Guatemala: Days 2 & 3
Day two of our trip to Guatemala was our day out in the city of Antigua. Our first stop was a coffee plantation. We were able to choose between riding a mule around the plantation, a coffee tour, or ziplining. A few chose the coffee tour, one chose ziplining, and several of us chose the mule ride. I chose to do the mule ride around the plantation. For those who are not aware, a mule is larger than a horse (news to me, I was thinking of a donkey!). As we put on helmets and got on the mules, we asked our guides what the mules names were... Jack Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon Johnson! Very creative of the Guatemalans to name their mules after the democratic presidents. I won't go into too many details of our ride... we saw some things, said some things, and laughed a lot. Some of us even conquered some fears!! There were lots of inside jokes created during this tour. The plantation was beautiful and had a nice outdoor dining space with an amazing view of the volcano.
After coffee and desserts (for some), we headed to meet up with a college student from our church who was in Guatemala with World Race! It was definitely a God thing that we were able to connect with her. You can read more about her take on our day together here. After meeting up with Kaya and her friend, we headed to a restaurant for lunch. I got beef tostadas and they were delicious. When we finished lunch we visited the cross that overlooks the city. The view was beautiful! After that we went to the market to purchase some souvenirs. The market is overwhelming! There are tons and tons of booths filled with colorful bags, purses, journals, jewelry, clothes, toys, etc. Many of the people selling things try to get you to purchase by offering to "give you best price" or by saying "make offer" and I am not great at bargaining. Thankfully Kaya and her friend were good at it and helped us out. I could've spent all day at the market... I am not an impulsive buyer and with our limited time, I had to try to be!
After the market we headed to dinner at a really cool restaurant. We ate upstairs on the open air balcony overlooking the ruins. It was a beautiful night and little surreal to be dining outside in November over ruins.
After we left the restaurant, I was able to sit up front in the van and talk with the missionary pastor (and General Director of Love Guatemala). It was really great to hear about the way God is moving in Guatemala. There is a lot of discipleship and mentoring happening. The Guatemalan people are meeting together and growing in faith. He also said something that has stuck with me: small daily changes add up to big changes over time. While this is not a new concept to me, it hit home because of some things that had been on my heart. Sometimes it is overwhelming to start something new and sometimes the end result seems so far away that it's easy to be too discouraged to even start. This was a great reminder that we can make progress by devoting 15 minutes a day to something we hope to change or accomplish in our lives.
Day three was the first day of our kids camp. We woke up excited and ready to go! 28 beautiful children showed up for camp the first morning. We taught about Jesus' love and how He changes us. Our object lesson was the life cycle of a butterfly and how caterpillars change into something new. We had a large group lesson, songs, a skit, and that was followed by arts and crafts. The kids had snack and then played a balloon racing game. We got back together for a large group lesson where we talked about how God changed Saul into Paul. Overall it went very well. We had translators with us for all of our teachings but I definitely hope to know more Spanish before I return to Guatemala the next time!
The children were loving and we enjoyed being with them. The language barrier is no match for love. We gave hugs, kids sat in our laps, we colored beside them, laughed with them, chased them, and played games with them. It was a beautiful morning.
After the kids left, our team had lunch together. The food was so good! We had chicken tacos with homemade guacamole and pico de gallo. After lunch we worked in the land that LG has purchased to expand. This consisted of a lot of shoveling gravel and various other construction related projects. It was hard work, especially after a morning filled with teaching and playing with the kids, but it was good to be able to continue to serve. LG made sure that we had so many opportunities to serve throughout our days there. It was a really great trip. Aside from our day in Antigua, we didn't have much downtime but at the end of each day we felt like we made a difference.
That evening we worshipped with Iglesia Nueva Vida (New Life) Church. It was a beautiful service. The people were so friendly. We received hugs and sweet greetings. The music was wonderful. They sang several songs that we knew (Open the Eyes of My Heart, Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace), and I Can Only Imagine). It was really cool to hear them singing in Spanish while we sang it in English. The realization that the Lord can hear and understand us no matter what language we are speaking is so awesome. They all sang so loudly and genuinely. After the music, we had a bilingual service. Ben preached and Naomi translated. His sermon was on loving others. He emphasized that love is action, sacrifice, and service. People will know us by our love. He also talked about how Jesus loved and served Judas even though he know that Judas would betray him. Peter also denied him but the difference between Judas and Peter was that Peter repented and asked for forgiveness. Great message!
Days 2 and 3 in Guatemala were filled with new experiences, lots of service, and fun. Stay tuned for Days 4 and 5! :)
Missed reading about our travel days and first full day in Guatemala? You can read about it here!