Bienvenido!

Welcome! 

That’s what this past week has been about. I left Maine on the 22nd of January and have now been in Guatemala for exactly one week. Everything is still a little surreal and I’m still very much getting the hang of everything that a new culture has to offer. Learning a new currency, language, how to get home, and many, many new customs that I’m not familiar with is definitely a challenge. One fun custom here is to shoot off fireworks randomly, and often. Just because. It keeps you on your toes.

The staff here at the base has done a wonderful job in making us feel welcomed into this unique family. I am privileged to be able to learn from, live with, and work with the people assembled here. In the first week alone I have been challenged, motivated, and shaken by these men and women of God.

Our Welcome Week included a lot of valuable information being presented to us, a scavenger hunt on our own to learn how to get around the city, a crash course on how to navigate the market and grocery store, a surprise home-cooked turkey dinner, and a visit to a water park after a long week. It was a wonderful way to start this next season here in Guatemala.

I am excited to move forward this week and in the next four months to serve the community and ministries here in Guatemala. There are a lot of possibilities and potential for each of us to get plugged into as we work with the staff, and simultaneously experience and witness what it looks like to live out a missional lifestyle – wherever you are.

Getting to this place in my life hasn’t been easy. Getting on the airplane wasn’t easy. Chasing after your calling and pursuing God when the world tells you differently often feels like the hardest thing possible. 

But I believe that God has a definite and clear plan for this season in my life, and He is worth it. So here I am, welcoming whatever is in store.