Well, we’ve been at our first ministry location for a few of days now. It’s called Shofar Ministries and is located in Puerto Barrios, a coastal city about six hours away from Antigua. Team B.R.A.D.Y. is partnered with Team Hineni this month. So, there are thirteen of us at this location. We all piled in a Guatemalan 15 passenger van, complete with all of our packs and backpacks and junk strapped to the top under a tarp, and drove out here on Wednesday.
The ministry is run by an American man named Paul. He’s great. He’s been in Guatemala for four or five years, but previously did mission work with Mercy Ships for about ten. It’s funny to listen to him speak English ’cause he has a very distinct latin accent on the words. …interesting how your environment can influence your background.
Anyway, these first few days have been full of trying to figure out what life on the Race will look like (at least for the first few months here in C.A.). And all I can say is I need to learn Spanish. Pronto! We’ve already done some intercessory prayer, door to door ministry (with prayers for healing!!), children’s outreach and bar ministry.
We live in a couple of Guatemalan houses. There is electricity, water and internet readily available. The water is very expensive here, though. So, we take showers quickly and with as little use of the water as possible (i.e. get wet, turn off water, lather, turn water back on, rinse off, turn off water, lather, etc….). They are also cold showers as there is not a water heater. Electricity is also very expensive, so we use as little of it as possible. All of the women are in rooms with each other utilizing bunk beds; four to a room (except for two who are either sharing a room with one of the ministry staff personnel or sleeping in the “living room” ;p). And the three men are sharing a bunk bed-filled room with one of the staff members.
I’m excited to see what the next few weeks hold in this city! The Lord is working.
