In less than two days I will be leaving Puerto Barrios, Guatemala to start my journey home. My two months is almost over. Part of me is excited and ready to go home, the other part of me is not ready to leave all the wonderful people I have met. I have learned so much here in Guatemala, about myself, about God, and about random other things. It would take days to share everything I have learned (and a longer blog post than anyone wants to read), so I am going to share just a few things that Guatemala has taught me and a few things that God has taught me.      Things I have...

Coming into the last week of our time in Guatemala our team as a whole prayed that The Lord would lead us into more than we could ever imagine. We had asked The Lord to give us what we needed to finish strong. Wednesday morning rolled around and we began at 9:30 am with the task ahead being evangelism for the prostitutes living and working in the local bars and brothels. We walked down the street towards the hub of the area surrounded by the fumes of the city while the sun beat down relentlessly on our skin- we marched to the trenches. We split into groups of five to cover a larger area and...

A few days ago, I held a tarantula: a real live, palm-sized, poisonous, hairy tarantula. As my team and I hiked through the ancient Mayan ruins on our free day last Monday, we came across this little Guatemalan man casually taking his pet tarantula for a stroll. He asked our group if anyone wanted to hold it, but warned us that if the tarantula felt our blood pressure spike from fear, it may bite! So naturally, I grabbed the tarantula right out of his hands without a second thought. As the little monster began spinning a web between my fingers, I though to myself, “if I was scared...

Matthew 18:3-4 And He said, “Truly I say to you unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.   The kingdom of heaven is for people who humble themselves and become like children. But what does it actually mean to become like a child? How do I have child-like faith?   I came into this trip with a lot of doubts. Right away from training camp, I saw how my team was very Spirit lead. The very first question that was asked of me was ¨what...

I have been inspired, I have been challenged and I have been loved because of one man’s story. I hope that you will be touched just like I was, if not more. Before I begin, take a minute to ponder about what the phrase “love each other well” means for your life.   It was a typical Thursday afternoon here in Guatemala which means heading to the garbage dump to serve lunch and love the people that live there. When I arrived, I began to look around and wasn’t sure where I was supposed to go or what exactly I should do. I began to pray and I asked God to reveal...

Some of the team mates and I came up with this list over the last few weeks:   You know you’re a missionary in Guatemala when.. You can count the number of showers you’ve had in the last month on one hand You’re unrecognizable with makeup on You wear cargo shorts more than should ever be fashionably acceptable Wearing the same shirt four days in a row is normal Face sweat is a daily struggle – starting the second you roll out of bed You always hurry up to get somewhere and then wait for the locals to be “fashionably” an hour late Your mode of...

Friday i went to an orphanage for the first time. Before we left i wasn’t excited. On the way there i wasn’t excited. While we were waiting for the kids to come play i wasn’t excited. i was tired and impatient and not in the mood for cranky kids to crawl all over me. Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t work according to the mood of a tired, nineteen year old missionary (you should all be thankful for that, really). We were sitting outside, waiting, my team talking and laughing and making jokes as always. Questions such as “Why did we just come to wait around?” and...