This summer going to Guatemala was honestly the best thing I've ever done in my life! The thought of going out of the country was amazing within itself. It was even more amazing getting to serve the children and staff at Casa Bernabe. For 2 whole weeks I got to be the hands and feet of God and do nothing but serve. Every morning we would get up and have breakfast at 7 am. From after breakfast until lunch there were different groups working on different work projects. There were some people working in the garden, working on the medical clinic, and doing other various projects. It was really whatever the orphanage needed done at the time. I, myself worked on painting one of the houses. We painted 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, laundry room, and even some furniture. Almost everyday from about 7:30 am to 1 pm was nothing but painting.
After lunch was my time to relax and shower. It was time to just hang out until about 3 when we would have "kid time". We spent time with kids, Addie would tell a story from the bible and along with the story we would do a craft and a game. On the first day of kid time the kids made bracelets and one of the older boys, Rudy made me a bracelet. It was just so thoughtful of him to make me one before himself. To this day I still wear it everyday. During kid time we got to really just spend one on one time with each of the kids.
My favorite part of the day was after kid time. Most days as long as it wasn't raining we would play soccer. ALL of the kids there were really good at soccer. I think thats where I connected the most with the kids. After that dinner was at 6 and a team meeting sometime after that. The team would just all sit around and just share our day with each other. Then it was a game of cards and off to bed.
One of the really cool things I got to do was going to church, just knowing that they worship the same God as we do. It makes me realize that God is so much bigger than we think. Both Fridays we were in Guatemala we got to get away from the orphanage. The first Friday we went to Antigua, Antigua is a market where we got to go shopping. The second Friday we took the whole orphanage to a water park. Seeing how happy taking them to the water park made them and buying the pizza after just really felt good. Another thing we got to do was go and buy each of the 9 houses snacks. Of course they are provided with food but they don't get snacks so again seeing how happy it made them felt good to know we were apart of it. There are at least 15 kids to each house, and it was kinda disappointing that they only had enough to maybe get 2 of each snack. It was still really great to see how thankful they were.
Connecting with the children was great but I also got to connect with my team. I got to bond with 25 other people who were there to serve along my side. The number one thing I've learned and that has stayed with me is that God will ALWAYS provide. He will always provide for us, and it's because he loves us. Right now my mom is going through a divorce and it seems like it's hard but I know that some way and somehow God will provide. Going to Guatemala has made me have a better understanding of that. Serving Casa Beranabe was truly one of the best things I've ever done! -Karyssa F. Pratt
