Day 2 - Jurassic Park State of Mind

July 2, 2012

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love."    2Peter 1:3-7

Our second day started bright and early as we had to take all of our luggage and load it onto a large bus and then sit through an estimated 7 hour drive to the mountainous region of Quiche that is La Perla(our final destination). There were, however, some unforeseen obstacles. Firstly, our bus couldn't handle all the weight that our heaviest team member, Joachebeth, exerted on the suspension and we were literally traveling uphill at 3mph. There was definitely a lot of scenery to take in, but 3 mph? (this elongated our trip from 7 to 9 hours)After reaching our checkpoint in Nebaj, we switched vehicles where we would ride the final 2 hours in the back of an exposed pick up truck.

I won't lie. Standing in the back of a pick up truck with the wind blowing in your face is a pretty cool feeling. That is until it starts raining and pouring in the middle of the forest. It felt like we were in the middle of a Jurassic Park movie and I was half expecting a velociraptor to pop out of the dense jungle. After commuting for what seemed like the whole day, we finally arrived late at night in La Perla. 

Our second devotion was led by Danica and incorporated 2Peter 1:3-7. The verses concerning perseverance struck a chord with me as I had a feeling we would need a lot of that in the coming week. We also talked about the dichotomy of "how good we are vs how good God has made us" and it was a humble reminder to lift all of our successes and triumphs to God. Some great food for thought.

the calm before the storm

Le car ride

Day 1 - The Journey Begins

July 1st, 2012

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full"  John10:10

Our day started around 5:30 AM with OCM Team 2 trekking to Newark airport to make our 8:45 flight to Houston, Texas. I was the last team member to make it there (as I had a ride from my folks) and had to endure a dose of embarrassment courtesy of my dad. Long story short, he introduced himself to our team and proceeded to ask for pictures of all of my girlfriends at church. Gotta love my parents!

Having an unexpected layover at an airport sucks. Knowing in advance that you will be stuck at an airport for 8 hours is a different story. That was our situation when we arrived in Houston and killing 8 hours is no easy task but we managed by spending 3 hours watching the Spain vs Italy soccer final, playing Phase 10 and having devotion time. Kenneth lead our first days devotion by talking about John 10:10 and how we not only have to live our lives to the fullest for God, but how we also have to be different from the world and be proper stewards of God's blessings. It was a great message to take in prior to inserting ourselves into the Guatemalan culture and lifestyle and not long afterwards we boarded the plane to Guatemala City.

Here is where God gave us a preview of what we could expect during our missions trip: Things will not always go as planned. Upon arriving at the airport and heading to the passenger pick-up area, we were to glad to find no one waiting for us haha! We figured our ride to the hotel was probably running a little late so we patiently stood around. 15 mins. 30 mins. 45 mins. It was around the one hour mark that we grew concerned and Kevin attempted an international call to Richard (trip organizer) back in NY. He put our concerns to rest and said "Don't worry they are on their way. They will be there in a few minutes. Hang tight!" 

The next half hour was filled with us celebrating every time we saw a pair of car headlights appear in the distance and then hanging our heads in dismay when we saw it wasn't our car. After some time, our ride arrived with the Eri, the driver, expressing his sincere apologies which where not needed because we had been enjoying and having a fun time being the only people at the terminal. We had expected a mini van to come pick us up but God provided something better and bouncier: a bright yellow school bus! We arrived at our lodgings, had a quick dinner and slept. A memorable Day 1 was complete.

Around the one hour mark

Huggin the bus