A new and exciting week at Puerta De Esperanza meant whole new teams for us. Every week we mix up the teams so we can experience a new side to the project as Puerta are incredible and provide so much support for the kids at La Terminal and Gerona.

The street team (Ella H, Ben, Charlotte and Charlie F) went out around La Terminal on Monday playing numerous games with kids as well as ‘attempting’ to make colourful bracelets with them while the Puerta street team chatted to the parents or did some homework with the older children. It was so great that Charlie F was able to join them due to his foot finally being healed enough to walk on it – so much so that he and Charlotte both walked further than we had ever gone, even exploring Zone 7!! It’s meant that he’s finally been able to grow out of the nickname ‘Charlie con muletas (crutches)’!

While the street team were out meeting with families, the rest of the team stayed at the centre, where they joined in with more homework and played a lot of chess (everyone is starting to become very competitive with one another). In both the morning and afternoon all the children at the centre gathered together for a devotional, led by a Guatemalan guy who had lived in the US. We got roped in with a few of the songs, and admired how much energy he gave to it. Then we all listened while he explained the story of Joseph, handing out colourful bracelet kits afterwards to remind the kids of the story. He repeated the devotional in the afternoon for the older kids, and also went out with the street team to share the story of Joseph with the kids and families there, which some of us helped with.

To end the day while waiting for the bus to take us home Charlotte was able to start some games up like granny’s footsteps and football with the kids which they ALWAYS love playing.

Tuesday is a Gerona day so the Step team split into two for the day. The Gerona team (Theo, Emily, Ella S and Hannah) spent the morning working with the Pronea group (teens and adults who are catching up with their education) and helped them with their homework. We then enjoyed lunch with the Gerona team before the next group of kids arrived in the afternoon. Right now in Guatemala it is rainy season – which we haven’t experienced much yet – but the Gerona team were able to witness the immense downpour that afternoon, particularly Theo and Ella S who were outside playing sports with the children at that time (we have to admit we thoroughly enjoyed it, reminding us of home!). As we couldn’t play football due to the rain, Jacobo asked Theo and Ella S to think of a game that we could play with the kids inside. We decided to do ‘Assassins’ (or ‘Mafia’), which Theo led brilliantly well in Spanish. We’ve definitely found that our Spanish is improving, particularly from living in the city.

Unfortunately (but not surprisingly, knowing the track record of this team!) Emily was stung by a scorpion in the morning! She was left with a tingly feeling so, as a precaution, she went to the doctors at the end of the day and after a long night waiting she returned the next day healthy and all ok!

The Street team (Charlotte, Ben, Charlie F and Ella H) spent the morning in the office, printing off emojis and sticking them on lollipop sticks as they prepared for the afternoon. Ben and Charlie also looked up worksheets for the kids to do. Before lunch they went out and gave a family a couple of chef outfits with their names engraved on them and everything. The two boys were only about 17 and 14, and the uniforms were so that they could go to work.

In the afternoon they went out and met with a lot of families. They played checkers with the kids, coloured in cupcakes, and went to the rubbish dump and helped a lady there with literacy, using the emojis on sticks that they had made that morning.

The rest of the team (Carrie and Charlie P) stayed at the centre and spent their time doing homework with the kids, singing some songs and eating lunch with them.

Our rest day set off to a great start as both Ben and Ella H had made pancakes for breakfast, which everyone enjoyed!! The rest of the morning was spent planning for Sunday. We were aware that what we are doing as a Step team can be quite confusing – understanding the set up and what we have actually been doing for the past three months, so we wanted to explain to the church what Latin Link was and everything that God has been doing with us recently – which is what we planned in the morning. We then desperately needed to get out of the church to see daylight and ended up splitting into two groups – the girls went to a beautiful coffee shop where they spent time talking and drinking delicious drinks, and the boys went to Miraflores, the local shopping centre, as they needed to buy new shoes (they were unfortunately unsuccessful).

To end our rest day, the profés at Puerta have started playing football with us weekly, so we all went along! Although the girls do normally join in with playing football, this time it was only the boys and Charlotte playing and they all played an amazing game! The girls were on the sidelines doing an amazing job being their cheerleaders! These football games have been great at forming deeper connections with the Puerta team and even helping us communicate, because in sports you don’t really need to speak the same language.

We started off the day well on Thursday with Deborah making breakfast for us again, before heading off to the project.

The Gerona team had fun teaching English to some of the profés, going over words like ‘run’, ‘talk’ and ‘play’. Then we got the opportunity to visit the local school, which we loved. It was on top of a hill, and we got to see some beautiful views of the surrounding area, plus a volcano or two! We didn’t stay long, as we were only introduced to the headmistress before heading back down again, but it was nice saying hi to all the kids that we knew.

In the afternoon we led a devotional about the lost sheep. It went very well, as all the kids there are good listeners, despite our Spanish, but the profés helped a lot too, managing to explain a bit more about the deeper meaning to the kids, as we don’t think they quite got it from our retelling!

The Puerta street team had meetings all day so they didn’t go out at all, except to buy some sandpaper. Carrie and Charlotte spent the time sanding tables, as we will be painting them next week.

On Friday we all went with Maddie to the embassy, to get our visas renewed. We were luckily quite speedy (for 10 people) and went to Miraflores afterwards for lunch. Then, half of us travelled back to the project, where they caught the last couple of hours of sports. The other half had a relaxing time at Miraflores, before coming back to the church for takeaway pizzas and homemade flapjacks (thanks Ben, Carrie and Hannah!).

We watched the Champions League Final on Saturday at a restaurant with some of the Puerta team. We all enjoyed dressing up for it, the girls borrowing football shirts from the boys. We then made some delicious curry in the evening. It was our first time having it in Guatemala – we had thoroughly missed it – and Rosa even came down to see what the lovely smell was. Then we had a fun evening playing games with each other.

After attending the youth group on Sunday morning, most of us went to lead the childrens groups. We played a couple of games with them all – ninja and human knot – and then split into the two groups to do the devotional on the widow with the oil jars in 2 Kings 4. Then we joined the service and took communion, our first time doing it in that church.

We had an enjoyable lunch with Rosa and her family, as well as Rose, a Latin Link member who goes to our church. Rosa had made us a traditional Guatemalan soup, with tortillas (of course!) and a delicious oat drink. We enjoyed getting to know the family more, and went with them to Miraflores, where we had a relaxing afternoon. In the evening a few of us played games with the family’s kids, who are about the same age as us all.

All in all it’s been a very good week, and we’ve been able to have new experiences, get to know people better, and be involved in more things. We’re so sad to see the weeks slipping away, as we don’t have much longer to go, but it’s been amazing watching God at work, both here and at our last project.

Answers to prayer/things we’ve been grateful for:

• That Charlie F could be on street team, his foot back to normal.
• Connecting with Rosa and her family.
• That our devotional at Gerona went well.
• That the Sunday school groups that we led went well.
• That Emily is ok after her scorpion sting.

Prayer requests:

• That our other devotional at La Terminal will go well.
• For our continued health.
• That we will continue to grow as a team.
• For energy.

Thank you for everyone’s prayers and support!

• Emily, Theo, Carrie, Hannah, Ben, Ella H, Ella S, Charlie F, Charlie P, Charlotte

(Written by Hannah and Ella S)

To read the previous report click here