Living in Guatemala for the past three months has been such a beautiful, wonderful, challenging, and growing time for me. Guatemala was one of the biggest blessings I could have ever asked for. For this blog, I compiled just a few beautiful moments/ snippets of things God has taught me over this period in Guatemala.
August 10th
God taught me how to live a good story. He reminded me that my story began way before my race and will continue much longer after it ends. This blog site is merely a chapter of my story.
August 15th
This was one of my favorite nights in squadamala (aka the two weeks we spent as a squad in Antigua). It began with team time where my teammate, Joey, shared his testimony and then as a team, we prayed over him. God showed us the beginning of what intimacy looked like and then afterwards he let us have some fun. We all sat down to play MOW (which is a card game that consists of a lot of random sounds, gestures, and patterns) the night prior to this I utterly failed… but this night… I won two times in a row!! And to celebrate my victory, the sky fell and it started to pour rain! Brielle, Cara, Joey, Nathan, and I went for a run through the yard as if we were children and it was the first rain we had seen in months.
August 21st
What was envisioned to be a fun beach day in Monte Rico turned into quite the miserable day… but God was good still. I was able to spend my day (between the multitude of vomiting fits) with such a sweet friend of mine, Abby Thomas. She was a huge blessing to me on this rough day of being sick and missing home. A bad day is never a bad day, if you have God and maybe even a sweet friend by your side.
August 22nd
Our First Night in ChiChi
“It doesn’t matter if you have a nice kitchen or running water. It’s not about the money, it’s about our hearts.” -Juan Peliz
September 1st
It finally clicked that I AM my Father’s favorite and that he has gifted and blessed me abundantly and that all he asks is for me to walk confidently in what he has given me.
*Blog title: I Didn’t Know I Had A Confidence Problem
September 3rd
“If your prayers aren’t scaring you, then they aren’t scaring the enemy.” -Not sure of the OG but Cali Castaneta said it to me first..
September 11th
I didn’t really learn anything from this experience but it is definitely noteworthy!! On this day Brielle and I took a “two hour” adventure of a lifetime from Chichi to Antigua. This “two hour” van ride consisted of a coffee from a random store (van break down #1), shared gummy worms, plantain chips, and choki cookies (van break down #3), 4 gas station stops to “fill up”, a mechanic we picked up off the side of the road at dusk, two mental breakdowns, and 8 hours later we finally arrived in Antigua!!
September 18th
I stepped completely out of my comfort zone to learn more about my great God. I learned what it sounded like to hear the voice of God and have figured out since then that the more I dig into the Word of God, the more often I can hear words of God.
September 22nd
I had my first day of solo fasting! This was such a great day. Being able to take food off of the forefront of my mind was truly so special. I had a great day full of adventuring Antigua, worshiping, and spending time with my squamates.
October 3rd
I experienced Mayan Witchcraft at some local ruins… As we walked down some steep stairs to walk into a cave, there was a man stoking the fire fueled with alcohol and lit with candles. There was also a woman preparing two chickens to be sacrificed. Luckily, they asked us to leave before the dirty work was started but as we exited the cave we saw both of the chicken heads placed in a whole of the cave.
October 7th
We had 5 people come to our first English class!! Huge praise and answered prayer!! (Update: The class now nearly fills the whole church!)
October 14th
My team was able to go into one of the very underdeveloped elementary schools in Chichi. We put on a few skits, Brielle shared a story with them, I shared a gospel presentation with them, we played games, and then we served them lunch. This truly was such a blessing to be able to come into this public school and share with them the love of God.
October 20th
I went on a chocolate banana date with Evelyn and Karina! They both only speak Spanish but it was so lovely to forgo language and just be able to spend time together.
October 22nd
On this day, 15 kids came to our afternoon kids program and I was able to share the gospel with them and then tell them some really beautiful truths about God and heaven. It was so beautiful to have this conversation with the kids and I pray that it either clicked for them right then or that they continue to go to the program after we leave and are able to hear it from Juan or another team.
October 25th
On my morning run that I barely forced myself to go do, I met a sweet lady named Maria. She was carrying a bucket of corn, up a hill, to the tienda that she made corn tortillas at. As I ran closer and closer to her, I felt God urging me to carry her bucket the rest of the way. Yes, the bucket was heavy, but she didn’t need my help and even still, I felt God wanted me to. As I carried the bucket and walked alongside Maria, she looked so overjoyed and surprised that I had stopped to help her. Solely by the look on her face, I now know what sharing the love of God looks like.
*God is so good to me and I am so grateful that he has invited me onto this journey. I am so excited to be able to share even more stories like these in the months to come.
*I fly out of Guatemala on this coming Saturday!! I will be in South Africa for one month and then off to Lesotho!
*I love and miss you all!!
