My team and I just got back from a two week trip up to Petén to help out with a ministry called One Way. My team is originally a part of a ministry called Dar para Dar which directly translates to “give to give” and their ‘motto’ is dar es amar, which means “to give is to love”. I missed my ministry so much while we were gone helping with One Way, but the time we spent in the jungle and in the city of Poptún, Petén was an experience not worth passing up.
We started off the two week trip away from base by having the One Way ministry come pick us up early on a Saturday morning. After making sure that everyone had everything together, we loaded up all 11 of us guys and 5 of the ministry hosts into 3 cars for an 11 hour car ride. I was in a car with my good friends Matt Bullard and Weldon McGlamory, we had a great time connecting with each other during the car ride there, we watched movies, played games, made jokes and took a few naps. Halfway through the drive we were stopped in traffic for almost 2 hours! There was a really bad wreck about a quarter mile up from where we were, it didn’t look good but after driving through and praying for the people in the wreck we got to Poptún!
The ministry hosts were so sweet by providing safe travels for us and some comfortable beds! We slept in and enjoyed our sabbath by getting some good rest before packing up and heading out into the jungle for 4 days! Monday morning we woke up and made sure we had everything, 3 hours later through mountains and mud we arrived in the jungle! The villages we went to spoke some Spanish but their native tongue is one of 24 Mayan languages called Q’eqchi’. It was a little hard for us to understand because you can only learn the language by being in the villages since it’s not well known and you can’t find it online anywhere. But God provided understanding and a translator! The rest of our time in the jungle was such a good experience with getting to pour out love into kids and families who have never seen white people before. God gave us plenty of opportunities to make relationships that we will never forget.
On Thursday we said our goodbyes to the people of San Miguel and got to head back to base. I hope to go back to the jungle someday. Once we got back to the base, we got settled in and we had another sabbath on Friday to prepare for the next week full of ministry. On Saturday, our ministry hosts blessed us by taking us to a very nice hotel next to a lake which we all got to go swim and enjoy our time there. The next day they took us to see the Mayan Ruins in Tikal! A wonderful weekend followed by a wonderful week of ministry! We had a great time connecting with kids near Poptún and taking some time throughout the week to rest from sickness. God healed everyone from being sick before we even got back! Praise God!
This past week of getting accustomed to the base life was great, getting to see our ministry hosts from Dar para Dar again and all of the kids that we minister to was heartwarming. I had some great time with the Lord and some good time for contemplation. Something I’ve been putting thought into was how I was told a lot leading up to me leaving home that I’m sacrificing so much to go and do this mission trip. But in reality, I just sacrificed things of this world to replace them with things far greater than myself. I have fallen deeper and deeper into love with God, only wanting to give him all my time and tell people about his goodness. Once you realize that you don’t need anything other than Jesus, life becomes so beautiful. WE FILL OUR LIVES WITH SO MUCH DISTRACTIONS! I’ve seen people that look like they have nothing to the world but in reality they have absolutely everything because they have JESUS!
I was having a conversation with God the other night, telling him that I want to walk in perfect step with him so much that his presence is so powerful everywhere I walk. That people would feel the conviction of their sin by the Holy Spirit when I walk in the room just because of how intimately I am walking with Christ. I want people to feel his love. I want people to feel his goodness. I want to be as close to Him as possible. After telling God this and to help me walk with him because I cannot do it in my own strength, he asked me one question, “If you really want to be as close as possible to me, how much are you willing to sacrifice?” So I want to ask you the same thing, if you want to be close to God and really experience him then how much will you sacrifice? If you want to love him, praise him when you don’t feel like it. Love is not a feeling, love is what you do in spite of how you feel.
