Leaving in 8 hours

I am  currently sitting in my house in Scottsdale, Az and thought that I should probably get a blog started. I do not know how much internet access I will have in Guatemala, but I will try to update this as much as possible. There have been an awesome amount of people in my life that have made this trip possible and I want to thank them. I have been wanting to travel to Latin America for a while now in order to become fluent in Spanish, but only started looking for places to go since January. I sent a couple of letters out to YoungLife International saying this:

  Hello, my name is Keaton Sauncy and I have been volunteering with YoungLife in Tucson, Arizona at Canyon Del Oro highschool for the past 2 years while attending the University of Arizona. I graduated in December with a major in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. I absolutely love working with high schoolers and have thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with YoungLife over the past two years. I am now trying to find work whether it be paid or a volunteer position in South or Central America. I want to go to learn Spanish fluently by living and speaking with native Spanish speakers, but would like to spend my time for God's glory.
 
     If there is anywhere in South or Central America that YoungLife or any of your many contacts would need or want help doing anything I would love to know. Honestly, as long as I am busy doing work for God and speaking with native speakers I will be happy. Whether it be cleaning gutters or refereeing soccer matches I want to do it. If there is anything you can think of or have any people I could contact, I would very much appreciate you letting me know. My window of opportunity is from mid-February to the end of May of this year, so I would appreciate any ideas as soon as you can. I will be praying for a door to open where I can serve our Savior and I ask you to do the same.

Thank you very much for your time and I hope to hear from you soon,

Keaton Andrew Sauncy 

 It got a couple of responses but nothing was very promising. I was getting a little bit discouraged, but I knew that if I was supposed to go somewhere then God would open a door for me. I started sending out letters to outreach pastors at my home church in Scottsdale and other organizations and agencies.

After I sent those e-mails to YLI my mother, without my consent, sent the same e-mail to a friend of hers and our family in Wisconsin copying and pasting my message. So Sara, the family friend and wonderful person and mother, sent that same e-mail to her outreach pastor at Elmbrook Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. THEN, this outreach pastor sent an e-mail to the missionaries he knows and the church supports. The Ochaetas in Flores, Guatemala received this e-mail and after prayer and consideration said that I could come work alongside at their mission! The outreach pastor contacted me and then introduced me to the Ochaetas over e-mail.

Lesson: The Christian network is absolutely humongous, helpful, and powerful and is an example of God's awesome love.

The Ochaetas and I have been e-mailing back and forth and they have been very helpful. They seem very kind and write back to me almost instantly which I really appreciate. I am going to be living with a Guatemalan family who have one boy at University and a teenager who still lives at home. I am going to be teaching English in a school and doing other vocational work with kids from dysfunctional families. Other than that I have no idea what to expect. I have no idea how big the mission is or how many people work at it. I do not know what my daily schedule will look like or how far away internet access is. But I am very excited to learn all of this as soon as I get to Flores in Peten, Guatemala!

I thought that that was a good sentence to end on, but I've got a bit more to say.

 Please be praying for me and the community as there have been waves of violence committed by gangs in the region and I know that satan would love to pierce the heart of the mission with fear. 

When I write in my journal I like to write out a prayer, so I think that's how I'm going to end my blogs.  

Awesome Lord,
I thank You for this day and the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things you have put in my life. Thank You for loving such imperfect beings unconditionally and drowning us with grace when it is so undeserved. Forgive me of the sins in my life that systematically harm and disrupt our relationship. They are like a plaque that seemingly won't go away, but with Your help I know that I can overcome it. Aid me in making the daily decision to follow You and put You at the front of my life. Help me to decipher Your will in my life and make decisions to further and expand Your kingdom. I pray for the journey ahead of me and ask you to engulf me in Your love and protect me spiritually from whatever might come. Help me to follow Your direction in every aspect of my trip and confidently go into places and situations I am being called to. Remind me daily of the strength I have in You and help me use it. I pray for the people in the community I will be visiting and I pray that You can open their hearts to hear Your word. Protect them and me from the great deceiver and shower them in hope. Allow us to see Your beauty and love and help us love You back. You are all powerful, help me never forget that. 

Amen