Portsmouth Christian - Guatemala Trip - Day 1

The morning started extremely early for the team as they headed off to the Boston Airport to catch a 5:30 AM flight.  Apparently they had some minor issues (Andy’s car blew a tire on the way to drop him at the church), and some interesting happenings on the bus on the way (a debate broke out about gay marriage and abortion) or at least that is what they told me about.

My morning began a little later as I had a 6:05 flight out of Nashville, but by 9:05 I was at D17 in Miami.  I made my way to D20, and contacted the team.  They arrived shortly after me, and apparently were suffering with hunger and bathroom needs…  So they took care of everything and made their way to D20 to join me in our 3+ hour wait for our flight to Guatemala.

It really was good seeing the kids again and listening to them recount the morning’s events.  They are extremely optimistic and are excited about what God is going to do over the next 6 days.  The leaders looked a little worn, but I guess that is to be expected when you have little sleep and a bunch of teenage girls in tow (Andrew and Devin aren’t difficult at all) 

As we sat and waited, Emily decided to play with some of the kids – ministry has already begun, and we aren’t even in Guatemala.

The flight was amazingly empty – there were empty seats everywhere.  Nine of the “emergency row” seats were empty – that is until I filled one of them.  The rest of the group was all sitting together, so no one else moved to the “nicer seats”.  The flight was rather uneventful, and we arrived in Guatemala on time.  We made our way through the airport – took a few pictures – and then went through customs and immigration in record time.  The place was almost empty.  In the sixteen trips I have taken to Guatemala over the past 5 years, this is was the smallest number of people I saw at the airport by far.  Even our bags were ready and waiting for us when we got to the carousel.

We left the airport, and the Wilson’s and the Eisner’s were there to greet us.  They were almost the only ones there – this is really unusual.  Phil even mentioned that he has never seen the airport so empty.  It was nice though, because we were out of there and heading to Thelma’s in record time!

We arrived at Thelma’s and went through our stuff and separated it for delivery throughout the week.  Stuff for  Verbana was going with us on Monday, and stuff for Amparo we would take on Tuesday.  I was impressed by the amount of things the team brought for the children, the workers, and the missionaries – especially the maple syrup!

After taking some time to look at the volcanoes, play ball and games with the Eisner kids, we finally sat down to dinner.  We had beef stew and rice.  As always, Thelma fed us well.  Dinner was followed by a time of singing, rehearsing the day and some prep time for the rest of the week.

This is going to be a great crew – I just pray they get the sleep they need tonight.  They are a little goofy today! 

Thought for the day:  “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place”.  As I read, “The Pursuit of God” today, I was reminded that God is everywhere.  He is fully everywhere, at all times.  It was an amazing thing to think about as I pondered going to another country and ministering on His behalf – it is so refreshing to know that He is already there and already doing the work.  I have the privilege of experiencing Him at the same level, in the same way, that I relate to Him at home, because He is with me everywhere I go.

If this is the case, then the amazing thing about serving in Guatemala is not that God is going to do anything different than He does at home, but the fact that I can experience Him with a different people in the same way I can at home.