We have arrived and are officially on the field… literally. This month, we are staying in our tents in the compound at a hospital in Santa Cruz del Quiche on the side of a soccer field.
After leaving Chicago yesterday, we flew to Miami then on to Guatemala City last night. We stayed with an Marco and his awesome family for the night and woke up this morning to a rooftop worship session. The view was absolutely beautiful and it was so great to be with the whole squad, praying over the city and starting off our time in Guatemala with a worship session. We then ate breakfast, cleaned up camp and waited for our buses to arrive which would take us to Santa Cruz del Quiche. Our hosts tied our large bags onto the top of a “chicken bus” as everyone piled in with day packs, guitars and a variety of other random items. My team and another team piled into a small van for our 3 ½ hour journey. Although we were packed in, went through winding, scary mountain roads and even saw a poor little dog get hit by a car, it was a relatively easy travel day of getting to know my teammates and squadmates better. Can't believe I will be spending the next year of my life with these awesome people!!
After setting up tents in Quiche, the majority of the team went into town to explore the market and buy food. I decided to hang back with some of my other teammates because I hadn't been feeling well all day and just wanted to rest. After chatting with some of my teammates, we realized that we all had a sense of heaviness, but weren't sure why. Perhaps we were just overly tired, hungry, worn out and getting sick? Or maybe because the town we had just entered was a spiritually dark place. We learned that witchcraft is prevalent in the villages here and we could be feeling the effects in a physical way. After talking to and praying with some of my teammates, I felt that the weight started to be lifted. We came to be lights in this darkness. To start fires in the hearts of people in this village. Please pray that God would continue to surround us with His mighty presence and protection. I am not trying to sound dark or scare you, but spiritual warfare is real. The effects of it can be felt in physical ways BUT we have a God who is MIGHTY. Who has already won the fight and who is going to battle for the hearts of His children here in Guatemala.
On a lighter note, it is such a blessing that we get to spend this first month with our whole squad. Throughout the next few weeks, we will have some worship and teaching sessions from our squad coach, Seth Barnes. My team will also be working closely with Seth to pioneer a new ministry called “Unsung Heroes.” We will be searching out new contacts in Guatemala who are reaching out to poorest of poor who need ministry help and start to build a database for these ministry contacts. In months and years to come, we hope this will be a strong partnership and contact for future racers. Seth also has a vision for Christian artists to write songs about these unsung heroes and what they are doing in their villages. I am so excited to start this new ministry with my team and meet some men and women of God here!
So, in light of the people-centered ministry this month, I have a huge, God-sized prayer request. This is going to sound crazy, but some of us were talking about this on the bus on the way to Quiche. Back in high school, I used to be pretty fluent in Spanish and would love to regain those language skills. Would you be praying that God would supernaturally restore my Spanish brain to a conversational level? I would love to be able to speak directly with the people we will meet through the Unsung Heroes initiative!
Pictures hopefully coming soon 🙂
