hello guatemala!

welcome to guatemala!!!

week one has been so sweet. here are some of my favorite pictures of the adventures in missions base that i will be living at for the next two and a half months!

IT’S PERFECT! so much coffee, reading the bible, and admiring god’s creation! we are surrounded by the most incredible mountains.

the sunset our first night and our view of the volcano acatenango from base!!!

the tienda across the street from base that we have already made many snack trips to!

little details of my room! i share it with six other girls who i will be doing ministry with. i love it here already!

the beginning of the week was spent resting, learning about guatemala, exploring the base and getting our ministry assignments!

my team has two local ministries that we will be partnering with!

the first is, academy of future leaders. monday’s, wednesday’s and friday’s we are teacher assistants in english classes for children and adults ages 5-20. i work with 4 different classes ages 5-12 and i absolutely love it. here is a picture of me teaching!

one of my students who is 5 years old was learning the word believe! i asked him to use it in a sentence and he responded “i believe in jesus!” with the biggest smile on his face. it was so encouraging.

something that i love about these days is that our ministry doesn’t start until the afternoons so in the mornings we get to spend time together as a team and ask the lord how he would like us to steward our time. many mornings have been spent in a local coffee shop spending time in the word together and activating what the lord is teaching us through evangelism in the city parramos!

a little plus about this cafe is that they have the BEST strawberry nutella crepes!

one morning as we were doing this, a pastor from the united states named ron and his friend marcos from parramos who has the biggest heart for the lord came up to us and introduced themselves. marcos had actually hosted a team from adventures in missions years ago at his home and was beyond excited that we were here! they encouraged us so much and we just got to spend time getting to know one another. marcos gave us specific things to pray over this city which was such a blessing that we were able to hear from someone who lived here what their greatest need was. marcos said “it’s jesus!” it made evangelism just that much sweeter to know how powerful a simple conversation about jesus was for this city. god is moving here and i am feeling so privileged to partner with him in what he is already doing here in guatemala! we carry the news that has the power to SAVE EVERY SOUL!

i have had so many beautiful conversations and one thing that i admire about the guatemalan people that the language barrier has been teaching me is how gracious they are! they are so patient and relationship oriented. as i type a prayer into google translate they sit with the biggest smile on their face, stopping everything they were doing, just simply happy to get to know one another. one conversation i had, the lord gave me every word to say in spanish! i didn’t have to use google translate once. like what?!?! he is so good!

on saturday i got a tattoo that i have been wanting for so long!

“you make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
‭‭psalm‬ ‭16‬:‭11‬

this verse was put on my heart last summer when i lived in colorado at a younglife camp serving and it has been a marking over my life ever since! i am filled with fullness of joy in his presence!!!

when my tattoo artist asked me what it meant, i got to share with him this verse. he responded “okay then i’ll tattoo it twice so that you are double blessed!” my response was that FULLNESS cannot become any more FULL! i told him that god desires to fill his children with an incomprehensible joy that can only come from him!

one thing that has been so cool for me is that everyday the lord has given me perfect opportunities to apply exactly what he is teaching me in my personal time with him that morning. he is equipping me with so much scripture and knowledge of his heart and i get to share it everyday with his people!!!

THIS IS LIFE WITH JESUS! joy joy joy!

thank you for loving me and supporting me in prayer from all the way across the ocean!

love, lily