It sure beats Disneyland!

by Richardson Family

Hi. We’re the Richardson family—Philip, Shelly, Rachel (10), and Camille (14)—and we’re writing this from an internet cafe in Antigua, Guatemala.

We’ve just finished our first week in this beautiful country. We´ve all been studying intensive Spanish in the colonial city of Anitigua. Built in the 1500 by the Spanish as a capital of Guatemala, Antigua is a precious friendly city with active volcanos, ruins, and small cobble streets. Every day has been filled with surprises, new friends, and opportunities to witness how God is loving all of His creation, including us.

We are having a great time. At first Mom was a bit nervous about traveling here with kids. But all her fears proved false. Sure, we are living right now in Antiqua, at the base of an active volcano. Every other day or so there are mild earth tremors (today´s tremor lasted almost 5 minutes), but we’ve found that there is nothing to be afraid of.

We all witnessed Principle, God in action the moment we got off the plane in Guatemala City. Unaware of warnings that the area around the airport was dangerous, we arrived at night and without an escort to meet us. When people on the plane advised us of our mistake and told us of the danger we could be in, we decided to embrace the opportunity to witness all the good, kindness, and love these people had to offer.

As we walked out of the airport and onto the street, a large circle of people—hotel clerks, escorts, and family—stood waiting. Even though it was dark, late, and we were in an unfamiliar country, we felt completely surrounded by love, not danger. A very kind traveler named David, offered to take us with him in his shuttle to his hotel. However, his escort never showed up and he started to get a little nervous. Still, the love we felt was so tangible that we knew we were all safe.

Within moments, we found out about a driver whose passengers hadn’t shown up and he was going within one block of our hotel. This was something very unusual in a city of 3 million people and it was sure an answer to our need!

The thrills have started. The highlight so far was a trip to Volcan Pacaya. After an hour hike in the pouring rain, Rachel, Camille, and Philip stood about 5 or 10 feet from molton lava running out of the volcano. Sure beats Disneyland.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.