I had the most incredible opportunity to be a part of a mission trip this summer to Antigua, Guatemala. It involved 300 teens, college students, and adults. It was a mission trip during the day and a teen camp at night -this made for a great experience! Being away from Brad and AC for 16 days didn't hit me until another mom on the trip said, "I'm going home to a family that hasn't had a mom or a wife for half a month"....*gulp* I was gone for a long time when you think of it that way! I'm very fortunate to have a husband who is super supportive and a great care-taker of Anna Claire! They did great while I was away, but we were all excited to be reunited at the airport on July 11th.
Here are some pictures from my adventure:
From Miami, some of us flew TACA Airlines. In this day and time when you don't even get peanuts or pretzels on most flights, some airlines are still serving a complimentary meal!
We were divided up into teams. I was on Team 2, the best team by far! There were 32 teens, 4 college leaders, and 4 adult leaders! Our very first ministry day was a work project day. It ended up being our only work project day. The other ministry days involved our teens presenting a drama that told the story of salvation called "Spellbound".
This work project was at an orphanage. Below are two pictures of the lady who is responsible for cooking for everyone at the orphanage (approx. 30+ people) 3 meals a day. She is standing in her kitchen. I admired this lady so much because she had so little to work with, yet she was smiling the whole time she was cooking.
We had some time to play with the kids there. They loved stickers, balloons, and face paint! Some of the workers at the orphanage who spoke English, so many of the kids spoke some English as well.
Our second day involved significant travel. We had to ride our bus 2 hours, take an hour boat ride, and walk about 20 minutes to get to a school where we would present the drama. The boat ride was beautiful.
Once at the school, we were greeted by the most precious children! I wanted to take them all home with me!
The kids LOVE for you to take a picture with them and then they like to look at their picture on the camera screen, so I have several pictures of me with various kids.
After every drama presentation, one teen explained how the drama represented Jesus, one teen shared their testimony, and one teen led the audience in a salvation prayer. Once they prayed, they were to come to us and fill out information so that a local pastor could follow up with them and disciple them. Below is a little girl filling out her contact information while her friends looked on.
These were my roomies in Miami and in Guatemala. God blessed me with two of the sweetest ladies! Linsay (in the green shirt) is a youth pastor's wife and teacher from San Antonio. Nancie-Joy (gray shirt) is from Oregon and has the most amazing testimony of being abandoned as a baby, but found and adopted by a loving family here in the states!
On our 3rd day of ministry, we were supposed to have a work day; however because of some rain, the roads to the work site were impassable. A school became available for us to minister to, though, and God showed up in a big way! There were 1,000 students, so we had to present the drama 4 times in order for all the kids to see it and over 300 students accepted Christ that day!!!
And here's Susie. She is the one who first introduced me to this trip. She is the editor of a Christian teen girl magazine called...Susie Magazine. She was formerly the editor of Brio Magazine (a ministry of Focus on the Family). Her heart and passion for teens is contagious! She is so much fun to be around!
Here's our room - not too bad! The accommodations were wonderful!
Breakfast and dinner were served 'buffet' style every day. We had PB&J sandwiches and fruit for lunch every day while on ministry assignments.
This next picture is a little hard to see, but it gives you an idea of our nightly services. The teens would sit on the floor and the adults had chairs around the room.
Every night the ladies did "tuck ins" to check in with the girls on our teams and the men would do "slap ins" to check in with the guys on our teams. One night, during "tuck ins", I walked into this room....they said, "There are only 2 of us here. The other 3 girls haven't come in yet." I quickly told them that the other 3 girls were in the room, but they were lost amid all this clutter! Mercy. Needless to say, we had a little 'Come to Jesus' meeting, if you will, and they worked on their room while I was in there.
I have 5 pictures with this little girl and another little boy. They were fascinated by the camera!
One afternoon, we finished our ministry assignment early, so we were able to go to McDonald's for lunch. The place was beautiful and there was this great garden area outside where you could eat. This picture makes me laugh because it's not every day you see Ronald McDonald just chillin' in a garden with Mayan ruins in the background.
We also went to a fun little coffee shop that did not disappoint.
On one of our last days of ministry, the teens presented the drama first to a school group and then just around the corner in an outdoor market. This picture shows just how many kid were there and how close they were!
Some of the kids in and around the marketplace.
I could have taken 100 pictures of women walking through this particular marketplace with various things on their heads. Most were carrying at least one baby in addition to whatever goods they were carrying on their heads. Fascinating.
Our last day of ministry was at a pretty rough school. The first group was middle-school aged students, and they responded well to the drama; however, the second group, the high school-aged students were a bit more restless. Most were late to school that day b/c they had attended a funeral of a classmate who was killed in a gang related incident. You could sense the darkness/heaviness among the students. Peer pressure was a huge factor when we asked students to come forward who had prayed to accept Christ that day. Some came forward, but many more raised their hands when all heads were bowed and eyes were closed. We just have to pray that other Christians will come across their paths who can disciple them.
I was standing off to the side when a nice young man came over and started talking to me. He didn't look like his fellow classmates. He was smiling, well dressed, and eager to talk. He first asked that I only speak in English b/c that was his favorite class at school and he wanted to practice his English. Lucky for me since all the Spanish I took in high school and college flew out the window about 10 years ago. His name is Alex. He told me that the kids in his school do bad things and he doesn't have any friends. Alex went on to say that he is a Christian and that Jesus is his best friend. I asked him if he had a Bible and he said "just a small one", so I called one of the girls over from our team and she had a Spanish/English Bible that she could give him. He was so appreciative of the "gift" as he called it. When I asked if we could take his picture so that we could remember to pray for him, he was blown away that we would want his picture. I wanted to box him up and ship him to the states. Such a sweet young man in such a rough situation. (The girls are in their costumes from the drama)
The day before we flew back to the US, we were able to go do some shopping in the local market. Oh the bargains that were there!! My shopping group was there for 3 hours and we only covered half the market!
There's just a glimpse into our trip. I met some incredible people, made some special friendships, and the Lord taught me all kinds of good stuff! Next year, the trip will go to Ecuador! Join us in prayer as we consider the possibility of both Brad and I going. Stay tuned....
