In just over two weeks, my squad and I will be leaving Guatemala and making our way across the world to Cambodia. It’s crazy to believe that we are almost on our way to our last country. It’s crazy to think about heading back home after that. It’s crazy to believe how long the airplane ride to Asia will be.
But it’s even crazier to think about leaving the people we’ve formed such amazing relationships with since December.
It’s even crazier the think about saying goodbye to the little kids who we’ve played with these past three months.
It’s even crazier to to think about leaving behind a ministry routine that has been an every day part of our lives for so long.
That being said, I wanted to take the time to let you guys into what a day might look like for my team and I right now while we are still in Guatemala. I wanted to write down what we do during the day so I never forget it. I want to show you how much the small things everyday mean to me.
Friday, February 15, 2019
Guatemala
6:40ish – A little bit of sunlight comes through the top of our door. I sit up and climb off my bunk bed, moving as slowly as I can so the bed doesn’t squeak so much. I put my glasses on then grab my phone to play a song. This morning I choose the song “My Savior My God” by Aaron Shust. Sitting in my sleeping bag on the edge of Julia’s bed (she has a bottom bunk and I don’t have to climb back to the top bunk) I listen as the song plays, waking up the other eight girls in our room. When the song finishes playing, we know that it is time to head to breakfast. Playing a song to wake us up in the morning is something I’ve started doing over the past week. It lets us know it’s time to get up and lets us start our day with words of worship to our savior.
7:00 – We head to the dining room to eat breakfast. I sit down at the table where the sunlight comes through the window, it’s the little bit of warmth in the cold room. We wait as the rest of the squad shuffles in, rubbing their eyes and clutching their sleeping bags around their shoulders. In the kitchen, some of the girls chop up fruit while Teresa, one of our cooks, scrambles some eggs. We do team checks to make sure everyone is there, and then someone prays for breakfast. This morning we have black refried beans (a huge favorite of our squads), scrambled eggs, cut up watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe, bananas, and pineapple, and toast. Of course we also have coffee, the best coffee in all of Guatemala. Seriously, I visited the guy who makes it and he has won an award – it’s good coffee people.
7:45 – After hanging out and talking over coffee and breakfast, we all gather back in the dining room with our bible’s and journals. Aly, one of our leaders, is leading worship today. Getting to start our day by standing and praising our Father is one of my favorite things – t’s why I love Tuesday’s and Fridays. After worship, one of the base leaders, Kevin, leads us in a deep dive. We are studying Luke 5, and today we dive into the part where Jesus heals a man of leprosy.
8:40 – We pack our lunches (pb+honey+banana sandwiches today with apples and chips) and then my team gets ready for the day. Picture this: Nine girls, one bathroom, one mirror, limited clothes individually, many clothes all together, music playing, excitement for the day and music making us smile. I feel like I have sisters. I feel like this is my family. I love our mornings together.
9:30 – My team and I meet on the couches in the dining room for a morning of planning. We are planning a field day for the kids at our school and spend time deciding which activities we want to incorporate and who wants to do what. Field day will take place during the week our parents are in town and we want to make it really fun for everyone.
10:30 – After planning for field day, we spend time discussing what Monday night is going to look like. My team is in charge of planning the teaching for our Monday nights “worship and a word” this week. We want to make the sermon applicable to what leaving Guatemala and starting a new season of ministry is going to look like. We spend time in prayer, asking what God wants our squad to hear.
11:30 – We quickly break for lunch, eating our sandwiches and apples outside in the sun, then jump back into planning. I love how excited our team is to share a powerful message of truth with our squad. We know that we have to leave for ministry soon, and still have so much more we want to plan, so we decide to meet again tonight.
12:30 – My teammate Aidyn and I leave for ministry earlier than the rest of the group. We need to stop in the next town before heading to our village of San Lorenzo. Last week during Activation day, Aidyn had met a women, shared the gospel with her, and prayed with her to accept Christ as her savior! She had explained how she could read but didn’t own a bible. Aidyn wanted to stop and buy her a bible and a pair of reading glasses to bring her today. After stopping to buy the bible, we walked to the bus stop in the center park. As we waited, Aidyn bought me a smoothie (the women who sells smoothies at our bus stop is the sweetest – I love getting to talk to her and see the time she puts into making each smoothie unique to the person ordering it – today I chose pineapple + strawberry) to thank me for leaving early with her. Everyday I am blown away by how kind, generous, and giving these sisters of mine are.
1:30 – After two more bus rides, Aidyn and I stop at the house of Maria, the women who excepted Christ last week. Another women answers the door, and I realize that it is the women that I spent time with during activation last week! We say hello and ask if Maria is home, then wait until she comes to the door. Aidyn sees her smiling face and turns to me “she didn’t look like this when we met her last week”. Maria looks like she is filled with so much joy and happiness, and when we give her the bible she smiles the biggest smile I have ever seen! Over and over she thanks the Lord for sending us to her, for her happiness, and for his blessings. We leave the house feeling incredibly encouraged, and once we make it about 50 feet away from the house we hear a women yelling at us. Turning around, we see the first women who answered the door running after us! We turn back to meet her and she explains how Maria had just told her how we had come to give her a bible and talk about Jesus. She says that she knows how to read too and wants us to come back and visit her to talk more about Jesus as well as bring her a bible. You can imagine how excited Aidyn and I were. We had just gotten chased down by a women who wanted us to tell her about Jesus! Of course we told her we would come back and bring her a bible next week.
2:00 – Arriving to the field where we meet our ministry hosts every afternoon, we excitedly tell the story of what happened at Maria’s house. Then we pair up with some of the One Way team and head off to house visits. I go with Mishell, she is one of the first people I met in Guatemala and we have become good friends. Today we visit the homes of three families in the community. We bring them bags of rice and corn, and simply spend time talking with them. We ask about their families and their health. At the end we get the chance to pray over them. Today we prayed for health in a season of the flu, for a little boy who has very bad nose bleeds, and for the opportunity to find work for a husband and father. I love the time we get to spend praying with the families of a village that has become like our home.
4:00 – We hang out and joke around with the One Way team before hopping on a bus back to the base. One Way is a group of 20-25 year olds who have started their own organization to help the families in San Lorenzo. They run kids programs every afternoon, visit homes in the community, and serve breakfast to the kids on Saturday mornings. I’ve never met such sacrificial people before in my life. They love their work and pour into the kids endlessly, despite not earning an income and sometimes without any support from their parents who don’t view mission work as a respectable job.
5:30 – Dinner time! Our squad gathers in the dining room for a delicious meal of salad, fried pork, pasta, and of course tortillas (because Guatemala). Our cooks are seriously amazing and we eat so well here. We sit at long tables and talk throughout the meal as well as after it.
6:30 – My team meets back up to continue talking about what our sermon is going to look like. We gather in our room, some of us on the floor, some on our bunks, and plug in the christmas lights we got at the thrift store back in December. There is a lot of laughter as always when the nine of us spend time all together, but there is also a ton of holy spirit fire. Everyone has such amazing ideas and we all shout encouragement at each other when anyone speaks. I love us.
8:00 – We decide to take a break and then get back to planning because it’s going so well. Our leader, Aly, has made us cookies and we decide to gather in her room to continue the meeting. We eat cookies and continue to plan the logistics of what Monday will look like. It’s a lot of fun and we get a lot done. We end up just hanging out and laughing a lot more after we decide we are done planning.
9:30 – I spend some time swinging in a hammock outside and watching the stars. I’m so thankful to get to call this beautiful place home. I’m so thankful for the eight girls on my team that I get to call sisters. I’m so thankful for the work that God is doing each and everyday in my life. I’m so thankful to be a child of God.
Each day holds something new and unexpected, but equally fun and exciting. I never know quite what’s going to happen. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Every day is the best day yet!
