Buenas from Guatemala! I’ve been here for 5 full days now, and I am completely in love. They call Guatemala the land of eternal spring, and I have never heard of a more perfect nickname. The average temperature is 75 degrees, sunny, and breezy with pop up rainstorms. I think I’m in heaven! I get my favorite weather (rain), but also sun (which reminds me of mom) but not overly hot sun just warm, friendly sun. I’m not sure if that makes sense but I’m in love with this place. Everything in Guatemala exudes joy.

But that makes it hard to say that I have actually really been struggling this week. There are just so many emotions! Between leaving the country alone for the first time, little sleep, language barriers, no WiFi (which is embarrassing to admit my dependence on WiFi but honestly it’s just made the disconnect from home harder), and just finally realizing I am on this and there is no going back for the next 8 months.. it’s been so so hard. There has been so much change and honestly not enough consistency to process.. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

But still there is so much good. I have so much joy, and it’s deep rooted in the Lord. It’s been interesting to see how joy and heaviness, laughter and grief can co-exist. It’s definitely….. an experience. But more on that another time.

Completely switching the vibe, I have no smooth way to transition so I’ll just tell you that I’m still figuring out how I want my blogs to be written. But I figured it’d be fun to share some memories I haven’t gotten a chance to yet! Hopefully they bring you some joy or at least give you a glimpse of what life looks like here.

September 13

During debrief from domestic ministry, we had 4 days of rest to process and refresh. One of the days we went to the lake for night swimming and on the way back we decided to stop at a gas station to get something fun to drink. I had a headache so I decided to stay in the van, but I was the only one who stayed. My two teammates (Dillan and Devin), once realizing I wasn’t going inside, asked me if I wanted anything- I said no. They pushed and pushed until finally I said “okay, if you’re really not gonna let me not get something can I have a Dr Pepper.” So they go inside. Well, the previous day I had surprise bought my friend Bri a Dr Pepper because I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit. I kid you not- it seriously was because she was like “wait I was just regretting not going in!” as soon as I gave it to her. Fast forward to this day, she walks out with a Dr Pepper in her hand for ME! Well, I had just told Dillan and Devin I wanted a Dr Pepper so she was like “ok I’ll go back in and tell the boys not to get you any.” So I’m not expecting any more Dr Pepper because she told them not to get any! Long story short they walk out to car and they’re getting in and surprise me with a large fountain Dr Pepper and a liter of Dr Pepper! They were apparently so excited to give it to me they still bought me some. I felt so loved and seen, it was a sweet moment. I had Dr Pepper for dayysss, I actually couldn’t finish it all. That’s been a top moment of the trip so far, because they were so excited to bless me! So so sweet.

September 14

Along the lines of Dr Pepper, some of my squad went thrifting while in the states and one guy, DJ, found a Dr Pepper hat that also had Chick-Fil-A on it, and he bought it for me and surprised me with it because he knew I’d like it. It’s so amazing the little family we’ve created in just 4 ish weeks.

September 16

The first night we got to Guatemala I was feeling really low. Like confidence, homesick, lost and just so out of my comfort low. The entirety of dinner and even during free time I was kind of grieving what I felt like I’d lost and my new life that I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy. BUT by the end of the night I was dancing in the rain and running through the puddles and it truly felt like God was raining down peace on me, peace on the future and peace on the present. I also was so excited to see rain (because hello- in California it doesn’t rain very much) and it was just a special moment.

September 18

My first day of ministry we rode in the bed of a pickup truck, 30 minutes away through the back of a mountain, on the highway, going through streets of the town and I just was in complete aw and wonder of this being my life. How incredible that I get to see such a beautiful country and experience and also serve the people here, the culture here, while being filled with the Holy Spirit and truly being in complete love with God? I pinch myself because I don’t know how I got so blessed.  I keep thinking about everyone from home and everyone reading this, not in a homesick way but in a “I wish you could experience this too” kind of way. Even as I’m writing this riding on a chicken bus crammed with people, I wish everyone could be here with me, doing this with me. But I know God is moving back in the states too, I just hope everyone opens their eyes and realizes it too.

September 19

Okay this is totally “you had to be there” to laugh about, because I told my mom and she was not laughing, but basically I got dumped on the side of the road by a chicken bus. Which, look up a picture of chicken buses so you have a vision for what I’m speaking about but they are the most common form of public transportation in Guatemala, at least the part I’m in. But, in order to get back to base you have to tell the driver “missiones” and they take you to the outside of base- or at least they’re supposed to. Well, due to a series of unfortunate events I was not on top of my game, and the group I was with didn’t notice that the bus took us too far, about a quarter mile past the base, so we couldn’t tell the driver or money guy that we needed to stop because we didn’t see. So, the guy yells out “missiones missiones” and we look around finally and notice- this is not outside of base. And because of the language barrier we couldn’t really communicate that this wasn’t our stop, in fact this was just a random side of the road, so we just got out. If we had stayed on the bus, we would’ve had to drive to another city, pay for the ride again, and would’ve been late to curfew due to traffic.. it was just unfortunate. So myself and 2 other girls just decided to walk the way back to base. Well, I decide to be in charge of directions (horrible idea) and start leading us down the wrong direction for about 5 minutes. Oops. And meanwhile, we’re getting catcalled, people are trying to give us rides, and we have no idea what direction to go. We end up calling our mentor and getting help in what direction to go, and obviously I’m ok since I’m writing this, but it was a funny situation of having no idea where we should go and just trusting God we’d be safe. And also a great lesson not to trust Emma with directions 😁

September 20

I got caught in pouring rain, like soak your clothes through kind of rain, without my rain jacket because I thought I wouldn’t need it. I got to my location so annoyed and also laughing because I’d got caught in a torrential downpour without my expensive rain jacket, in the rainy country during rain season. 🤦‍♀️ Like come on Emma how could you think you wouldn’t need a rain jacket. It’s safe to say I learned my lesson and will now be traveling everywhere with my rain jacket.

~~~

I think I’ve already said this but I’m constantly laughing and joy is deep in my heart. Even in the hard times where I’m completely turned around in a city, feeling so displaced, my mind is a mess and I don’t feel comfortable, I find joy. Or, rather, joy finds me. It has completely taken capture of my heart and transformed it. And it’s not a shallow kind of joy that leaves when fun can’t be found, it’s a joy of the Lord that is honestly indescribable until you find it yourself. And I think that’s my prayer for everyone I meet, back home or in the future, is that they would find the joy of the Lord. That is my prayer for you!

This is longer than it has been in the past- sorry I’m long winded haha! But here are some prayer requests:

• no language barrier: we would be able to give and serve without a language barrier because God isn’t stopped by languages and we don’t have to be either

• Safety: just a general prayer for safety

• Unity: we live together in one room with one shower and one toilet- things will come up! But our unity has been good so far, so just increased and continued unity as we get more tired, more comfortable and closer.

• Rest: pretty self explanatory but we have packed, long days and so so much going on that a deep rest in our spirits and also deep physical rest is sometimes hard to find so prayers for that would be so so appreciated.

I think this is it for now! Adios! Te amo mucho! 👋

P.S: I know there isn’t a lot of talk in this about the ministry we’re doing- it’s only been day 2 of ministry! The way our schedule worked out we haven’t done much ministry yet, but that’s picking up now. My next blog will include more details!