this crazy life

The Craziness, Part 1:

Happy Birthday America!


I’ve never celebrated a holiday in another country before – and July 4^th was quite the holiday to celebrate outside of the US. Like typical Americans, we went to the beach for the day! This was probably my most eventful July 4^th ever. Eating authentic Guatemalan food in the rain after swimming in the ocean and getting stung by a jellyfish (don’t freak out mom, I’m fine!), surrounded by stray dogs and random chickens. That’s right, chickens. On the beach. And later that night we consumed as much pizza and soda as we possibly could, busted open a Perry the Platypus piñata (say that 3 times fast) and spent the evening eating candy and laughing until we cried. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to laugh! It was such a fun day, such a celebration of not only Independence Day, but how far our team has come, and everything we’ve seen God do so far in Guatemala! Which brings me to…

The Craziness, Part 2:

On a more serious note, we’ve been fighting a lot of distractions lately – the enemy has definitely been trying to get a hold of us and do anything he can to distract us from what God is doing. But after spending some time to focus our hearts back on God during times of worship and interceding for each other – we are filled with joy once again, and reminded that we are here for a purpose.

On Thursday night, that purpose came to life in front of us. We were invited to a church and given the entire service to do whatever we wanted to do. So we spent some time praying and preparing songs and dramas and testimonies, but we knew ultimately that we needed God to show up and speak through us. Towards the end, while we were singing, Pastor Roni started inviting people up to receive prayer. A few people came up, and then slowly more and more came. Our team went out to start praying for people, and I didn’t know what else to do so I just kept playing the same chord progression over and over and started praying too. Standing up in front of that church, looking out at the scene in front of me, was just so surreal. There were people kneeling at the altar praying, one young man was on the floor sobbing, several members of our team were embracing members of the church as they prayed, one woman was completely laid out on the ground, consumed by the Holy Spirit and having visions of angels (and she told our team later that God’s presence is with us and angels went with us wherever we go. How cool is that??), and our team is spread out across the room, releasing life and truth over the people in this church, young and old. And I realized, throughout all of this, prayers are going up to heaven in English and Spanish, and God is hearing ALL OF THEM. His Spirit was moving in that place. The church members kept saying what a blessing we were to them, but I felt even more blessed, just to have been part of that. It was incredible. It is so easy to get comfortable with where we are, to settle into a routine, and to forget to intentionally listen and look for God. But when God shows up like that, I am reminded that He is so much bigger than we can imagine and has so much more for us. We only have a few weeks left, but God still has a lot to show us!

I am super excited to press in for what God has for us the next few weeks. I can’t believe we’re over halfway – the time we have left is going to fly by! Thank you for all your prayers – we definitely feel them! Love you all!!