We’ve been traveling for 12 hours and finally arrive at the airport in Guatemala city. Our base Elder, Tanya, is there to greet us with a joyful smile as she ushers us towards a school bus that has been revamped to bear witness for a wide array of bright colors and shapes that reflect the vibrant culture of Guatemala. I knew the instant we pulled out of the airport and were surrounded by lush green trees instead of the usual street signs and rows upon rows of commercialized stores, that I was going to fall in love with this place. Since arriving in Guatemala I was fairly excited to try some new cultural food so you would not believe how excited I was when we pulled into no other than…
Wendy’s
Yes that’s right, we went to the most American restaurant for our first meal in Guatemala, but who can complain about a good chocolate frosty.
We were then headed to the base where I became acutely aware of the fact that I was really here. I was actually on the World Race. Something I had put hours into planning, fundraising, and school to graduate a year early had finally come to pass. I had said goodbye to my family && friends and was really here, in Guatemala.
The moment we arrived at the base it began pouring rain. In a hurry we all got off the bus, verbalized our best ‘gracias’ for the time and ran inside the gates. What awaited us was a garden city – the Lord has so much favor on Gap W – everyone was speechless in awe of this place, as if we were all thinking ‘there is no way it can be this good.’ We awaited our room assignments and my team (Ekklesia) shuffled our bags into room 3. Their were bunk beds, shelves, a shower with running water, and a sink with a filter so we were permitted to brush our teeth in it. Our beds were decked with sheets, blankets, and pillows && if you know anything about world race standards, this was lavish living.
I made my bed, added my belongings to the cubbie, put up my clothes, and started to make this room of four white walls my home. I sat on my bed and sifted through the letters my friends and family had given me to open on the race and came across the one from my sister Maddie titled ‘Guatemala’ in which I saw no better time to open it than now.
The beginning read:
“Feel the foreign earth under your feet & rejoice in the adventure that is just beginning to make way. There are seasons that require a moment of taking off tight shoes, and submerging released toes into newfound land & oceans. You have accepted the challenge to do something beyond your norm. You searched until you found it. No matter how long it took. And when you came upon the beauty that is the mission of the World Race, you held nothing back. So keep taking off your shoes. Declare it a Holy Place.”
She goes on to encourage me for these next 3 months but the idea of having this season for a time to loosen the laces on my shoes resonated deeply. My shoes seem to have been on so long they almost take place of my feet – yet the Lord calls me deeper and invites me to discover this new place with him, feeling all the new emotions, thoughts, foods, culture – embracing everything with arms wide and shoes nowhere to be found.
Yes shoes can be useful in seasons of structure and formality and a needed grit, yet they numb you to feeling the ground beneath you – is it wet? Cold? Warm? – who knows?? I do know that for me and this new season I am beyond grateful and excited to leave my shoes behind and run rampant all over this place declaring it holy, holy, holy.
Running-barefoot-in-the-fields-of-Guatemala,
El
