My mom and I have been talking about doing a mission trip with Dana, her friend from church, for a long time. Finally last fall, we decided it was time! We booked our flights to Guatemala and got registered for the trip and began planning the VBS we would run at the villages there. As the trip drew closer, Covid spiked again. And then the weather forecast on the day we were flying out (New Year's Day) looked horrendous. I wasn't sure if our trip was really going to happen, but we prayed for God's will to be done and we'd accept whatever he gave us. . . and as usual, God really outdid himself with this whole experience, as you'll see!
So we slept for a couple short hours on New Year's Eve and the whole family got up to leave at 1:30 a.m. We went to Mom's and dropped the girls off to finish sleeping at their house (Grandma Jo would get them from Grandpa Kermit later in the day), and picked up Mom and Dana to hit the road! The weather forecast said that freezing rain and sleet were supposed to start about 3 a.m. so we were really trying to get to the airport before that time. We were successful and had no problems getting checked in and boarded on the first leg of our flight to Orlando. It was just a little unnerving when they had to take an additional 30 minutes to de-ice the plane. I was certainly praying for God's hand of protection as we took off. This is the view out my window before and during the de-icing process.
Thankfully, the flight to Orlando was smooth. Unfortunately, just before take-off we got word that our connecting flight to Guatemala City had been cancelled. We made it to the Orlando airport, waited in line for nearly 5 hours, and eventually got booked on the next flight out. Which wouldn't be until the next day. So we enjoyed the sunshine in Orlando for the rest of the day.
We got a room at the Fairfield Inn, enjoyed some delicious burgers at Red Robin across the street, and went to bed early (remember we'd been up since 1:30 a.m.).
The next morning we were up bright and early again (we got to sleep in until 5 a.m. this time) to head back to the airport. This time all went well and the landscape from our vantage point was pretty awesome as we neared Guatemala City.
We'd be seeing a lot more of these volcanoes throughout our trip. So, so pretty. Dana's awesome driver, Montejo, picked us up and we began the 3 hour drive to Panajachel, where we'd be staying. Some fun things we saw on our first time in Guatemala were some colorful "chicken buses" and the volano Fuego erupting.
We also saw lots of farm ground with huge cabbages and corn growing on the sides of mountains. I honestly can't imagine harvesting that corn.
Montejo took us on an all-terrain route to avoid traffic and we drove right through a river bed!
The drive went really quickly, and we arrived in Panajachel! Our home for the next week would be Mario's Rooms, a beautiful and comfortable place in the heart of downtown. (You can see the red awning sign on the left in the second picture.)
Here's our room, Number 20.
The ladies who work here were so friendly and hard-working. They washed all of the sheets by hand and hung them to dry on the roof. I'll never complain about washing sheets again!
We got our American money exchanged for quetzales and securely locked it up in the safe in our room. This safe looked a little different than the ones in the all-inclusives!
This painting at our hotel showed the beautiful Lake Atitlan and I've circled in yellow where Panajachel is on the map.
Once we had everything settled, we headed to Joe and Cindy's beautiful home. These are friends of Dana's who moved to Panajachel from Fort Worth, TX, about 12 years ago. At their house we met up with the rest of our party (who had arrived on time the day before): Deb (another "Education and More" board member with Dana) and new friends from North Carolina, Doug, Elizabeth, and Brandi.
They had a cat outside their window who looked just like Kitty! I had to send this picture to Violet. I loved the verse and tapestry above their entryway, "Our God we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." 2 Chronicles 20:12 If we keep our eyes fixed on God, he will always show us the way.
After eating a delicious lunch and enjoying some wonderful conversation, we started our walk back to the hotel, taking in many of the sites along the way, like the local market and beautiful Church of St. Francis.
St. Francis is a 16th century church that was still decorated for Christmas -- what a treat! One of my favorite parts of this entire trip was all of the amazing old churches we were able to see.
On our walk we also got to see some really cool murals. I especially appreciated "Honor a los Heroes" with Joshua 1:9 referenced. Approaching two years with this pandemic, it is as important as ever to remember God's words, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
We made it back to Mario's and were greeted by these cute little bunnies as we got out the supplies to begin packing backpacks.
As mentioned before, Dana and Deb work with a non-profit called Education and More. They make several trips to Guatemala each year with different goals each time, but this first trip of the year is to provide backpacks and scholarships to their children as they begin a new school year. Mom's and my main purpose for the trip was to lead a VBS at each village we'd be visiting, but we also helped with the distribution of backpacks (and food). So this first evening we got out supplies and started packing backpacks with age-appropriate school supplies for each child we'd be visiting.
The child's name tag included a prayer for the start of their school year, and their backpacks included the most important book of all, their very own Bible!
Once backpacks were all packed, we headed downtown for dinner at Dana's favorite restaurant, Gaujimbo's. It was delicious!
I got the chicken kabobs and mom got the Pollo a las brasas --"tasty breast of a plump and obese chicken" -- we were getting a kick out of their English descriptions.
With our bellies full, we headed back to our rooms to get a good night's sleep on our Lightning McQueen sheets in preparation for another full day on Monday!
