Guatemala – Day 5

This morning we started off with a climb up ‘Heart of Aqua,’ a mountain right up the street. It’s about a two hour round trip. This is the same trip the 14 years old boy, Brian, I told you about earlier this week, has to make everyday to get firewood for his mother’s business. It is quite a climb and job down, but the view at the top was beautiful. It was a pretty overcast morning, but the clouds were rolling around so we were able to admire the view in between clouds. There was also a little park at the top that had a few swings we enjoyed playing on. After we made it back down the mountain we decided to go buy a few day’s worth of firewood for Brian’s mom. We loaded up the back of the SUV with wood and headed over to drop it off at Irma’s place. When we got there we asked where Brian was and she told up he was up in the mountain gathering wood. We thought he’d be happy when we got home to see there was an extra supply. The team also had prepaid for three more bundles to be delivered when needed.

Next, we made a house visit to one of the sponsored children in the art school, Jose. As we sat and talked the mother shared a little about their story.  She and her husband had five of their own children and adopted four more. Eight years ago, her brother-in-law had died and shortly after the wife and left behind were four orphaned children. All of the children are thankful for the sponsorship and are doing excellent in school. It is very rare to have that many children in one family doing so well in their studies. They were all so proud.

After our visit we had a small visit to the market in Antigua. It was cool to walk around and check out the culture in a bigger town. We wrapped up our visit with ice cream and frozen yogurt, and then headed back to the Kunkel’s for dinner and worship time.  We had two other missionary families from the 12:12 mission project. It was a great night to end the trip. I am so thankful to have been a part of this trip and excited to go back home and share the need. There are some awesome things going on over here – many lives are being blessed and it’s all because of Jesus. If you are interested in learning more check out the www.loveguatemala.org website. And of course contact me with any questions. Or, if you’d like to get together, I’d love to share about my trip and experience. This seriously is a great ministry to be a part of and I would definitely suggest praying about partnering with Love Guatemala in some way – sponsoring a student, donating items, helping out the local missionaries, financial donations, prayer support, you name it! There is a need and several ways to show the love of Christ.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me. I appreciate the prayers and support. Please continue to pray for the people here and for lives to be changed through the love of Christ.

I’d also ask for a small personal prayer. I’m starting to experience anxiety tonight and not looking forward to traveling home tomorrow. Please pray that I’ll be able to relax and trust that God will take care of those I love and help us have a safe trip home. For those of you who know what it’s like to have anxiety and the horrible feeling of your nerves crawling out of your skin but feeling trapped, you know how I feel. I just don’t want to come home to devastating news. I need to trust in God and know that everything works together for His good, but I’m being honest, I’m scared.

Thank you all again for the support! I know God had me on this trip and wanted to use me to serve in this ministry. Thanks for being a part!