Today was a very special day, for many of us here in Guatemala. Our group went to the school, once again, with Pastor Apolonario. Today we went to the older children's classes, aging around the second to fourth grades. For the first two classes my small group and I visited, Austin shared his testimony, Stacey shared the parable of the prodigal son, Elizabeth answered any questions the children had, and finally Rachel and Kaleb showed them the plan for salvation with our Evangecube. Through all of this, Alejandra was interpreting everything we said for the children. They were very receiving of our message, and responsive when we were more interactive. The next two classes we visited were a bit more meaningful to me. We walked into what was our third class to visit, and Alejandra and I walked up in front of the children. To my knowledge at the time, I was just saying hello and talking with them until our group was ready to get started. Austin walked up to me and asked me to share my testimony for a change. This was an unexpected request, but I complied, if not slightly hesitantly. It truly has been a while since I've shared my testimony with anyone, honestly. So I took a moment to gather my thoughts, and I began. At first, I struggled to find a starting place, but my words shortly started to flow out of me, explaining my story to these children I had never met in my life. It felt very right to share it with them. As I went through my life with God, I could see that I had these children's attention. After I finished sharing my story, we went through the rest of the routine from the previous classes. I could tell, God wanted me to tell these children my story. I had the chance to tell my testimony in the fourth and final classroom visit as well. This time I didn't hesitate to begin, with a little more excitement inside my heart. Without realizing it until after I was done, I added some more details to my testimony. Pastor sat in to listen this last time, and during our message, he decided to speak. He used my testimony, my story...me, to tie into what he was wanting to tell the children, and that really touched my heart. Now, my testimony does span my entire, but short, nineteen year life, but a good portion of it is relevant to my car accident, which occurred back in September, last year. Ironically, the wreck was exactly eight months ago today. The thirteenth of every month is a special day for me. I'll come back to that shortly though, as it is relevant to how our day ended. After we left the school, Pastor once again invited us into his home to share lunch together. Needless to say, the meal was not only gracious, but very delicious too. Pastor's wife can cook very well, and even that may be an understatement! After our meal, we headed to a nearby hill. This was the second time I've visited this village-on-a-hill. We split our group again, to hand out food bags to families in need. We met some very nice people, who were kind enough to let us into their homes, however short. You could see how thankful these people were for our visit and the food bags in the way they spoke and smiled at us. This week, God has been dropping hints directly in front of me, as to what's really going on here, and why we're here. Before we entered our third home to visit, I was talking to Goody as to how God is leading all of us on this trip to something or someone that we can connect to on personal and spiritual levels. Well, the third home we went into was home to a single, elderly woman. Unfortunately, I cannot recall her name. But as we heard her story, we learned she had recently dealt with intestinal surgery. Going through my recovery from the wreck, I had to go through two intestinal surgeries just to survive. See? Something I could sympathize with her, that I could connect to. As we left, I knew God put me there completely on purpose. We finished giving out our food bags and then headed back home. Home being the hotel, in this case. We spent our extra little free time at the market, where we got some cool memorabilia. For dinner, we ate at a very nice restaurant named Cafe Condesa. Excuse my misspelling there, if indeed I did so. Dinner was wonderful, and we finally were able to successfully sit all of our group at one table. Like I mentioned earlier, today is eight months out from my wreck. Usually on the thirteenth of the month, I take the day to slow down and recuperate, to think back to the accident and have a decent amount of quiet time. Today, Cherene pointed out how today is a celebration of my life, of sorts. More so the fact that I'm still alive, really. So, accordingly, we dubbed the day "Celebration of Life Day." Blunt, but appropriately so. As we finished our meals, the waiters and waitresses brought two cakes out to our tables. They placed one cake in front of Daniel, and one in front of me, both with three small, pastel colored candles sitting in the center of each. Initially, this really confused me. Cakes? And it's not either of our birthdays, not even close to mine. What was going on? As it turns out, it was also Daniel's ten year anniversary of his liver transplant surgery, which saved his life. Unbeknownst to either of us, Mateo, Cherene, Andrew and Kelcei planned to have this small celebration for Daniel and I. To say the least, it really meant so much to me, and likewise for Daniel, I'm sure. We are a family, and for them to show us how thankful they are for our lives and still being around, well...it's something that words don't really do justice. God made this day line up perfectly, and it's simply incredible to see how His power made it all happen. So, with that, I ask you to continue praying for us and our friends here in Guatemala. Thanks for reading all of this, today meant a lot, and I'm very happy to share it with you.
Written by Hunter Moss...
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