My Time in Beautiful Guatemala

Hola and Bienvenidos! 

As many of you may already know, I spent the last 3.5 weeks in Guatemala with Gap K! I had to brush up on my subpar Spanish speaking abilities and really had the time of my life. You guys need to know that I once received an award in my Spanish class in high school and when I approached the teacher and asked him why in the world I, out of alllllll the people that actually spoke great Spanish in my class, got an award, he told me it was because I was entertaining!! hahahah!!! Anyways, it’s crazy how much of it comes flooding back to mind when you need to use it. It’s such a beautiful language and I wish I was fluent!

Okay, so back to Gap K! I got to spend the last month(ish) just doing life with them. If you know me at all, you will know that I am not really good at remembering to take pictures. At all. No matter where I go. Anyways, I made it an absolute priority to take pictures while I was in Guatemala this time around. I think I took a whopping 20 pics! haha! Hey, that’s progress for me! But, I wanted to share some of them with you so you could see the faces of the people I am/have been leading for the past 7 months. 

 

This is a cross at a lookout point overlooking the city of Antigua. That is also A VOLCANO. Antigua is SUCH a beautiful city! 

 

All of my days while I was in Guatemala looked really different. I did, however, get to go and spend a day with each team at their ministry site. Here are some pics of each of the teams on Gap K! 

Team Free People and Change. These people are hilarious and entertaining, that’s for sure! They spent their days serving at the Adventures Base in Guatemala, teaching English and serving at a local school. 

 

 

Team Sol. These women really do radiate sunshine! They spent their days serving at a local school, assisting teachers and building relationships! 

 

Talitha Koum. These women are after the heart of God. They served at a local English school where they assisted with teaching and other various projects. 

 

Team Bold Pursuit. Servant hearted women right here. This team served at a local school where they assisted with teaching English, other subjects, played soccer and built relationships with locals. (We are missing Maggie in this pic. Mags – If you’re reading this, we couldn’t find you and everyone was about to leave! Lo Siento!!!)

 

Team Enfuego. You could guess we are all laughing because they are hilarious. Their days were spent teaching English at a local English school and building relationships with the students there. 

During my time in Guatemala, I got to be a part of my squad’s Parent Vision Trip. This is a trip that Adventures in Missions puts together for each squad. Parents are given the opportunity to raise funds and come out to the field to meet up with their Racers for a week. During the week the parents and racers get to do ministry together, spend time exploring/adventuring, and have nightly worship sessions that are completely led by the racers. It was really an incredible week watching the racers get to show their parents what their life looks like on the field. I felt really blessed to get to be a part of it! I also spent the week sleeping at the house with the 28 participants. I slept in a bunk, in a room with 2 other girls. I have been a leader at sooooo many church camps and it honestly felt like that all over again! haha! I loved getting to spend each night hanging out with the racers and just doing life with them! 

This was right after the bus with all the parents on it pulled up. The racers hadn’t seen their parents for about 6 months. It goes without saying that I was having a hard time holding it together watching all these sweet reunions. 

 

Not great quality, but this is the parents and racers praying over each other night one of PVT.  

 

Gap K has spent the last 4 months in Central America. They are now safe and sound in Africa but had about 3 days of travel before they got there. I got to ride the bus with them to the airport on their way to leave Guatemala. Travel days can be crazy on the World Race but I really feel like so many memories and fun times come with all the countless hours of travel. 

Typical World Race travel day. People sleeping, people excited, people who just want to be there. It’s always an adventure! lol! 

 

To go from being at home in Georgia, to being on the field for a few weeks at a time, to being back home in Georgia…it can all be exhausting and hard. But, ya know, I am really just considering myself blessed in this season to be able to do what I do. I have so much freedom to move around and be where I’m needed, and I like that. I just want Jesus to use me. Even if all that squad remembers of me is that I love Jesus and I want to lead them to love and serve Him, that’s enough for me. It really is. 

I feel really honored that the Lord gave me Gap K to mentor. I consider them a huge blessing in my life. Is it always rainbows and butterflies? No…because that’s not real life. There is really good in leadership and there is also the hard. But I have the privilege of walking through life with these people, in the mountain tops and also in the valleys. I do not take it lightly that the Lord has entrusted me to lead them. And I definitely don’t do it alone. I have amazing coaches and 2 awesome squad leaders (whom I took quite a few pictures with and can’t seem to locate any of them) that I do this alongside. 

Gap K is special. They are hungry for more of God. They may be young but they don’t want to settle for the status quo. They’re going after Jesus and abundant life with Him. They teach me. They inspire me. The Lord has grown me so much in this role and I can’t wait to see how I continue to grow. And man, I’m not perfect. I fail so much. But that’s the cool thing about God, He continues to use us as long as we are willing. 

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I am still in need of about $300 in monthly supporters to be fully funded. I have a very important deadline coming up in a couple weeks on April 1st to be at 50% of my funding for the fiscal year. If all monthly pledged support goes through, I will still be lacking about $200 to meet my goal. If you feel led to give, I would be so appreciative. If you feel led to pray for me and my squad, I would appreciate that as well. Jesus is moving! I am honored to be a part of this. I am so appreciate of all of your support.  

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If you have made it to this point, God bless you for reading this very lengthly blog. I try not to be long winded, but sometimes one thing leads to another and the blog is almost 1000 words. hehe! 

Love to you all. God bless you all. Until next time…