Before we left for Guatemala, the only word that popped up in my head was “poor.” However, that is the last word that pops up in my head when I think of Guatemala now. Guatemala is BEAUTIFUL, such beautiful weather, scenery, and most importantly, people. When we first arrived here, I became happy instantly because of the weather. Then the next day, seeing beautiful landscapes and being in Antigua made me even happier. Everyone was so welcoming and I did not see a single person that looked mad. Even though Antigua was full of people, everything and everyone seemed so chill. When we went to the market to shop, everyone was very friendly. The thing that surprised me the most was the love people had for Jesus. I bought A LOT of things at the market with A TON of discounts only because they knew that we came to Guatemala for the missions. It was really nice to see how they talked about Jesus constantly, and how they thanked us constantly for doing the missions.
Therefore, I was extremely excited to go to the church and interact with people. When we first walked in the church, I was a little nervous because talking to people is not my favorite thing to do and especially talking to foreigners (how ironic). However, I decided to become brave and sit next to this couple. I started the conversation in Spanish so I was very proud of myself. I explained why we came to Guatemala and our plans for this coming week, and they really appreciated us coming here. Throughout the service, the lady gave Kierra and I some candies, and they kept looking at us to make sure that we were doing okay. My favorite part of the church was worshiping. Singing in Spanish was kind of weird since I could not understand anything, but it was fine since we were singing for the same purpose- to praise God. The pastor talked about Galatians, how there are only two religions in this world: religion of the spirit and religion of the flesh. Galatians seems to be the theme of our time here so far. We talked about Galatians during our devotion last night and that was the main verse at the market as well. After the service, I once realized how friendly the Guatemalans are as a lot of them hugged us and and wished us luck.
After lunch, we went to Bethania Zone 7 to do a prayer walk and to see places where we will be working for a week. We first went to the playground and prayed. We prayed for the community, program, church, school, children, and families. There were three kids playing in the playground so I started talking to them. Their names were Andrei, Anthony, and some J name that I can’t pronounce. Andrei was 10 and the others were 12 years old. They got super excited when we approached them and they asked us a ton of questions. Once we left the playground, we walked to the church where we will be “chilling” at. The church was the size of the bathroom at our school, yet even in the tight space, people were full of compassion and love for others and for God. It was amazing to see the passion they had for the Lord which they expressed through their worship. In Bethania, there was no “middle class,” just the poor and the wealthy. It was amazing to see how there were both poor and wealthy living right next to each other in the same community. We went to a mall in Bethania and when we were talking to the poor people, they didn’t even know it existed. I’m very excited to serve and spread Jesus’ love by loving the people around me.
-Jimin
LC Senior Go! 