Waking up to the sound of gun fire.

well, what I meant to say was waking up to the sound of firecrackers. 

Let me tell you about my birthday and some things I never knew.

• I never knew that Guatemalans celebrated birthdays by setting off fire crackers outside your room that sound exactly like machine gun fire at 5 in the morning. It is quite the experience… and to be honest a little scary, haha. 

      

• I never knew that I would choose to go to the beach and pick up trash on my birthday. The condition at the beach was terrible! It is so dirty that dead fish would wash up on the shore because it is so polluted there. We spent a lot of time there cleaning up, and took like 11 bags of trash with us.

• I never knew that God would bless us with what has to be thousands of items of clothing to take to local orphanages and the people living in the dumps, and how much fun it can be to jump into all of that clothing. 

• I didn’t realize how blessed I am with the most amazing team ever, and how much they love me. God has blessed me with an amazing birthday. My team and the team I am getting to serve beside went WAY out of their way to make this day great. I love them all so much! God has really used this day to help us grow closer together.  

• I never knew that my entire church family would come together to throw me a birthday party. What an awesome testament to the body of Christ! Praise God! The video was absolutely amazing, thank you!

These are some of the things that I never knew.. 

Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes you sent my way it means a lot to me! You have helped make it an awesome day!