did were with a hula hoop again. The kids were split up between 4 of us and I had about 5 kids in my group, the first game that we did was that we would have to get water and then bring that water cup to our assigned bucket and you would go up against another team. The kids in my group kid did very good but it sometimes felt like they were pulling me along and that they were guiding them. After that we went out to the field and let me say trying to keep 5 young kids together is not easy, we would do little things with them like hold the hula hoop above your head, or put it on the ground or run in a circle with it. Then we would do some other little games like they had this big shirt that they would try to transfer from one kid to the next kid and I just had to help them get it over their heads, and let’s just say my group of kids WON! And then they would do a jump roping race and take their shoes off put them in a pile and then they had to get them and then we would just go back to the house we do ministry in. The hardest thing about this whole thing is the language barrier because I they will ask me a question and I will have no clue what they said or that I only understand bits and pieces of what they understand but I am starting to learn more Spanish as we go along.
Once we are done with our ministry we get on the bus to come back to the base, depending on the time we will either go right to dinner or we will have a little time to relax. Today we got back with like 10 minutes until dinner so I pretty much had a little snack and then I went to dinner. Which was pretty good like usual the food here that they serve us at the base is amazing like I could eat the food they serve us here all the time. There are very few things that I don’t like here which is really good, because I ate all the granola bars that I had bought in a matter of 2 days. After dinner I played a few rounds of speed the card game with Skylar who is one of my squamates and while we were playing the power went out so we decided to end the game. I went to my room because we were going to be having team time soon and today’s team time was a time that would allow us to write a blog or to brainstorm as a team ideas for a blog. Pretty much after team time, I will either go and play soccer with the boys or I will start or finish a movie. There are some days where I will do both, I will always play soccer though for some reason the guys are able to always convince me to play soccer and there are some days it’s just the four of us which is actually a lot of fun. And after that is the time where I will start to settle down and then eventually I will fall asleep.
The thing that I have been learning about the most throughout ministry is probably that although there is a language barrier between the kids and myself, that won’t stop me from having fun with them. Another way that I can communicate with them is through my actions because like I was told when I was in elementary school, actions speak louder than words. I didn’t realize how real that actually was until I arrived here in Guatemala and I could hardly communicate with people. I had to start to relay on using my actions other than words because they may not know what I am saying but they are sometimes able to understand when I use my hands to describe something.
Blessings,
Chelsey
