Guatemala Mision Trip: Day Two

We had a great day in Antigua, Guatemala today!  Because of flight schedules from Seattle, we arrived a day earlier than necessary so today was a bit of a “free day” for us to get acclimated and explore Antigua before beginning our work with Safe Passage in Guatemala City tomorrow.

We began our day with Mass at la Iglesia de San Francisco – a church that was completed in 1702.  Although the Mass was in Spanish, it was all very familiar to us and we were able to follow along with the liturgy.  It was a beautiful and heartwarming service, and an opportunity for us to realize that our faith spans countries and cultures.  We got a taste of God’s kingdom today in a way we don’t often back home.

The team at la Iglesia de San Francisco

The market that happens outside of the church  

Following church, we had the most fantastic lunch many of us have ever had at Rincon Tipico – a Guatemalan BBQ.  The chicken is roasted over an open flame.  It was a great taste of Guatemala!

Those chickens were AMAZING!  But we don't envy the person whose job it is to stand in front of open flames all day.

This afternoon, we did some final preparations for the projects we will do with classes at Safe Passage.  When we are working in the classrooms, we are responsible for the lessons.  We did some great preparation on our planning retreat back in May so today’s work was simply making sure we have everything we need and know what we’re doing when we get into the classes.  Our youth are remarkably smart and thorough in their planning!  After some prep work, we headed out to explore the weekend market and some of the shops in Antigua.  Although that is not why we are here, it was nice to begin our mission trip on a lower key note.  We had a fabulous dinner as a team where there was a lot of laughter and bonding.  

The group in front of the fountain in the Parque Central, or central plaza in Antigua 

Antigua is in the shadow of the Volcan de Agua (the Water Volcano)...a beautiful, but dormant, volcano.

We ended our day with Compline, the last service of prayer in the Daily Office…bedtime prayers as we like to tell our youth.  The Daily Office comes out of monastic communities that ordered their days around services of prayer in the morning, noon, evening, and night.  Our hotel used to be a Dominican convent in Antigua.  It was built in 1613 and many of the original walls still stand.  It was remarkable to pray Compline in the shadow of a wall that stood where faithful Christians have been praying for nearly four centuries!

Tomorrow will be a very different day than today.  While today was quite “touristy,” tomorrow will be very hard.  As we begin our time with Safe Passage we will be visiting the Guatemala City dump.  We will see a very different side of Guatemala than we saw today.  We welcome your prayers for eyes to see the ways God is at work around us and in the community we will be visiting, as well as for the ability to discern the ways God is calling us to be a part of God’s work here.