Wow what a week. Last Sunday I was sliding around in 3in of unseasonable snow in Central Oregon. And tomorrow my team heads out to start our ministry in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.
I woke up early on because I wasn’t sleeping well anyway thinking about what I might be forgetting and being excited about being on the move again. Today would be my last day in Bend for the next 11mon. I had prayed that it would snow before I left because the chances of seeing any snow in the places we will be going were are slim to none. I was happy to see a dusting when I got out of bed and looked out side. It made me smile and I continued to pack and get ready for my journey. As the sun began to come up it looked like it might snow some more. And sure enough it did. I came done hard and fast for the next three hours. Enough that I decided that we had better put the studs on the car because the pass could be bad and we needed to make it to Seattle by five so I could spend a little time with Misha before I got on a red eye to Miami. As we left town the snow turned to rain with in minutes and the rain to dry roads within and hour. By the time we had passed Portland it was blue skies all the way. It was as if the Lord really had made it snow just in Bend and just for me. I couldn’t believe it. What a start to this trip. I got to Seattle early and met Michelle as she came out of customs. We got to spent a couple hours together repacking my bag and having some dinner at Red Robin. Then it was off to the races three flights a van ride and another 14hrs or so and the first half of our team was in Antigua Guatemala. The rest of them arrived on Tuesday. Getting over 50 people to a small city in Guatemala without a hitch that is almost more impressive than the snow. God your hand really must be in this.
Once we were all here the training began. Four days of teaching and rejoicing in being back together again. Remembering were we left off when we where last together. See again how the Lord hand picked this team. It blows me away the people that I get to work with. These people truly are am amassing group of people that want to follow the Lord where he leads. And I can’t wait to see where that is going to be and what it is going to look like. But I can tell you without a doubt that live will be changed. People will be set free. And we are going to have a lot fun doing it. This is a group of people that know how to work hard and play hard. Tomorrow all of our teams will go there separate ways to partner with different contacts all over Guatemala to start helping people. Some to build water filters so people can safe water to drink some to preach to a small village in the middle of the jungle my team we still don’t really know exactly what we will be doing other than it will involve construction and hard work. We are all so excited to see our new homes for the next 25 days and to meet the people that we get to do life with. Be praying for the health of everyone on our team and that the Lord would open the hearts of the people that we are going to meet.
As for me personally I am having a great time. We go to the market and get fresh fruit for our meals almost every day. It is so good and cheap. I don’t eat a lot a fruit at home because its just not that good. But every thing down here that I have had has been really good. We have guacamole at least once a day. The avocados are huge and there about 35cents each. I even like the bananas down here. Things are going really great with my team the Lord has just continued to bring us closer together and show us what we all have to bring to the team and how our diversity is going to built each other up and bring us all closer to the Lord. I miss you all back home 🙁 But the Lord is giving me a new family for this season and that helps. Alsos be praying for my Allergies and Asthma they where bad when I first got down here and we have been praying for then and its getting better. I want to be totally healed from it so keep praying.
I can’t wait to tell you all about the amassing things that our going to happen over the next few weeks. In Puerto Barrios.
Andy
