Last week was a big week here at Reindom Ministries! Saturday was Día Del Niño and our team was honored to be able to be part of this awesome day, praise the Lord!
Monday
We started our week with Monday being our sabbath, it was much needed but I struggled to sabbath and spend time alone with God. Our town doesn’t have a great selection of coffee shops with wifi to sit and chill at which is my go to back in the states, there are also not a lot of spots to spend alone time in our house with 9 people, I typically recharge alone so this was tough. In the instances where I could not get alone in the states I would easily put in my AirPods and tune out the world. Of course, I left my AirPods on top of my bed back at the AIM Guatemala base the night we left. Thankfully, I texted one of my squad mates to save them for me and they are safe — although our teams are on opposite schedules and we just have not seen each other since we left the AIM base.
My second mistake of sabbath was getting comfortable in the “sunday scaries” worrying that the house and my space had to be perfect before the start of a new week. I also love to have a clean home, so I started the first 3 hours of my sabbath cleaning up because we were still getting use to our ministry schedule. I also had to catch up on my blog. I also did my laundry and caught up with people back home. All in all, my first sabbath here was not the most restful, but thats okay because I now know how I can be better
Tuesday
This tuesday we went to the village closest to us and served the kids lunch, held bible studies, english classes, art classes and cleaned up the Reindom house for the kids to enjoy 🙂
Wednesday
This was actually the first day I woke up in Guatemala and really did not want to go to ministry. It was hard getting ready but Holy Spirit quickly reminded me that this was never meant to be a vacation, this is a challenging task that I can only do WITH God, never only FOR God, Psalm 51:16-17 clearly states that God has never wanted our offerings, all he wants is our hearts and souls, our brokenness and to lay it all at his feet so that he can heal us and build us up as long as we are seeking him and his image in our healing. Going into the World Race all I wanted was more of Jesus. Before, I felt so incomplete, so alone, so unsatisfied with the way I was going about my life, I was living for myself not knowing what was best for me. Being here, I am able to choose Jesus and his way of life everyday and I have felt so whole, so much pure love from God so much genuine joy.
This was a good day also because we got to play soccer all day with kids from the three villages around us. (Santa Marta, San Jose el Yalu, and San Rafael El Arado) It was so good to see the joy in the kid’s eyes when they heard we were playing soccer, these kids are also really good! We started each session with a word from God and praying to the Lord for the ability to play soccer, we did some drills and then we got into a game. Being able to run around with these kids and play with them was so so sweet and I am so thankful for this opportunity.
Thursday
Oh man this day was so so good! We started the day fasting in the prayer room from 9am to 12pm. We heard a word from Iván and learned about the heart posture in fasting, which is seeking more of God’s presence in our lives. Then we worshiped and spent time alone with God giving his room to speak into our lives. We then had a delicious meal of chow mein made by Loyda 🙂
We then had our 2 hour commute on the chicken bus into Antigua. While on the chicken bus from Sumpango to Chimaltenango I prayed over a man in spanish and my teammate Jessie prayed over a woman and her children! Before leaving the house our teammate Kelsey encouraged us to preach the gospel to people on the bus, it is so beautiful how opportunities to share God’s love open up when we are intentional about it. We then got to Antigua and worked on stuff in The River House Coffee where we had a great conversation with some guys about God and our mission trip. After, we got sushi with our team budget which got us each 5 pieces of sushi rolls because of the 2 for 1 deal 😀 (Not the most filling meal but we are learned through trial and error) here we met a new friend who approached us and asked if we were racers, through that conversation we were able to receive some wisdom from her and we prayed for her 🙂 Then we ended our night at the worship room where we get to worship in english and spanish! We also love that we get to see and briefly catch up with one of the other teams from our squad 🙂
Friday
We were given a break from ministry this day so that we could prepare for the 15hr day ahead. Friday, we cleaned up the house for everyone spending the weekend there because of Saturday. We also prepared by making name tags for the kids. We then ended the night with dinner at Las Victorias where we had a huge long table full of the Reindom staff, our team, and some alumni racers who have willingly come back to work with Reindom for the next 3 months. This was a nice time to spend time together, chat and have some dinner before our long day on Saturday.
Saturday
DIA DEL NIÑO!! What a special time! Saturday was so good! We woke up at 5:30 am to be ready and out of the house by 6:30am. We got onto busses and each had a group of about 10 kids with another volunteer to make sure the kids were safe. We went into the city of Guatemala with the kids of Santa Marta we serve at. A lot of these kids have never been out of their villages, typical Saturdays days are spent helping out their family businesses, which could include farming, manual labor, etc. Having this day to celebrate their childhood was so beautiful. With the donations we received we were able to take the kids to the Children’s Museum of Guatemala, Pizza Hut (the Pizza Huts here are actually pretty bougie compared to the ones in the states, here they have servers, the one we went to specifically was three stories high and had a whole play ground for kids!), and we ended the night by watching Super Mario Bros with them at the movie theater for their first time ever! We were able to recognize and praise God in every moment of the day by praying and thanking God for the ability to take the kids out to the town as well as the good pizza we ate and for God keeping everyone safe throughout the day.
Reindom Shout Out
Reindom ministries is truly so amazing. They are obedient to God in the way they are seeking out the people in society that the world would typically pass by. Here are just a few examples, they have the Kingdom’s table every wednesday for the homeless addicts and elderly, and they have made the effort to reach out to kids of several villages multiple days a week. Reindom preaches the gospel that Jesus truly loves all of us, showing these groups that they all individually matter and they are loved and chosen by God! They choose God every day and lay down their lives for these people, living out Philippians 2:3-8!
Sunday
We decided to take our sabbath this Sunday because we were too exhausted to take the 2 hour chicken bus to Antigua for church at 7am. I had so much fun hanging out with God. I put my Delta Airline headphones 😉 in and spent time with God in the word that morning. I was able to journal for the first time since arriving in Guate and it was so relieving. I have found that I have neglected journaling my feelings so far and I need to make it a priority at least once a week because it is so restful for me to express my emotions and to be completely honest with myself and God. I was able to sit and reflect on my mental state and cry with God by expressing my frustrations and anxious thoughts with him, and he met me exactly where I was. I took a 40 minute nap after journaling then spent the next hour on my knees listening to worship music, thanking God for his character and asking him to change my heart to be more like Jesus. Continually praying that “I am the clay and he is the potter”, telling him “make me how you want to be, I don’t want anything that is not of God in my heart” Praying with my hands open, allowing God to take away anything I am holding onto and keeping an open hand for whatever he wants for me. I want to be used by God. He is so so good, he loves us with the purest kind of love. God is love. God cares for us and there is no one else like him. I love you Jesus, thank you for this intimate and genuine relationship. 🙂
How God is Softening My Heart
Some of you know that kids are exactly my forte or preference in any way. Being here has been good for me to be completely obedient to where the Lord has called me. I am a stronger believer in God’s sovereignty and I know that he takes care of his children and most importantly he is intentional. In August when I felt the Lord softening my heart for children I knew he would call me to a kid’s ministry. Being a part of Reindom has taught me a lot about the children of the kingdom of God, and every morning before ministry I often find myself praying that the Lord would teach me how to receive him with a childlike faith. Through these days I have found that children are so open to receiving love, and they give love away like it’s never ending. As we get older we get hurt by people, it’s inevitable. If not dealt with in a healthy way we may become more hardened and closed off to love. The idea of giving and receiving love is difficult because we don’t want to get hurt or owe anyone anything but children are not afraid! Lord help me to have a child-like faith! Lead me in your love.
I pray that the Lord would continue to heal all of our hearts from all of the broken relationships we have experienced and caused us to stray away from love — stray away from God. Love is so powerful and I pray that we would seek Jesus more than anything else in our lives, knowing that he is kind, and he is love, and he wants us. I pray that we would experience God’s love in a new way. I pray that we would pray radical prayers and pray that God would move in our hearts. He is here with us RIGHT NOW and he WILL show up Matthew 7:7-8. Additionally, if you have read this far, God is waiting for you to pursue this beautiful relationship with him, Revelations 3:20 God wants our hearts, he wants to heal you.
