Loving the Least of These

The cave! Me in the back. You can see how excited I was

Crystal lakes

Team pic Caught sleeping in South Korea

Another team pic

Hey everybody! I’m truly sorry I haven’t blogged in awhile. I’m going to write two blogs on what’s happened in the past month or so since I last blogged. This blog will be about my last week in Guatemala and our travel days to get to Vietnam where I’m at currently writing this blog. The last week in Guatemala was CU-RAZY! We stayed with our ministry host Iván in the Reindom house in Sumpango. That week was full of ministry in the day, the best meal ever -pizza- for pretty much every dinner, playing live mafia in the dark, and laughter. Our host Iván truly is the best. The ministry he started, Reindom, truly is God focused and God honoring in everything they do. Reindom staff, just like Iván does, love the Lord so much, and have so much joy that overflows from intimacy with the Lord. One of Reindom’s biggest focuses and goals is to pursue intimacy with the Lord so that you love Him more and so serve the Lord and pour out to others in whatever you do out of love for Him. Shoutout to some of Reindom’s incredible staff Lloyda, Rene, Kevin, Gali, Davíd, Victor, Melanie, and Melody. Just to name some of them. What an incredible group of people! Iván wasn’t just our ministry host, he became our friend. He was always intentional to encourage, pray for, talk to, and mess with each of us. One of the fun things we did that last week was to play a bunch of the Reindom staff in soccer. We played on a very small field intended for kids, and after a tough fight, pulled out the dub 2-1. Some of the last couple days we had with him, he took us on a farewell and thank you trip to a place in Guatemala called Sumac Champey, or the crystal lakes. Out of his own generosity (something he showed us over and over in our time in Guatemala), he paid for transportation for us the eight hours there, while there, and back. We took a whole day to experience the crystal lakes where we first admired the beauty of the natural turquoise pools and waterfalls by a lookout at the top of a hike, and then cooled down by swimming in them. After that, by far my favorite part of the day, we went cave spelunking. I don’t know if that’s the right term for it, but basically we waded through this cave that was partially underwater. Some points we could walk through and others were too deep to touch, so we had to swim through. There was a waterfall in the cave we got to climb up and through, which was the coolest thing in the world. There was also a nice cliff jumping spot in the cave where it was deep enough that you could jump off the ledge of the cave into the water. And in all of this we got to wade through the cave while holding massive candlesticks. 10/10 experience! After that, we got to swing into the river by way of this crazy rope swing and then we ended the time at the river by tubing down it. Then finally we got to ride in the back of a truck back to the hotel for an hour with the wind rushing in our faces. What a day! The next day we traveled back to the Reindom house, stopping in Guatemala City on the way to walk through the bougie mall before getting back to Sunpango for the last couple days of ministry. One of the hardest things was saying goodbye to all the kids in Santa Marta and then all of the Reindom staff too. Our last night before the travel day, Iván, Lloyda, Grace (a racer from last year who’d served with Reindom and came back on her own time to serve with them again), Davíd, and Rene prepared a goodbye diner for us, where the highlights were taking communion together, engaging in sock wrestling with Davíd only to lose unfortunately, shooting off fireworks, and then playing mafia in the dark. One of the things I took away from Guatemala the most was to focus more on the people I’m serving and not as much the tasks I have to do, which is the way I’ve acted in the past. The Lord helped me realize that the reason I do ministry is for the people I’m serving not the tasks. So I should focus more on the people I’m serving, even stopping a task to interact with the people I’m serving or serving with, instead of just trying to check off each task that needs to be done. The biggest thing the Lord started to teach me, which He has continued to teach me in Vietnam, is to seek intimacy with Him. Only that will satisfy me. I struggled a lot in Guatemala, trying to seek joy and satisfaction in things of the world, but the Lord was always graciously there to patiently remind me time and time again that He alone satisfies as I experienced the things I was pursuing not fulfilling me, yet would continue to run to them, thinking maybe the next time this will satisfy me or maybe if I get more of that I’ll be happy. I’m so grateful the Lord is patient with me to keep forgiving me and to not give up on sanctifying me even when I keep sinning in the same ways. One final way I’ll mention that God grew me in Guatemala was in having more fun and not taking life too seriously. He really taught me through each of the guys on the team He sovereignly put me on. Then it was travel day! We flew back to the US of A to Houston, TX. Cue thick southern accent, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. Seriously though, cowboy boots are dope as heck! In Houston we had a long layover, our only layover where we had time to leave the airport. Ben, Doug, and I set off to check out Houston. We stopped at a coffee shop for coffees and breakfast then trekked through Houston, checking out the city. It started off pretty simple, but the Lord had other plans. We started walking to the post office to send some things home, unintentionally walking right through the ghetto area of Houston. We stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom. While there we were able to talk with, encourage, pray for, and share Christ’s love with multiple people we ran into there. My favorite moment was when I was talking to this guy named Kelly. He came over to talk to us because it struck him that these three college age students were in this part of Houston talking to people that were poor, drug users, and homeless. People the world would consider as scum of the earth. He told me in our conversation that it was amazing to him that these three college students who had everything going for them would come to this part of Houston, and then not avoid people, but engage them and love on them in a way they never get loved on. Pray for him, and for all the people we talked too there as they are all in tough situations and most important for all their salvations. Unfortunately I don’t remember their names, though I know the Lord does. That was a really cool moment to just get to love on people that the rest of the world would reject and ignore but ones that the Lord died for just as much as He did for you and me. Then we flew to LA. Then we had a thirteen hour flight to South Korea. The South Korean airport was nuts! There was legit pine trees growing in the airport! I also used a bidet for the first time there. Let’s just say that was interesting. Then we flew to Vietnam! That ends my travel day experiences to Vietnam and this blog! Love and miss you all back home! Until next time!

The Lord’s masterpiece, made exactly as He intended, Luke