The Agua Viva teams from far and wide all converged today and arrived safely at Hostel Dona Isabel. Travelers starting from four origin points all arrived in the Guatemala City airport within 2 hours of each other and our bus driver, who was originally delayed by a traffic accident, was at the airport within 15 minutes of the entire team of 22 assembling. Our lone casualty is a checked bag of equipment left in Kansas City by American Airlines. They’ve promised that it will be here tomorrow and it better be. It’s full of supplies for our dental team!
Our in-country team leader and close friend, Mario Mejia, met us at the airport and coordinated the arrival. Jim Allen commented that when he saw Mario standing outside the front of the airport, his anxiety was immediately relieved and he was reminded that we were in God’s hands at that point.
We were pleasantly surprised that our driver ended up being one of the house parents at Casa Angelina and he brought a welcoming party that included his son and two interns working at the orphanage. We were entertained by listening to 19 year old Serena from Colorado Springs who is in month 3 of an almost year long internship. Her energy is contagious and was a great foreshadowing of the feeling that we’ll have this week working with the What Matters Ministry team at Casa Angelina.
The Hostel is nestled in between 3 volcanoes on the outskirts of Antigua and has a beautiful courtyard and our hosts have been wonderful. We had dinner on the veranda this evening and afterwards Nancy Allen led devotionals recalling one of our spiritual preparation lessons that focused on being still in our busy world. This is a fantastic place to be still. It helps that there are no dishes to do and that we aren’t thinking about the assignment due at school or work tomorrow.
So, as we arrive and begin our preparations tomorrow for the week ahead, we feel blessed to be in this place with this opportunity and we promise to keep you apprised throughout the week of how we see God working in Guatemala.
Stay tuned!
