So, I’m here in Antigua, Guatemala with my team…Lionheart! Shannon Ahola, Zeb Mattos, Ginger Larsen, Angela Aston, Chelsea Angel, and Angela Bringham…such an amazing team and God sooo totally knew what He was doing by putting us together! We are the team that as a whole got $40,000 on September 15, 2010, totally a confirmation that God has amazing things for this team. I love them soo much too!!
To sum up the past few days, we got together in Antigua, Guatemala on the 3rd of October and how joyous it was to see S-Squad once more! We truly are a family and I really don’t know what I would’ve done if I had to go longer without seeing them….not to say I don’t love my family back home because I totally do and I miss them A LOT!! (Momma, I’m safe and will try calling in the next couple of days, in case you read this.)
We got some teachings from World Race staff and went on a screen fast to get acclimated to The World Race, since this is about getting closer to Him…which honestly I love and enjoy not being sooo tied down by Facebook and everything else I did online, very freeing. We also found out ministry locations…fortunately my team got blessed and we are staying in Antigua, Guatemala; whereas, some teams went to the coast of Guatemala or to Honduras or to El Salvador or only minutes from Antigua. So Awesome!
On Monday, my birthday, my squad got me a Cars Pinata and it was great being able to let out some frustrations on that thing. 🙂 Lol. Candy was great too. I ended up giving most of it away though. (Abby, one of our squad leaders, loves chocolate so she totally got a baggie full of chocolate soccer balls.) Anyways, the day was fabulous and I’m sooo blessed to be here with my family (S-Squad). Plus we got to have worship that night with some people from YWAM here in town and totally got to do some prophecy. Soooo goood!!
On Tuesday, we got up super early and rode a bus to San Francisco (yes the a town here) and hiked up Volcano Pacaya, which is an active volcano that erupted about 4 months ago. At first it was challenging and I know my body was like, ‘what the crap buddy?’, but by the time I got to the top of where we went (about a few miles from the complete top of the volcano) I was loose and ready to keep going. It was very invigorating. We roasted marshmallows over a hole that had lava down in it. I, then, led declarations for our squad…yes, me…I led declarations, declaring God’s truth over all of S-Squad and Guatemala.
On Wednesday, all the other teams left for their respective ministry locations and it was kind of hard to say goodbye to the majority of the family, but I got up to tell them all goodbye. Lionheart (my team name) met with our contact, Luis Carlos, and got some instructions that we will be working at an orphanage with children from a few months to 1 year old (totally made me think of Tatiana, my niece, who is 9 months old and this part may be a little rough for me). I miss those kids…Anyways, we will also work in a hospital, possibly lead some youth group teachings and help out with churches, as well as we get to attend Luis Carlos’ Bible Study, which is fabulously amazing! I’ve just been trying to get acclimated and everything to this new life of mine. God’s working in me though and I know some amazing things are on the way. Miss Aston, totally got sick over the night and for this day and I totally was not liking that….we went to worship, but she couldn’t go and my mind totally just went to, ‘I need to see my Sissy (the name I call my biological sister also named Angela)’, which threw me off at first, but then I realized that these five women of God are my sisters in Christ and so are my ‘Sissy’s’, as well as the rest of the ladies on the squad. So crazy! (She got better! 😀 )
Today, Thursday, we went with Luis Carlos to one of the school he teaches at and listened in on his talk with a YWAM staff member, Mark, who is awesome and totally knows some magic tricks. They were talking about relationships and abstinence, which I could relate to for real. We had a good time and I even arm wrestled with one of the young men and totally lost. I tried though. I will get stronger physically this year lol. We then came back to the hostel and chilled out for awhile (after I walked around the market with Shannon and Ginger to look for sandwich baggies to no success…yet). Josh and his team totally came and surprised us with a visit, mainly to get the use of the internet, but that’s ok. They’re only 15 mins. from Antigua, but have no internet access where they are. It’s insane!!
God totally worked a miracle out that Jorge (the driver who picked up the squad from the airport) will be driving us around all month for only 100 Q, instead of 150 Q…totally a God thing there! So, tonight, Jorge drove us to Luis Carlos’ home for Bible Study and we had a great time having worship and study time in Spanish (soooo wish it would come back to me). Still a great time and we met some awesome people: Mirilla (Luis’ wife), Wendy and Christian (about to be married), two abuelas but I know not how to spell their names and then Gerber (pronounced ‘hair’ ‘bear’) and Michelle (an American from Santa Barbara here teaching and just living life for Him). She was a total blessing trying to help us find things on our map of Antigua and everything. Definitely will be good!!
Tomorrow we will have our first day at the orphanage and so I will be changing diapers and taking care of babies (figures I would after just saying bye to my baby niece) and probably crying for missing Tatiana, Lexy and Alijah.
Ok, so I guess that’s about the summary of my week…truly couldn’t have gotten through it without the whirlwinds of grace He has constantly shown to me. I am including a song by Jake Hamilton of Jesus Culture that is just amazing and I love it and I finally could listen to it again after a week-ish time. I will also post pictures at some point once I figure out how to get them onto this netbook. My new Sissy (Miss Aston) said she would help me out figuring it out! Sweetness! No worries though no one could ever truly replace my Sissy back home! 😀
I love ya’ll and thank you for all your support and prayer! I pray for ya’ll to strive after Him with reckless abandonment because nothing can ever take the place of Him and I know you could never miss out on what He could teach you! He has a destiny for everyone who reads this. 😀
Gracias de Dios!! Mucho gracias!!
*Sorry this is so strung together, I’ve had writer’s block and so got out what I could. I am hoping the words will start flowing soon though. I know I have them in me, just waiting for them to be formulated completely and everything!!
