Hi! So much has happened since I last posted a blog. I was coming out of my third week of ministry, and had no idea what the Lord had ahead for me. The things people would speak over me, the growth that happened in my heart & others, and just the way the Lord showed up each & every day. I would get to the end of each day and just thank God for the honor it was to just spend the day with Him and His children. And even now that I’m in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa, halfway through the World Race, I find myself ending each day with that same prayer. He is consistent & constant & intentional & just so loving. It is the greatest honor to live this life with Him and just live in His goodness & love. Life is better with Him, and each day more He teaches me that He’s all I need. And grows me to see that He’s all I want.
Without my time in Guatemala, I don’t think I would be here today saying those things. Yes, I learned a lot about the Lord at training camp in Georgia and Samaritan’s Purse in Louisiana, but His truth wasn’t my mindset, and was really just head knowledge. In Guatemala, that head knowledge started transferring to my heart. The Lord started writing His truth on my heart and helping my heart to remember who He is. He truly taught me to hear Him & see Him & seek Him in everything. And I’m still learning & growing in Him & with Him, but Guatemala truly was the ground on which my relationship with the Lord really was broken in order to be built back up. I walked away from a lot of things, but walked into more of Him every time.
Ministry was where a lot of talking & growing with the Lord happened. I saw Him in everyone I met and everywhere I went, and my perspective was really highlighted. My Heavenly perspective was growing every time I met someone new.
The ministry I think of most when I think back to Guatemala was on Tuesdays. We would go to a village called ChimaChoy, and invite all the kids in the village to come to the local school. We would play games & watch bible story videos & just love on the kids. The Lord taught me so much through these kids, so it is an honor to look at these photos and just tell the story behind them!
As I talked about the Lord’s intentionality in my last blog, I really grew in seeing The Lord’s intentionality through seeing people’s intentionality. And it encouraged me to be more intentional inside and outside of this space. What I learned every Tuesday were things that I brought from ChimaChoy into the Adventures in Missions base, Patzún, Antigua, Parramos, and every place I went in Guatemala. I learned that Intentionality with people is just loving them well, and showing them Jesus’ love. What He’s all about. And it’s an honor to do that each and every moment, no matter where I am. It doesn’t stop.
If you read my last blog, you probably remember this girl. She was the first girl I met here, and the Lord taught me so much through her. Almost every week, crowns would get brought up. Just reminding me of what the Lord was already teaching me about being a crowned daughter of the King. And I got to love her like the Lord does because she‘s a crowned daughter too. As the Lord was changing how I viewed my identity, He was changing how I saw others around me. He was teaching me to see them as He sees them — crowned sons & daughters of the King. It’s the greatest honor to see & love people in that way.
These girls! The first few weeks we were with them, they were so camera shy. They loved my camera, but didn’t ever want photos of them. One week, they took my camera and started taking photos of each other. It was the sweetest thing to see!
This sweet kid, along with the first girl, were the first kids to talk to me in ChimaChoy. They loved my camera and loved me so well. They were such sweet friends!
One of my favorite things about being with this community for 2 months was seeing friendships being built. These kids just know how to loved people so well, and it’s so encouraging. It’s how we should be loving the people around us!
This sweet smile. This photo was actually taken by another kid! I watched kids use my camera and turn into little photographers for the day! I pray these kids grow up knowing they’re capable of quite anything their little hearts desire.
This day, we led the kids up to an overlook mountain to take a group photo. When I look at this photo, I see the desire these kids have to listen to stories being told because they long to know Jesus. It’s truly so sweet and their hearts to love & listen really well is truly from the Lord. It’s an honor to just sit and see the Lord at work in their lives.
This girl! This day! During worship where we teach the kids a song every week, she was sitting with me. She reached out and held my hand. The Lord was teaching me a lot that week about walking hand in hand with Him, and I just knew the Lord nudged her to do that. And then a little later she just gave me the biggest hug out of no where. These kids long for love & affection, yet she was giving it to me so freely. It was actually the sweetest day ever and just felt so loved by the Lord through this little girl.
This day just continued to be so sweet. I was pushing these girls on the swings and just asking them questions with my broken spanish to get to know them. They smiled so wide seeing me trying to talk to them. It was an honor to love them!
This was one of the last weeks we had ministry in ChimaChoy and I got to just watch these sweet kids dance around & sing praises to the Lord. The faith & love these kids have for the Lord is just so encouraging. It was an honor to witness it.
It was such a full circle moment to end ministry in ChimaChoy with these 2 kids because they were the ones I started with. The intentionality of the Lord to bless me with a community that I got to see grow and get to know the Lord over 2 months was just so cool. It was truly such an honor.
I wanted to just look back and give you guys a little insight to what ministry looked like in Guatemala & what I learned from these precious kids. The way the Lord worked & spoke through them. And how I’ve learned that you can see the Lord in the people and things around you. It’s truly such a blessing to be able to see Him in it all, and I pray that this would just encourage you to see Him in it all too. He’s not just in a big church or on a mission trip. He’s truly in your kids at home, in every tear shed when missing someone you’ve lost, in every smile someone gives you, in your favorite flowers you pass on the way to work — in everything, He’s there holding your hand and just walking you through it. Allowing you to see the good even in the hardest times, because the joy & peace & hope that should not live there according to the world, lives there. And it’s because He’s there. He’s walking with you through the fields of flowers & also through the fire. It’s growing & refining & good in both because either way, it’s life with Him. And that’s all that matters. And if I just had to tell you one thing I learned in Guatemala, it would be that. He‘s all that matters. He’s all I need. He’s all I want. Because He’s my Father and best friend. And I am so beyond thankful for everything & everyone He has blessed me with. But even if all I had was Him, it would be more than enough.
All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17
Love always,
Ava 🙂
Ava, These photos are fabulous – even the ones the kids snapped! Isn’t it beautiful when the Lord brings things in our life full circle? He is so good that way! Thanks for sharing your heart, these beautiful children, all the Lord taught you in Guatemala. Praying for your time in South Africa now; no doubt God is already giving you equally sweet moments there.