I’ve always wrestled with how to end a season of life well. I’m not sure the correct answer, but I think it might center a lot around gratitude. As I wrap up my time both in Guatemala and on my team, the Bread Breakers, I can’t help but praise God for all He has done here in this time, in this place, and in this season.
My team left the town we’ve been living in, Chichicastengo, on the 29th and our whole squad leaves for Honduras on the 5th! Gosh I can’t believe that I have lived in Guatemala for two months and that this season has come to a close. The bucket showers, the millions of dogs, the fumbling through Spanish conversations, and the many truck bed rides. I’ve loved it all! Grateful, grateful, grateful!
Ministry in Chichi, while limited due to covid restrictions, has been beautiful. Nothing is ever wasted. It has been a joy to do construction on our hosts home/church, and to have church services with police officers and families in the community. We were given opportunities to pray for people on the street, to give them bread, and to even give some toilets to families who needed them. What a joy to partner with God in this city.
This is what I have learned about people in Guatemala. Guatemalans will greet you with a smile every time that you walk into a room. They never waste a thing, and most of them work ridiculously hard. For most Guatemalans life is not easy, but I met so many people who have been so generous even in their lack. Living in lack on earth does not mean being forgotten by God, often it gives people the space to reach out and lean on God. “Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 29:19)
Would I be so giving if I had so little?
I am forever grateful to our host family; Juan, Evelyn, Natalie, Paulo, and Lily. They have welcomed us into their family with open arms and graciously allowed us into both the good and hard aspects of their lives.
They are a family that does not have a lot themselves and yet they give what they have so freely. They trust the Lord with their lives in a way I hope to emulate. Their identity and sense of purpose is deeply rooted in who the Father is and His will for their lives. I am so grateful for my time with them.
(Photo Creds: Breanne Steindel @breannesteindel.theworldrace.org)
The Lord has given me more and taught me more in this season than I ever expected. Every person I have met gave me more than I gave them. The fact the God lets us be a part of His work is a gift. The Lords plan is so beyond our scope and just like He did for the Ephesians, He has given more than I could have predicted in this season.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)
On a different note, the change of leaving Guatemala also means that I am leaving my team, the Bread Breakers, and will be a part of a new team with all new people from my squad. Team changes is part of the design of the World Race. Within each squad it is common to change teams three or four times throughout the race.
As each of our teams has quickly become family, it is a difficult change, but I trust that a new team will provide me with more of an opportunity to know the Lords heart for myself and for my new teammates. I am choosing to be grateful even for change.
But oh my team; the Bread Breakers, my Bready Buddies, the BBs. I am forever thankful to them for the ways they have spoken truth to me in love and called me to be more like Jesus. God has shown me unique facets of His character in each of them and it has been beautiful. To live in such close quarters with 6 people and share life with them day in and day out has potential to breed division. Well it’s four months later and I love them so much I get hyped up just thinking about their sweet sweet hearts!
They say you become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Well I don’t know if that’s true, but after I leave this team, if I’m anything like Kel, Vic, Jules, Breanne, or Kaci I’d consider myself lucky! These women I get to call dear friends are full of wisdom, grace, and are powerful deliverers of truth! Thank you God for using them to show me Your joy and for blessing my life with their presence.
I am grateful that they will each get new teams as well because other people need to experience just how great they are and all the beautiful things that God made them to be! I myself, while I will miss by Bread Breakers dearly, can’t wait to be on a new team with people who will again show me more and more aspects of who Jesus is!
Oh has this been a sweet season, next stop, Honduras!
This is my prayer of gratitude today:
Lord, thank You for your plan that is so beyond my scope,
Thank You for using me when when I’m vain enough to think you even need me,
Thank You for the ways you exceed my expectations,
Thank You for giving me grace when I don’t recognize every soul as a reflection of You,
And thank You for the sweet moments when I do recognize You in the face of Your children,
Thank you for change, for the way You never keep us the same, and for the way that You always stay the same.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
