I mentioned this briefly in a blog post before, but weekends and weekdays for our team are fairly different - and even day to day during the week is fairly different depending on that day’s ministry!

During the week, we’re on the mountain - staying in tents, dust everywhere, very fast showers and dish washing to conserve water, cooking for ourselves over a little set of 4 propane burners (and no access to refrigeration), and heading somewhere different for ministry outreach each day (mostly the very small villages nearby).

On the weekend, we’re in Antigua, staying right in the middle of town. We have opportunities to interact with locals and tourists, try lots of restaurants (including a fair bit of international cuisine - for instance, we found an Italian place with amazing pasta!), explore the shops and the market, and focus a bit more on soaking in worship and Scripture.

On the mountain, we hike or ride (often in the back of) a pickup truck to get places.

In town, we walk everywhere (although we could take a tuc tuc across town if we wanted!).

On the mountain, we cooked dinner super early (up till recently) so we could see what we were making - now we have solar lights to be able to make food after sunset!

In town, we often don’t get around to dinner until 6 or later, and experience Antigua at night while finding food.

On the mountain, a goat or a cow or a horse might stare at you while you unzip your tent in the morning.

In town, street dogs will patiently wait to see if you have something for them to eat as you walk past.

On the mountain, every night culminates in sitting by the fire, because there’s no warmth or light elsewhere. That wind gets COLD! And we often end up in bed by 9:30 or earlier because of being cold and tired from long days - and not having electricity to keep us up.

In town, we’ve stayed up well past 11:00 because we do have electricity… and wifi!

On the mountain, we get views of creation in the cascading mountains and surrounding volcanoes.

In town, we see creation in all the people on the streets and the creativity of the buildings lining the cobblestone streets.

Everywhere we go during our weeks in Guatemala, though, there are constants. Among many things:

Our team gets to eat, sleep, spend time together. We grow in community constantly.

There’s a high chance of getting sunburnt.

There are opportunities to pray and intercede.

And God is good.

❤️

My neighbors on the mountain :)

A main square in Antigua. Fuego Volcano is going off in the background!

A mountain meal with a view - this time we even cooked the potatoes and peppers over the fire!

Empanadas and té de jamaica from an Argentinian restaurant in town!

Nothing like late night (aka 9:30pm!) ramen and tea by the fire up on the mountain.

A seating area/plaza inside a square with lots of different restaurants in Antigua!

Ready for a ride in the back of the pickup :)

Walking through town on our way to a house church meeting!