Week 4 <3

Monday: this morning we went to do our Monday house visit which consists of us studying the Bible with people we recently ministered to. We looked for Nancy’s house for quite some time and on the way we ran into a family that Jessie knew. We stopped and talked with them for a minute and then kept looking. After looking longer we ran into that same family again and decided that maybe God wanted us to go with them so we did. They welcomed us into the house that they were staying at. When we do things like this it’s hard for me to understand fully what’s going on because of the language barrier but I can understand a little from what my translator on my phone tells me along with the emotions. We sat down with them and she told us that her family was struggling because the brother had tried 6 times to get into America and they can’t afford to provide for their family due to little opportunity for money in Guatemala. The brother came out and told us more about his experience and emotion with trying to get to the United States. I have my own political opinions about immigrants illegally entering our borders, but hearing this man talk about how badly he needs work and how terrible things were at the border and on the journey to the border just made my heart break. They were both so sad and cried a lot. He had borrowed money to pay somebody to take him to the US so now he also has the weight of debt to somebody which makes him fearful. There is lots of evil in the way immigration police treat the immigrants, such evil that even leads to death. I encourage you to pray for America and the hearts of the people in charge of that department and whatever you feel lead to pray for in that aspect. The 11 year old son said that he wants to go to the States to help his family as soon as he’s old enough. It’s really sad 🙁 A presidential candidate that stands for anti corruptions surprisingly and unexpectedly advanced to the final 2 in the race!! Pray so so hard for that president to win and to have the courage to change things here so that men don’t feel like they have to risk their lives to get dinner for their families. Pray also for the presidency candidates in America too, with lots of gratitude for our freedom and to keep it. ❤️🙏

Tuesday: Today we did prayer room and prayed for the country of Guatemala and then we did VBS at Hope. One of things we taught the kids today was to keep God as the main focus even during the hard things. We shared about times when things got hard and we didn’t remember to lean on God. The kids all shared about hardship they’ve experienced. They’ve all been through some serious hardship and I’m so glad that God has them in his hands and in the arms of the Hope ministry.

Wednesday: On Wednesday we had the morning free so I went to the grocery store 🙂 and in the afternoon we helped with Beauty for Ashes. I was on cleaning duty so after playing volleyball with the kids there I just helped clean the kitchen and the shed. It was nice to bond with the kids over volleyball and restful to clean!

Thursday: Today was ATL day. Before we go out we do worship and a teaching. Todays teaching was about character, we’re at our halfway mark and assume that people’s character is soon to be tested 😂🙏 pray that my character is revealed and able to grow in its flaws! I got to be with Becca today!! We never get to be together so this was super exciting for us. We went to a small town with intentions to find a specific man who has an alcohol addiction. Our leader Billy has been trying to get him to go to rehab and keeps pursuing him. We went looking for him but couldn’t find him. We made our way to a property that had a bunch of family members. The grandma went blind after her sister died so we prayed for her physical and spiritual sight to be restored. The mom told us they’ve been struggling because her daughter has been in jail for a year for something that she didn’t do but she was associated with the people who were doing it. The daughter has two kids that the mom was taking care of. We prayed for her and her daughter and the kids and the mom started crying during our pray. It’s always special when they start crying during our prayer because they can’t even understand our words, but they can feel the Spirit. The moms other daughter came out (she had 6 I think) and told us that she’s been battling a sickness that has something to do with her blood. You could tell how sick she was in her face. I prayed for her. She was so sweet, the whole family was ☺️ I pray so much healing over them! After we finished there we went walking back to the car but still had about 20 minutes left so went down another little neighborhood. The first house didn’t answer to our knock so we went to the next house and guess who was there, the guy who we were looking for!! It was his moms house that we found. Becca and I both have stories and experiences of loving addicts and dealing with the hardships that come from addiction. It was such a God thing that we were together and eventually our way to this man but also to his family, who needed the prayer just as much. You could see the worry and sadness in his moms eyes as we offered again to take her son to rehab. He told us that he’s drinking less and even has a job possibility lined up. He doesn’t want to go to rehab because the last rehab he went to beat him up and killed somebody he knew. They do not care about addicts or alcoholics here and consider them nothing and uncared for. We prayed for the mom and her heart and that these circumstances would bring her closer to the Lord. She started crying too. I am yet to go to a house and not see the people cry. They have so much emotion and sadness but are sooo kind and welcoming. They always tell us whatever they’re going through and invite us into their stories. I felt lead to pray over the son while they finished praying for the mom. I prayed the spirits of alcoholism and addiction away from him and that the Lord would just keep him from getting to alcohol. I prayed really hard over him and truly believe that God will deliver him from it. He started crying a little while I was praying and I just knew he wanted to be sober so badly. It felt so good that God was able to use my story and experience to uplift other people and hopefully bring them to the Lord.  It was just really amazing how he brought us to that house and how we were paired together and also paired with Billy who was an addict himself. God just puts all the details together for his glory. I also prayed that I could do ATL at the nearest town because I didn’t want to be in the car long because I’ve been getting carsick and then God put me on the team that was going only like 2 minutes away (even closer than what I prayed for). Thank you Jesus for that ❤️ yeah, I felt really tired after today because I just prayed so hard for those families, but it’s good and I get to just rest tonight 🙂