Hola amigos! After an extremely stressful first travel morning, my team, Luminous, along with teams Atarah Doves and Half Dozen Disciples, have safely arrived in our new home of Santa Domingo Xenacoj, Guatemala.
Having our entire hotel room of racers accidentally sleep in because none of our alarms went off, the first morning did not start off on the right foot. If you’ve never had to pack all of your equipment and personal items into a 70 liter pack in 7 minutes, it is very stressful. However, God was on our side and all of C squad made it to the airport with plenty of time to catch our early morning flight to Guatemala, with even enough time to grab a yummy smoothie to calm the nerves.
Smoothies are one of the many ways God blesses us because He combines many different ingredients to make a delicious and good creation. This is exactly what God has been doing with my emotions. God has taken my excitement and stress and blended into it His joy and peace to create lots of wonderful anticipation leading up to launch.
Arriving in Guatemala was like stepping into one of God’s most colorful paintings. Down the winding dirt roads are small houses in a multitude of colors. It was as if God had spilled His paintbrush all over this beautiful town, bringing it to life with bright, exuberant colors. The colorful houses are even more beautiful with the vast mountain ranges looming in the background. Guatemala is a magical country that glorifies all of God’s beauty.
However, everything on the Earth is prone to suffering, even the most beautiful of God’s masterpieces. This is where we as world racers step in. Go Ministries is a mission organization based in Santo Domingo Xenacoj that is committed to doing God’s work in the village. It works to feed orphans, partner with widows and teach English in local schools. Through this mission work, we will be able to speak life into many broken aspects of lives in Guatemala.
Even though Go Ministries is a mission organization, it is run by only two godly men: an American named Dave who was called to serve full time in Guatemala and our ministry host German. The entire organization is based out of German’s house, which means that he and his family have opened up their home to 30 racers, providing us with food, lodging, showers and bathrooms. This family has followed God’s path for their life, and turned everything He has blessed them with into a blessing for someone else. Talk about being a light into the darkness.
I’ve only been here for 3 days but my heart already feels at home. Our teams have been mostly absorbing the culture and being educated on the history of this country that God has placed us in. Next week will be strictly devoted to learning Spanish so we can be more effective missionaries because we’ll be living here for 3 months. Ministry will start pretty soon and I have full faith that the Lord will show up in big ways, since He already has in such a short amount of time. God is good, y’all.
