Life in Guat!

Here is a quick picture of what a typical day in Guatemala might look like:

1. A torrential downpour that can last for up to an hour and result in being completely drenched.
2. Losing power at random times and then not knowing when it will come back on again. A great time to get out the headlight!
3. Only being able to drink purified water because we are in a third world country and would be super sick if we drank anything else.
4. Drinking out of plastic bags that you bite the end of off and generally end up spilling all over yourself at some point.
5. Freezing cold showers that take your breath away and you only get to take every few days.
6. Petunia, oh petunia….this is our method of transportation. An eight passenger van that we cram 30 people in and literally sit on top of each other. Sweat swapping happens in here, enough said.
7. Homeless dogs and chickens roaming the street all the time.
8. Sharing a bathroom with over 20 people and never having any privacy.
9. No schedule, living on Guatemala time. This means we never know what is going on and generally wait for an hour or so before leaving. No planning, just living in the moment.
10. Same meals day in and day out. I have learned to love beans and tortillas.

God is stretching me and taking me to places that I have never been before. I knew going into this trip that things would be different and that I would lose a lot of my comfort items from home. I was convicted last night though and came to a new realization.

I have been extremely blessed with what I have been provided with here and I have taken that for granted. I have clean drinking water, showers, three meals a day, a bed to sleep in and so much more than I should have.
God reminded me that it isn’t about what we don’t have and that I am here to serve him, to be stripped away of everything that I once knew so that I can focus solely on Him and further His kingdom. This is my hearts desire; to have the bare minimum and not to want more so that I can fully rely on my father. I want to have a grateful heart and be fully dependent on the creator of the universe. I don’t want to fall back on my normal tendencies of where I find my comfort. I want God to take me to the uncomfortable places, to grow me and to stretch me like never before. I want this to be a life changing exerience where I see God moving and His presence is made known through what He is providing. I have gotten in the way of this, I let my worldy desires take priority over what God wants to strip away and forgot what my purpose here was. I got caught up in the chaos of life and was reminded that God has different plans, far better than I can imagine but I have to be willing to move away from my comforts from home.

This means finding joy in riding in a van with thirty people that are literally on top of me and telling myself that I am not going to throw up because I feel like I am in an oven. This means learning to accept that I can’t talk to my family on a daily basis and being content with that. This means learning to love the bare minimum and letting God fill me with His love and be content with that instead of looking to find comfort in worldly things. This means being ok with eating dinner in the dark and not having water to flush toilets for a day. This means letting God break me for what breaks Him and letting Him take complete control.

This is my prayer and where my heart is right now, to be content with where I am and to know that God’s love is more than sufficient and can overcome any comfort that I think I might need.