If I had to pick a word for PVT, it would be “amazing”! PVT was such an amazing week with my Nana.
PVT means “Parent Visitation Trip”. At least that’s what I think it stands for. PVT is a chance for parents to come and visit us and work alongside us at ministry sites. We also get the chance to do some adventure stuff and to go out around the town that we are staying in. It is also a chance to talk about the race so far and a chance for not just us racers but the parents as well to lean more on the lord and learn more about him.
My mom and dad couldn’t come to PVT. So, I sent an email to AIM asking if I could invite my Nana. By the Grace of God and for having patience to wait for an answer for over 3 months, I finally got the ok to invite her. So I sent her an email asking if she would and she said yes. After months of anticipation and waiting, I finally got to see my Nana.
The day that we were supposed to see our parents, honestly started off badly. I barely slept that night and us guys were told that we had to wait to see our parents for a couple extra hours. I was pretty annoyed. I wanted to see my Nana more than anything. But, I knew that I had to go eaither way and that it was ministry. My mind wasn’t in ministry at first. I had to ask God to give me the patience and the heart to go through ministry and enjoy it.
When we were on the bus to get back to where we were supposed to be, us guys were talking about how we were literally going to sprint through the whole town to get to the hostel that we were staying at so we could see our parents. We got off of the bus and started to walk very fast. I was just about to start running until I saw a group of the girls and their parents. I didn’t want to be rude and just run past them, so I stopped to go and say hi. Then out of the back of the parents, my Nana appeared. I ran to her and gave her a big hug. I almost took her to the ground. I hugged her for so long. We were both crying our eyes out. They were happy tears. The first thing that she said after “I love you” was, “you lost a ton of weight”. Haha. I just gave her a big hug.
We went back to the hostel and along the way, I bought a thing of real Guatemalan nachos. We ate and talked the whole way there. The next day, we held a huge carnival for close to 400 kids. Nana worked with the crafts table while I played soccer. It was awesome. We spent the next couple of days hanging out and talking. I took her to an amazing church called “Shoreline Church” and went out to lunch. We went on a tour around some of the Mayan ruins with some other parents and racers and we went out to a nice dinner.
On Monday, we did ministry building stoves for some of the locals in some of the rural villages. It was such a great experience for my Nana and I to witness together. I even got to ride a horse. That night, we did worship and had a couple of teachings. I didn’t tell my Nana that I was going to do one of the teachings. I knew that I was going to do one for almost a week. After one of the girls finished, I stood up and walked to the front. My Nana’s jaw dropped when she realized that I was doing a teaching. It was very amusing.
I taught about courage. It was a sermon that I had written in Swaziland for prison ministry, but I changed a lot of it. I spoke about some pretty hard things about my life were I needed, then found courage in the Lord. My heart broke when I looked at my Nana. She was crying her eyes out because she was there and witnessed some of the instances that I talked about. But after I was done with my sermon and we were free for the night, we talked a little bit about it. It sparked up good conversation.
During PVT, we also had the chance to install water filters for families as a part of ministry. It was really cool for the two of us to work together. We also prayed for healing for a couple of people while we were doing ministry. A young boy had very bad hearing and he could barely hear anything 3 feet away from him. As a group, we all prayed healing over this kid. When we were done praying for the kid, he said that he could hear again. We stepped a good long distance away and asked him what number we were saying. We said 10 and he said 10 back. We were about 20 feet away from him. He said that he could hear perfectly. His mother started crying because he had been that way for so long. It was an amazing testimony of healing for both my Nana and I to witness. That instance brought up some great conversation between my Nana and I.
When we had free time, my Nana and I would go on a coffee date. We spent almost 3 hours at a McDonald’s drinking coffee and talking. We talked about a many great deal of things. Ranging from the family, to church back at home, to what it looks like for me when I get back home and what I want to do in the future. It was probably one of the biggest highlights of the race for me.
PVT not only strengthened both of our realationships with God, it greatly strengthened the bond between the two of us. I love my Nana to the moon and back and I can’t wait to have a coffee date at her house looking out onto the hill in the backyard.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I’ll see you in the next one.
– Trev
