I woke up on my first morning in Guatemala frigid and groggy, still very much under the influence of jet lag courtesy our 48-hour travel and 13-hour time difference.
“…What time is it? …what country am I in? …how long has it been since I showered? …too long. ….It’s freezing in here… why is it so cold in Central America?”
One by one, my equally jet-lagged teammates and I dragged ourselves out of bed in search of coffee, and so began our month in Guatemala City. We were staying at a YWAM base, (Youth with a Mission) which is a worldwide missions organization. Of course, in Spanish it was “Juventud con un mission,” or JUCUM. During our time there, we would team up with their ten-member staff in the various ministry projects conducted by the base.
But first, we were going to get a taste of YWAM culture. The biggest element of what they do is their Discipleship Training School (DTS), where young people from all over the world come to learn for a few months, and then go on an outreach trip. There was currently no DTS taking place, so my team would be part of a smaller, scaled-down one over the course of the first week. This would serve two purposes: first, it would be beneficial for us as missionaries, and second, it would give the staff members a chance to practice teaching before an official DTS began.
So for that first week we went to “class” every morning, taught by Boris, Franklin, Milly, Marielos, and Jessica. The five of them were staff members at the base and close in age to my team, so we all immediately hit it off. We got to practice our Spanish, they got to practice their English, and there were plenty of memorable moments, like the time my teammate Elizabeth said “Hasta manzana” instead of “Hasta mañana” – “manzana” is apple, “mañana” is morning, so instead of saying “See you in the morning,” she said “See you apple.” We also did a few days of team-building activities, which involved everything from climbing over a wall of tires, to carrying each other across tree stumps, and playing soccer.
Once a week, we would go to a daycare to teach a bible lesson. This always involved a skit, so the first week I was a flower in the Garden of Eden (seriously, everybody else was an animal, and I got stuck with a flower) and for the second one Mallory and Lexi played students in a skit about obedience, while I was Lexi’s conscience (an upgrade from the flower).
On one Saturday, we got up early in the morning to go to Central Park and pray with a large group of people in front of the president’s home. It was dark and cold, but it was really cool to be part of – all of these different organizations and churches coming together to pray for the government and the president. President Morales himself showed up the following week, but unfortunately we weren’t there that time.
Most of our other ministry projects revolved around speaking engagements. We went to churches, a rehabilitation center for alcoholics, schools, a women’s shelter, and even a Ronald McDonald House, where parents can stay while their children are being treated for serious illnesses in the hospital. We would share testimonies, songs, and stories from our previous eight months on the mission field.
It was an interesting turn of events to have our contacts ask us to talk about what we’d done on the Race. It felt like suddenly we were “real” missionaries, with “real” experience. Of course we had never been “fake missionaries,” but this was when it really hit me that the Race was close to ending. And while it might appear that going to places and repeating the same routine would be dull, but at each one we met great people and had something new to learn from them.
Guatemala. It’s the country I’ve been to the most now, with month nine of the Race being my third time. Yet I’ve never been bored with it, and I’ll gladly return whenever the opportunity arises. With every experience I’ve had and every friend I’ve made there, it feels more and more like a second home.
