The past month my world has been filled with hellos, goodbyes and change. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to make since of my circumstances, which turns into sporadic vent sessions with my team who just laugh because we are all in the same boat. Last week we had the opportunity to stay at a YWAM (Youth with a mission) base in Belize which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Besides the outer refreshment we received from having an island get away, my team found ourselves going “deeper still” into some uncharted waters we had never had to deal with in the comfort of Guatemala City. Between the pressures of planning an international trip on our own, along with adjusting to a new culture and mass swarms of mosquitos, we went through a pretty intense refinement process. On the race there is no where that you can hide emotionally or physically, that your team will not find you. Everyone’s true colors come out and sometimes it gets messy. There are times where your sanity is tested by the people you love the most, but community will always come along side you in your mess, because they love you to much to leave you there. In Belize we had our share of blood, sweat and sunburn, but being able to connect with so many likeminded peoplefrom around the world made it totally worth it. I even got to see a familiar face from home which was truly a God thing.
So crazy, out of all the places we could have gone, my team ended up at the same base as this chica <3
The day we came home, after a 25 hr travel day back to Guatemala City, with a pit stop at the Mayan ruins in Tikal, we had to prepare so say goodbye to the DTS students who miraculously received the funds to be able to go to North Africa for their outreach phase! These students have been with us pretty much 24/7 since the day we got to the base, so it was bitter sweet saying goodbye to them at 3 in the morning 🙁 At about the same time we received another 11n11 team of girls that will be doing ministry with us here for the rest of our time in Guate! The house switched from having a majority of Spanish speakers, to entirely English overnight. Ministry and house dynamics have changed a lot in the past week, but getting to know the new world race team and all the wisdom they have to share from their previous 10 countries has been so incredible. I don’t know how Brian and Jonathan (the only 2 boys on staff) handle living in a house with 14 girls now, but I sure am loving it!
It was raining during the whole tour of Tikal which made it 10x better^
I am still in charge of maintenance around the house with my new partner Laura, 🙂 and we are continuing our children ministry at the dump, daycare, and battered women’s refuge every week. It’s going to be hard leaving all this behind, but who knows what’s in store for us in Africa!
P.S. This could easily be the last week that I have really decent wifi for a while, so feel free to message me if you’d like to chat or have any questions!
