La Fin de la Semana Primera

Well, today marks the end of our first week in Guatemala. After five days of early mornings, five hours of Spanish class and afternoons full of spontaneous adventures, I am sure the whole group is looking forward to being able to sleep in for a few hours tomorrow before we leave to have a tour of a local coffee plantation. It amazes me that we have only been here for about a week, but at the same time I can hardly believe it has already been a week. I have been a bit confused by this phenomenon lately, but it does not bother me too much. Our days have been very busy, and our nights short, filled with as much sleep as we can possibly squish into them.

After surviving the first week, I am looking forward to our weekend ministry projects, going back to Spanish church, and starting a new week, this time staying in a host home with a local family. We certainly have already had a handful of small adventures, and I am sure the best is yet to come. We have only witnessed a small part of the beauty of Guatemala, and we have only just begun our journey here. Being immersed in the culture, part of me does not completely look forward to returning to Canada, because it is so very different, and I have already started to grow accustom to the ways of the Guatemalans. Though I knew the first day I was here that I would have a hard time wanting to leave this place.

Even though Canada is a beautiful country and I love my home country to pieces, Guatemala holds a different kind of beauty that reaches into your heart, holds on and opens your ears to hear God's voice in the breeze. It would be incredibly hard to look at this place and deny God's existence; His finger prints are everywhere. I have seen only a fraction of both the work He has done here, and the work He has planned, and I eagerly look forward to see what more He has in store for this country and those of us on this trip.

Prayer requests from the group have not changed too terribly much. There have been some small health problems starting to flare up, so prayer for health, strength and protection from major illnesses within the whole Discover group would be wonderful. I also know that a few people within the group feel very much on the outside, despite attempts made to show them that they are an important part of our team and family, so I would like to ask that a sense of family, community and belonging would be established in the weeks to come and that we would find the words to encourage our friends when they are having trouble. My personal prayer requests are that the relationships being developed within Discover would be blessed and strengthened by God, while we learn to overcome problems together and learn to be a family and a team; and that God would present us with many opportunities to put our Spanish into practice and be able to be a light for God, doing the work He wants to be done while we learn.