Month 1 of 11: Guatemala
Ministry: The Street Revolution
Weekly Schedule:
Monday
- · Breakfast at 7 am
- · Worship with the team at 8
- · Left for ministry around 9
- · Street Group at Concordia, a park downtown where we would connect with them by playing soccer, uno, checkers, or paint nails for the ladies
- · Lunch back at the house
- · Internet time at Café Barista…maybe (the Guatemalan version of Starbucks)
- · Free time/dinner time back at the house
- · Night ministry with a street youth group at a Super 24 location. Super 24 is a gas station the youth hang out by. We would spend the night dancing, drawing, and just having conversation with them
Tuesday
- · Breakfast at 7 am
- · Tutoring at the bus terminal with the kids downtown. The bus terminal is always pretty rough, but I love hanging with the kids! We work on math sheets, writing, or reading.
- · Lunch at a local hole in a wall restaurant called the Comedor. The owner is a chef and of the 6 meals we’ve had there so far none of them disappoint.
- · Visit another street youth group at La Casona close to the bus terminal…when we visit we usually play Uno, checkers, or just have conversation with them
- · Left around 4:30…The traffic gets really bad in Guatemala city and we live about 30 minutes outside of the city
- · Nap time maybe from 4:30-6 pm if not helping to prepare dinner
- · Dinnertime with team time, feedback, and free time after
Wednesday
- · Breakfast at 7 am
- · Worship and prayer session before heading out into ministry
- · Kids club at the bus terminal in the morning… We acted out a bible story, sang songs, colored, and played
- · Lunch at local restaurant
- · Kids club in the afternoon with the same activities but at the City Dump
- · One week we played night soccer with a group, another we babysat for our host
Thursday
- · Breakfast at 7 am
- · Internet time at Café Barista!
- · Lunch back at the house
- · Spent time with kids and mentoring women at a women’s refuge home
- · Night ministry/soccer with the guys of “La Casona”
Friday
- · Breakfast at 7 am
- · Worship
- · Street ministry with a group from the bus terminal
- · Lunch at restaurant
- · Street ministry with a group from the tank
Saturday
FREE DAY!
Sunday
- · Breakfast at 8:30
- · Church
- · Various activities in the afternoon depending on if we had it off or were doing ministry
Sights:
- · Mountains
- · Volcanoes!
- · Lots of traffic
- · A lot of American fast food places
Sounds:
- · Firecrackers at all times of the day
- · Car horns
Smells:
- · Diesel (the smell of pollution mmm)
- · Sewage
- · Trash
Activities on our Days Off:
- · The first two weekends we went to Antigua which is absolutely beautiful!
- The first week our host’s suburban broke down on the way!
- The second week we hiked up this hill to see a cross and view overlooking the city
- · The third off day we left Friday night after ministry via shuttle van with our team to Lake Atitlan in Panahajel…absolutely stunning! We were there Saturday morning and afternoon before heading back via the “Chicken bus”/public transportation around 3 pm.
- If you ever get the chance to go to Lake Atitlan….DO IT.
- · Our final day off we were leaving that night at midnight for Honduras. Instead of staying in the house all day Ray, DeAnna, and I decided to adventure out to a nice mall in Guatemala city to relax and hang out for a couple of hours before heading back to get ready to depart.
Coming soon: photo blog!
