Country Number One: Guatemala
Location: Agape in Action; Santa Cruz del Quiche
Living Situation: Tent City- All Squad Month
Ministry: Day Care for Children of Single Mothers
Season: Monsoon
Weather: Chilly, then Hot, then Wet (all in one day)
Hello all! It has been a LONG time since I have blogged, so for that I apologize! This past month has been a crazy whirlwind of fun, fellowship, foul-ups, and folly. We arrived in Quiche (pronounced Key-Chay) Tuesday, September the 9th after a three and a half hour plane ride and a six hour bus ride. Our squad was all together for this first month and living in a hospital compound, we have a nice fenced in spot for our tents, hot showers, actual toilets, an outdoor kitchen, and a large indoor common room! Pretty nice if you ask me! However we were told not to get used to such nice accommodations, but I am thankful we are being eased into our World Race experience. Wednesday we spent getting to know the city and Thursday was the first day at our ministry! My team is paired with another team at a daycare for children of single mothers. The first week I worked very closely with the five year olds, who are very energetic, talkative, and speak only spanish. My spanish is developing fast, but not enough to fully understand what is being said to me, so our play times normally consist of me throwing them around, spinning them, and letting them play with my hair.
The first weekend I injured my wrist, so my days of spinning and tossing children this month were put to an end, but that is a story for another blog post. The beginning of the second week our teams were asked to paint a mural at our ministry site, so began the days of scrapping off old paint with wire brushes to prepare the space for our new painting. Scrapping and priming took the whole week to finish, although our team missed half of Thursday and I missed Friday and was down for the count for that weekend as well, but again, that is a story for another blog post. The third week was dedicated to designing, sketching, and painting the mural. It is a underwater scene leading up to the shore with a kid fishing and a bible verse in the corner. The teams ended up defaulting to me for leadership on the project due to my artistic background, so that was a really cool opportunity and I am pleased with how the final mural turned out!
(Pictures to Come!)
This upcoming Monday (tomorrow) will be the last day we have at our ministry. The very first round in a year of hard goodbyes, but it will also open the door to a whole new month of “hellos”! Come Thursday the squad is bidding farewell to Quiche and traveling on a bus for 24 hours to Nicaragua to begin month two! It will be just Team Relentless Hope in ministry, but all other details are unknown! I will let you know when I can, but for now I just put my trust in God that he will lead us to where we can best serve Him!
As for my team, we are growing. We are more open, we joke more often, and we are starting to know each other on a deeper level. Please keep praying that we stay healthy, focused, and unified!
Much love to everyone!
