Today was our first full day in Guatemala. It was very, very long and exciting to say the least… most of the time. We began our day at the crack of dawn (good ol’ 7 am) with some delicious breakfast provided by our wonderful hosts at the hostel in Guatemala City, consisting of fresh fruit and cinnamon pancakes. Naturally there were some bumps in the road of our departure for church (I, Emily, dunked my toothbrush straight into the slightly yucky water running through our faucets and proceeded to throw it directly into the trash can, only to retrieve it for a thorough disinfecting at a later time and higher common sense level), but we made it out of our accommodation in one very large, very excited piece for church. We travelled by school bus to the CCCG campus, which is perched straight on the mountainside with a perfect view of the valley and nearby volcanoes. We joined the CCCG congregation for their Sunday morning service beginning at 9:30 am. It began not unlike the 11:05 service at Belair campus, with guitars, drums, bass guitar, and worship leader, and continued for the next 2 and a half hours. The vertical relationship between our worship leader and God was by far the most apparent and inspirational thing that we experienced today. Immediately following service, we were served a delicious lunch of beef roast and potatoes in a yummy sauce (whose name neither of us can pronounce, much less spell) with rice, sliced avocado, fresh tortillas, and cucumber lemonade. Following lunch, we departed yet again on our non-air conditioned banana vehicle for our ride to our home for this evening and most of this week: Rio Dulce. Luckily the windows rolled down, because we were on the bus for a grand total of about 6 and a half hours, plus an hour in the middle for rest time and dinner at what we refer to as “GFC, Guatemala Fried Chicken”. When we finally arrived at our destination, the sun had long disappeared behind the mountains (despite it only being about 8) and our energy was running low. We unloaded our bags from the bus and touched base with our families back at home before beginning worship led by Aaron and a short devotional led by Mary Walker on “Seeing Our Neighbor”. We are looking forward to our cool showers and comfy beds to recharge for an early start tomorrow.
Lilly Williamson & Emily Grabowski
Wesley Student’s Week in Guatamala 