It was impossible to choose only one favorite photo from Guatemala.
I mean, it was my home for three months, and I loved every moment of it – so I love every photo of it too.
I was going to choose this one:
It’s of my team at our Guatemalan grandparents house. This was one of the first times that we were invited into their home for dinner, but they were already special to us. I miss them a lot, but I have faith that God is continuing to work in their family, even while we’re across the world. I wrote a different blog about them if you want to hear more about how we met, you can find it here.
Then I found this other picture that I love. It’s from the Parent Vision Trip, where our parents were able to come visit us during month six. It’s another photo from our grandparents house, where we got to introduce our parents to the other family we had found a few countries away. It shows the front of their house, and all of us walking inside – reminding me of how hospitable and welcoming they were. I love it because its a reminder of the first time my mom and dad got to see what I had been doing in Guatemala – and also the first time they saw me get up to lay hands on someone in prayer.
Once I got started on the trail of looking back through pictures, I couldn’t seem to stop. And I found these ones too.
They show the back of Logan’s truck. Logan was our ministry host, but much much more than that too. He was like a dad, a brother, and a friend. He may be the kindest man I have ever met, always ready to drop what he was doing to walk us to our bus stop and buy us ice cream, give us a ride home and take the long way because he wanted us to see the views, or take time out of his weekend to take us out to breakfast with his family. Riding in the back of his truck was one of my favorite parts of Guatemala. My teammates and I would laugh and laugh and spend time gawking at the beauty around us, then laugh some more. Those truck rides were the best. The first picture shows us trying Guatemalan snow cones – aka shave ice with tons of sugar syrup and other sugar toppings. We were on our way home from building bunk beds at a site that would house future missions teams, and Logan saw the cart and insisted we stop and try them. We were sunburnt from working outside the past few days, wind blown from the truck bed, and completely, fully, immeasurable happy to be living this life.
And then I stumbled across this photo, and decided that it was definitely my favorite favorite 🙂
This is a picture my teammate took of Katy and I. Katy was one of the littles in the class I always helped in at our One Way Ministry site. It was the youngest group of kids – a kindergarten age group called “prepa”, or as we called them, “our prepa babes”, and I love each of them with all my heart. I look at this picture and can’t help but smile because I love this moment, and the million other ones like it, an incredible amount. This was how I spent all my afternoons in Guatemala – on the dirt floor of a home with a bunch of 4 year olds gluing tissue paper into their journals. The glue was always covered with dirt. The tissue paper always ended up blowing away. Puppies and kittens were always running through the class, plus the occasional duck or chicken. At least ten kids always had to go to the bathroom. The girls always ended up giggling about one thing or another. And I always left covered in hugs and filled with love. Katy’s laugh was contagious. She filled the room with joy day after day. And I’ll treasure this picture of her forever.
