Quinto Dia in Guatemala!

Hola friends and family! Praying that all is well in the states! Another spectacular day has been completed here in Guatemala!

We started the morning with french toast and fruit for breakfast (Muchos gracias, Ginny!) and a wonderful bible study led by one of the Guatemalan missionaries, Julian. Then we traveled to another small village outside of Amatitlán called Gonzalez Park to do more house visits and our faith lesson. Unlike our other locations throughout the week, Amatitlán was more urbanized. The houses had more structure with cement walls unlike the tin walls that many of the houses we visited were made out of.

We started our visit by splitting into two teams and making our house visits. My team made a very powerful visit to a terribly sick elderly woman, Maria, and her daughter, Elsa. When we arrived, Elsa broke out in a huge smile because she was so grateful that we were there to pray with her. Manuel, one of the Guatemalan missionaries, led most of the discussion as he talked to Maria and Elsa about what was going on. We learned that Maria is very ill and is experiencing a lot of pain throughout her body. She told us that she feels as if God has forgotten her and does not care about her. We spent a lot of time encouraging her to live each day and to trust that His love for her is steadfast. Elsa expressed her frustration with the situation and told us how sad she was about her mother's sickness. She spent much of the time that we were there praying and crying. Manuel and a few other people read some Bible passages and we spent a lot of time praying for both of them. At one point, I reached over to give Elsa a hug as she was crying and she was so grateful for us that she tried to offer me some chicken feet, which I of course had to decline. As we prayed for the last time before we left, I noticed that Elsa's prayers were pure thanks to God for the blessings He has given her. This is something that I have noticed every single day while here in Guatemala-- that all of their prayers are filled with immense gratitude and respect towards God. Despite all of the troubles they go through and the pain they are faced with, they still thank God. I think this is a really important lesson for us to take back with us. It was a very difficult house visit to make, but it was encouraging to know that God was using us at the perfect time to help these two women gain strength in hope in a very unfortunate and difficult situation.

After the house visits, we had another wonderful PB&J lunch! As the kids began to trickle in, we started to read books with them. Once I ran out of books, I tried talking to the kids. Although my Spanish is extremely limited, I have learned enough throughout the week to tell the kids that I only know a few phrases. Today the group of kids I was sitting with understood that I only knew English, and they helped me to learn some Spanish! We exchanged some words in each of our languages, mostly colors, and then I taught them how to say "God bless you," which is "Dios le bendiga" in Spanish. After that, they taught me how to play a really fun game without using any English, which was an exciting experience for all of us! Today was the first time that I had been able to connect with the kids, despite my language barrier, and I was very blessed by the experience.

The faith lesson went very well today. There were about 175 kids and several youth and adults. The kids were very energetic, which helped the team to be more energetic as well! They enjoyed our skit and had a great time making the craft. One of the difficult parts of today's location was that we had one large cement slab that needed to be split into three different areas, one for the adults, one for the young adults, and one for the children. That meant that after our faith lesson was completed, we had to find a way to keep the children contained so they didn't disrupt the other groups. Fortunately, just as we were finishing the craft, it started to downpour! So all of the kids worked very hard to stay under the tent to keep from getting wet and laughed hysterically as members of our team got drenched by the rain that came off of the tent. We packed up in the rain and headed out after another successful faith lesson!

We then headed to a "super secret, undisclosed location" which happened to be Lake Amatitlán. It was a stunningly beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and hills. Another part of God's beautiful creation here in Guatemala! We then returned for a spectacular mac 'n cheese dinner with devotions later to wrap up the evening!

Today was a huge blessing to the entire team as we all experienced something unique and memorable. Personally, this entire trip has been a blessing beyond what I expected and imagined it to be and I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to have this experience, despite some of the hardships that it brings. It's not always easy to sit in someone's home and try to help them with difficult situations and it's sometimes frustrating to not be able to communicate well with children who don't speak the same language as you. But each experience has taught me how important it is for us to show God's love to everyone we meet because He works through us to heal and encourage others. Even though I can´t use my words to tell them about God's love for them, I have been able to see how God can use something as simple as a hug to encourage and help someone.

Looking forward to tomorrow as we have our last full day here in Guatemala! Especially looking forward to coming home and sharing what I have learned with my friends and family!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

In Christ,
Amanda