A Beautiful Mission

I have been so blessed with the opportunity to serve the people of a little town named Patzicía, Guatemala. In July, I embarked on this adventure with a group of 18 well-founded Christians from my church. All of us had a heart for service and were excited to reach out to the church there, but none of us quite had an idea of the vastness of the project and the depth of the experience that would impact our own lives as well. We spent 5 days working hard on the new building for the church, la Iglesia Evangelica Centroamericana. Their congregation is so large that they don't have enough room in their current church building. We were all amazed at the great vision that the church has to create this beautiful place of worship for the whole town. They truly have God's will in mind. We were also grateful that God had rerouted our previous plans from Monterrey, Mexico to this project in Patzicía because if it wasn't for our group's interest in helping their cause, they might have stopped the construction due to a lack of funding and money for materials. In addition to serving this friendly church congregation, our mission team had a lot of great time to bond and worship the Lord together. I cherished all the relationships I was able to make, especially with Jose a youth leader from Costa Rica and a friend to everyone. He came along with us wherever we went and he was always cheering us up and making us laugh. At the end of the week, the leaders of the church treated us to a day trip to Lake Atitlan, one of the most picturesque lakes I've ever seen. They took us on a boat ride across it and paid for our meal. It was a wonderful day for fellowship surrounded by a beautiful landscape. In the end, I realized how happy all these people were despite their current situations and how they were following God's chosen path for them. They are so blessed with God's love and are determined to spread it throughout the world. I love these people of Patzicía.

The church we were helping to build

The view from above the sanctuary

We enjoyed each other's company during breaks

Jose became an important member of our team.
Everyone loves him and his wife.

On our day trip to Lake Atitlan

Turning the page to a new chapter, "The Beginning of the Rest of my Life"

I started a blog! I thought this could be a helpful, consistent way for people to stay updated with how and what I'm doing this year as I travel through Europe, study the Bible, and what-not. I've always been fond of journaling, but I can't say that I've kept it up... So I'm not making any guarantees to write every day or anything, but I'll keep you posted on my life and the adventures that I find important. Happy reading!