Despite that yesterday and today were full of sad goodbyes, they were also full of lots of happy and precious moments.
Last night was our goodbye dinner, and it was probably one of my favorites that I’ve been a part of. There was much laughter heard around the table, which I take to mean that lots of bonding was happening. I sat with several teammates and pastor Emilio and we quizzed him on many tzu’tujil words and he laughed and laughed as we struggled to pronounce them and formed all sorts of hilarious sentences. It was wonderful to see him enjoy himself so much interacting with our youth.
I always love hearing the stories of the youth as they get up to take the microphone and give thanks for a great week, and this dinner was no exception.
Today after breakfast we went straight to the dock and many of our new and old friends came out to send us off with many hugs and kisses. Pastor Phil and I talked about the mixed feelings everyone faces in saying goodbye and how it’s different for us knowing that we’ll definitely be coming back 🙂 we all have formed wonderful relationships in San Pedro and are confident that this “goodbye” is really a “see you later”.
We are in Guatemala City right now and I can hear the voices of most of the team outside my room playing games and having a great last night together.  So thankful for the team that God brought together this week, from many different backgrounds and several different churches from Anchorage and Eagle River.
We’ll be traveling from early morning to midnight tomorrow, so pray for good rest on the planes and patience with one another.

Here are some highs and lows from last night and tonight!
Lows: “Waking up with a wasp on my arm”, “Losing my way in Panajachel”, “Saying goodbye at the dock”, “Having a run-in with a tuktuk.”

Highs: “At a frustrated moment during my wok project, a child and teacher came over to me and said they just wanted to give me a hug and thank me for the work I was doing in their school. It made my day”, “Eating with a little boy off the street in Pana”, “Visiting my sponsor child’s family”, “Having exactly the amount of cement that we needed to finish our project”, “Playing round robin ping pong with the highschoolers(on the new ping pong table Maggie and Tim built!).”

See you very soon!!
Emily

Want to see more photos from this team? Click here!