I should have kept track better on what happened when. I suppose y’all will just have to deal with lots of out of order stories from the last three weeks. Starting with a fun story that one of the girls told me.
I was walking down to the store just to check it out and one of the girls ran up to me with her younger siblings and joined me on my walk. She very excitedly and very quickly told me a story in Spanish and I only caught like two or three words and had to get her to calm down and repeat it much slower. Here’s what she told me: “They are playing soccer and then they lost the ball in the woods down the mountain and they looked for a long time and couldn’t find the ball but Jacob prayed to find the ball and they found it!” It was such a great miracle and proof to the kids that God cares about them and about their lives.
We also changed up the schedule a bit. Instead of having all the kids twice a week we split them up by age groups so that three days a week we saw each age group once. On Tuesdays we played games with the 0-6 year olds with their moms and with everyone available we were able to do a skit with each of the bible stories and the kids laughed a lot at our expense. Especially when we did David and Goliath and Katie got up on either Jose or Jacob’s shoulders and hid under a blanket and then Gwen as David threw a ball at Katie’s head and she would fall backwards. The kids in the 7-11 age group thought it was hysterical. We struggled to get them back on topic after but it’s something I bet they won’t forget any time soon.
After our last day with each of the different age groups they all insisted on taking pictures with us. the 0-6 had moms pushing kids into our arms for pictures even if they didn’t want to and they were asking for our whatsapp numbers. I got rid of my whatsapp a few years ago so I missed out on getting the numbers from the moms but I did re-add it so I had it for the older kids when they came on Thursday and Friday. Since we left, two of them have already messaged me.
Is there something wrong with me? I don’t feel bad leaving them after a month. I mean I’ll miss them but I also don’t feel super attached. Maybe I just did a good job on preparing my heart for when we would have to leave. ….
Our second adventure day we went back to Panajachel. We all wanted to go back to the nature reserve and a group wanted to go paragliding. While the group went and got ready for paragliding a smaller group of us went kayaking. It was super cheap (less than $2) and as long as we stayed near the coast we could paddle as far as we wanted. Because we only had and hour and the good views were that way we paddled with the current. It felt so good to kayak again. Its been so long since I’ve had the opportunity to kayak. I noticed the sky getting dark and turned around a little early to paddle against the current and head back. I did try to warn the other not quite so strong kayakers but to each their own. I have just been informed that they would have been strong kayakers if that had not been in a tandem kayak. I have to admit it did look like a lot of fun though.
After lunch we went back to the nature reserve from the week before and hung out there again. This time the butterfly house was open so we went down there. I got a bit behind the group and it was a small building so by the time I got there they were pretty much done. I went in anyway and looked around. I found a lot of the same type of large butterflies with the eye pattern on their wings and as I was about to leave a beautiful see-through butterfly landed right in front of me.
Back to ministry for another week. Oh! On some Monday we got to go work on the soccer field with the village elders. The elders are locals elected by their peers to solve community problems for two years. In the time they are not allowed to have another job and it makes it very difficult for them to provide for their families. They generally get elected the first time after they turn 18 so there were a lot of younger men within the group of elders. Working together with us gringos, we all pulled weeds, cut the grass with machetes, sanded rust off the goals, then painted the goals, dug trenches and poured concrete mix in it as the lines of the field. A few people stayed back to clean the ministry compound in case it rained. There was a lot of dirt. After everything was cleaned up we presented them with nets for the goals, 5 soccer balls, and a pump. Then Jacob and I led everyone in a couple worship songs and Samantha, Lindsey, and Chanel all presented short messages about authority figures and what the bible says that role should look like. After all of that, we served them the lunch that Evelyn had been working on all morning with help from a couple of the elder’s wives. Beans, rice, chicken, and a lot of tortillas. Once everyone finished up and dishes were being washed they started a huge game of soccer. Juan and Jose tag teamed it and Jacob played the entire game.
Our third adventure day was a big one. We left Friday afternoon and didn’t return until Sunday evening. We hiked a volcano to watch another volcano erupt. I rode a horse up with Jack joined me. Everyone else made the 6hr hike on foot. Even the horses couldn’t carry us up all of it because it was too steep or a portion of the path washed away so we hiked at least an hour of it. It was super cloudy most of the trip up and very cold and windy at the base camp. We were there for at least an hour and a half before anyone else arrived, so we set up our tents and sat around the fire just talking about our different ministries and what those looked like.
Once everyone else arrived things got a bit crazy. There wasn’t a ton of space to move around once the tents were all set up and Fuego was rumbling like crazy behind the clouds. Eventually the clouds moved away as it got dark and we could see the lava shooting up out of the top of the volcano and rolling down the sides. It was beautiful.
I did hike back down. No horse that time. Due to the lack of space I started in the middle of the group and very quickly slid to the back. It wasn’t long before I was alone with our rear guide Elio and I struggled to make conversation with him since he didn’t speak any English and I was huffing and puffing and in quite a bit of pain on the very steep path which made it hard to even think of words in Spanish. I was feeling very lonely and forgotten and was constantly reminding myself that that feeling and thinking was a lie from the enemy in order to discourage me.
At the halfway point I found Jessie and Jack waiting for me. How loved I felt to find them waiting for me and then waiting with me while I took a break. They stuck with me for the rest of the way down and I truly appreciated them slowing down for me. I knew I would make it to the bottom and I didn’t need them there to cheer me on but the companionship and time they took to be there with me was greatly appreciated. A couple of times the thought “how come it wasn’t someone from my team that stayed behind to wait for me” popped in my head a few times and I pushed it aside. Someone had waited, and that’s what really mattered to me. I just had to remind myself of it a few times. As we got to the bottom I realized everyone would be watching and waiting for us and I started praying that they wouldn’t go crazy cheering because I may actually punch one of them. I was a bit grumpy. We come around the corner and a few cheers start but are quickly stopped. My team
The last week of ministry flew by and then we were off to debrief. I finally didn’t go blank during the identity talk and wrote a ton of stuff down about myself and how God sees me. I finally processed a few times that I felt hurt by members of my team in the past month but because I understood what they were thinking I pushed the hurt aside at the time and kind of forgot about it. As odd as it was to bring up things from a few weeks before they took it well and I think they learned more about me and how I think and feel through it. I know I did.
This next month is all squad month in Honduras. No electricity and probably little to no signal. My blogs will cease over the next month and you will get one long blog at the end of it. I’ll miss you all this next month! Expect something mid-October.
Lindsey’s latest blog and I stole her camera for a minute so I’m actually in this one!
What a wonderful experience to see the volcano. The area as with most places you visit has such beauty . Enjoy God’s creation as you serve Him.
A once in a lifetime experience, for sure! Everything is so beautiful in the mountains of Central America! I have to stop myself from taking to many pictures of the sky and the views!