Buenos Dias from the town of Chichicastenango, Guatemala!
This month, team Soul Sister has teamed up with team Authentic Daughters to serve with New Generation church. We have all fallen in love with the beauty and culture of this town. There is so much color and history to this Mayan town. We are within walking distance to the market, restaurants, local coffee shops and we’re also across the street from a delicious bakery– which is good and bad… We are staying at the church where we are all sleeping in our tents which surprisingly isn’t as terrible as you would think.
The first few nights were slightly rough just because of the cold but after we went to the market on Thursday and picked us out some authentic Guatemalan blankets, the nights have gotten much cozier. Even with the cold nights and cold showers, this is my favorite ministry location yet and I’m really excited to see what God has in store for us over the next few weeks.
Ministry this month will be a little bit of everything. We spent most of this past week painting the church and helping set it up for our ministry host to move into next week. Last night, we were able to put on a program for highschoolers where we practiced English with the students, I was able to share my testimony and Sarah W. shared a message about God’s protection over us. Today, we are able to put on a VBS style program for the children of this town where we will sing songs, put on some skits and play games with the kiddos.
Something that is different about ministry this month, but we’re excited for it, is that we are able to work with and encourage the police here. In fact, next week we will be able to serve along side them painting things around town, sharing messages and just praying over them.
Even without these cool serving opportunities, I think this would still be my favorite place of Central America, solely because of our ministry host, Juan and his family. We’ve only been with them a week now but we have all fallen in love with them and their faith. Juan and his wife have a two month old, they run this church by themselves and they have zero income, but their joy and faith is bigger than anyone’s I’ve ever seen. They don’t have a doubt in their mind that God will provide what they need. They live a humble, simple life because they want everything for their ministry.
In fact, we were able to see God’s blessing over them this week. We didn’t know it, but Juan and his wife began praying a couple of months ago that they could have some sort of screen for their church. A screen for the church services and also something for the students that come to the church to learn English. Christen, a squad mate on team Authentic Daughters, told her family about this ministry and her family decided that they wanted to bless the family. They offered to buy them a water heater, or a solar powered heater for the family but because of their love for the ministry Juan and his wife decided that they rather buy something for the church. So yesterday, they were able to buy a smart tv for the church and for the children that come here to study! Juan and his wife have a vision for this ministry to be like a second home for these children. They could have easily given in and said yes to a water or space heater (because, believe me- its COLD here and a freezing shower is miserable!) but because of their selfless love for Jesus, their love for this ministry and their humility, they spent it the money on a gift for the church. Not only was it a blessing for us to see the excitement of Juan’s face as they put up the tv yesterday afternoon but also for Juan and his wife to see God answer their prayers!
Man, God is so good all the time!
