Ministry week 1!

Wow. What an exhausting, beautiful, fruitful week we had. We arrived at the Atlanta airport on Saturday and slept there until our early flight to our layover spots for Sunday (I pulled an all nighter- whoops). My layover spot was in DC with one part of our squad, the rest of them were in Jersey. When we were about an hour out for our flight to Guatemala from DC… it got canceled. We had to scramble to find a place to stay overnight because we didn’t want to spend it in the airport with no luggage (it was already checked and under the next plane) again. We all poured ourselves out trying to serve our groups and our leaders as best as we could, so eventually we all just felt drained. Thankfully, the Lord provided a hotel for us to stay in overnight, and the next morning we got on our flight to Guatemala. Very exhausting and an interesting few travel days for sure, but God truly gave us everything we needed to get by.

Once we got to Guatemala, the rest and not jumping from place to place felt amazing for a second- then the next hurdle came along. We realized that when we got to the base (where my team and Grace’s team were staying- the other two teams had different locations), there weren’t enough beds for all of us. Grace and I were told to delegate who would sleep in a bed and in the tent, already stressful as it is. But then the beautiful Guatemala decided that it wanted to have its rainy season during this trip- how kind of it!😬 So it down poured and Grace and I had to stretch ourselves and our brains as the team leads and pivot to find a new place for everyone to sleep. Eventually, after another overwhelming day, we finally got to rest. Praise God for that!

My team (Agape) was assigned to help minister with our host One Way! We love this program so much, and as soon as we got there bright and early they showed us an entire tour of San Lorenzo! After an almost 4 hour hike (which was somehow uphill both ways- Cesar had us needing to catch our breaths after haha), we got to go and spend some time with the kids after their schooling was done! We had dance parties, soccer workouts, little games, and crafts to do with them! Then we finally got back to the base after a long, rewarding day to get dinner and have our team time before bed!

The next morning our ministry with One Way was actually canceled (they had a personal event to attend), so our team pivoted and went to this absolutely beautiful cafe in Parramos, Melendrez. While we were there, we wrote out prayer cards in Spanish while enjoying our INCREDIBLE food and drinks. We felt so at peace there- we were just exuding the joy and happiness of Jesus. After we finished writing our notes we walked around Parramos a little bit to pass them out to who we felt called to, and it was such a beautiful experience watching smiles light the faces of strangers who needed a reminder of how much God loves them. Then we came back to the base and joined the family missionary teams with their ministry for that day- passing out chocolate covered bananas at the park. But yet again, Guatemala’s rainy season warranted a change of plans. We got to see Junior (one of our hosts) and his care point for the kids, then went on a little exploration through Parramos again as well as some grocery shopping. Another night of dinner and team time before some much needed rest at bedtime.

The next day at One Way was our first house visit day! We were all excited, but they were nothing like we could have imagined. We got to meet people who have beautiful faiths, and we got to listen to their stories- most were heartbreaking, but we could see how the Lord was working through it all. We got to pray over everyone we met, share some hugs and some tears, and we all left feeling humbled, joyful, and filled with the Spirit. Our ministry ends early on Fridays so we ended up taking a trip to the wonderful Megapaca (a Guatemalan thrift store basically) and got some amazing clothes and ice creams! We stopped at Burger King for some food quickly to tie us over until dinner, then came back to the base for more team time and dinner before bed!

The next day was our Sabbath (MUCH NEEDED!!!). We got to sleep in and then go and do whatever was restful for us, keeping God in the center of our days. My team split up a bit but Will, Zachary, and I made our way back to Melendrez coffee shop to do a Bible study. We had the most amazing time because we ran into our friends from the prayer mountain group who we all missed so much and spent almost 4 hours there just talking about anything and everything! After that, we made our way to the tattoo shop (YAY!). I ended up getting some tattoos with Will, I got an addition to my vine wrap, a 70×7 tattoo (forgive with no limits), and a vine around my pinky finger as well. At the tattoo shop I also got blessed with the opportunity to pray for my artist. Although it’s a bilingual establishment, my artist spoke mainly Spanish. I had my entire conversation and prayed with him through google translate which was definitely an interesting experience, God really shows up in every moment- even when there’s barriers. After that we made our way back to base to cook our team dinner then bedtime!

Now it’s time for our ATL day! We got to listen to what the Lord asked of us and plan our day around Him! Me and some people from our squad went to church in Antigua at Shoreline City church and saw our ministry host Cesar there! After some fun and some pictures, I turn around and see one of my close friends from Ohio, Abbie, there! Seeing her made my day so bright, I needed her hug so badly! After that we made our way to another coffee shop as a group, intermixed with all the teams, and had some lunch there and chatted before we headed over to the Artisan Markets! While there we met so many amazing people, got to talk about us being missionaries with some vendors who knew of us, and found some amazing things! Becca and I got our hair wrapped, some of the girls got their nails done, and by the time we came back to base we were tired from all of the shopping but so excited about our hauls! Once we got settled in at the base, a group of 40 high schoolers came in at once! Our base is so full of noise now that it took a little getting used to, but after dinner some of my teammates and I decided to listen to some worship and get our head right for the week to come and some of the high schoolers joined in from afar! After that we all headed off to bed, what a week it was!!!!