Hi my name is John Hewes and I am with a group of missionaries in Guatemala.  Their names are Kimmie La Duke (who for some reason finds it really weird that I call her Kimmie), Michael La Duke, Patrick Hewes, Keven Martin, Baileigh Leake, Clair Depalo, and Daniel Goble. I came not really being prepared for what God wanted to do through us to help and encourage others and within our hearts. 

There have been some awfully awkward moments where all you could do is laugh and everyone did but there have also been moments of thought and silence too.  I have personally had God highlight where I need to rely on Him and lean on Him because I have not been doing so and it has affected the people around me in an ill way. 

I have seen a volcano erupt with a full moon behind me lighting up the sky in silver and orange, I have seen God work through me, and through true Guatemalan believers.  I want to stay, but more than that I want to, out of my love for Christ, take what God has shown me and what I have learned home and apply it every hour of every day.  I won’t lie to you, it will be the hardest thing I have done and I will fail without Christ inspired encouragement from others. 

As I sit and type this I look around this room, this common room, and I feel safer than I have ever felt.  One thing I have not seen in this entire journey is fear and that isn’t because we are in a group or anything else like that but it is because we have trusted in the Lord this entire time and He has comforted us.  A few months ago some parents had concerns for safety because where I am is a dangerous place so much so that they didn’t let their kid go but our God has been bigger and greater than this danger.  “Though I walk through the valley of shadow death I shall not fear.  Your rod and staff they comfort me” Psalms 23 (ouch!).

I don’t want this journey to end and it doesn’t have.  When I come home my purpose will remain, my goal still existent.  God will still be moving the finish line up and up never letting me finish and even in death I will still be impacting others.  This is my greatest legacy, not to be remembered for the gum I chewed or my rank or the invention I make, but being a willful slave of the almighty God always and forever even unto death.  Good bye. Have a nice day. Eat that weird ice cream and live for God always.