ATL Month Part 1

We have survived ATL Month (or at least the first stretch of it at least)!

What is ATL Month, you may be asking? Fair question! ATL stands for Ask The Lord. I shared with a lot of friends and family before I came on this trip that God speaks in a lot of ways. He speaks in His Word (the Bible) and through trusted friends/family/mentor and He speaks in dreams and visions and lots of other ways. I was pretty comfortable before the race with hearing from the Lord almost strictly from the Bible. This is not bad, because “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible is God-breathed, God-inspired and infallible. So I can’t go wrong on taking lessons from it on how to love others well and how to love God first and the big identity questions (Where do I come from, where will I go, what is my purpose, etc). However, what about the specific little questions? What about when I am walking around in a city in the middle of Guatemala and I have to choose to turn left or right? How can I be sure God will listen and speak and guide me in those situation? How do I even listen for that level of direction?

That is what ATL month is all about. The Bible is still very much involved ;). God will never say anything outside of His good and loving and just character, and He will never say anything that goes against His inspired Word. So we can always double-check what we are hearing from God with the Bible. But we are also using this time to ask a lot of questions. How do we balance God’s sovereignty with our freewill? How much of our lives does God want us to ask Him about the little decisions, and how much does He want to direct our hearts to ask bigger questions?

I’m learning that it is less about analyzing over a decision to turn right or left down a street. It’s more about if I feel prompted to pray for someone or ask someone a question and it is edifying and seems to come from God, then I need to do it! I need to be obedient. God is a God of order and truth. However, He is also a God of infinite mystery and power. I can’t contain Him or limit Him to only one way of speaking. It is a little scary to try to listen in new ways, but it is so exciting! And it is a safe place with safe people to practice 🙂

Let me tell you a few stories of where this practice of asking and listening to God has taken my team so far this month: (oh by the way! We changed teams! So my new team is called Team Abide and includes Rachel, Sierra, Bethany, Chach, MK, and I. I love them a lot, and it’s been going great. Thanks for praying for us and the transition!)

Team Abide went through ATL training on the Adventures in Missions base outside of Antigua before praying and heading out. Adventures did not tell us where to go, and they encouraged us to not just do what was easy or what we had been doing. It would be great to partner up with a ministry somewhere, but they encouraged us to pray and listen for God’s leaning instead of us just trying to plan it ourselves. So we prayed. And we felt God directing us away from Antigua. So we got on a chicken bus and then a shuttle to San Pedro community by Lake Atitlan.

In Lake Atitlan, God directed us to a beautiful Airbnb within budget for a couple nights. We still didn’t know what we were doing in that community, but God gave us a place to stay and eat. We dealt with everything one step at a time. So, the next day we spent time in prayer separately and then together and then went to prayer walk San Pedro. The Lord put some images on our hearts: things like colors or specific flowers or things or words. We looked for these things everywhere. And they led us to a very kind couple that was painting in their living room with the door open. We started talking with them in Spanish, introduced ourselves, and got to know them more. We offered to pray, and they were so kind and appreciative and welcomed us deeper into their home and let us pray for them! When we were leaving, they said in Spanish that with their faith it is not about religion it is about relationship! Amen! Thank you God for leading us to this family, being able to encourage them, and being encouraged by them in return!

The same day, we continued to pray and walk and look for the things God had placed on our hearts. This led us to many back alleys and suddenly we found ourselves in a school for people to learn Spanish! After many confirmations, we decided to sign up for a week of Spanish classes. It was such a sweet time where we were able to build our language skills, build relationship and have spiritual conversations with our teachers, and better know the community of San Pedro. Not only that, but the school had options to stay with a local family! We stayed with Lupita, her three daughters, and their brand new puppy! We got to get to know her and her family better and have a lot of interesting, fun conversations with three fellow students that were staying in Lupita’s home with us!

At the end of the week, we felt God calling us to another place; so after checking in with our fellow team in Antigua, we took a couple ubers out to Chimaltenango! This is where we are next and we are so excited to see where God leads in this next chapter! We have been talking with some connections at a local school about how we could help teach English or do more prayer walks and build friendships in the community. We are so excited to see where God leads next!

Prayer Requests:

• For us to grow in hearing God’s voice and in obedience
• For us to fight for both diversity and unity
• Prayers of blessing for San Pedro Spanish School
• Prayers that God will continue to bring people into our path that need encouragement, prayer, a word, anything He wants us to do
• Prayers that we will be able to serve and bless the community that we are in
• Prayers for the people of Guatemala, specifically it’s young people that are determined to make a brighter future
• Prayers for Guatemalans to disciple and love their communities
• We think we are healed of the original food poisoning, but now there’s a stomach bug or something, so prayers for more healing and continued health afterwards!

Thank you so much for caring about this journey and all God is teaching us! I love and appreciate you so much!