Allow me to give you a glimpse of my life in Guatemala through common things I hear throughout each week:   "The days are long, but the weeks are short. Time doesn't make any sense" "I need to do laundry" "Who hasn't cleaned their dishes?" "I'm hungry...when's lunch?" "Does anyone know the plan for today? No? Ok" "Everyone, we need to leave! We're running late again"   While these aren't of...

Every week, the squad spends Thursdays as "Activation" days. The AIM Guatemala staff lead the morning with worship, a sermon, and time with God. The afternoons are for ATL, which stands for "Ask the Lord". Each team asks God what He wants us to do and where He wants us to go. Then, we obey and see what God does.   The first few times my team did ATL, we were disappointed. Most of us felt like we did not receive...

We have officially finished the first full week of ministry in Guatemala! My team and I did some house visits and led various children's ministries ranging from playing soccer to teaching English to hosting a book club.   On Tuesday afternoons, we help with a soccer program run by a local church and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Since most of us don't know much about soccer, we help the kids focus and have ...

I've been in Guatemala for a little over a week now. We are staying at the Adventures in Missions base, where I share a room with my team and I get my own bed. It's a nice change to sleep inside! Everyone eats breakfast together at 7am each morning, then the teams go to their assigned ministries for the day. We pack a sandwich for lunch and are back at the base by 5:30 for dinner. To go to ministry, we take the local...

Note before reading: This blog gives an overall glimpse of my two weeks in North Carolina. Of course, each day was a bit different, but I wanted to provide a perspective on my daily life. Enjoy!   Each morning, I woke up in my tent, dreading leaving the warmth of my sleeping bag to change into cold clothes in the 40° weather. After gathering the courage to face the cold, I walked in the dark up the hill to the ...

Today was our first day of ministry in North Carolina. We finished training camp a couple days ago, and now we are serving for two weeks in NC before heading to Guatemala.   10 of us spent today gardening for a local food ministry. They collect and grow produce, giving it all to people who would not be able to afford it. It was incredible to help them prepare for the next season. We did simple tasks from pullin...

New Notions For those of you who think of God As only Judge and Juror I hope you know, you can think of God As also Love and Fervor. For those of you who think of rules As only limitation I hope you know, you can think of rules As also liberation. For those of you who think of death As a final sorrow I hope you know, you can think of death As also a new tomorrow For those of you who have th...

God is limited by us. Of course, I don't mean that He faces any real sort of limitation. What I mean is that we often limit the full power of God that could work through us. We limit Him by our fear, our doubt, and so much more. But, what if we didn't? What if the full power of God was working in and through us? How would we live differently?   I think we'd live with a lot more freedom. We would find our identi...

On Friday, I'll be heading to training for World Race. In a lot of ways, it seems I am about to start one of the greatest adventures of my life. And I am. I'll be traveling to many different countries (one of my life-long dreams) and meeting people all around the world to talk about Jesus with them. It sounds pretty exciting, right?   However, I hope we never mistake the excitement of a new adventure as being g...

I got home from Long Island a couple days ago. It has been good to be home, but sad to be away from my new church family. God did so much while we were in New York, and I am excited to see how He will continue working while I am home.   In the last week in New York, we got to help with the VBS at Crossroads. I lead the group of 7 and 8-year-olds, which included some kids who had come to the Arts Camp at the beg...