God in Guatemala

Brief Update
See my previous blog post for more of an overview of the work we’re doing in Guatemala. This post mostly expands on how God has shown up in our work! We half about a week and a half left with this ministry, then we spend two weeks in debrief with the whole squad in another part of Guatemala.

How God has Shown Up
Food for the 150. About 2 weeks ago, a teammate, our host, and I were assigned to a day of helping another Ministry prepare for Dia del Niño, or Day of the Child. It’s a big holiday here, a celebration of children. Our task was to prepare about 100 chuchitos for the number of expected kids. As the chicken was cut, we counted out the pieces to make sure we’d have enough for there to be chicken in every chuchito. The total came to 125 pieces of chicken. When we finished about 90 chuchitos (we were counting them as we went), someone joked that last year 300 kids showed up, so we better start praying that the food multiplies. Less jokingly, but still light-heartedly, I prayed just that. I’ve seen it happen before, and Jesus did multiply food at least twice in scriptures. So, we continue counting as we go and somehow there’s enough chicken pieces, pre-cut and counted, to make 150 to chuchitos. Even though the previous count was 125. We excitedly fed the kids as they came through after the event, and once every child was fed there were exactly enough chuchitos for each volunteer to eat one as well!

Visions of a neighbor in heaven. On our first full ministry day, we visited the home of a family with a father/grandfather who used to be a witch doctor. He had recently become a Christian, and he was also dying from cancer. His health was extremely poor when we visited that week and the next; his chest seemed inflated but the rest of him was emaciated. He was bedridden and imprisoned by the guilt of his past life. While praying for him, many of us came to a consensus that he would see healing in this life or the next immediately after he came to understand how great God’s grace is for him. One member of our team had a vision of the man with God in heaven, which they didn’t share with others until that Saturday when another team member shared they, too, had a vision of the man with God. A few days later, we learned the man had died on the same Saturday as that vision, and our team members told the man’s daughter about their visions. Comforted, she cried and told us she knew it was true that he was at peace in heaven because two other people already told her they had the same vision.

Tikal. Before coming to Guatemala, God put a desire to go to Tikal on my heart. I did not know much about it other than large Mayan temples that have been uncovered there. Tikal is more or less in the far north of Guatemala. At training camp, I learned that we would have our squad sessions in the southern half of Guatemala, and it seemed very unlikely any of the teams would be placed at a Ministry remotely close to Tikal. Interestingly, my team was placed 8 hours North of the other three teams serving in Guatemala, so we are actually quite close to Tikal. I have been trying to plan an adventure day to get there during one of our Saturdays in Guatemala, but one thing or another has caused us to keep pushing it back. Well, we have one Saturday left, and the plan is to go there this coming weekend. On my birthday. God-willing, we’ll make it there, but I have no idea what He has in store for that Adventure! Be praying!

What am I spending on? 
For financial accountability to donors who contributed personal spending money, and so you can all delight with me in things I’m enjoying in the field (and maybe pressure me to treat myself and others more), here’s everything I’ve paid for with donated personal money since my last update:

• 10Q, or $1.28: toothpaste
• 60Q, or $7.65: gas money to visit Naj Tunich, a giant cave system once used by ancient Mayans (and apparently still used at times in rituals), on an adventure day; our host made a good relationship with the park gatekeeper, so entry was free for us
• 13Q, or $1.66: locally made and peddled drink mix powder, which I later found to be millet-based and delicious
• 160Q, or $20.40: adventure day package of an hour long horse ride, then a guided hike through the jungle to a cave with pools of clear water we could swim in

Literally everything else (lodging with Wi-Fi, airfare, local transport, 3 meals a day, professional mentorship, etc.) is covered by the donations you all made. Thank you so much!

What do you want to hear?
Questions and comments are always appreciated, and they help me know people are following along and praying for me. If there is anything you want to know, please ask so I have the opportunity to share more!

The entirety of this blog and its contents were written and published without any AI assistance.