New Season
After months of prayer, scouting out the land, and waiting on the Lord, the time has finally come to take a step of faith! This new season consists of TEN new team members and splitting the base into TWO locations: one in Antigua and one at Lake Atitlan. This expansion has been something that the Lord has placed on our hearts for a long time and we are excited to see this dream come true.
(Lake Atitlan) (Antigua)
It has been a long time coming, but that doesn’t make things any easier. On the last day of a weeklong retreat, we lined up and said our good-byes. With tears in my eyes, I hugged some of my best friends good-bye. I know I will see them again, but it will be different not having them in my everyday life. Some of these people have helped usher me into a deeper intimacy with the Lord, loved me when times were hard, and laughed with me through the ridiculous adventures.
(Our New Family- 26 Team Members)
As the van departed and we started to head in two different directions, we know that Lord has us unified in spirit and is calling us to a season of renewed joy and restored hope. It's encouraging to see the way this new season matches up with what the Lord has been doing in both the personal lives of the team members here as well as the base at large. This isn't only an entirely new season of life, but also for the base as we seek to expand and become more rooted in our respective communities. While at our Lake Atitlán retreat, our base director Jonathan said something that I haven't been able to forget.
You can't walk into a new season with old patterns.
If you do, you get an old season. A new season requires new patterns.
It reminds me of Isaiah 42:9, which reads, "Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." What an amazing promise from our Father. Every time I remember, my soul breathes deeply. New things are coming, and it is such a good thing! Not even just "better things," but new things. For the first time in a long time, my heart is resting in hope once again.
New Family
As for me, I’m staying in Antigua. We have seven returning team members and six new ones. Though I still live in the same house, I have a new family surrounding me. Each new person brings a new dynamic, personality, and ? to the group. I do have to admit the atmosphere is different which will take some getting used to, but I am beyond blessed to have twelve people surrounding me with the same vision of seeking after the Father.
(Team Antigua… First all the whole team and then the girls)
New Mission
We sense the Lord leading us to spend time at the Market to make friendships and to get to know people. Please pray that the Lord would continue to give us clarity on what our time at the market will look like, and that our hearts would be willing to receive whatever it is He wants for us. As a team, we've already been to the market a few times and are excited to see how the Lord is moving. The Market is full of all sorts of people coming and going and hanging out. So as a unified base, we are pumped to see what the Lord is stirring up in Guatemala.
In the next couple weeks, we are also expecting to host a few short-term mission teams through our organization, Adventures in Missions (also known as AIM). These teams work as an outreach arm of our long-term ministry base, helping us network within the area by serving and making friendships with locals. It also serves as a huge blessing to us to connect with these teams seeing as several of us at the base already know some of the people coming.
As always, thanks for being part of this journey with me!
Note: Some of the content and pictures were taken from my one of my new teammates and gifted writers, Michelle. Here is a link to her blog if you want to check it out http://michellelucio.wordpress.com
