Guatemala: Day 1

The Guatemala team got off to a great start this morning by gathering at school a few minutes before 5am. It was obvious that the team is excited as everyone was there early and ready to roll. The Atlanta airport went smoothly and we were excited to bump into the NCCS Belize team in the international terminal.

As we landed in Guatemala, the view of the mountains was amazing and it was pretty wild to see one of the volcanoes smoking. Don’t worry…they say that’s pretty normal. Everyone made it through baggage claim and customs just fine and walked out to meet Jose from Hope to Guatemala. They have a school bus and everyone quickly loaded up to get started on our adventure.

We rode through Guatemala City and Jose was great to point out several interesting sights on our way to grab lunch. Our students are learning a lot about Guatemalan driving traditions…that won’t work back in Acworth. We pulled up to a very nice McDonalds that everyone enjoyed. We spent the rest of the afternoon seeing the location of the Hope Center and the ministry’s new space…City of Hope. While at City of Hope, Jose and his wife Erin gave us an overview of the ministry and the way God has provided funds and other resources to allow them to feed a huge group of kids at least two meals a day. City of Hope is a new land acquisition that will allow Hope for Guatemala to really step up their ministry in Zone 18 (poorest section of Guatemala City) while also providing a place of respite for missions teams that come to serve the community.

We talked through the projects for the week. It’s exciting to consider the fact that none of this will be accomplished apart from The Lord showing up to do a mighty work in and through us. Our prayer is to finish these projects in a way that is only able to be explained by a mighty move of God similar to Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We unloaded at the seminary and enjoyed some soccer, unpacking, and a chance to hang out. The rooms are nice and clean and will be a great home base for this week. Our team spent time in devotion and prayer for the week ahead. Conor Gavin led our devotion from Philippians 2:13-18 challenging us to not gripe or complain, but to consider that The Lord desires to do a great work in our midst.

As soon as we finished devotions and talking through expectations for the week, Jose arrived with our pizza. As you can imagine, this crew is always ready to eat! We are up early to celebrate Easter as a team before departing for the day in Antigua. Thank you for your prayers and support. We are so excited to get to work and see what God has in store for us!

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