guatemala: we made it!

Dear friends,

Let the Race begin.

A few days ago two buses and a van full of Racers rode up into the Guatemalan highlands, seven thousand feet up into a town of about 3,000 people. Those who know me well know that I took my first trip abroad this past January to serve in a mountain town in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. Many things about this place remind me of sweet Jarabacoa—the music and the sound of motos on the road, the helado on the corners (little ice cream stands), hearing Spanish in the markets, and even the scent of the air—it all brought back a rush of Jarabacoa, and unexpectedly, a familiar feeling of home.

Our ministry this month is Agape in Action. Agape works in partnership with the Santa Elena National Hospital to serve the needs of the indigenous Mayan population and the surrounding rural communities with medical and dental clinics. Their slogan is “healing bodies, mending souls,” and the ministry strives “to bring the love of Christ to those in need through medical care and evangelism.”

We’re staying on the ministry property in the dorm center, run by an American husband and wife duo, Sally and Erv, who are just the sweetest. All 60 of us have set up camp in the back garden. We’re blessed with hot showers and indoor bathrooms, and a little outdoor kitchen where each team will be taking turns buying food from the market and preparing meals for the squad. If I don’t know how to cook now, I certainly should be a lot better at it by the end of the Race. In the future our squad will disperse to different ministries once in country, but for this month it’s a joy to be all together.

There is something so special about living in close community. We worship together, we pray together, we cook together, we play games together, we work out together, we stick together. These people encourage me to spend time with the Lord every morning. We meet each others needs, like when I forgot my towel in Atlanta and someone gave me their extra one. Or when there wasn’t enough pasta to go around and we all put a spoonful in until there was more than enough. These people will challenge me this year, and they will make me better for it. As iron sharpens iron. What a beautiful image of the Body of Christ.

This morning something cool happened.

We were walking through town, getting a tour from a native, when out of nowhere an elderly Guatemalan woman came up to us. We had no idea why but she couldn’t seem to stop smiling at us. She reached out and took our hands and stood there continually trying to say something that we could not understand. She was moving her lips, but no words were coming out. She motioned in the air and around her head, trying to tell us something we couldn’t understand. We laid hands on her, and since no one else in the group spoke Spanish, I began to pray with the best Spanish words I could find. She seemed moved and after we said “Amen” she continued smiling at us—hugely. I felt like there was a deep sadness in her eyes at moments, but I want to say that she had a look of eager excitement as well, as if she had been looking for us and was overjoyed to have finally found us there on the corner. I don’t know how to explain it. It was odd. But we said goodbye and continued down the road. Her name was Andrea.

While we talked with her, Andrea kept pointing to her head and then making sweeping motions away from her body, and also using her hands to make motions that looked like claws and scratching. The translator explained to us later that she thought the woman was trying to tell us that she has a mental disorder, her mind isn’t all there or that there is something wrong with her head, which now that I’m writing this out, I remember asking her, Te duele la cabeza? (Does your head hurt?) and she had nodded yes.

Later that afternoon, one of my squad mates told me the same thing: she felt God telling her that this woman is suffering from something in her mind, and that she needed to pray over her for that specifically. My squad mate has been in a few similar situations and has recently felt that the Lord has given her the gift of healing, especially in regards to the mentally handicapped.

When we walked away from Andrea I was at the front of our group, but my squad mate held back; Andrea gave her a long hug. As Andrea was hugging her, she reached for my squad mate’s hands and placed them on top of her head. My friend couldn’t pray in Spanish over her, but she prayed to herself for Andrea to be set free from the thing that is robbing her of her mind.

Who knows if we will see Andrea again.

But she was beautiful and I hope that we do.

Please pray for that. For more divine appointments. And for Andrea to be set free from her suffering.

Until next time!

Todo mi amor,

Katy