Protest. Pro-rest?

Monday

This monday we helped the school at Santa Marta celebrate Día del Niño with their students. We showed up played some games, praised God and ate some pizza and ice cream with the kids! This was a sweet day to just celebrate the kids’ childhood with them and to make their school a safe and fun place they want to be at.

Tuesday

The team has been struggling with taking our sabbath very restfully. So we decided that instead of adventuring on this “adeventure day” we would seek the Lord in how he would like for us to sabbath. Most of us have been craving a cute coffee shop scene to rest in. So we took the chicken bus to Chimaltenango (aka Chimal) and we spent 5 hours in a neat coffee shop called Monkeys the owners gave us free stickers! We spent time together, some of us worked on our blogs, some of us just spent time in the Bible and some of us just enjoyed the good coffee and food Monkeys had to offer 🙂

Wednesday

This was the day I felt like a cold smacked my immune system. This is also the day we do house visits, tell people about Jesus, pray for them and play soccer for the rest of the day. When we arrived in the village of Yalu we had lunch in a church that is friends with the Reindom ministry. We just needed a place to sit and not to be begged by the Chuchos (the street dogs). This church and its pastors has honestly been such a sweet spot, we had visited before and every time we go to help them they provide us with food. This time the pastor’s wife made us a Tamarindo juice :’) It is so awesome to know Christ Followers who truly embody Christ and take care of the church. “Church” is meant to be the people, not the building and they take it to heart, truly so beautiful to see them be so generous and giving. I took a nap on the church pew because the cold I faced was killing me, when I woke up I felt terrible. Of course, this was the day we would run laps around the soccer field, play tag and do burpees with the kids. I was beat but it was fun, I love that we get to play soccer and share the gospel with these kids.

Thursday

ACTIVATION DAYYY. I also took over our squad’s instagram this day 🙂 You can check it out at @worldrace_zsquad in Instagram! We learned about healing. God’s will is HEALING, God wants to heal us. I just love that I am constantly learning about how much God truly loves us, and cares for us!

Bible Study Nugget

Google defines Care as:

noun – the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.

verb – look after and provide for the needs of.

God is so good, I could cry. He just wants all of us, he knows how hard it is to carry the weight of anxiety, depression, worries, he has compassion for us. Just one example of God’s care of us is displayed in the well-known verse

Matthew 11:28-30  [28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

yoke -A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs.

God wants to walk through this life with us. He just wants our hearts, he loves us deeply.

The fact is that this world is broken, this world is under the control of Satan and sin is here because of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. Another reality is that we are sinful by nature, God gives us free will because he wants us to choose him. He doesn’t want a robotic love, he wants a genuine intimate relationship with us. (the hopeless romantic in me is melting)

OK now back to our teaching of healing 🙂 As Christ followers, we have Holy Spirit within us (Acts 1:4, Acts 2:8, John 14:15-31, etc). Due to this TRUTH we also have the same power as Jesus when he committed healings! I actually just read this morning, the disciples of Christ were sent out to not only spread the gospel but to also HEAL people in the name of Jesus!! (Luke 9:1&6, 10:9) And in the same way we are sent out to do the same with the same spiritual authority and power (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:17-18) Additionally, in Mark 9:23&29 Jesus reassures us that anything is possible all we need is faith in Jesus! One quote that one of our teachers said “Less of how much faith do I need, more about what we do with the faith we have”. It is also crucial to remember that our faith does not limit God! The amount of faith we have isn’t important, it is walking in the authority we have been given. With little or big faith, the important thing is that we would walk in our spiritual authority.

So after learning this we went to the streets of Sumpango and prayed over some women who make tortillas, a man who was sitting on a sidewalk, and an old woman who was walking for a “bussito” to take her into town.

We also ended up staying in Sumpango for the night instead of going into Antigua for worship room.

LOCK DOWN BEGINS

Okay so then this Thursday night 10/05 we were told that we couldn’t go to ministry in Santa Marta on Friday because there were road blocks that would prevent us from going into town.

Guatemalans began to peacefully protest because the people voted a man into office but the government is corrupt and they don’t want to let him into office. So the protests are for the man voted in to be put into the position he was voted into as well as for the ones being corrupt to step down.

Friday

We took this day very chill, started with prayer room, spent time with God. Caught up on tasks we kept putting off, very nice restful reset day 🙂

Saturday

We were told that VBS would also be postponed today because the peaceful protests had not ceased and will not until there is a change in the government. So we took this day to also catch up on other tasks we had put off. We also went to the store because we were warned that if the protests had continued through the weekend the stores and markets would be closed on Monday because they would not be able to receive product they sell since the road blocks were in the way of getting to the stores.

Sunday

Sabbath, we had team church and shared how God is working in our lives. Also another chill day, but this day I felt exhausted. I think it’s because for the past three weeks we’ve had ministry before 9am 5 days a week, I am fighting off a cold, facing spiritual battles, facing real emotions that I had been putting off for a while and we have been praying earnestly for the state of the world. So truly have been fighting a lot battles, I did my best to intentionally rest with God this day and it was good 🙂

Prayer Requests

• a few of us have been fighting off flees!! for the past week or two I have woken up with strange bites that are insanely itchy. on Sunday we realized we have been attacked by flees, we found a couple hanging out. not exactly sure where we go them from but we would really appreciate prayer for the flees to flee in the name of Jesus!
• the team is fighting off the cold, prayer that we would be feel better and healthy in the name of Jesus
• for the country of Guatemala, protests are beginning to get violent because of infiltrators. prayer that the protests would continue to be peaceful as well as for the government of Guate to honor their people and do what they have to in order for the people of Guatemala to be taken care of.
• prayer for Israel, protection over the innocent people, war to end, respect and love to thrive.
• unity in the body of Christ.

This season has been so good for me. The Bible is ALIVE! I truly only remember one time in my life that the word has been alive to me like this and that was in 2021 during one of the lowest points of my life. It is so beautiful to see the work Holy Spirit is doing in my life.

A year ago today I was in a really low point, I spiraled down into a deep pit of distractions, numbing myself to feelings, distancing myself from a genuine relationship with God. I was reading my Bible still but I was planting the word with a rocky soil. (I encourage you to study the Enduring Word commentary about the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8; this is better known as the Parable of the Soil) I was receiving the word with joy! But come the trials of my life, I felt alone, I turned to substances to help me through some hard times, I turned to distractions. One of the biggest ways I was distracting myself was the gym. I do believe that exercise is important to live a healthy lifestyle. But there were nights that I could not sleep from my anxious thoughts, so instead of turning to prayer I would find myself in the gym between 2am & 6am just so the physical pain would be more present than the emotional pain I felt. In Luke 8 it says that the person who is the “good soil” receives the word of God with a good and honest heart.

If you feel that you are reading the Bible and can’t quite relate it to your life or you aren’t fully convinced it it alive I would like to encourage you to sit in prayer with God and to talk to Holy Spirit. Ask him to make the Bible alive to you. Ask him to reveal to you what in your heart you are holding that is not from God. Research the characteristics of God and whatever is it you are feeling that is not on that list, ask Holy Spirit to work with you through letting go of any malice, stubbornness, hatred, anger, unforgiveness, anything that makes you unsettled.

I pray that Holy Spirit will touch your heart. That he would tear down your idea of a relationship, that may be a result of the broken and failed relationships you have experienced from the brokenness by people of this world. May the toxicity be broken down and may you allow him to rebuild your idea of a relationship. May that idea be similar to the characteristics of God, full of genuine love, intimacy, hope, faith, truth, care, and gentleness. I love you and God loves you so much more!