December!!

Hi fam + friends! Happy New Year, and I hope you all had the sweetest holidays. I’m super excited to be sharing about the past weeks, and what God’s been doing in Guatemala!

The past few weeks, our team has been going through an intentional time of seeking the Lord through fasting + prayer. Before going into it, I was excited and super expectant, and I knew the Lord had something for us! I was able to pray over some things that the Lord’s been putting on my heart, and I saw so much restoration with those things over the 3 weeks we did the fast and in my walk with the Lord. Having so much time to grow with the Lord was so sweet and renewing, and He shone so much light on areas in my life that I needed to surrender to Him. I realized that I had been focusing so much on my future and all the things that come with following the Lord, that I wasn’t just focused on following Him alone, and resting in that, if that makes sense. If you look at His face and solely seek the person of Jesus, all else will fall in line because of who He is! My word going into the fast was surrender, and there are still parts of me I need to fully surrender to the Lord, but now, my word has changed to follow. We’re called to simply follow Jesus no matter the cost, no matter what’s going on in our lives, and He’ll walk with us through it all :)

Over the past month, Jesus has been doing so so much in our little town. From our team to the people we’ve been discipling, it’s clear He’s so present in this place! One of the woman we meet with weekly, came to know the Lord in January. We’ve been discipling her on how to follow Jesus better, and training her in how to share the gospel with people. We realized she hadn’t followed through with baptism, so we talked with her over a few weeks, and she ended up getting baptized!! Praise God!! One of the days we were out a few weeks ago was also super special. As we were in one of our appointments in the park, we decided to pray over healing for the woman we meet with with bad eyesight, and her eyesight ended up improving! Shortly after, we talked and prayed with a woman, and we were able to share the gospel with her, and she ended up giving her life to Christ! And during debrief that day back at the house, the other groups had someone commit to baptism, and another began to walk without a cane after prayer! Like come onnn God is so good! Seeing so much restoration here in the community after just 3 months of living here has been life-changing and I’m so ready to see how God will move over the next few.

The past few days we’ve had off, and it’s been so nice getting to rest since we’re usually pretty busy during the week. Some of the days this week we’ve gone to Antigua, which is one of my favorite things to do! And it’s also only about 10 minutes away! Also super fun, the other day my team and I were able to hike a volcano, Volcan Pacaya, and it was so beautiful.

Holidays away from home were honestly very hard, especially because Christmas Day, a few of the girls and I were pretty sick. But it was so cool getting to experience it in a different culture and see the way another country does Christmas! We had their traditional Christmas meal, which was tamales and ponche (cider drink w fruit), and at midnight on Christmas Day, all around our pueblo were fireworks, basically like new years in America.

Ways you can be praying for my team!

• Fresh clarity from the Holy Spirit for next steps following this year!

• Continual boldness for us, and the people we disciple!

• That we would seek Him with all we have, and be eager to lay our lives down at His feet!!

• Our town + Guatemala as a whole — that God would open eyes!

Thank you again for the way you’ve been praying for my team and I, and the way you’ve supported me. I’m forever thankful! Praying for you all this next month!

and more pictures from the past weeks!!!

https://livransome.wixsite.com/guatemala/gallery