Guatemala! 10/16-10/29

10/16-10/17

these two days were really just a time of getting ready to leave on Wednesday. There wasn’t to much that i can remember that happened but there was a couple cool things. One of them was, we had a formal dinner which was so cool because it was fun to dress nice for once in a while. Another thing was, the cooks left so we got to make our own meals which was so good and so fun.

10/18

We woke up at 4 to pack our bags and our lunches and just to clean up around the campus a little bit. Then around five we headed to the airport. We got to the airport and checked everyone in, had breakfast then headed off to Guatemala at 10. We arrived in Guatemala around 11 Guatemalan time. Headed to our base, which is so nice because they have hot showers, a soccer field, and bunk beds. Also, the drive was so nice, it is so hilly and so nice. Nothing else really happened on this day except we kinda got settled in and briefed a little bit.

10/19- Our first day in Guatemala

We also didn’t really do much on this day either except learn about culture and about Guatemala. We also learned which ministry we were going to be with and the ministry my team was put with was REIGNDOM

10/20 First day of Ministry

We started off the day with breakfast at 7, we had some really good pancakes. We went to the reigndom house/base in Sumpango. We were introduced to the people we were going to work with and also they gave us a welcoming gift with lots of snacks. We headed to their worship room and prayed and worshipped the Lord. After all that, we went to Santa Marta, where most of the ministry is done. Reigndom owns a building in Santa Marta which is where we do the most of the things. Me and Malachi got on the chore of making lunch for the kids we served. It was really cool because their kitchen was on the roof and we had to started a fire to make everything on. After this we served the kids food and also ate with them. There is about 70 kids that we serve every Tuesday and Friday. I then was told that i was going to be helping out with teaching English. If you dont know, i hardly know anything in Spanish. So that was an interesting but fun class. Then i moved on to bible class. My favorite part of bible class was closer towards the end all the kids (the kids split up for classes so there were only about 10-15 kids) were sitting in a circle and they were asking the kids if they wanted to give their lives to Jesus. It was such a beautiful moment to witness and be a part of. I also got to pray for 2 kids specifically, which was so special and so much fun.

10/21

So my ministry does ministry Tuesday-Saturday. Every Saturday we go to 3 different villages and do a quick VBS at each one. The first village we went to was way back. We had to travel back a dirt road, that was so bumpy, but so beautiful with it being so hilly. At each of theses villages we were sent out into the village to go gather kids to bring them to the VBS. Once everybody was there we had four stations, games, memorization, painting/art and a Bible story. I was a group leader, so I had a group of kids that I went with to each station. Even though there was a language barrier it was so fun to be able to hang out with the kids and pray for them all day long, we then went to another village and did it all over again and then we went to Santa Marta and since they’ve been at this location for a longer period of time, we had a little different kind of VBS. We went out, gathered kids again, and brought them back. we danced with them, and then we all gathered in groups and did ATL with the kids. The kids were supposed to leave the ATL, and were tell us which houses to visit and they let the conversations within the house. It was really cool because we got to watch kids that are so young put their faith to practice and go talk about gods love to their own village. or ministry is so much fun to work with because they just listen for what God has for them and they do it. They really encouraged me to listen for God‘s voice and to walk in higher obedience. We then went home and got pizza for supper which was really cheap.  Highlight of the day was I got to play with two kids especially it would run to me and then I would throw them up in the air and spend them around and then they would run back and do it all over again it was just so much fun watching them run to me with Joy on their face.

Saturday and monday

These were all off days and it was really relaxing Sunday. We just went and got coffee at a coffee shop and chilled out and walked around the market in Antigua and Saturday. We also just went to another coffee shop and went to mega paca which is a big Thrift store, and hung out around thereand then went back to base and played soccer.

10/24

I don’t remember too much from this day, but I do remember we pretty much do the same thing Tuesdays and Fridays that was pretty much the same as Friday.

10/25 so we wake up and went to the reigndom house again, we had worship, and then went into the city of sumpango. We went to like a ballroom and set up tables and chairs, and made it really nice in there and this is what we call the kings table. Every Wednesday we go out into the city of sumpango, and look for people that  your living conditions aren’t that good, and we invite them to this table to have breakfast with us. The people we invite very a lot from drunk people to older people to families that are on the poor side and can’t afford food, we just invite whoever we see and whoever we feel like needs to come and should come. Then one of the guys at random preaches a little bit we sing a little bit and then we had breakfast with him. I had the opportunity to sit with the people that were drunk. It was a very interesting table because a couple of the guys were possessed I got to sit beside one of them in particular, in the darkness that you can just feel from being around them and just looking into their eyes, it is just so sad to see someone with that much darkness in their life and that they don’t want to get rid of it. One of the drunkards told my team leader, that if you would see the demons inside of me, you would be scared. I can lead or tried to tell him that he wouldn’t because we’ve got the Holy Spirit and we’ve got Jesus but he didn’t really seem to understand or listen. Then we went back to the reigndom House and washed all the dishes and then went to Santa Marta to play with the kids and play soccer with them and teach some more English. Overall great day and so cool it reminds me of the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22. The parable is partly about a king who goes and tells his servants to go to the street and get all who they found bad and good. They don’t need to be living right or they don’t need to be rich for them to be invited to the table. It’s just so cool to do this in real life, and it just gives a picture of what the kingdom of heaven is like, and it just brings me so much joy to do this, because the world might look down on these people, but we get to show them truth and joy, and love, and tell them to come to the table.

10/26

So, every Thursday is an activation day. The topic that we are being taught about is the five fold that is referred to in Ephesians 4:11,12. It says, and “he gave the apostles, the prophet, the evangelist, the Shepherds, and teachers to equip the Saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ.” On this Thursday we talked about the evangelist. Someone from adventures in missions came in and told us, and then we were to go out into the city of Paramos, and practice evangelizing. As we were walking the streets of paramos, I seen this older man on the sidewalk just sitting there. I told Dom and Malachi that we should go talk to him. (Dom is fluent in Spanish and English and he has someone on my team.) we started talking to him, and then he said that we can sit down beside him so we sat beside him on the sidewalk. We talk with him for a little bit there and then he wanted to show us his house. He took us back a little alley into his house and rolled out chairs, and we just sat in a circle and just talk about life even though I couldn’t understand what was being said, I thought it was really cool that me and Malachi could still be praying at the same time and be interceding for the conversation and for the fruit of it. We ended up talking for about an hour and a half and he told us some things that he’s worried about and some things that he wanted prayer for so we prayed for him and he prayed for us, and then he said goodbye and left  later than I asked him what they talked about and he said about how he knows he’s gonna die soon and he has a lot of assets. He has a lot of land that farmers grow the crops on and he owns a couple businesses and he’s afraid that when he dies his children are going to fight about who gets what and he’s just so worried about that. And then there was a couple other things that he talked about. It was just so cool to see how willingly he was to let us into his house and let us into his personal life and just share about what he’s going through. It challenge me in a lot of ways to be more open to talk to people and just to be more inviting and when stuff like this comes up, I always think about the Bible verse in Hebrews 13:2 do not neglect to show hostility to strangers for thereby, somehow entertain angels, unaware.

10/27

This was one of my favorite days, we started off by going to the reigndom house again and then went to Saint Marta, also, I had an extraordinary amount of energy is day. Right after worship, Nick and I were told that we are in charge of the day and that we needed to figure out who was doing what job when we got to Santa Marta. It caught me off guard because I was not expecting it at all but at the same time, it was so cool because me and Nick ATL Who should do which jobs and where they should be. I feel like I needed to be part of the ATL/house visit group. We had it up the road and went back a dirt path and were having fellowship with each other and asking the Lord where he wanted us to be. Eventually we felt like we should stop at this one house, so we did we started talking to them, and they were Christians, which is so amazing but we got to encourage them with scripture because they were going through a situation that wasn’t the greatest. We then stopped at a Tienda, a small store on the side of the road, and also got to talk with the person in charge and they were also Christian and we got to pray for them as well. That day for lunch we were blessed to have Wendy’s sponsor and give us burgers for the kids and for us, then headed to wash all the dishes and then went to Bible class which was so much fun because we danced a lot. Also, in their Bible class they are going through Revelation and these kids or like 8 to 10 years old. This blew my mind.

10/28

we did a couple other VBS is again. His VBS looked a little different, it was a lot shorter. We didn’t have stations like we did the Saturday before. we got to the village and started pretty much right away, we danced and sang around a little bit. Then we had a skit, and then we gave the kids sandwiches and drinks. We then headed back to base and had a worship night.

10/29

I woke up this morning and we decided to go to a coffee shop and it is currently 130 and I’ve been here since the morning, I don’t know what the rest of the day holds, but it has been really restful so far.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. If there is anything I can be praying for please let me know.

A prayer request I have is this Tuesday as some of you know is Halloween, and I was told by the leaders that it is usually a pretty heavy night, so just pray that, as we do ministry on Tuesday at the Lord would protect us, and guide us in what he wants, and that we would just give him all the glory for everything that we do.

Thanks again for your prayers