First week here! (Part 1)

Hello everyone! So it's officially been one week since we arrived in Guatemala and so much has happened!  First of all, welcome to our home here (ours is the one with the brown door)

Photo by Olivia Artusa

It's kind of like a town home, and we live here with 3 other girls our age from Guatemala City, along with one long-term volunteer Krista.  The first few days here were spent getting settled in and becoming aquainted with the city.

Yummy sweets from a nearby bakery! They definitely use way less sugar in everything here.

We are addicted to these desserts!  Fresh fruit drenched in chocolate... delicious.

Monday we started teaching our VBS lessons to kids in San Jose Pinula, a nearby town about 1 1/2 hours away.  Buckner has a community transformation center in this town which offers things like counseling, computer classes, affordable healthcare, english lessons, and more.  We got the chance to hang out with kids from the town's school for two days! Basically, each day started off with teaching the kids a few fun songs, telling them the Bible story for the day, making some crafts, then just playing games and having fun!

(Photo by Kaitlyn Whitley)

Teaching them our favorite songs! They are very sweet to put up with my broken Spanish instructions.

(Photo by Kaitlyn Whitley)

Using my favorite go-to Spanish phrase: "Cuantos anos tienes?".  When I had them guess my age they said 30 or 40... great haha

(Photo by Kaitlyn Whitley)

The kids LOVE bubbles!

(Photo by Kaitlyn Whitley)

Helping the boys put together the memory verse for the day.  It amazes me how eager and excited they are to learn!

(Photo by Kaitlyn Whitley)

Teaching the kids about creation.  Afterwards we had them pick their favorite day to color a picture of.  Again, I was so amazed at how much they remembered and learned so quickly!

(Photo by Kaitlyn Whitley)

Walking into the school in San Jose Pinula.  So many sweet kids!  We had a blast getting to hang out with some of them.

Right off the bat, my team and I were overwhelmed with how much joy and laughter these kids had to share with us.  We learned very quickly that sometimes it doesn't matter how much Spanish you know as long as you're willing to run around, act crazy, and laugh with them. It really is the little things, like hugs and smiles, that go a long way.  Already God is teaching me that He is more than just an emotion.  What I mean is that I don't need to hype up God and put on an awesome performance when teaching the Bible story.  The more I remove all that fluff emotion, the more I can get to know Him genuinely so that I can genuinely share his love. And these kids are such a great testimony to what genuine love and happiness look like!