This past week was our last full week in Lacamá II (yep, that’s it’s real name; there are three of them) and it flew by. I can’t believe that we will be leaving here on Wednesday, but it’s also exciting because we’ll be heading to the house of Pastor Carlos to stay for a couple days! Pastor Carlos is the contact that the World Race used to provide this ministry for our teams, and he has his own ministry called My Father’s House (google it). He has graciously invited us to stay with him and his family for November 4th and 5th (and he’s providing all our meals!) and then on the 6th we will head out to meet all the other teams in Guatemala City. Say a prayer that he’ll have internet at his house!
As for what we did this past week…
Monday was a free day/rest day for us. Team Increase planned on going to an amusement park, but it was closed so they headed to the beach instead (a little jealous, not gonna lie). We on Team Jubilee, on the other hand, decided to rest and relax at Pastor Manuel’s house…and it was awesome. It was sooo good to sleep in and stay in bed for a while – how I’ve missed that! We were able to just relax, write, read, go for a walk, whatever. Sooo nice. We didn’t have church this week because there was a revival Tuesday night that Pastor Manuel spoke at, so we all attended. It was pretty cool, except for the fact that it was freezing, rained the entire time, the tarp that covered us all had holes in it, and we were there from 8 til midnight though I’m used to going to sleep at like 9:30pm. Ha. It was cool though, and just a good feeling to be accepted into the community and able to participate in something like that. There was lots of singing and preaching and standing-up-then-sitting-down-then-standing-up-again. The best part was when Manuel was speaking, because you could tell he was in his element. There was a certain sparkle in his eye and an excitement to his voice. It was one of those times where you just knew you were watching a person do what he was created to do.
We continued working on the church this week, moving cinder blocks, tying rebar, and sifting sand… you know, the normal stuff. One fun thing though was getting the sand – we didn’t go buy it anywhere…we went down to the river and dug it out of the riverbed! We then shoveled it into big bags and put them on the flatbed truck owned by one of the men here in Lacamá, and I don’t know exactly how much those bags of wet sand weighed, but they were heavvvvvy. It was amazing to watch these little Mayan guys : three the bags on their backs and walk up the little ladder onto the flatbed (I did do it a few times, talk about a workout!). I also swam in the river in the one spot that was deep enough to – talk about COLD water! Wow.
Friday was really cool because it was graduation day here in Lacamá! Yes, apparently their school year runs on a slightly different calendar. The Pastor’s family invited us to the graduation ceremony of their second-oldest son, Elias. He is 15 and from my understanding graduated from a school that is for students on a slightly faster track than regular public school students. It was quite an interesting time, but really neat to feel like a part of their family! The ceremony was a bit different, like the fact that the audience talked amongst themselves the whole time (while the kids ran around) and some of the teachers who were on stage even talked on their cell phones while the speaker had the microphone! You just had to laugh.
Hopefully I will be able to post another blog or two at Pastor Carlos. Its hard to believe month one is almost over and we’ll be heading to Nicaragua soon. I think, though, one month in each spot is the right amount of time. It is enough time to get to know the community and feel comfortable here, rather than simply feeling like a tourist or short-time visitor. It is also enough time to build relationships and really feel a connection to the place and the people. However, any longer than about four weeks I think would start to wear on me, especially knowing that this journey will take me all over the world to all sorts of people and cultures, and I’m already getting a bit antsy to go somewhere new.
Thanks again to everyone reading my blogs and praying for me! Be sure to check out the blogs from my teammates as well as other racers on the L-Squad (can you believe we are only the 12th squad to go on the WR?! Crazy!) and pray for them as well!
