First, I am so thankful for all of those who have made this possible. Your prayers and financial donations are such a blessing to me and the reason why I am typing this blog in Guatemala. I am now only about $3,000 to my next financial deadline which is December 1st!
Before I tell you about Guatemala let me give you the highlights of Launch. Before flying out yesterday, our Squad and three others met for a few days in Atlanta for last minute details and training. We learned exactly how to do our jobs for our teams (for me, treasurer) and basic travel safety and even practiced some door-to-door ministry in the surrounding areas of our hotel. For training we worked as a team to find solutions to hypothetical scenarios and listen to advice from World Race alumni. Even in America we were allowed to spend $2.50 for lunches and dinners. My team made it work by combining our allowances and buying groceries to prepare our own meals (ever had fiesta hot dogs? Yumm!) It was great spending time with my team, Ubuntu, and by the end I felt a lot more prepared for the race.
One of my favorite (and uncomfortable) activities of launch was ministry outside of the hotel. We broke off into teams in all directions from the hotel and prayed for God to let us know where He'd like us to go. While praying, I felt like I knew which street we should walk down, but didn't have any idea why. We knocked on the door of the house I felt led to, but no one was home (I know, anticlimactic). My group prayed for the family who lived there and moved on to another house. Again, no one was home. We continued further into the neighborhood and found an older man outside. We introduced ourselves and talked for a little while. He welcomed our prayers and seemed blessed by our little visit. Although we didn't experience anything explicitly supernatural, I was so excited to begin ministry. I felt so at peace doing something very uncomfortable. My first ministry day of the World Race was not miraculous, but it reminds me of a Mother Teresa quote- “You can do no great thing, only small things with great love.” Overall, the day was great practice for door-to-door (or hut-to-hut) ministry in the future.
