I have no words...ok maybe a few.

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!

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!

The best surprise of our day!  Look at all those sweet faces! They even decorated for us!

So silly and they loved having their pictures taken.

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.

My new friends, hugs and smiles = my cup runneth over.

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.

This young mommy toted her lil angel around everywhere.  I adore this picture.  It so reminds me of what Guatemala is.  

More sweet faces.  Dulces!

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…