Morning Glory
Our ministry this month in Guatemala is with Morning Glory Christian Academy. It’s located in San Raymundo, Guatemala. The school works with kids from Kindergarten to 9th grade and they have a reputation for excellence. My typical day looks like waking up at 6:05am-ish, having instant oatmeal with milled flaxseed and cinnamon, eating a banana and yogurt while listening to worship music and reading the 
Word. I wash my dishes, brush my teeth, then we walk the 30ish minutes to school as a group. It’s really scenic and beautiful on the way to school. When we get there classes start at 7:35am but some classes have gym or are playing outside anyway. It’s some kind of organized chaos, at least from my perspective. Our contacts have given us the freedom to serve however we feel led, so the first few days were a lot of ‘What’s going on? Where do we go? What are we doing?’ By now we’ve each established some kind of routine or at least a place where we fit in to serve. This week I’ve been working with Rob who teaches a Biblical Principals class. Rob is from the states and is married to a native Guatemalan, so he is able to translate for me. I sat down with the Lord to figure out what I was supposed to talk to each class about (5th grade to 7th grade) and a theme appeared to be planting good seeds in the garden of your heart. I like gardening so this was perfect. The basic principal is this: everyone has a garden in their heart and the words that you speak into a person, whether good or bad, becomes a seed that is planted into their garden. Jesus said “The words I have spoken are spirit and they are life.” John 6:63b He also said “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45 So, when you have Jesus in your heart and you allow His love to overflow in you, naturally, supernaturally you will speak words of love, mercy, grace, and encouragement to those around you; whether family, friends, random strangers, or people that don’t have Jesus in their heart. That’s been the basic principle that eventually turned into me sharing my testimony with them. They pay more attention to stories than preaching, so I shared my story with an emphasis on this spiritual principal. And after Rob heard/translated my testimony he said it could really make an impact with the oldest kids at the school, the 15-16 year olds. Major, Jaimie Rae, and I have similar-ish stories so the three of us got to share our testimonies with them (with Rob translating) and we could tell they were paying attention and had similar life experiences to ours, or at least they were just starting to get into things that Proverbs calls foolishness or folly. I’ve been really thankful for these past weeks getting to know the community here and being able to speak life into the kids here; it has been an awesome opportunity so far!
