How I spent my Guatemala mission trip

Evening, everyone! I finally finished writing my letter explaining all that happened during my mission trip to Guatemala! Here it is for your reading pleasure, enjoy! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers during my trip to Guatemala! I can joyfully report that it was a successful trip on many levels and God was faithful to make His name known! I’d like to share a few of my experiences with you about our trip and explain what I learned about how God is working in this part of the world.

We spent seven days in Guatemala, and so many things happened while we were there, that it seemed more like seven months! Almost as soon as we jumped off the plane in Guatemala City, we were ready to immerse ourselves in the new country. We spent our first day visiting a small church called Villa Nueva, in Guatemala City, and spent the afternoon with the youth group. We sang worship songs (all in Spanish!), talked with the youth and encouraged them, played games, and had our first of numerous pizza parties that would take place that week!

Sunday we had the opportunity to attend the service at a church, Iglesia Biblica Centroamericana, in Guatemala City. After the church service we met with the young adults of Iglesia Biblica, and after eating lunch together we all went to Central Park for street evangelism! This was probably one of the most challenging and scariest experiences for me that week. But God blessed us so much, because we were able to have many great conversations with the Guatemalan people, and while some were not interested in hearing the gospel, some did accept Christ as their Savior that day! It was a wonderful thing to witness.

Monday and Wednesday were spent in Ciudad de Refugio (City of Refuge), which is a very poor part of Guatemala City. We worked with a local church that twice a week holds a feeding program for the children of the city. Our team helped prepare the meals, played with the children outside, made balloon animals, painted faces, and held a Vacation Bible School, in which we used songs and stories to talk about Jesus with the kids. One of my favorite memories of the week was seeing two of the men on our team praying with a young boy in Ciudad de Refugio we had befriended, to accept Christ as his Savior.

Tuesday was probably the most challenging and heart-wrenching day for me. Our team went to an area called La Limonada, which is a ghetto in Guatemala City. The people there are extremely poor, and it is a very dangerous place to live. This is because La Limonada is located right in the middle of two rival gangs, which unfortunately occupy the time of most of the men in town. We visited an amazing school called Plantio de Jehova. At the school, the children learn how to read and write, and they also learn subjects such as nutrition and proper hygiene. The parents do not have to pay to send their children to this school, but they are required to attend a conference with the school’s owner, Tita, once a month, in which she is able to share the gospel with the parents and teach them proper parenting techniques. During our visit that day, our team visited some of the families’ homes in town and prayed with them. We also held a Vacation Bible School at Plantio de Jehova, in which we were able to share the gospel with the children. This is a dismal situation that these children live in, but it was wonderful to see how God is using Tita and the other teachers to shine a light in this dark place by loving and serving the families in La Limonada. I could definitely see the fruits of their labor, because the children were able to laugh, play, and learn in a safe and loving environment. Not only that, but many of the children were already familiar with the gospel message and were excited to hear us share it with them again!

Thursday we left Guatemala City and visited Joy Filled Homes, which is a home and school for physically and mentally handicapped children who have been abandoned, and is located in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. We helped the teachers, in teaching lessons about God’s love, and also spent time playing with the children.

Friday we came to Antigua, Guatemala, which was without a doubt the most beautiful place I have ever been to. It was once the capital city of all of Central America, and it is about 500 years old! That day we visited Escuela Integrada, which is a school run by a missionary couple in Antigua. We spent time with the children in their PE class, played soccer with them, and shared a message about Christ and prayed with them. Later on we took the students to an ancient ruin in town, where we had a pizza party and were able to play in the beautiful scenery.

Our team was also fortunate to be able to have some time to relax in Antigua and do some sightseeing! We went on a hike in the mountains, bought souvenirs from Mayan peddlers, bartered at the local market, and relaxed and sang worship songs together. God blessed me with an amazing team who were all excited to see God’s name shared with the world! God used these people to help calm my nerves before we left, and continued to bless me with their love and encouragement throughout the week. We shared many laughs and tears together.

What an exciting yet humbling revelation it was to realize and see first-hand that God is working and abounding outside of my small world in Houston, Texas! I admit that it is so easy for me to allow myself to be wrapped up in my own life and experiences, that I forget that God is bigger than, well, me. Thankfully He is!! His greatness and love is bigger than anything I could ever fathom, and His will for the nations and the world is blossoming and thriving through the lives of faithful believers, including the ones I was privileged to work with in Guatemala. I am very thankful to have had the chance to witness what God is currently doing in Guatemala.

If you have any questions about my experience in Guatemala, please let me know! Also, if you’d like to see the pictures from my trip, I’ve posted them online at http://tamu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109879&l=b2b0d&id=8312090
(It only works if you copy the URL and paste it in a new window.)

Thanks again to you all for your prayers, they accomplished much and brought us home safely! Please keep in touch!

Dios le bendiga (God bless you),
Liz