Country: Guatemala, Central America Dates: 9/12/2022 - 11/17/2022 Team: Gloria a Dios (Mikahla Klug, Maggie Prokosch, Joana Quintana, Amy Scott) Local Currency: Quetzal (1USD = roughly 7.5Q) Favorite Local Food: Tortas and Street Tacos  Local Language: Spanish (Pokomchi in villages) Common Phrases: Buenos dias (tardes/noches - or nachos for me the first few days) Ministry Partner:...

Do you know the people that you meet that just automatically feel like family? That is how the Sanchez family was when we got to Guatemala! I didn’t want to only post about the preaching and the ministering to people part of my time in Guatemala. A large chunk of my time was also just simply planning and making crafts and games to teach a 5 year old boy his ABC’s and 123’s. Ministry has been redefined for me in...

As my squad’s time in Guatemala soon comes to an end and we prepare for our next ministries, it is important to reflect. It is beautiful that by reflecting individually, we see what unique season Guatemala has been for each of us. This blog is a collaborative post made up of responses from my entire squad. Here are their responses to the prompt, ‘Guatemala is...’.   Guatemala is where God gave me a heart ...

Flood; verb; past tense: flooded; Meaning: To cover or submerge (a place or area) with water. To arrive in overwhelming amounts or quantities.   Just a simple word became a huge lesson. Do you ever have those moments where it seems every time you turn around or hear something or read anything it keeps repeating the same message or idea? That is what happened with this passage of scripture I read and the idea of...

It has taken me a month to be able to write about my experience on the mountainside of Chicaman headed to the village of El Naranjo. It was an experience that tested me a lot, but that I will never forget. The journey started like any other day, we got up early put on our skirts and were picked up headed to a village to share with the people. We were told this village was a hike to get to, and that my friends is w...

Today I was reminded of my favorite quote (above) from the movie Anchorman. I got the experience of shouting the love of Jesus on the side of a mountain!!   On the way back from doing ministry in the villages today, our host nonchalantly mentioned we would be preaching on the mountain on the way back. He told us he had a speaker in the car and we would put it on top of the car and preach from there. Our host is...

Do you remember the 21st day of September? (And if you didn’t sing it in the tune of September by Earth, Wind and Fire then you did it wrong.)    That day was significant for me because it was the first day I was translated into 2 different languages.    My team has had the honor of living in Chicaman during our time in Guatemala. Chicaman is awesome but the heart of the ministry we are working with is fo...

It is day 24 on this journey as I start this entry (posting a little later). If I am 100% honest, I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy from day 1.   I have been asking God why did You bring me here to not talk to me, to not let me feel You. This week one of our leaders shared an anthem for saying Absolutely Yes to the Great Commission and as I listened to it on the top step of El Cafe I now call home, t...

Monday, September 12, 2022, I walked up to my first customs window in Guatemala City! My passport is officially stamped for the first time!! From the moment we stepped outside of the airport in Guatemala, all you could see is street art on the walls, beautiful colors everywhere and the most colorful tops on the women (I soon learned they are called wipils). We jumped on a bus and headed to the Adventures in Mi...

Training camp had many moments of preparing us for the reality we are about to experience.    We slept in tents (rain or shine) and we ate culturally diverse foods (honorable mentions were the curry we had to eat with our hands, the century egg [fermented egg], and cooked cricket bugs). We had to jog/walk 2 miles with our backpacks on, we stayed at a “host family” when our campsite flooded, we used porta pottie...