Guatemala - Jump In
Wow! It is hard to believe that we have come to our last day here in beautiful Guatemala. Today started like the previous day…breakfast. Here, Lisa gave us the last part of our four day challenge: dream big, pray hard, think long, Jump In. You can do all the previous three, but without jumping in, there is no action. When we believe and know that God is for us, we can be obedient to jump into what He is calling us to do.
Once we finished we breakfast, we loaded up on the bus and headed toward Intelligo for our final volleyball clinic. We started with a fun warm up game called chicken on a hill and it set a fun and competitive vibe for the rest of the morning. Today's focus was on hitting and digging. Hitting is everyone's favorite and so we spent time working on the fundamentals and getting quality reps. We ended the clinic by playing against each other which was a highlight for both teams. At the end, we sat down and had a snack and listened as Sierra shared her story about how God led her to Houghton and what He has been teaching her up to this point. The girls from Intelligo gave each of us a small bracelet and these bracelets serve as a reminder of our time together. We were also able to give them a gift and we took so many pictures together and finally said a tearful goodbye. We are so blessed to have been a small part of their volleyball experience and we walked away changed by those girls.
We had a quick lunch at Pollo Campero which is much like a KFC and then headed to the safe house. Here we visited the women in the sewing program and they set up a market for us so we were able to purchase some of their handmade work. Each purchase we made we now have a name and face of the women who made it and it serves as a reminder to pray for them and for the work God is doing in and through them.
We then headed up to the house where the women and children were waiting to play. We created a fun obstacle course for the kids where they had to make it down the lawn competing each station. We had bottle flipping, spin and navigate, and basketball. Once we finished the obstacle course, we played some board games like connect four and uno. We ended our time with these sweet families by dancing and singing to worship music. It was amazing to watch them praise Jesus in Spanish while we sang the song in English. God knows no language barriers and worshipping Him is universal.
For our last dinner together we dined on a restaurant rooftop patio and enjoyed one of the most beautiful views of Antigua. We saw the volcano, Fuego, erupt and enjoyed good company and good conversation. We made our final walk back to the hotel and ended the evening with Lisa bringing us back full circle: Dream Big, Pray Hard, Think Long, Jump In!
-written by Becca Wilkins, Mia Noble, Katelyn Martin, Josie Thomas