Bienvenidos de Antigua!
Well, we arrived in Antigua, Guatemala yesterday around 1:00 p.m. after many hours of traveling. We left Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m., so you can do the math. I had the opportunity to begin my
adventure a little early by spending both Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles
with some of my squadmates. We saw the sights, relaxed, and had a great time.
It definitely was a great way to kick off the year.
Upon meeting at the airport, we saw our fellow squadmates,
which was so great, yet surreal. Last time I saw them we were in the deep woods
of Atlanta! At this point I expected to have felt something, some sort of
emotion . . yet, I felt nothing. If you read my last blog, you know what I
mean. I felt numb still. After a sleepless and very cold flight, we had a
layover in El Salvador and were off again.
We reached our next destination, Guatemala City, where
we split up on three buses and rode to Antigua. Let me tell you, these people know how to organize 40 hiking backpacks on top of vans like none other. Along the way we chatted about
how we felt . . all numb. Whew! What a relief to know I wasn’t the only one. None of this was relevant for much longer because when I saw the remainder of my squadmates who had arrived
earlier, and saw the beautiful town of Antigua, my heart started racing. This
was it! We were finally here!
In true World Race style, we hit the ground running. Thanks to jetlag and such a long day in Los Angeles on Friday, I seriously couldn’t even remember how long I had been wearing the same outfit. Anyways, we met
in front of a beautiful church and received some info from our squad leaders. We learned some
teams had changed (mine remained the same) due to some people deciding the race
wasn’t where the Lord was leading them at this time. We hugged, we took
pictures, and then we went with our individual teams to lunch. It was so
awesome to be with them again. I feel like I truly had been missing a part of
myself the past two months, and now I know they were the missing piece(s).
We are currently staying in two hostels, which are so great, so we aren’t
roughing it just yet. I absolutely love Guatemala already, but I definitely need to brush
up on the Spanish. Antigua is a tourist town so they are used to visitors and
are very tolerant of our confusion and lack of understanding at times, thank goodness. At night
we had worship and listened to Allison, a World Race staff person, speak. We also did
the same this morning. Just like at training camp, the World Race staff says
there is something different about my squad. I totally feel like the Lord is
going to use us in mighty ways this year and that His presence is magnified enormously when we are together. It is going to be intense, uncomfortable, and crazy
at times, but it is going to be awesome. I have felt complete since I have been
here and know this is absolutely going to wreck and change me in huge ways.
We are meeting with the staff later today to find out where
our specific teams will be
ministering this month, so stay tuned!!
