Day 2:
- We woke up early at SETECA, the seminary in Guatemala city, and packed to leave for Tactic
- We received some of our spending money and the students were able to purchase some junk food and snacks on our way out of the city
- drove for 4 hours and arrived in Tactic, a gorgeous mountain village (I have been trying to upload pictures, and will continue trying, but the internet is very slow here and we do not always get a signal, so as of yet, I have not been able to)
- We had lunch at our guesthouse and the students had a taste of traditional Guatemalan food, as well as the dishwashing by hand that follows every meal here
- After lunch, we left for our Children’s ministry at a very poor school called “Puruhla.” Many of the children do not eat, except for the one meal a day that the school provides.
- Children’s Ministry consisted of Worshiping with Guatemalan elementary school students, led by Guatemalan high school students. Then all the Grade 2 and 3 students from the school rotated through our 4 stations (1. Bible Story and Drama, 2. Crafts, 3. Games and 4. Bible Verse Memorization)
- Came back to the guesthouse for dinner
- Orientation with Julie, the Guatemala “Teams Coordinator”
- Free time in the Guesthouse courtyard
- Bed
Day 3:
- Woke early
- Worship and Devotions at a Guatemalan Elementary school “Chijacorral”
- Devotions led by school principal, who told of some of the experiences of the children here, and Les Peters, founder of Impact Ministries
- Home visitation – We were able to visit 4 children that are sponsored monthly by some of the members of the team (Ms. Leong’s sponsor child, two of Mr. Suderman’s sponsor children and Nadine Plett’s family’s sponsor child). All of the children were excited to see their sponsors and receive gifts and groceries.
- Lunch
- Afternoon – second day of Children’s Ministry at Puruhla
- Dinner
- Debrief with Les Peters
- Free time
- Bed
*some groceries donated by using Jake Krause’s spending money that had already been converted to Quetzal – Thank you Jake!
Student response:
We went to Chijacorral for Devotions Day 3 of our trip. The children’s passion while singing impacted us. They sang with all they had and the difference between their worship and ours in Canada was evident. Worship is their favourite time of the day because they can express their thankfulness to God; although they don’t have much, they recognize all that God has given them and that was really impactful. We don’t understand spanish, but being in that room worshipping with those kids, it didn’t matter. We still felt the presense of God.
After devotions we moved on to home visits. Sponsor families here are very thankful for us. They tell us that they pray for us all the time and hope to meet us – I wisited my families sponsor child, David. His mom said through a translator how thankful she is and was brought to tears because she recognized God’s gifts. I could see the excitment in David’s eyes when we walked in. He knew who I was and that was really special. I brought him a soccer ball and we pumped it up together, which he and I found fun. All the home visits made the sponsors and the children excited and emotional. The connections we have as christians because of God was evident.
Our next activity was VBS in Puruhla. We ride the bus with a group of Guatemalan teenagers that help us run the VBS. Because of our language barriers, connecting with them is difficult. On the bus ride back, our groups had a special connection/interaction. The Guatemalan’s would sing a famous song in Spanish and we would sing it back in English. (ie. If you’re happy and you know it, Silent Night, etc). The amount of songs we both knew was incredible. We sang on and on until the bus ride was over. I am excited to see them again tomorrow.
At our debrief with Les Peters, we discussed what Poverty means. He told us that it is based on the effects of broken relationships and not necessarily on lack of wealth. This helps us realize what our purpose here is and how we can continute to serve back at home. I am very thankful that we all ended up in Guatemala and that God is opening our hearts to experience transformation.
– Nadine Plett