Guatemala: A Day of School Assemblies

6-26-2012

Today I woke up and got dressed for our three school assemblies today!  I went outside to brush my teeth and found Pastor Chris going crazy while doing his hair.  He's probably the most loco gringo on this trip. haha  But anyways, we had breakfast and I got to put the missionary's baby to sleep. =)

We then loaded up all our stuff and ourselves into the vans to head to the first school.  This school was a high school.  We did a few skits and Pastor Chris spoke.  At the end he did an "alter call."  Many of the kids raised their hands to accept Christ!!  Pastor Chris then had our team go around and pray for the kids.  I just went around and put my hands on and prayed for many of the girls.  I came to a couple girls and started praying that they would know God's amazing love, and that He would pour it out on them so they could start to comprehend the realness, deepness, and perfectness of His love!  I almost started crying.  I wish I could have told them all about what I've been learning about God's love.  I wish I could have helped them understand.  I wanted so badly for these girls to feel His love like I have been.  I longed for more time with them, but they all had to go back to class after we were done praying.  A sweet lady served us cake and pop at the school before we left.

Sitting with the girls during the program.  Can you find me?

After our snack we went to another school with younger kids.  We had just the girls in the gym this time, and we came back later and did a program for the boys.  When we got there we had about 30 minutes to just hang out, so we blasted some fun music, played limbo, and had a dance party before the actual "program" started!  Then we all sat down for the program.  I sat with a big group of girls, who I talked with and became my special group of friends for the day! =)  Sadly, their names were hard to pronounce and remember, and I forgot them. =(  For the program we did heart skit and La Casa se Quema.  Pastor Chris pulled up some girls from the school to do La Casa se Quema.  The little girl he picked to play the daughter was hilarious!  She got so excited she was jumping up and down.  So precious.  After the program the girls gave me so many hugs!  I was attacked by group hugs like crazy. The girls I had been sitting with gave me a huge hug!  I told them they were my sisters in Guatemala and that I loved them and would miss them.  They squeezed me even harder and said they loved me too.  It makes me cry just writing about it.  I miss them so much!  We just stood there hugging for a while.  Then they all started getting their notebooks and asking us to sign them.  We had to leave after that to go get some lunch before coming back for the boys.

Hugs!

Me with some of the boys

When we came back to do the program for the boys we got to go to their theatre!  It was a pretty nice space for the program!  We didn't have the time to just hang out like we had had with the girls, but I did get to go around and talk with some of the boys about school and how old they were and things like that.  We did the program and then passed out candy.  The boys went INSANE for the candy!  Someone would toss a handful from the stage and they would all be on top of eachother to get some.  It was hard to make sure every boy got some, because there were so many!

When we left the school the missionaries took us to a place where we got to hike up to a cross that overlooks Antigua, Guatemala!  We got about 10 minutes of time on our own to pray.  Then we came together and one of the missionaries, Jonathan, shared a little of his testimony and about the ministry they have in Guatemala.  He then passed out a book he had written called Beyond the Pain.  It's an incredible book that I would recommend to everyone!  Then we took some group pictures and loaded back in the vans to go have dinner at a taco place in Antigua!  The tacos were delicious, and after dinner we got some ice cream and walked around Antigua a little bit in the rain.

When we got back to the base there were kids outside, so we went out on the street and talked with them for a while.  Six year old Brittany was stuck to me.  =)  We had a meeting about tomorrow's schedule and went back out to play with the kids.  One of this girls had a lid of something with a panda on it, so I told them about my nickname "Miranda Panda."  They thought that was pretty funny.  I also got to go in someone's house and see their flowers that they sell!  They were very pretty, and pretty much filled their little yard.  A group of little girls taught me how to play a game that involved some sort of tag and walking around in circles doing different things like pretending to brush your hair, or hopping on one foot.  Then I went to the tienda with Matt, Jaci, and Dallas to give some money back to a guy who had given Matt too much change earlier.  I didn't do too well communicating what happened, but there was a woman there who understood my awful spanish and explained it to the store owner.

We walked back to base where I just hung out with people while they played cards and then stayed up talking with Cooper, Dallas, and Jaci.  While we were hanging out we felt an earthquake!  It was a pretty cool way to end the day! =)