First Night at GBS

Today was an incredibly long and exhausting day for all in our group. Early mornings, long walks with all our luggage, waiting for the bus that was running late, the bus ride to Chimaltenango and just sheer exhausting impressing itself on the group made the day seem a lot longer than it was. Once we got to Guatemala Bible Seminary, however, there seemed to be a bit of a rejuvenation despite the looming tiredness. Shortly after our arrival we were shown to the dorms, and then we had lunch.

During lunch we had a small earthquake, which was a fun experience. We were eating and all the sudden a handful of us got really dizzy and couldn't figure out why until we looked around and saw everything shaking and realized it was an earthquake! It was the first earthquake I've experienced and it was quite a lot different than what I was expecting it to be like from what I had heard. (Shortly after typing this I was told from a friend that our location was 230km from the epicenter of a 6.3 earthquake, so I guess it was a fair size!) After lunch we broke off into our Impact Groups to tour Chimal, but I sat out of this because I needed the rest after being on my crutches so much yesterday and this morning. After the tour, we had a debrief session and were given the basic run down of the rules and what not here.

Alex, our field director was telling us about how the boys at GBS tend to be flirty with the girls from Prairie. The way he explained it was, "Like leopards looking for bambies they shall chase you... Rawr (accompanied with a hand motion) So travel in groups, so you can run faster!" It was fairly amusing. We ate dinner mixed in with the Guatemalan students and tried to use our Spanish. I'm hoping we can continue to improve out Spanish so we can communicate better and get to know the other students better during our time here.

Tomorrow morning we're off to our ministry sites where we will be spending the weekends working with churches in the various areas they need help. The ministry weekends will serve as practice for our ten day ministry practicum that will come after our stay at GBS. I'm excited to see how things will continue and to see the growth and experiences that lie ahead. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our group for the rest of our time here.