I am in GUATEMALA!!! I arrived on January 8th and I cannot tell you how much I already love this country. The week of 1/8 - 1/13 I was staying at a beautiful base a couple hours outside Guatemala City for debrief. Debrief is a time at the end of each country that us as a squad take to rest and prepare for the next season while looking back and processing everything that happened in the last season. Normally this would happen in the country you're in before you travel to the next country but Guatemala was putting up some new travel restrictions so we had to leave Costa Rica a week early and debrief in Guatemala instead. But man am I so glad. Guatemala is a beautiful country with numerous volcanoes, we could see 3 of them from our base, and people with many different backgrounds and cultures. 

 

At debrief we were able to rest and spend time with God, our teams, our squad, and our leaders (three of which we haven’t seen since leaving for Costa Rica). Our first full day there we had this thing called silence and solitude where we spent time by ourselves for a couple of hours talking with God, journaling, and listening to what God has to say. And we got to do it in a lava field!! It was amazing to sit in a lava field at the base of a volcano seeing the absolute power God has. I sat for the first few minutes just staring at the volcano, it was reaching up into the clouds looking beautiful and majestic but at one time it was active and erupting leaving everyone around afraid. I just couldn’t get over the beautiful power that it held. 

 

A few days later we had an adventure day and the whole squad had the opportunity to ride a horse up the side of that very same volcano. It was amazing to watch the scenery as we made our way up the volcano. I could see the farms and the city not so far away and another volcano hitting the clouds. Once we reached as far as we could go on horse we walked a little more. It was windy as could be but getting to see the lava formations was worth it. Then we did something so fun, we roasted marshmallows in little warm spots on the side of the volcano and later used those very same spots to rewarm our frozen hands. As I ate lunch looking out over the ground below I was awe-struck. Only days before I had sat at the base of that volcano looking up seeing how absolutely breathtaking it was and now I was sitting partway up that volcano looking down seeing how amazing it was. God is insane. 

 

We are now at the Adventures in Missions base near Antigua, Guatemala preparing for ministry and visiting the beautiful city of Antigua with its stunning cathedrals and colorful buildings lining the streets. 

 

Thank you to all who have helped fund me, I am now fully funded *woot woot*, you are all a huge part of me being able to be on this crazy adventure getting to see God through the ministry days and the off days where we get to rest and have a little fun. 

 

Until next time :)