Guatemala: Finding freedom while liftin’ bricks and pickin’ up sticks

This month our ministry has involved a lot of hard but joy-filled manual labor. We have been serving with a ministry called DarParaDar or GiveToGive. Monday through Friday, my team and I stay in a place called Prayer Mountain. While there, we are helping with manual labor preparing this mountain to be a retreat area for families to get away from the distractions of life and connect with the presence of the living God. This has involved LOTS of dirt—digging, leveling, filling in holes, planting grass, painting, sanding, sawing, cleaning, carrying hoses up/down the mountain for water, moving hundreds of logs and cinder blocks to build homes in the villages, etc. it’s been a lot of character-growing work!

Additionally, on Fridays, we hike to a local village to help out with PE sports, telling/acting out Bible stories and building relationships with sweet kids at an elementary school. A couple weeks ago, we got to celebrate International Girls’ Day here in Guatemala with the kids at the school! All the girls made signs and paper hearts with affirmations about who God says they are, then we had the opportunity to join them in a parade around the village.

On Fridays we also participate in house visits where we help deliver and maintain clean water filtration systems to families in need while building relationships and praying with them as well.

Over the weekends, we pack up our belongings and travel an hour back to the beautiful city of Antigua. Here we participate in a house of prayer biweekly and a prayer worship room within a coffee shop every Monday before heading back to the mountain. Before our first week, I thought it was impressive that the prayer/worship sessions were 3 hours long but now that time flies by and leaves me yearning for more! We have been learning how to pray scriptures and intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ near and far. We have been especially focused on praying for our church family in Israel this month.

The country of Guatemala and its people are beautiful. The sunsets and sunrises with the view on Prayer Mountain especially are unmatched.

My teammates are hilarious and deeply caring. Our ministry hosts are incredible. Chako, Kelsey and their sweet family are some of the most loving, humble, hardworking, peace-giving, Jesus-filled people I’ve ever met. I have learned from every ministry partner we’ve served alongside this month as they have been an encouragement in my personal walk with Christ in addition to teammates and instructors in many new challenging tasks. One of the things I appreciate most about Chako and Kelsey are their hearts for the Lord. From the beginning, Chako emphasized the importance of resting in God’s presence and growing with Him first before anything else. That it matters less what we are accomplishing and more who/what we are serving for. If we are serving out of fear, anger, or a solely task-orientated mentality—basically anything besides for the love of God and His glory, then we need to take a break and re-center our focus because we have lost sight of our true purpose. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24 NIV

As you may have guessed, growth of any kind requires challenge and this month has had its fair share of those too. Some of the struggles include; tenting on the mountain during rainy season, rats and dogs coming after our food, no Wi-Fi/cell signal on the mountain, no showers until the weekend and struggles sleeping throughout the night. Through these experiences, God has taught me the power of prayer and relying on Him and the community He’s placed me in for strength and joy. I’ve grown more in love with God, His creation, my team, this mountain, each person we’ve interacted with and even the hard work itself. Safe to say, Guate has taken a part of my heart and I’ll be sad to leave soon.

A few internal battles have been won this month too. I struggle with nightmares, plenty of fears in general, and fear regarding increasing spiritual warfare. Through testimony sharing with our team early on, I was able to open up about these fears with my team and they were able to pray and speak freedom over me. I started reading aloud the Armor of God described in Ephesians 6, praying over our team’s dreams and sleep, and playing worship music as my tent roommate and I fall asleep. I HAVE NOT HAD A NIGHTMARE SINCE. I may get nightmares in the future but over the past few weeks, all of my dreams have either been lighthearted or at least ended in victory and NO FEAR. I had a dream of casting out demons by speaking the name of Jesus and teaching others about the authority we have to cast out their own too. A dream about being caught up in the distractions of the world and unable to recognize the spiritual warfare going on around/within me and though it’s uncomfortable at times to be more aware now, being so thankful to no longer be living in ignorance. I still rarely sleep all the way through the night but rather than being frustrated by the restlessness now, it has become a time to ask God who/what He wants me to pray for. Waking up sleep-deprived but prayer-filled is something I can happily live with. I still have plenty of other fears but I’m learning to lay them all down at the feet of the Father daily. Resting knowing that I don’t have to fear failure in front of a God who is already well-pleased with me as His daughter. All my life for His glory and not my own comfort or control. I repent for every time I have lost sight and worshipped comfort, creation, myself or God’s gifts over the Lord Himself. Life’s too short not to serve God and others. He is the highest of highs, all things were created in Him, through Him and for Him and He is beyond worthy to be exalted. “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Revelation 4:11 NIV

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. The Lord is alive and working here in Guatemala, in the United States, in Israel and everywhere else. There is power in prayer.