We made it back!!! For those who didn't know the Sr. High youth group from Foothills went on a Service and Learning trip to Guatemala over spring break. We had an amazing time filled with many different and new experiences.

Our trip was hosted by MCC Guatemala, Adriana Koehn was the MCC coordinator who works with facilitating groups coming on to visit. We were able to attend a Mennonite Church on March 28 and spend time with their youth group in the afternoon, it was a great lesson in learning to reach across divides of language and culture to find connection. I think the turning point in the afternoon was a robust game of Mennonite Squish.

We also spent several days in a Mayan community, doing some service projects as well as staying in their homes. Fresh corn tortillas, refried beans and eggs for breakfast were actually quite tasty. There was always plenty of noise early in the morning between the dogs, chickens and trucks running by.

Another great thing about our trip was the timing, we were privileged to be in Guatemala during Holy Week and in Antigua for Good-Friday. There were many processionals as part of the celebrations, ahead of the processionals people would build carpets (alfombras) of flowers, pines, clover and fruits, which the residents put together and place in front of their homes.

We also had a great time of connecting as a group, spending nine days together and experiencing this trip as a youth group. There was time for meeting together some of the evenings and sharing our reflections on that day as well spending some time singing worship songs together. We are planning to share on Sunday in both services.

Thank you so much to our church community here at Foothills for supporting us in taking this trip I trust we will see the fruit of it in all our lives in the years to come.

Blessings

Chad