Divine Appointments

For the month of June my team and I spent some Unscripted time in Quetzeltenango, Guatemala. Xela (pronounced Shey-lah) is the second largest city in the whole country and STILL we found God in the smallest interactions throughout our day. 

For our month of Unscripted we were not paired with a specific ministry host. Instead, we lived out of a hostel and went about daily life EXPECTANT for God to show up. We went into this month eager to be obedient to his Holy Spirit and to move in whatever way he asked us to. What came out of it can only be explained as “Divine Appointments”. 

Katerina, Heron and Mynor. 

Katerina quickly became a familiar face that we saw every day. A local woman who’s family hand makes goods in a nearby village, she came into town to sell what they made. On our first day we saw her sitting on some steps. As her colorful headbands and bracelets caught my eye I asked if I could sit next to her to look at them and the rest was history. Every day we saw her in the town square and everyday she greeted us with a friendly smile that eventually turned into hugs and getting to know more about her family. 

Heron. One day as we were doing a Bible study in a local coffee shop a man walked in and politely shared his story of traveling through Guatemala with his family to try and find better living conditions. We gave him food and he went on his way. The next day while we were in the same coffee shop he came in again. We didn’t see him after that for a week or so until our second to last day in Guatemala when we were praying in a park over the names of people we had met. His was one of them. Not even 5 minutes after praying for him, he walked right up to us in the park, ready to share his story again until he realized it was us. Before leaving we got to pray with him and speak truth over his life.

Mynor. We did some sightseeing while in Xela and one place was a small church in Xecul. Wandering around trying to figure out where the bus was, I walked up to a man walking by to ask for directions. We found out he was an English teacher at a Spanish school and invited us to go visit anytime. A couple of days later we went to the park to get ice cream and who did we see? Mynor, the same man who gave us directions. We saw Mynor a few more times after that and one was when we cooked lunch with him, his student and her husband. He showed us all how to make a traditional Guatemalan dish. Both times we ran into Mynor he told us he wasn’t supposed to be where we saw him. The first time his bus dropped him off at the wrong place and the second time he was heading home but decided to sit in the park to enjoy the weather. His school was impacter ALOT by the pandemic which meant the community run programs that students tuition goes to were also impacted. He said meeting us gave him hope that the school would get back to normal soon. If you’ve ever thought about studying Spanish abroad or want to donate to a good cause check out this LINK !

One thing all of these encounters have in common is they happened doing normal everyday things. There were SO MANY MORE encounters we had where we felt the Lord ask us to do simple things like: 

Pray healing over someone

Ask them what their name was

Pray for their family

Give them food

Smile and wave while walking by 

Ask for directions

So what does your everyday life look like? What are some “Normal parts” of your day that the Lord may want to use you to encounter someone else? 

-Cyntya