Guatemala: Travel Days and Day 1 at LG

I sat down on the edge of our couch, cold and exhausted but content to be home. It was 1 a.m. and the house was quiet except for the excited thumping of our golden retriever's tail. I was back to the familiar and it felt good. I opened my Bible before heading to bed and turned to Psalm 105. The first two verses jumped off the page, "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, proclaim his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell about all his wondrous works (CSB)!" I had just returned from a week long mission trip to Guatemala and the Lord reminded me, as soon as I returned- tell them! This is the beginning of a brief overview of our trip. I am sure I've left out many details, many inside jokes, and many ways that the Lord moved that I failed to notice. I would love to sit down with each one of you over a hot cup of coffee, and recount the many ways that the Lord showed up in the course of a week. If you would like to hear more about the trip in person, feel free to email or text me and we can set that up! :)

As many of you know, this was the first mission trip that I had ever been on. It was the first time I had been away from the kids for longer than two nights, and the first time that I'd flown on a commercial airplane. I had spent a lot of time (years) in prayer over a trip like this and had other opportunities that I passed on, but the Lord gave me great peace and excitement about this trip. The team that I went with was incredible. Truly. I love them all and I am so grateful for the memories we made on this trip.

Alright, let's get started!

Some tears were shed as we all prayed together and said goodbye to our families at the church. My sweet girl had plenty of tears but tried to smile and pretend she was fine... the same was true for me!

We headed up to DC for an overnight stay, followed by a midmorning flight the next day. I was grateful that the Lord gave me great peace about flying for the first time. I actually really enjoyed it! We flew from DC to San Salvador, then from San Salvador to Guatemala City.

By late Sunday afternoon, we landed in Guatemala City. We loaded into vans and SUVs and drove about an hour to Love Guatemala (LG), the vocational school that we were staying at and serving with. As we made our way down the winding roads, the reality of being in a different country began to settle in. Driving in Guatemala is nothing like driving in the US. It was wild! I was so grateful that I wouldn't be asked to drive while on this trip. Ha!

We arrived at the school and began to settle in. We chose our bunk beds, put some of our stuff away, and headed to dinner. While we were there, a few sweet Guatemalan women made us meals everyday. The food was amazing. I will try to include some of the meals that we had in these posts so that you can see what the food is like in Guatemala. The first night we had a thin steak, broccoli with seasonings, and a type of macaroni and cheese that had some tomatoes in it, almost like Rotel.

We were all tired that first night so we just hung out, looked around the school and saw the most beautiful view of Guatemala City at night from the rooftop.

We slept in a dorm style room with lots of bunk beds. I slept with earplugs in (those are a necessity for when you are sharing a room with 7 other women!). The next morning I took my coffee to the roof and did my devotion/quiet time up there. It was really cool sit on the rooftop while watching an active volcano in 70 degree weather in November. :)

On our first full day in Guatemala, the morning was spent "working in the land." Love Guatemala recently purchased the land beside their existing facility and they are building an addition. Our team dug a trench for a wall, bent rebar, and moved cinder block. It was physically hard but it was a great team bonding experience. It was a beautiful day, 75ish and sunny. We were blessed with amazing weather the entire trip.

I should mention, the water in this area of Guatemala is not safe to drink. All of our water at LG came from water buckets that had filters in them. We drank a lot of water because we were at close to 7,000 feet in elevation so it was important to stay hydrated. We brushed our teeth with the water from our water bottles. Speaking of brushing teeth... I will not name names but one night a certain friend put hydrocortisone cream on her toothbrush instead of toothpaste! Thankfully she caught her mistake before brushing. High altitude does crazy things to people! Haha!! Another difference we had to get used to was not being able to flush toilet paper. There are trash cans beside all of the toilets. I thought it would be weird but it wasn't that bad. You just get used to it.

That afternoon we went on a few home visits. Most of the homes that we visited were made out of concrete or corrugated sheet metal. Some had dirt floors. All of the people we visited with were beautiful and humble. We visited the homes of current Love Guatemala students. They told us about themselves and about how Love Guatemala has helped them. Some of their family members told us of their personal struggles and reinforced what a blessing Love Guatemala has been for their families. Before we left we were able to surround them and pray for them. There were tears and raw emotions but it is very evident that God is at work in Guatemala. These families were so kind to invite us into their homes and lives. It was a blessing that only the Lord could orchestrate that went both ways.

That evening we had dinner and worshipped together as a team with the missionary pastor and his family. Later that evening the church band was practicing downstairs at LG and we watched for a few minutes and worshipped in English as they sang "I Can Only Imagine" in Spanish. It was really special.

Love Guatemala is doing so many good things for the people of Guatemala. If you would like to learn more about the school and it's ministry click here. :)

Whew. That concludes Day 1. I hope you were able to see a snapshot of what our first day in Guatemala was like. Feel free to email me with any questions. :)

Day 2 recap to come... Feel free to subscribe to my blog and the next post will be sent directly to your email!