Hola Amigos!!!!!! I wanted to give you all an update of our first few days of the race. My squad met in Atlanta, Georgia on September 7th and had a few days of last minute training before we launched. We left on the 10th for Quiche, Guatemala and traveled for a total of 15 hours total!! We started off by leaving the hotel at 5 AM and taking a plane to Guatemala City. Then we hopped in a bus/van which should have taken around 4 hours but ended up lasting about 8 hours. As we were making our way up the winding mountain roads, our bus came to a stop. We found out that there had been an accident where a car drove off of a cliff due to a mudslide. It didn’t take long to realize that it takes much longer for ambulances and emergency teams to respond to accidents outside America and so were left waiting for a few hours. But amidst the tragedy and frustration of the traffic jam, God had us stopped directly outside of a church that was just starting its service. We decided to walk in and were immediately met with the weighty presence of God. A woman was worshiping and preaching up front in Spanish. It was cool to witness that despite the language barrier for many, God’s Spirit was still moving and ministering to everyone. The people were so nice and welcoming and even let us play with the children a little bit. At the same time, a few of the team felt led to pray and worship over the site of the accident.
Once the accident was cleared, we drove the rest of the way to the place we would be staying, a ministry called “Agape in Action” located next to a hospital in Quiche. Because the rain has washed out so many roads, we haven’t been able to start formal ministry yet, but have still been able to get acquainted with the town and speak with the locals. Quiche is a small mountain town of about 1 million people- about half are Mayan and half are Latino. There is a huge division between the two people groups, where the indigenous population is discriminated against. The town has cobblestone roads, small shops, and outdoor markets. It is monsoon season so it has been raining on and off and been a little chilly. Our whole squad is together this month (46 people), and so we have had an awesome time of cooking and cleaning for each other and getting to know each other better. While we haven’t been doing a ton of formal ministry yet, we have still had opportunities to minister to people. We were able to pray over and talk with a homeless man who came up to the missionary house in need of a band aid, transport medical supplies from a storage area to the hospital, and we also got to get a tour of the hospital and visit with some of the kids who were in there.
That’s it for now! I will write another blog once we get a regular schedule on Monday, keep praying for the Guatemalan people! I attempted to post pictures but internet is muyyy slow so you can check out my facebook for some right now!!
Love yas! 🙂
