dear friends,
hi! since this week marks my first official month living here in guatemala i’ve decided to share a little about what we get to be apart of on the day-to-day and how the Lord is working through my team in that ministry !!!! my team and i are so blessed to be assigned the village, los enchinos, which is about a ten minute walk from our base therefore, we get the privilege of walking to ministry each day overlooking the many mountains, rolling hills, and our neighboring volcanoes. we also get to greet the street vendors who sell corn everyday (which is utterly delicious might i add), admire the many different flowers growing alongside the road, veer out of the way of racing buses who only all seem to be buddies and thus, the competition is that much more critical, and finally, walking everyday really allows us to be intentional with each other as we experience celebrations and then difficulties. so without further a due ….. here’s what we have been doing these past couple of weeks!
monday’s and wednesday’s!!!!
on mondays and wednesday’s, we leave around 8:45ish to get to our school by 9am. these days we work at the local private school where the kids are sponsored by outside families. once we get there, we all go to our assigned tasks that vary from painting a mural to teaching to sewing uniforms. can you guess where the Lord placed me? that’s right! i am sewing. my teammate, anna, and i began two weeks ago and were taught by a mom who volunteers at the school as well. on our first day, we were told that the fabric we were to use to make the girls uniforms was solely from canada therefore, she asked if we could be as careful and precise as possible. anna and i looked at each other in fear/astonishment/disbelief/excitement/doubt, basically feeling all the emotions because we are both extreme perfectionists and when you add serious pressure to that mix, it often creates … well all the emotions. and thus, we began. those first couple of days of sewing, (more like sewing a portion, retaking it out, and then sewing it again) we were definitely being challenged by the enemy. Nothing seemed to work out. for example, our machines kept experiencing the oddest ailments. my needle broke for goodness sake! we spent the morning encompassed in our mistakes feeling like failures. however, i’m thankful to serve a God that is full of promise and grace! despite the immense pressure we had put on ourselves to be perfect, the mom, was the most gracious, kind, and patient individual despite the language barrier. she would rush over when our faces fell looking at our piece and help us make it right. instead of believing the lies the enemy was speaking over me that i was going to get kicked out of this ministry because i kept wasting their material and disappointing her, she would simply smile at me and begin showing me how i could fix it. one day after a particularly difficult four hours, she asked anna and i to stop and follow her so that she could show us how to iron the uniforms once they were completed. what we used to believe were such giant wrinkles and mistakes, she simply went over them making the uniform look fresh and clean and actually decent (????!!) all of those hours feeling worn out and discouraged, we actually laugh now because both of us had cried (me) or had come pretty close to it (anna) and suddenly all those fears, anxieties, and lies were gone. these uniforms were actually wearable for goodness sake!
thank you God for showing up in the little things. for being there alongside me as i experience struggles, doubts, and feelings of failure. thank you God for your immense grace, that nothing i can do will make me deserve it any less. thank you God for the way you completely renew me despite my wrinkles, my mistakes, my sins, my past. thank you God for the way you still choose me again and again to assist in broadening your kingdom. i am full of purpose now.
tuesday’s and friday’s!!!!!!
on tuesday’s and friday’s, we teach english for an hour at the local public school in our village. the building has only two classrooms with an open walkway in the middle as the teacher here is the only teacher therefore, she has to go back and forth between the two. this past week, a cafeteria and library were donated to the school and we were able to take part in the precious ceremony! how humbling it was to sit surrounded by the students, parents, sponsors, and teacher celebrating this occasion! my classroom, that i teach along with two of my teammates, has students that range from grade 1 to 3. the other classroom, where the remaining members of my team are, have the grades 4 through 6. teaching english at this school is completely our responsibility. we are in charge of deciding what to teach, how to do it, and providing all of the supplies if necessary. i absolutely adore it and we have the most fun! every morning when we arrive, all of our students come running out to greet us with hugs and pictures they have drawn for us! it is difficult for me at times to understand how they can love us so well, when i can hardly communicate with them. sometimes i believe i’m not really making a difference because how could i? i can’t tell them how loved, how cherished, how worthy they are to the Father because i can barely form a sentence in their language. but these people are so beautiful. they show me everyday through their actions how loved i am and remind me how important just that is. just as i hope to speak life and pour into the lives of the wonderful citizens of los enchinos, they do so for me simply by the way they remember my name every morning or by the way they so welcome us into their homes sacrificing their time and their privacy. because teaching falls completely on us, i have had to learn patience as well as surrendering to control. after we finish teaching at 10am, we are able to visit and really build relationships with the women in this town. our village is predominately populated by women and children as the men are at work all day on the weekdays. we begin the mornings by asking the Lord what he has for us for the day. how he wants to use us that day. those have led us to families that have the coolest stories, the biggest hearts, the bravest souls. on tuesday’s, we also have been blessed with the amazing opportunity of cooking classes! because it’s been a month of meeting and building relationships with this precious village, we have come to know the most resilient ladies who have agreed to teach us to make traditional guatemalan dishes. so far, we have made atole, a hot corn drink which was delicious!!! after discussing in depth with my team, we have decided to describe it as the latin american hot chocolate. culturally, the people here will sip as the weather gets chillier similarly to how we drink hot chocolate. this past week, we were invited by a retired pastor and his incredible wife (hands down the cutest old couple i have ever met by the way) to help make a traditional guatemalan lunch which included us killing the chickens we were to later eat with tortillas and vegetable soup. what an honoring experience. these cooking classes are more than just learning how to cook, even though we all know i need that as well, but they are also full of joy, full of laughter, full of vulnerability as these women share their stores. after we ate lunch, the pastor brought out his guitar to then begin singing for us. we were filled with so much gratitude because just days before when we had gone to hang out with them for an afternoon, they were honest in telling us they were living pay check to pay check as the pastor was experiencing some serious health concerns. and yet, they were so generous in inviting us to share a grand meal with them where they sacrificed two of their chickens that they could have had sold or used later. but instead, they allowed us to share such an incredible experience with them. on friday afternoons, we do a vbs for the kids in a little field or el campo. we play soccer which i’m surprisingly good at (thanks mel!) and play and have the most fun!!! and then we teach them a little lesson on how loved they are by the Father. it’s the best ending to the week.
thank you God for your people. thank you for the way you love us. thank you for the way you allow us to build relationships despite the language barrier. thank you for your grace.
thursday’s!!!!
okay wow i have written a lot but i am just so lucky for being blessed with getting to know and love the kindest, most genuine people ever. anyways last day!!!!!! on thursday’s, we have activations. and what they means is that the staff here in guatemala from adventures in missions comes and educates us on a certain topic. so far, we have had talks on identity, hearing the voice of God, and the last one was on character. they are extremely powerful and led entirely by the holy spirit through the staff. i’ve experienced freedom, breakthrough, joy, release, and so much more. the Lord is so good because he always gives us the teaching that we need to hear that week. this past activation, we got to celebrate many squad baptisms which was incredibly special as they were able to commit fully to our Father surrounded by those who love them so deeply. it also was immensely beautiful to look out and see how present the Lord was through his creation. after we learn, we spend time with the Father as we process they ways he is slowly transforming us. this is so important for then we go out to the surrounding cities, towns, and villages to share our testimonies on how the Lord heals, how the Lord forgives, and how the Lord loves. i could write on activation forever however, that’s for another day.
okay so this is ministry!!!! this is how i’ve been spending my weeks here in guat! i’m so incredibly thankful for the people the Lord has put into my life through this village. just as much as we pour into them, they pour into us. they have taught me what it feels like to be unconditionally loved that has nothing to do with what languages we each speak. they have me taught me to be grateful for the little ways the Lord moves. they have taught me humility, grace, and authenticity. they are so full of faith that when we ask them if we can pray for them, they answer with such honesty and vulnerability believing that miracles can happen in Jesus’ name. wow. thanks God!
with so much love,
sadie
