Hola from Champerico!

Hola, Estoy aquí en Guatemala! It has only been two days, but it feels like much longer! I am enjoying this country very much. It is, hands down, the most colorful place I've ever been. I've decided my future house will be painted electric blue (maybe with orange accents)!

The team met up with the Living Water Intl. Guatemala staff and traveled to a team house to stay last night. A couple teammates and I got the chance to hear our leader, Jaime's heart for drilling water wells and sharing the gospel while we drove from the airport. Hearing how God brought him from a poor village with no access to safe water, to now working with LWI reaffirmed my enthusiasm to be here. It's obvious that God has been at work through Jaime and LWI for the past eleven years. They have drilled around 250 wells in the country!  How exciting that I get to step into a piece of what God is (and has been) doing in Guatemala through LWI this week! Upon arriving at the team house,  Jaime's family fed us a feast of wonderful, authentic Guatemalan food. They won my heart when I spotted the homemade guacamole. Then  there was the meat, rice, tortillas, chile, coffee, hand squeezed lemonade... I mean c'mon. 

Sleep was deep last night, and the day started early. We were packed and out of the team house by 6:45am and on our way to breakfast in the city of Antigua. After entering another drowsy Guatemalan food coma, we attended a bilingual church service in the area. The songs and sermon were in both English and Spanish. It was refreshing to worship with believers who spoke a different language. Two languages being spoken to passionately proclaim and adore one God. I even met a man who graduated from my alma mater, the Baptist College of Florida, was a Journeyman missionary on a continent dear to my heart, AND attended seminary with his wife in my home town! We had many close, mutual friends. What a small world! God is faithful to keep me in a state of awe when I consider His immense networking capabilities.

After church, the team headed out on a four hour van ride to a hotel in Champerico. This town is closer to the costal village where we will be drilling this week. The road we travelled took us through many different settings. Being an agriculture student, I have been amazed at how lush and productive this country's land is! In a single van ride, I saw expansive sugar cane fields and rubber tree forests that run up onto the sides of mountains and cloud-tipped volcanos. We also drove past a large rose greenhouse operation, a pineapple farm, and multiple fields of coffee plants that are planted alongside a certain native tree to provide shade for the coffee until the beans are ready to mature. I've been taking some serious notes! Praise God for the passions He gives each one of us for His own glory. He is being good to cultivate my love for international agriculture on this trip.

After many great conversations with my teammates and the LWI staff, I'm even more excited for the week to come. I will get to start work as a member of the drilling team tomorrow! I'm very excited to see all that goes into soil testing, aquifer location, and the actual drilling process. We have prayed for the village we are going to and will go into tomorrow expecting great things from God. 

¡Hola! I am sitting in the Houston airport heading to Guatemala for a week with Living Water International. I'll be part of a drilling team that will drill a water well in an area that doesn't have access to clean drinking water. We'll also be teaching hygiene and sharing Bible stories along the way. I'm excited about the team that I was assigned to, and I can't wait to learn all that I can about water drilling! It'll be a good time. I'm brushing up on what little Spanish I know!