Hi my name is Noah.
So all of my incredibly awesome friends who attended to capital church kept telling me about this amazing trip! It was the Guatemala mission trip! After five years of thinking and praying and asking a lot of questions, I finally accepted the fact that God was really trying to get me to go on this very special trip. And so far special, amazing and wonderful are all perfect words!
The plane ride here was very smooth and quite amazing because it was the first time I’ve ever actually been on one! And I’m pretty sure you can ask Emily for the video of me on the plane freaking out because of the lift off, it’s pretty funny! The first day of the trip involved lots of shoveling lifting and pouring, and most of all water breaks! It was awesome the first day because I actually really got to get to know one of the workers there named Adolfo. He is an amazing teacher and has a great sense of humor. He made me laugh a lot when he threw water from two stories up and splashed the whole team! I slept extremely well that night because of all the good work with the team. The second day we were all building games for the festival that was happening soon! I helped build and paint the games and I had to gloat a little bit because painting is my job and I was pretty swift with my brush. And at this point I was really feeling like I was connecting with my awesome team that was with me in Guatemala! The teams is amazing and incredibly encouraging and loving! I can not explain how sweet and genuine my team has been to me. The third day was Antigua and that was absolutely amazing. We went shopping for awesome gifts that were quite unique. The next day we all got dressed and prepared for church, we all looked rather dashing. The worship even though I couldn’t understand most of the language was very powerful. Lester could shred like no man has ever shred on the guitar before. Then on Monday we did probably one of the hardest physical labor jobs I’ve experienced in quite a while. Andrew and I had to hoist 100 pound buckets of cement two stories high on a pulley system. It was fun but hard. I got to know all the workers very well and they all have an awesome sense of humor. Then today I sang for a lot of kids who probably didn’t Iike my singing because of my lack of Spanish. We then went to house visits and gave them all awesome gifts for their future. The one thing that I absolutely love about this place is the people, they all have a true genuine love for you and they consider you family no matter who you are. For people who have so little they have so much. I can’t wait for the rest of the trip and I can’t wait to see how God is working throughout the team’s lives and in the lives of Guatemalans.
– Noah
This being my fifth trip to Guatemala, I thought I had experienced everything I could here and I would get a few surprises every now and then, but today I did a lot of new things and some old things. We started off our morning in the girls room at 6:30am and we got some breakfast and started making care packages for the people in the shelter that we were going to go visit today. These bags included an apple, a juice box, and some cookies. Soon afterwards we loaded up in our 15 person van and drove to one of the shelters due to “Volcan de Fuego” or “Volcano of Fire”.
At the shelter we did a small program including 2 songs, a bible story read by Vicki in Spanish! And some games with candy as a the prize. On our way back home the 6 youth/college students rode in the bed of the truck as per tradition and we got ready to go visit the majority of our sponsored kids. Today we saw 6 out of the 9 children, so we split up into 2 groups and each went and visited 3 children and their families. I got to go visit Daniel, Yorshual, Pablo (Rolando), and Andrea (Darlene). Going to go visit these kids are definitely one of my favorite parts of these trips. Getting to see not only their families and how they live on a day to day basis, but seeing how much they value the kid’s education is so powerful. Getting to see how excited the kids were to open their backpacks and see their overpowering smiles and pure joy is the best thing to witness.
After the visits we came home and we relaxed for a little while until Emma, Andrew, and I went to Tono’s house to babysit their 3 children, Benjamin, Meghan, and Allison, oh and you can’t forget their dog, Daisy. Our team pitched in some money to send Tono and Courtney on a date night while the three of us took care of the kids so they had nothing to worry about.
Tomorrow we have our first festival in Membrillal! We all appreciate your thoughts and prayers as always and I am beyond grateful that I have been so fortunate to come to Guatemala these past 5 years. We love and miss all of you back home.
-Emily
Wow. Festival time already. Only 3 more days I hope you have a great time and reach out to lots of people. Oh and Emily you better not have any daisy smell on you when you get home or Bentley will be jealous. Lol
I love seeing all the pictures! Great to hear Noah and Emily are being challenged, surprised, and blessed by new experiences. I love that you all got to use some talents and skills with music, labor, crafts, and child care. I pray God continues to guide your connections with teammates and the people in Guatemala. God loves using people to bless each other and it sounds like you guys have been enjoying that.
Wow!!! You guys are doing lots of amazing things! That’s so awesome you were able to give Tono and Courtney a night out. They work so hard. All my love and prayers for the rest of your trip! May the festival go wonderful and people see the love of God in each and every one of you!
It is great to see all the things you are able to fit into this trip. We are praying for your festivals. We love you, Rachelle!
I’m glad you all got to go to the shelters. I still cannot fathom what it must have been like for them to experience the volcano. I am sure they thoroughly enjoyed your visit. And what a blessing to get to see how all the people you have visited are doing! And providing a date night for a young family . . . oh that makes my heart smile so much! I am so grateful your time there went well & you are able to minister to these people you love so very much!