¡Buenos Días! Today we adventured off to Gonzales Park, another location where we did faith lessons and house visits. I have to say that today was probably the most spiritually satisfying for a majority of us. Five people in the group sponsored children in this area, and it allowed for some powerful house visits with these children and their families.
When we arrived in Gonzales Park (which, by the way, is not even a park but this small square between two main roads), we split up into three groups to go on house visits. I went with Ari, Mikayla, Ryan, Sandra (one of the Guatemalans), and Rudy (a Guatemalan from the organization ´Only a Child´) to visit Ari´s and Mikayla´s sponsor children. Ari decided to sponsor Evelin and Mikayla sponsored Damaris. They were very excited and nervous to meet their children!
After a little bit of walking, we arrived at Evelin´ house. We went into her house and we talked with her mother, Ingrid, for a while. She explained that she was 33 and had three children and a husband. She told us how blessed she felt because God kept providing for her and her family. She appreciated getting to know us and she enjoyed hearing us talk about what we were studying in school. She explained talked a little bit about her children and she showed us a few pictures. After we talked for a while, we all prayed together. During this time, Ari said a short prayer while Sandra translated. Then, Ingrid started to pray for us. She went to each of us individually and she laid her hands on our hearts. I´m not 100% sure what she said during the prayer, but I definitely felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was amazing because by the time she had finished praying for us, most of us were in tears. Ari told me after the prayer that she knew she made the right choice to sponsor Evelin. The prayers were so powerful and she knew that God brought her there for that reason. It was such a fantastic moment to see because I was able to see God working through her. The whole experience at the house was amazing because God´s presence was beyond evident.
After that, we ventured off to Damaris´ house. She answered the door when we knocked, and when she found out that Mikayla was sponsoring her, she immediately gave her a hug and let us into the house. When we were there, we were able to sit down and have a conversation about Damaris´ life. She has a brother who is six, and a mother and father at home. Her brother and mother were home, and they joined us for the conversation. They were really nice and they wanted to know all about Mikayla. They asked her many questions, and eventually Damaris talked to us about school. She is in 7th grade, so she had various classes she had to take. Her favorite were art and communications. She showed us her artwork, and it was fantastic. She recieved 100% on all of her artwork. She also loved talking about God and appreciated when we all took out our Bibles to share verses with her. She was so happy for us to be there, and it was very evident. We actually overstayed our visit by 45 minutes (whoops... but the only ones that were not happy were our grumbling stomaches), but it is ok becuase people aren´t really concerned with time here.
During the rest of the day, we completed our faith lessons, ate some great (gluten-free) mac and cheese, and played Dutch Blitz. It´s been very relaxing, and it also gives us time to think and pray. This is the second time I have gone on the trip, and I have to say that Guatemala sincerly feels like home. Part of it is because I feel God´s presence so strongly here, but another part of is is because I know God is calling me to serve as a missionary in Central America after graduation. It feels so weird to think that we are going home in a couple of days, espeically since it feels like we just got here. I know that this will not be the last time I will be here, which gives me great comfort as the mission trip starts to come to a close. I have been so grateful to come on this trip, and it is always a life changing experience to love God´s people here. Until next time, ¡adios!
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