Here we are day 2 in Guatemala with Falon and Courtney. Sleeping was grandioso. We woke up approximately at 7:55 to a most unusual meal of breakfast tamales. Not knowing the culture of the Guatemalans, we were not aware of putting sugar on them so the bland taste was not our type, to say the least. Mom, if you’re reading this....which you probably wont be, Falon was not the last one out the door for church! We were much welcomed into the Guatemalan church where Clint spoke to the youth from the book of Nahum and Adam spoke to the adults. We then listened to the preacher who also preached in Nahum but in Spanish soooooooo basically we were clueless. After the sermon, we ate lunch and intermingled with some local teenageres through a game of ninja.
The teenagers wanted to come see us play, so they followed us to our game. We played on an outdoor court, which gave us a nice breeze - but we had to check the wind before each shot. FUN FACT: the weather is amazing. Thanks to the church youth group, we had loud fans cheering us on. At halftime Maggie boldly shared her testimony with the Guatemalans and did a fantastic job (seriously). After her testimony, we had plenty of people, adults and ninos(children) flocking to us wanting the bracelets and cards that we were handing out which tell about salvation through Jesus christ....it was awesome.
We girls, always keeping our eyes out for cuties, spied a muy caliente Guatemalan futbol player during the game....he was pretty much everyone’s type but he was only interested in one. After the game he discreetly followed us over to where we were walking, not in a creepy way but an interested way. We all took a picture with el muy caliente futbol player. Coach Hatch then told him that Falon was VERY interested and wanted his phone number. He then turned to Georgia and said “no number 10 - can i have your number??” And so she gave him her number, who knows maybe long distance relationships work once in a blue moon. Georgia said if they see each other again, it’s meant to be. If they don’t, it’s just not.
The ballers rode back to the hostel with wild Betty. The showers were slightly better considering we had dos mas. Tonight we had more Americanized food, hamburgers. Marta, who is the owner of the hostel, is also the head of the missions team at her church. Her missions team is currently going through hard times so we were glad to be an encouragement to them as they joined us for dinner. We encouraged them to continue praying for their hopes of traveling back to Haiti and to Africa this year. They recently received the money to help a single mother of a teenage girl who was sexually abused by her uncle build a house in a nicer and more safe area of Guatemala City. We enjoyed singing songs with the missions team, us in English and them in Espanol, but the same song “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord”.
After our time with the missions team ended, a new game was introduced to our team called Quelf. It was most unusual and resulted in Emily wearing a cardboard box in her shirt, Coach Hatch and Courtney playing leapfrog, Emily and Courtney wearing chinstraps designed by Falon (don’t ask), Sara and Madeline doing golf commentating, Morgan drinking water out of a cup from the opposite side of the cup, Ann Hilton having to ask her feet permission to speak, and lots of sign language and homemade poems. In the end, team Georgia/Maggie was victorious. RANDOM FACT: Emily’s suitcase is full of cheerios and the altitooties is now called the fluffies, thanks to Coach Hatch.
We wrapped up our night by reflecting on the things that stuck out to us most in the day. A message from the missions team resonated with us when he said that our age (teenagers) was our greatest challenge to walking in holiness with Christ, so without prayer and reading God’s word, it is so easy to get caught up in the temptations of this world. Also, leaving the United States and traveling overseas has made us realize that no matter where you are God is always there. Although we are disconnected with our friends and families, we always have a connection with God whether we are in Guatemala, the United States, Africa, or anywhere. Now is bedtime because we have 3 games tomorrow starting at 9 o’clock.
Morgan’s DCOTW: 4 #poormorgan
