It’s been five days since I returned from my mission trip to
Guatemala. As soon as I arrived home
life was just as crazy as before I left.
Nuggy became sick with a cold and ear infection and her second tooth had
started to come in. Needless to say this
made for a very unhappy baby who was very needy. I also had to return to work and photography
and Husband had volunteered to lead a basketball group at our church’s annual
week long local mission trip. To say
things have been busy is an understatement.
In fact, I still have some unpacking to do from my trip! But that’s not why I haven’t written.
Before I left I thought I would come back and be ready to
write to all of you about my experience.
I thought I would be elated to share my story and journey. Unfortunately that is not the case. Amazingly, I have no words to describe the
impact the trip had on my life and to explain my experience. I also must admit that I think I am still
processing everything that I witnessed, took part of and all the emotions that
came along with this trip. It seems I
came back with a lot more baggage than I left with. I don’t mean this in a bad way---what I mean
to say is that I discovered so many things about myself, my faith, my walk, my
weaknesses, my strengths, my fears and my courage that it seems like I brought
home different parts of myself. I know
this may all sound so crazy to everyone.
Rather than try to explain how I felt, I will tell you what we did. I am sure this will take more than one posting
so I apologize now for how verbose I am about to be.
Day 1: GEU-College Ministry
As I posted while on my trip our first day…afternoon was
spent meeting a group of courageous college students whose ministry is
dedicated to spreading the word and studying the Bible. I say studying because that’s what they do
and that’s how they attract students.
GEU is dedicated to educating other college students on Christ. You can imagine this is not an easy
feat. I just think of myself in college
and how I thought I was invincible and didn’t need anyone or anything. I was never a doubter but I guess you could
say at times I wasn’t a true follower.
So these kids make an effort to approach Jesus and the Bible in a
non-traditional way. They teach. They dare non-believers to question Jesus and
the Bible. They debate. They explore.
Because they use such a non-standard Christian approach they have become
successful in their mission. I was so
impressed by these students and their passion for their mission. It made me realize how scared and weak I am
when it comes to speaking out for God. I
mean God forbid I be called a “Jesus Freak” right? I realized that being called a “Jesus Freak”
is way better than being called lots of other names. Lesson 1 learned---it’s ok to be called a
“Jesus Freak,” I’ll take it!
Day 2: Church and more Church
Our second day noted that we would be attending two church
services. Church all day?! Whoa this was going to be interesting. Our Pastor always jokes that many of us go to
church to check it off the list. “Did my
Christian thing, spoke to the big JC---check, done and done, now back to my
regularly programed schedule.” So church
as I know is vastly different from church as our Guatemalan friends know
it. We are members of a large church, in
fact at first I used to say I didn’t want to attend it because it was “too”
large. Dumb. In fact, I don’t feel that way at all anymore
now that we have become involved in Bible studies, groups, etc. The first church we attended was San Raymundo. This was a modest church
to say the least. From the front it was
very unassuming. No frills, no
light show, no band, just you and God in his house. In fact the pastor was also the sole guitar
player leading worship. We took our
seats and listened to the message. I am
blessed to speak Spanish so I was able to translate for some friends but I
couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like sitting there for over an hour not
understanding a word. In the middle of
service three ladies walked up to the front.
They had prepared a medley of songs to sing to us (our mission group) to
thank us for visiting. So you know when
you go to church and there is always that one person who sings WAY off key and
WAY too loud and claps WAY off beat?
Well imagine a church full of those people. But here’s the funny thing…those people NEVER
care what they sound or look like. These
ladies weren’t exactly professional singers but they sang their hearts out to
us. In fact the entire congregation
did. No shame, just pure worship. Then all of sudden the pastor directs the
congregation to welcome us. Again, you
know that moment in church when the pastor directs you to do the dreaded, “now
reach to your neighbor and welcome them and offer them peace?” Well this was NOTHING like that. The entire congregation came up to each and
every one in our group and embraced us with the biggest hugs you could ever
imagine and kisses. They thanked us with
tears in our eyes. Thanked US?! How could they thank us? We had done nothing. They showed us such unconditional hospitality
on a level I have only experienced with my family from Peru. These people were genuinely happy to have us
and happy to be worshiping God. It was
so beautiful and so pure. Lesson 2
learned---sing, sing out loud, who cares who’s listening. DO we want God to
speak to us in embarrassing whispers or boldly and greatly?! AND….embrace others with open arms and BIG
hugs!
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| From L Top to R Bottom: Me and my new church friend, our team leader receiving a hug from a church member, the ladies singing to our group, the Pastor preaching, our team praying for the Pastor and his wife who is suffering from cancer, a church member worshiping, more church members worshiping. We felt so much love on this day! |
The second church we attended was about an hour away. It was founded by San Raymundo church and
being led by a young pastor who had recently been married. If we thought the first church was modest
then imagine our surprise when we came to the next church situated in a very
small, very poor village. This church
was called, is called, Jesus Viene (Jesus Comes). Our
van pulled up to a basic building (cinder block walls and a tin roof about the
size of a small school gym). The
building was situated on some property that was a mix of grass and mud with a “storage
shed” in the back. Yes, I am using a lot
of unnecessary punctuation but there is a purpose. I say “storage shed” because that’s what a
few of us thought it was…until we found out it was where the pastor and his new
wife lived. I believe the property only
recently received water or electricity.
At any rate it was nothing that any of us would have wanted to call
home. As we walked onto the property we
turned a corner and there sitting in about 5-8 rows were tons of children! They were all sitting in miniature chairs
singing worship songs. Immediately my
heart rose and sank. SO many beautiful,
sweet, innocent children living in such poverty. Many of them were dirty, not from neglect,
but probably because they do not have clothes to change into daily. My daughter has an outfit, sometimes two a
day and these babies may have 1 or 2 a week.
Hundreds of big dark brown eyes stared up at us with sheepish grins. We were the visitors from America that the
teacher had told them about. I took my
camera out and started walking up to groups of kids to say hello and ask if I
could take a photo. One thing about kids
anywhere….they love to smile for a camera.
This quickly broke the ice.
There were kids ranging in age from newborn to 10+ years old. I loved staring into their eyes…they reminded
me of SG and I thought about how blessed she is to have a warm bed, clean
clothes and a roof over her head. So
simple and yet such a huge blessing. We
brought piñatas filled with candy to share with the children. It was a blast watching the lil ones barely
tap the piñata and then run off because they were shy or embarrassed. After the piñatas were done we visited with
the children. Now I can barely handle my
daughter having sticky fingers and a sticky face covered in dirt and food but
on this day it did not matter. The lil
ones came up to us to investigate us.
They reached their hands out to touch our faces, our hair, our
clothes…anything. They were filthy and
sticky and it did not matter. All that
mattered was that God put us there at that very moment to meet these sweet
angels. We were told later that the
pastor decided to start the church in this particular village because of the
large amounts of children (there was no church here before). As Whitney so famously put it, the children
are the future, and this pastor felt strongly that he needed a ministry where
these children were so that they would grow up Christians and spread the
word. Although my heart sank to see the
poor living conditions of these children (one bedroom “homes”, no running
water, no toys, little food) my heart was also filled with the joy in their
faces when they saw us and when they played.
These children really are the future and seeing God do his work in their
lil lives was an honor. Lesson 3
learned---it’s ok to get dirty, sometimes getting dirty means you are having
fun and on this day I really did!
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| The best surprise of our day! Look at all those sweet faces! They even decorated for us! |
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| So silly and they loved having their pictures taken. |
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| I fell in love with this lil angel. Finally, at the end of the day she sat next to me in service and gave me a smile. Such a beautiful doll. |
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| My new friends, hugs and smiles = my cup runneth over. |
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| Our group was presented with a gift from the children, a handmade card to thank us. At the bottom is the young pastor and his wife. |
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| This young mommy toted her lil angel around everywhere. I adore this picture. It so reminds me of what Guatemala is. |
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| More sweet faces. Dulces! |
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| One more of this sweetie. She reminded me so much of Nuggy. I remember taking this photo and tears welling up in my eyes. I wanted to take them all home! |
So I think that’s where I will stop today. I have so much more to write but I don’t want
to bore you with a 50 page novel. I did
want to mention that many of you showed your support with a monetary
donation. These donations were not only
used to help cover the cost of the trip but to also make monetary donations to
the places, groups and people who we met.
We gave monetary donations, Bibles and other items on this trip. I tell you this because I want you to know
the impact you had on this trip. And to
put things into perspective American dollars go a LONG way in Guatemala. In fact one American dollar equals 8
Guatemala quetzals (Guatemala currency).
So thank you to all who donated!
Next I will write about the school we visited for the
children who live in the Squatter villages and the visit to the largest dump in
Central America.
Until then…
