Amor y Gozo

As soon as we landed in Guatemala I knew the Lord had big things in store. This land, these people, everything about this place is so beautiful and it is so evident that the Lord is here. I grow even more in awe of our creator every single day here ( I mean come on, there are literal volcanoes in our backyard). The day after we arrived we had orientation. During orientation we learned that Guatemala is known as “The Land of Trees” and when I tell you I gasped for joy I’m not kidding. I just love the way God made trees isn’t He so RAD!!!
Anyways trees was kind of not the point of this blog but I had to throw that in there because I thought it was a cool fun fact that should be shared 😁😁😁
Okay let’s get back on track.
In Guatemala, each team in our squad is connected to a ministry that we work with throughout the week. My team, Abide, works with two different ministries. The ministries we work with are Birdhouse with Tulio and his wife Emily and the second ministry is with Junior. On Mondays and Wednesdays we work with Tulio! On Mondays we teach English to a group of 30-40 kids and on Wednesdays we do manual labor (like painting, cleaning, organising) and house visits! On Tuesdays and Fridays we work with Junior and his church! Depending on the day and weather we do lots of house visits, evangelising, and cleaning. Thursday is our activation day. We learn about the 5 folds, Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher, (Ephesians 4:11) and then we go and evangelise in the city of Parramos!

For English class we decided that we will be teaching the kids the fruits of the spirit along with bible stories, colors and actual fruit. Our first class, we started with the fruits Amor y Gozo. Love and Joy. As we were learning these words, I realised how much the Love and Joy of the Lord is actually in them. “Jesus loves me/you” is the first phrase they learned and boy did it absolutely melt my heart. With them simply saying those words I felt the Lord’s presence so evidently among them. These kids have so much less then I do yet the Love and Joy of the Father is shining through them. Man did I get convicted. The amount of times that I’ve been ungrateful for the things the Lord has provided in my life, the amount of times I’ve complained about uncomfortable circumstances, yet these kids having less than I do are simply grateful for the fact that Jesus loves them. These kids are a prime example of how we, as the body of Christ, are supposed to have a child-like Faith.
“When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭14‬-‭15‬
These children were so hungry for the Father. The smiles on their faces when we simply said the name Jesus out loud. They weren’t worried about being wise or having the right theology. They were simply hungry for the Fathers Love. And THAT is what we are called to be. Hungry for the Father. Humbling ourselves like a child before the Lord. Constantly in awe of the fact that our Father loves us. From Him we find true Love and Joy. Cristo te ama. Jesus loves you.
What an honor to be Loved by the Father. Let’s go change the world by being more like these children. Hungry for the Fathers Love and wearing the fact that Jesus is all we need to have true Joy.