The last two days have been very diffrent than the whole rest of our trip. We have spent every day since our arrival traveling to and from the mission. We visited small mountain villages and spent time in community and quiet prayer. In the last two days we have driven "all over tarnation." We transistioned from missionaries to travelers to tourists. It has been a hard transition for me. I throughly enjoyed all of my quiet time with my companions, with the local Guatemalans and with God. I loved being able to interact with local people and learn about their lives. I loved being able to build community with people. As travelers and tourists, we are really looking at people from the outside, we arent necessarily able to take the time to learn about them or build relationship with them. It's hard to look in on someone else's life for a moment in time as you try, as politely as possible, to tell the 17th person in a row that "no, I do not need a scarf." There is a danger that we stop seeing them as God's people to be loved...they instead become a mass of sales persons to be avoided. Or worse, we are blinded by fear and we stay in the safe walls of our little bus, never interacting at all. I am so blessed to have been given the last 9 days as a chance to look for Christ's face constantly and with intentionality. I challenge myself, today and in the future to always be apporpriatly cautious and not to buy every scarf, but...to never stop seeing Christ in every face.

Jen Blood