A Look at Our Day to Day in Guat

Our day to day life looked so different from week to week because our hosts were an incredible example of what “life is ministry and ministry is life” means.  They welcomed us into their lives and their work in a way that I never expected, honestly. 

oof.. I bet you’d like to know who I am talking about when I say hosts, right? Our hosts were Rachel and Nolo Garcia (de Hale). Nolo grew up in the community that they are currently serving and Rachel moved to Guatemala about 3 years ago, met the man of her dreams and is prolly gonna be in Guat forever. Together, they’ve planted Iglesia del Destino and minister to a community known as La Bendición or The Blessing. They cute or whateva and I’m so grateful to call them my friends. 

Here’s a look at our typical week with them:

M O N D A Y

Our week began with Sabbath, not just a requirement by our hosts, but a commandment given by our Heavenly Father. We were free to use this day for any type of rest that the Lord led us to. Some days I holed up in a coffee shop chatting with friends back at home, other days left me cozied up in my house with my constantly reloading Netflix account. Here’s a bit of vulnerability for ya, I’m still learning to sabbath, so I get caught up in wanting to rest well and wanting to be sure that I’ve worn out my adventurous spirit. We’re working on it, alright!? 

For the majority of our time here in Guatemala, we have ended our Sabbath with dinner as a fam. We’d all spend the day doing our own thing and then reconnect at a different spot in Antigua to chow down together. 

T U E S D A Y 

Every Tuesday morning we gathered up every niño we could find and bring them back to the church for “VBS.” We didn’t really have a name for it, so we just stuck VBS on it. 🙂 The entire purpose of this was to have the kids begin to readjust to a routine. They’ve still not returned to school and maybe won’t for a while, so Rachel and Nolo wanted to give them some good time to adjust again while we also got to have way too much fun. 

After they’re all gathered up, we turn up my GC Hype playlist from when I worked at Glorieta and we’d jam out. Typically, they ditched dancing after a bit and began to attack each other. These boys can be pretty violent. Hahaha Scotty would calm them down, regain their attention and then walk them through a memory verse for the week. They’d learn one on Tuesday and if they had it memorized on Friday or next Tuesday, they got a treat! Man oh man, they love a good dulce.. 

We regularly rotated through leading them through the madness of a game, the language barrier added another layer to this already challenging feat, but they LOVE Gaga ball. Once we’d worked up their appetite, we’d send them off with a little snacky snack, clean up the church, and head home to make some lunch! 

Tuesday afternoons/evenings took a bit of a turn after we’d taken on our women’s retreats. These happened the last three Tuesdays of our time in Guat. I’ll share a bit more about what those looked like in a follow up blog. Originally, the plan was for us to take on some projects in the community!

W E D N E S D A Y

We didn’t have too much piled on our plates for Wednesdays, but the mornings were set aside for intercession. We’d spend two to three hours at the church with Nolo, praying, worshipping, and weeping for the people in the community. 

We spent the afternoons working on projects in the community or catching up on some of our own work. Some of those projects included recording information about who lives in what house, shoe sizes for every person, working in the park, and house visits.

Our Wednesday evenings were typically filled with extended team time/ feedback!  

T H U R S D A Y 

Thursday definitely takes the cake for my favorite day of the week here. The morning sent us into Antigua to hit up the market for fresh fruit and veggies and the Bodegona (the bodegona is a grocery store) for any other grocery needs that we had. While one crew was shopping for our belly needs, the rest of the team was taking care of cleaning the house. 

The afternoon was pretty slow. We ate lunch together, had some team time, maybe feedback, and made time to get some of our own personal work done before our busy evening. 

Around 4:00 pm we’d load in the van and head to Eco Farms in Antigua for Worship Room. Worship Room is a ministry that my friend Jeffery started to create a space for believers to gather together and exalt our Father. They chose to meet in coffee shops for a while in an effort to be sure that every person was included, but COVID pushed them out of their and the dudes at Eco Farms opened up their outdoor space to host the event weekly! How kind!? Essentially, Worship Room is a night of worship every week. They rotate worship leaders and speakers and it really is such a neat time. They even let me join their team for a few weeks. Our first day with our ministry hosts was a Thursday, so attending Worship Room was a neat treat for us. We’ve met so many believers that drive from 10 minutes to 2 hours to gather together. Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll pump out a blog that’s specifically about our time each Thursday evening. 

Post worship, we’d tag along with the cool kids to a hole in the wall restaurant that we call the Buffalo. We literally don’t know the name of it to this day, but we identify it by the name of their signature dish, The Buffalo. I’d be making up stuff if I even tried to tell you what was on this sandwich, so I won’t try. It Is h e a v e n l y though. I hope you’re mouths watering at the thought of it. No? Just me? Alright. 

F R I D A Y

Lucky for you, I don’t have much to write here! Fridays were the same as Tuesdays, only we don’t have our women’s retreats! 

S A T U R D A Y 

This is the bread and butter of what Rachel and Nolo are doing in La Bendición. Saturday mornings are for kiddos up to about 12 years old. They come to the church, color a bible verse sheet, sing and dance with Nolo, and then they split. Everyone five and under stays inside with Rachel to play with toys and the older bunch follows Nolo to a lot across the street for a time of teaching. My level of understanding Spanish is under five, so I hang with the younger bunch inside! 😉 We feed them a snack when Nolo is finished teaching, and we send them on their way. 

The evening time was for Jóvenes, young adults. They’d arrive, settle in with a riveting round of uno, we’d worship the Lord through music, and they’d have teaching. I loved this time of teaching specifically because it was discussion based. Nolo would choose a passage of scripture, have them read it, and present any questions that they might have for discussion. So cool.

 We’d finish the night off with dinner and send them home! 

S U N D A Y 

Our Sunday mornings were occupied by house visits for the first few weeks and then turned into another space for adventure or extended team time! The church that they’ve planted only meets on Sunday nights because that’s when the people in the community are the most available. 

Their church service is structured similarly to Jóvenes, but we don’t feed them dinner! Also, in an attempt to be sure that Nolo doesn’t preach too long, they’ve rented a soccer field to play on after church every Sunday night! Haha If he does preach too long, they lose their space. lolol. They’re too funny out here! 😉 

That’s it folks, that’s what our day to day life looked like for the duration of our time being partnered with Rachel, Nolo, and Iglesia del Destino. I’m sad that our time with them has come to a close so soon, but I am looking forward to being back with my whole squad in Antigua for two weeks! 

PS. I am not far from being fully funded, so be sure to pray about whether or not God would have you support me financially! And if He prompts you, you can financially support Rachel and Nolo HERE. (Be sure to choose “Nolo & Rachel Guatemala Church Plant in the drop down menu!)

Much love to you, friends! 

See ya soon, 

AWM