week 1 – Guatemala

Hey again, everyone! 2 blogs in one week say whhhaatttt?! Don’t get used to it 😉 

Guatemala has been so so good and I just wanted to share a few fun stories from my time here so far! 

This time around my team and I are staying in a house right across the street from our hosts. This has been so much fun. It’s actually funny, because a big prayer of mine for a long time has been that I’d find myself in another season of life where I get to live with my friends. This isn’t exactly what I was expecting when I prayed that, but here I am.. living in a house with my friends and it’s been really sweet. I love everything that comes with getting to share space with people — the good and the bad. Our house has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. I’m in a room with Kennedy, and we have done our best to make our space feel as homey as possible. We’ve decorated the walls with pictures and notes and everything that we could think of! Kennedy and I are also lucky because we wear the same clothing size/shoe size which means that we’ve completely combined closets. This could be a risky move in normal situations but when on the race, you do what you gotta do. This sharing has been such a fun bonding experience in a really weird way. 

Our ministry so far has been a lot different than it was last month which has been a nice change of pace as well. For these first 2 weeks, our ministry looks slightly different than it will normally because our hosts Rachel and Nola tested positive for Covid right before we came . So, they’ve been in quarantine since we arrived. Since we can’t do any work with them, we’ve been doing a lot of ATL (ask the Lord) which is simply spending a lot of time in prayer over the community and just seeing what the Lord has for the day and following His lead. This has resulted in a lot of prayer walks and opportunity to walk the streets of the town just praying silently (sometimes verbally) over people and spaces. Some of my teammates have also had some chances to talk with locals and pray over them in various ways which has been awesome. Along with ATL, we’ve been working on cleaning up one of the local parks. We’ve spent a good chunk of time pulling weeds, picking up trash, and putting in some new equipment for the local kids to use. On top of that, on Saturdays we have “Sunday school” type ministry with kids in the mornings and the same thing with teenagers in the afternoon. One other fun thing we get to do every week is called Worship Room. Worship Room is another ministry in the area that another one of our teams on our squad is working with daily. We get to join them every Thursday night for a worship night! 

With all this being said, I’ve actually spent a good chunk of time our first week here sick in bed :/ So, I haven’t been able to participate in the Sunday schools or Worship Room yet, but I’m looking forward to this week! Me, along with a couple others on our team came down with a stomach bug and were pretty ill/tired for a few days. Although being sick is never fun, laying around being sick together was quite the bonding experience. Looking back, it was fun being able to be miserable together.. hehe. Thank you for all of you who were aware of that and were praying for me and my teammates! 

We also have a lot more free time this time around, and so we’ve been able to do a lot of fun exploring around Antigua. Antigua is such a beautiful city and has a lot to do. We’ve found nails salons (got my toes done and it was AMAZINGGGG), coffee shops, fun taco restaurants, and even a donut shop. Stumbling across the donut shop was such a funny thing because minutes before we found it, I was telling Kennedy how much I was craving a cream filled donut. Love little moments like that. Having the freedom to be able to walk around and explore a new city has been such a treat. I’m really excited to get to know this city even more. 

Other added bonuses here in Guatemala is our rooftop view of an active volcano, perfect weather (sunny, 75, little humidity), good coffee, an amazing culture, beautiful views, and being close in proximity to other teams. 

I’m excited for these next 2 months! Prayers over our ministry, our time together with each other and within the community, and just mental/spiritual rest for me would be so appreciated! 

Thanks for following along 🙂

Heather