Welcome to Guatemala!!

We just finished our first full week in Guatemala and it was so sweet.  I absolutely love our ministry host and the people we have worked with so far. I love seeing and experiencing the culture here and the different values/ priorities they have.  Here are some details on what life and ministry look like here in Guatemala…

Life on base, culture, and some fun facts…

We arrived at the Adventures in Missions base, here in Guatemala on Wednesday, October 18th.  The base has 9 rooms, a mini apartment, and a dining/chapel area for the inside parts of campus.  There’s so much grassy land around here and a whole soccer field as well… there’s even a place for our hammocks.  We are fenced in with electric wire for safety purposes and have a laundry area in the back to hand wash clothes.  (I’ll add a pic of the campus at the end) The top few rules while we are here are… 1. Whenever you are off campus you have to be in groups of 3+ or with a leader.  2. No public transportation after 6 p.m. So if we have ministry past that time we take a van or our ministry host picks us up.  3. Do not pet the roaming dogs on the streets because they have very limited rabbis shots, so if you get bit you have to fly to America for treatment.  4. We have to be super careful what we eat and drink outside of the base. We stick to coffee shops and grocery stores to get any food or drinks.  Oh, our base is also surrounded by mountains and volcanos which is so beautiful.  They have 37 volcanos here and 3 of those are active!  We are actually hiking one shortly!   

I personally don’t have international data and there is no Wi-Fi on base, so that makes communication and updates a little hard recently.  Luckily there’s free Wi-Fi at almost all coffee shops so I can do what I need to do there, but that time is often limited!

They are definitely some of the most welcoming people I’ve met in my life!  They value family and relationships over tasks and time like America.  It’s very much a pace of peace as we learned in Florida.  They use “Quetzal” currency where, on average, 7Q is $1 in American currency.  We are in between Chimaltenango (where my favorite coffee shop is located- Hope Coffee) and Parramos.  We are about a 45-minute bus ride from Antigua, where lots of tourists visit. It’s 5Q each way to get to Chima & Parramos, and 10Q each way to get to Antigua.  So on adventure day or sabbath, we are responsible for our transportation money.  Whenever we are riding back to base all we do is tell the driver “misiones” and they drop us off right in front of the base!   Another different thing here is that on the menu at restaurants, the price listed includes tax and tip!  So whatever the set price is you don’t have to add anything to that… which is very nice!  One of the biggest differences in my opinion is public transportation.  The law on the road is so much different than America!  I would say most people take the chicken bus and vans to get from city to city and they shove as many people as possible in those vehicles which get a little awkward at points haha!!  They also don’t care if you ride in the back of a pickup truck on the road here, which may not be the safest but it is fun!  Actually, the biggest difference might just be that you cannot flush toilet paper here!  The sewer system can’t handle it, so it’s a little strange having to throw away toilet paper!

Ministry, Hosts, and Adventure Days….

Every day is so much different for ministry which I personally love.  Our ministry host’s name is Chaco, and he is so fun and nice!  He moves with the spirit and has so many visions for Guatemala shortly!  I am so grateful to be a part of the impact he is having here in Guatemala and help grow his visions.  We actually started working with him last Friday when we went to a mountain called “Prayer Mountain”.   It was so so gorgeous up there and a team from the 11-month world race (Z squad) was camping out up there. It was actually their last day before debriefing, so we got to work with them for the day.  We painted a house and leveled some ground which actually ended up taking almost all day.  Then, we prayed for them,  Chaco let them know how much he appreciated their help and we all spent some time together.  It was a great start to ministry!  Every week we have Saturday and Sunday off, so we explored Antigua on Saturday which was so gorgeous!  They had a market set up and the city is just so gorgeous!  We actually ran into a church group where they invited us to their church the next day!  Sunday we tried to find the church they told us about on the map but the description was too broad so, after walking around Chima for like an hour with no luck, we ended up going to some stores and to grab lunch. We stopped by their biggest thrift store here to get some work clothes and then headed back to base for the day.

Monday, we were supposed to do some ministry with Chaco in the morning but our transportation broke down so we went to Chima to write blogs instead. In the evening we still got to attend a bible study where the language barrier was a bit tricky but it was still so fun! Plus they gave us homemade tacos which were so kind and so good!  ( check out the pic of Abby and me that night below)

Tuesday, is squad leader day, which means all our leaders have meetings and hang out on base together.  So, Kara gave us all the info for where to go and we met Chaco in Antigua.  We had a little house church kind of thing with Z squad girls again and it was one of the most peaceful days ever!  They call it the prayer room where we met!  We each took turns praying over Guatemala, our teams, healing, and so much more.  Then we had some free time to explore Antigua again, had some alone time at the prayer house(the roof is gorgeous), and then finished our day with Chaco leading a worship session in the park!  We played with some kids and met some really awesome people!

Wednesday, I actually woke up with a very swollen eye so I went to the doctor with my teammate Emma (Because she hurt her knee playing soccer) and got some eye drops and meds.  That took a while but luckily my eye is cleared up now, I believe it was pink eye. I didn’t go to ministry Wednesday due to my eye looking…. Very not well… but the other girls helped Chaco install a stove and then taught some English classes!

Thursday, we have activation day!  Some of my team’s ministry hosts came and gave a mini teaching about hearing from God and letting Him pour into us before we pour out unto others.  So we had some personal time, debriefed in our teams, and then went to Paramos to do some evangelism.  We split up into smaller groups and simply prayed for God to lead us wherever He wanted us.   We ended up with some kiddos in the park, it was kind of funny, it’s hard to explain in text but they found us, we didn’t necessarily find them… One second we were walking and the next we had kids hugging us.  We ended up pouring love into them and giving them our time and attention.  I was able to braid their hair (picture below) and we played some games.   It was a little hard to understand their Spanish but I think we all communicated pretty well for knowing such little Spanish.  This is where it got crazy….  One of the other groups said they felt God was asking them to come pray for Emma, because of her knee (while playing soccer, it popped and would buckle every time she stood on it… it seemed to be very similar to my ACL tear, to be honest). In a matter of minutes, she went from not being able to stand to walk perfectly fine with no crutches or brace!  God healed her and others in Paramos that day!

Friday was so so sweet!  We started the day teaching PE class to a younger kids’ school group, then visited a house and prayed for their family, then taught the same class for an older group, and finished the day with a house visit. This is where I realized how different our cultures are with relationships over tasks. They were so welcoming and genuinely so happy for us to simply be in their presence.   It was so sweet.  We spent a couple of hours there and were invited back for lunch next Friday with them!  They are going to teach us how to make Tortillas!  We prayed for them before leaving and they showed us around their land.  My favorite part was getting to hear some of their life story and how God has been working in their lives.  Then we headed back to base for the day!  And finally, this weekend was super chill, we did some laundry and spent a lot of time in coffee shops to work on blogs and contacting family!

Overall it is definitely some adjusting to the different currency, rules, cultural values, and living inside.  Ministry is so fulfilling and so much fun. I feel so blessed to be here and can’t wait to see what the Lord reveals while we are here.  It’s so cool seeing how each person is stepping more and more into who they are made to be!   Stay tuned… 🙂  (check out my pics below)