A smile. A wave. A meal. You never know how you’re going to change a person’s life.
On Thursday, January 9, 2014, my team (Dependent by Faith) and two other teams (Team Petrichor and Team Adelphoi) stepped off of the plane, and hopped into a van, ready to serve in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. It was about 10:30 at night when we finally got into the van, rode for an hour, stopped to have some food, ( which I didn’t eat since I wasn’t hungry) and then had another 5 + hours to go.
I really believe I’ve been blessed with an incredible ability to fall asleep in many places, so I took a pretty long snooze while my teammates watched the road.
At about 5:30 am, we finally arrived at Casa Verde, our ministry base. We met the owners, Paul and his wife Ilda. Paul told the team leaders that breakfast would be ready at 8:00, but literally everyone else ( but myself) wanted to sleep instead of have breakfast. Hungry, and not very tired, I boldly looked at Paul and said, “Paul, can I still come to breakfast? I’m hungry.” Hilda took me to the kitchen, where I met Hermana (Sister) Maria. With a wonderful smile across her face, she greeted me with a hug. She doesn’t speak English, and I’m barely getting by on my Spanish, so we had fun communicating.
I stood around for a little bit as Ilda and Hermana Maria putzed around in the kitchen. Eventually, I learned that Ilda is originally from Honduras. She did YWAM (Youth With A Mission) back in Honduras. For her outreach program, she was assigned to Guatemala. As part of her assignment, she was assigned to live in Guatemala for two years. She told me that she told God, “I don’t want to stay for more than two years.” Well, He had a different plan for her. She’s been in Guatemala for 11 years, got married, and has had some incredible experiences. One time, she was on a bus, and she felt the Lord tell her to stand up and talk about Jesus. She was scared to at first, so she went to the front of the bus to ask the driver if she could share. Immediately, the bus driver said, “YES! Go ahead!” She spoke about the Gospel, and when she sat down, a young woman approached her and told Ilda that she was going to go home to kill herself but after hearing the Gospel, she realized that her life is extremely precious. She thanked Ilda.
It’s a story like that make me so excited to continue the World Race.
What kind of story are you writing? Are you getting to know new people in this new year? Are you striking up conversations with people at the bus stop? Are you smiling at the person who is bagging your groceries? These acts of love could change a person’s life.
I still need to raise $7,953 in order to participate in all 11 months of the Race. If you’d like to give financially, just click the ::Support Me/ GIVE :: link on the left.
Thanks for reading! Blessings Galore!
