We’re in Guatemala!!

Hello from Guatemala! I’m going to start from the very beginning- so this is going to be a looong blog :).

W squad arrived in Guatemala on October 18th and got picked up at the airport by two giant school buses. It was quite the scene to watch 50 people chucking their 50lbs travel bags, backpacks, and guitars onto these buses. Once loaded, we drove into the busy streets of Guatemala. I instantly fell in love. Maybe I’m a risky driver, but their type of driving just felt like my type of driving. People everywhere, riding in the back of pickup trucks, people on motorcycles, people pulling sketchy maneuvers to get past each other, a lot of honking, just a lot of action. I was enjoying watching all this and was like, “okay this feels like home.”

Our whole squad gets to stay at the AIM base together. On base, we have our main dinning/session/kitchen/worship room, then about eight rooms filled with bunk beds that each team gets to stay in, and a giant soccer field. We now also have the luxury of toilets that flush! Wow, never thought I’d be saying that one.

Our ministry: Hope

Team Harvest gets to work with a ministry called Hope which is located inside the city of San Antonio (not Texas). Inside a random gate alongside one of the small town streets, you will find a beautiful area that they call the garden. When you walk in, you see a little stream flowing through, beautiful flowers, and just overgrown beauty. It’s more than a garden- it’s a place of rest and safety for many people in the community (especially the kids). In the garden, there are a couple buildings that are used for vbs, teaching english, music lessons, Bible studies, worship, etc. Stay tuned for the vlog which I’ll be posting on my Race Instagram account: @kayley_on_the_race

One of the big things that Hope focuses on is soccer. Every Friday is soccer day and in the morning, the older guys team (ages 14-16) meets for practice. Every week one person on our team takes a turn sharing their testimony, we have time to talk and pray, and then we help run drills. After drills, they always do a scrimmage. Instead of integrating team harvest onto their two teams, they decided that we get to be our own team! We play against both their teams separately and they have fun making bets on which team will score the most against us. Ha. I love this group of guys- they have awesome sportsmanship, are great leaders, and are so fun to goof off with! I’m looking forward to what God has planned for our last few weeks in Guatemala. I’m praying that God will open the doors to some really good conversations and deep friendships. Oh yeah, and during the other half of the day, we work with the younger kids (still with soccer). The young kiddos are just the sweetest! It’s really easy to find a best friend anywhere in the garden. You can count on pretty much any of the kids to come up to you with a smile and give you a big hug. It doesn’t matter to them that my Spanish is terrible! Somehow, we can all have such a good time, which, in a way, makes friendships feel even deeper when you show love with your actions and face expressions too.

One of my favorite parts about of ministry are the house visits we get to do! We’ve done quite a few, so I’m only going to focus on a couple for now. Usually, we knock on someone’s gate and are always, always welcomed with warm smiles, often excited kids, and just overall kindness! I’m so surprised at how welcoming everyone in Guatemala is. It’s not very often you can go knock on someone’s door in America and be invited in with excitement, fed, and share in vulnerable conversation. That’s pretty much been the story for every family we’ve gone to visit. We come into their home, they happily set out a bunch of seating for (usually our group of 7), they give us some Pepsi, and open up about how they are doing. On my first day with this ministry, a few of us went with Jessica (our ministry host) to a house and we walked into this bedroom and a few of us sat on the chairs set up in there and on the edge of the bed. When I sat down, this little girl ran up to me and just wrapped her arms around me with a big smile on her face. We sat there and talked and I tried to ask her some basic things that I could figure out how to say in Spanish. But really, it was like we didn’t need perfect words to connect and it was just super sweet. We did each others hair and just played around. It was the perfect time. Her name is Hilati and she is seven years old and just the sweetest. Her mom told us that her son and daughter (two of the youngest) were very sick and she was worried. So we prayed for them and I’m continuing to. This was a really really sweet family. I already can’t wait to go back. One thing that’s nice- Hope works with all the same families in the community checking in on them and doing Bible studies and discipleship. The second house visit I’ll focus on is actually a really cool story of redemption! There was a little girl who came to the garden and learned how to pray. She learned about Jesus and brought him back home to her family. She asked her family, “why don’t we pray like they do at the garden?” One thing led to another and her family started reading the Bible. Her parents came to Christ and decided that they wanted to do things right before the Lord and get married. So they got married at the garden!!! Before coming to the Lord, there were a lot of problems and brokenness in the family with relationships and health etc. Before getting married, the mom was pregnant, had diabetes and was told that her baby wasn’t going to make it. When she got married, she got healed. Woah. Yeah. She went back to the doctor and they said what doctors say when they have no idea how to describe a miracle: “something happened.” She didn’t have diabetes anymore and her baby was perfectly fine!! This was a really cool story that Jessica told us about how kids that come to the garden can be like a seed for their families. Well today, we got to visit that home. And I met the baby!! And the daughter who was like a seed for her family. Their fam is thriving and SO joyful. Also, the dad is getting baptized this Saturday so that’s pretty exciting!!

We’re now headed into week six of Guatemala and I realize I have not been the most active blogger to ever live. However, that ends today because I want to make it my goal to blog every other day. And now… drumroll please for a whole bunch of pictures!!!

Everyone back at home, at Providence, friends, fam all over the place, thank you SO MUCH for praying for me. You are all such an encouragement and I feel so loved knowing that you guys are in my corner, cheering me on, and praying for me. Here are a few things that I would really appreciate prayer for this week:

1. The salvation of two of my friends back at home. I won’t list names, but I’ve had it on my heart to be praying for their salvation and asking God to give me the heart that he has for them. I not only want to continue to love them well and share the gospel with them more in depth, but I know God loves them and lately my heart has broken for them.
2. That the Lord would continue to bless Hope. It is such a big part of the community in San Antonio and God is using this ministry to build up and equip the next generation to grow his kingdom. Please pray for the leaders and team Harvest as we all pour into the kids, families, and each other.
3. For W squad’s health. Around half the squad was out with mono for a while (including me) and there have been tons of other nasty things going around that have prevented people from going out to daily ministry which has been frustrating for some. So prayers for healthy bodies!

That’s all I have update-wise (for now). Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an amazing, wonderful rest of your day!!

Love,

Kayley