My squad and I arrived in Guatemala on September 2nd. Before going straight into ministry, we had a 5 day debrief in Antigua. Debrief is a time where we discuss the past month with each other and the leadership team, where we come together as a squad to grow through devos, sessions, and worship, and where we rest! We also had free time each day where we could go explore the city of Antigua! That was a new experience for me, and it was a lot of fun! Antigua is a tourist-y city, but the buildings are old and very pretty.
We also hiked or rode a horse up a volcano called Pacaya, and we roasted marshmallows at the top!
During debrief, I continued to break down walls in my life as I worked on being vulnerable about the insecurity and shame I was feeling. I thought it was hard to share in front of 6 people…well let me say that it is much harder to share in front of 26 people! But getting it out in the open was freeing.
There were several moments where I could clearly see God at work! One was on the last night of debrief. Our leadership team had just finished up their time with another World Race squad, and each person on their squad had written each person on our squad a letter. None of these people knew us, so these letters contained whatever the Lord had told them to say. Mine spoke straight into my struggles from the past month. It started out with this: “Bold is the word I kept hearing from the Lord.” I had struggled with wanting to take initiative but being scared, and too often I had given into that fear. That led to a lot of the shame I had been feeling. As soon as I read that first sentence, I knew it was a letter straight from God. The rest of the letter was just as applicable and amazing. My letter wasn’t the only one that was like this; so many others spoke straight into what they were dealing with. It was one of the coolest moments at debrief for me!
To fast forward a little, my squad arrived in Chimaltanango yesterday afternoon. It is all-squad month, so we will be living together and working in the same city for the whole month. We are staying in a gorgeous house! If I wasn’t sleeping on my sleeping pad, I would think I was just on vacation. The squad split into groups of 3 people, so we are working with 8 ministries total. My group is going to be working at a school Monday through Friday, and we will be teaching art and English. I am excited to work with new people and to see what this month holds!
Stay tuned for more updates!
God Bless,
Chelsea
