Stay Tuned for Mini Photo Blog

In 2018 I went to Guatemala with Adventures in Missions to lead for the World Race Gap Year. I knew absolutely nothing about Guate then, or the humans that run our base down there. I also never anticipated that I’d be moving down there to work with them.

I went back down there in January-March of this year to intern. The intentions of the internship were basically to see what we would want my job to look like, to get to know the team, and to make sure I actually wanted to live in Guatemala for the foreseeable future before actually committing to it. 

Going down for my internship, I figured my future job would be working with our World Race Gap Year participants. Mentoring American 18-20 year olds while they stay at our base for a couple months. Within the first week, God started to change my vision. He spoke to me more about the locals and people of Guatemala and what he was doing in them. From there, God started to lead me more towards being a part of our Church Activation team. Where we partner with local pastors and churches to see the Kingdom come alive in Guatemala. What we long for is restored intimacy with God and families within these communities. We want to create spaces for people to come and rest in the presence of Yahweh. To slow down enough to hear what He is speaking. 

One of the days I was in Guate we went to a town named Patzun. A friend knew a group of local pastors up there, and we wanted to see what they thought of partnering with us. When we went to meet with them, all of them showed up with their planners and notebooks. Ready to receive the next step by step plan of how to up their church numbers or whatever the next cool teaching was. We told them all we wanted to do was worship with them and get to know them. So that’s what we did. We got to rest in the presence of God and listen to what He was speaking to us. It was a refreshing experience. God is reviving hearts in the secret place. 

How often do we do this? We approach God ready to receive a step by step approach to Him or some sort of manual to living. That doesn’t exist. Rather, He desires to engage with us dynamically and experientially. 

The next time we met with this group of pastors, they brought more friends and the Scriptures with them. They had already positioned themselves to receive whatever Yahweh wanted to give them. They anticipated that God would meet them, and He did. 

So this is what I get to do as a full time job. It’s pretty incredible, what an absolute honor. This will be the main focus of my job, but I will also get to do some other things as well. Our team is pretty dynamic and everything is linked hand in hand as far as what we do as a base staff. We have a missions immersion program called Hineni, that I’ll get to be a part of. We get to equip and raise up Latinos to be long-term missionaries. I’ll even still get to hangout with Gap Year Racers when they come through.

I’ll be living in Antigua, which is full of great food and some of the best coffee comes from there as Antigua is in a valley. We’re in between three beautiful volcanoes. Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego. Fuego being the active one, it’s pretty cool. Parramos is where our physical base is, where all of our short term teams and Hineni participants stay. Parramos is about a 20 minute drive up the mountains from Antigua and it’s beautiful. We then also work in surrounding villages. 

My goal is to have all my funds raised by October 15th. Before I can go I need to have fundraised 110% of my salary. My salary is $27,000. So I’ll be raising $2,250 in committed monthly support. This all goes towards rent, food, language, giving, transportation, personal, visas, etc. Currently I have $505 of committed monthly support (THANK YOU to those who are supporting me), so now after the extra 10%, I just need $1,970. 

I would love for you to partner with me. But first, I would really appreciate it if you would pause and take a moment or so to ask how God is leading you to do so. What is God speaking to you about what He’s doing here?

If He’s not leading you towards a monthly partnership, ask Him how He’s wanting you to partner with Him. What’s stirring in your heart and mind?

If He is leading you towards a monthly partnership, here’s what I have set up. I’ll need 42 lovely people to commit to partnering with me monthly. Think of me as your monthly subscription. Below, is a bit of a breakdown of what I need. Feel free to pick whichever one.

5 people – $100

8 people  – $75

10 people – $50

13 people  – $25

3 people  – $10

3 people – $5

Also, no need to feel restricted to any of these numbers. They’re mostly there to provide some structure and a visual of what I need. If you want to partner with me through $80 or $36 or $150 feel free. 

Thank you friends for your faithfulness and your hope. I would love to tell you more about what I’ll be doing in Guatemala and what God has been up to there. If you have my number, feel free to text or call me and we can chat or set up a time to meet. If you don’t have my number, you can email me at [email protected].

now for the mini photo blog you’ve all been waiting for:

my view from my room the first mornin waking up in Guate (:

i got to visit a family in Los Corrales that we had hungout with a lot when i was there in 2018. it was great to reconnect and see all that they’ve been up to since the last time i saw them. when I was there last, the mom of the family had crippling headaches and impaired eyesight because of them. we consistently prayed for healing over her then when i saw her she told me she doesn’t have headaches anymore and can see clearly. praise God!

hangin out with Claire and Kayla, two Gap C participants, on their way to one of the first days of ministry!

these are photos just up from a town called Chicaman. because of two hurricanes that came through in the fall of 2020, there were mudslides that wiped out homes in multiple villages. so we partnered with friends Wesley, who’s a local pastor (left) and Tulio, a contractor (right) to rebuild their homes. here’s a video Aderkee (middle) made about their time serving these families. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0LYqSoTcPs

this is the base in Parramos where we host Gap Year, Short Term teams, and our Hineni Participants. that’s a volcano in the distance (: as a staff team, we spend quite a bit of time out here doing a multitude of different things. i love it.

hanging out with Elijah and Quincy at said base!

this was worship with our Hineni participants at their Orientation Retreat. a beautiful time of rest, giving our “yes” to Yahweh, and communing with each other.

view from said orientation retreat. there’s Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango! and right there in the valley is the beautiful town of Antigua that i get to call home (:

here’s a picture from a house visit during an Activation Thursday. on Activation Thursdays we teach on different topics like identity, prophecy, intercession, healing the sick, etc and do an immediate activation out in Parramos and nearby villages and we ask God who He is leading us to encourage. on this day we came across this family and spent some time with them and got to pray for them.

another house visit and they showed us how they do their coffee harvesting and roasting process. i very much loved this day.

walking through Antigua on my way to my friends coffee shop for a spanish lesson. isn’t she beautiful???

Gabe teaching for an Activation Thursday!!

i got to go to the beach for a weekend with some friends and it was BEAUTIFUL.

this is Cole and Kourtney, they are incredibly on fire for Jesus to be known among Gen Z. they exude hope and resilience. it was an honor to lead them while they were in Guatemala.

a picture from the second meeting with pastors from Patzun from the story above. it was such incredible thing to witness and i’m so expectant to see all that God is going to do within this.

me and my hannah girl (: han and i were on the same World Race Gap Year team when we launched in 2016, then we also were Alumni Team Leaders for Gap T in fall of 2018, and now we’re going to Guatemala Base Staff together. teammates to coleaders to coworkers, so that’s cool! 

this was on my last full day in Guate. the previous few days had been so cloudy that we couldn’t really see the volcanoes throughout the day. i asked God if my last day could be clear so i could see the volcanos and then this was my view from the coffee shop i went to that morning 🙂

 

well folks, that’s all we have for today. thanks for reading.

 

On Earth as it is in Heaven

lyss