We made it back home on Sunday morning at 2am. I was going to say we were safe and sound but when I thought about it I realized that none of us made it back sound. The definition of sound is Sound, adjective, free from injury, damage, defect, disease. You see none of us made it back free from damage or defect. That is one of the things I love about mission trips, God breaks you down. The things you see, the people you meet, the service you do, studying God with the team. All these things help you see the world in a whole new way.
Suddenly you realize that the God we serve has many children in various stages of need. Some people need food and shelter, some need to know Christ, some just need a loving touch. Then at some point you realize that you are in need too! Everyone needs something and only God can provide it. We can cover up our need with "things" or activities and act like we have it all, but deep down we all need the saving love of Jesus Christ and his ongoing grace!
No, none of us made it back "sound". Sound means you are like the rest of the world. Paul says in Romans 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
So we will carry with us what we learned in Guatemala and we will try to share that experience with everyone we meet. Thanks to all of you who supported and prayed for us. Without you this trip would not have been possible!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Images from the week of Serving in Guatemala
This and that
Our breakfast has been with American foods - egg sandwiches, biscuits and eggs, pancakes, french toast, etc. Some of the lunch meals, which is the main meal of the day, has been boiled beef and potatoes over rice, fried chicken (but keep in mind the chicken is different here - not a lot of meat on the bones), a lot of soups are made with rice as rice is the mainstay of dinner. Dinner always includes black beans with something accompanying it and homemade tortillas, which are served at every meal. This week we had baked plantains for dinner or a type of macaroni salad (with our beans). One night we had Atol, which is a rice based drink that is thick and has rice at the bottom. Some have had a type of hard sugar cookie filled with a thick cream that is mostly sugar. The diet is so carb-based that it seems everyone is overweight, even when they don't have much to eat.
The driving here is definitely different. While we still drive on the same side of the road, it's crazy the way the cars intertwine and the hundreds of pedestrians just walk in front of you. However, there is little "road rage" here and while it may seem cars are pulling out in front you, it's just the way they drive. The cars are dilapidated and their exhaust is nauseating. The road system does not appear to be planned out and roads seem to be added as needed wherever needed.
Today is our last day to finish our projects here and play with the kids. We are all missing our families and friends, yet leaving these kids is feeling sad to us. We will really miss them and the staff!
The driving here is definitely different. While we still drive on the same side of the road, it's crazy the way the cars intertwine and the hundreds of pedestrians just walk in front of you. However, there is little "road rage" here and while it may seem cars are pulling out in front you, it's just the way they drive. The cars are dilapidated and their exhaust is nauseating. The road system does not appear to be planned out and roads seem to be added as needed wherever needed.
Today is our last day to finish our projects here and play with the kids. We are all missing our families and friends, yet leaving these kids is feeling sad to us. We will really miss them and the staff!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday - one week
We arrived here one week ago today. Sometimes it feels like we've been here a month and sometimes it feels like just a few days. Last night we heard stories about some of the kids and where they came from. Praise God for this Home. Perhaps many of the children would be dead if it were not for this loving safe haven.
Yesterday the paint crew finished their work and as a reward...we get to dig ditches today. The cabinet crew will finish the cabinets today, but will not be able to varnish as it's too windy. It's the dry season now and there is a lot of dust and wind. The dust gets into everything! The bike rake crew got promoted to laying wire into open ditches (surrounded by PVC piping, of course), as that became the more urgent need. School starts next week and they should have about 350+ kids at the Christian School. This is a large source of income for the Home and enrollment numbers are down from 400 last year. Some are not enrolling their kids this year because they're unemployed. Some are unemployed because their job was to assembler or sew products for the US. With the US economy down, orders are down and there is no work for them. Such a vicious cycle and for us, we can still eat while the economy goes awry but for Guatemalans, it is detrimental and a matter of survival.
Larry, Lori, and Bobby left the compound to fix a woman's gate into her home. She is dying in the hospital of cancer and her 4 children are at home alone. The oldest continues to pass out and no one knows why. Lori is a nurse and she was to check her vitals, etc. She suspects malnutrition, but of course, there could be so many other reasons for it. As she was in the home, she saw some kind of meat in a pot - raw and not refrigerated. There four chickens running around the home that kept knocking the lid off the pot and eating the raw meat. The kids would shoo away the chickens and put the lid back on the pot. There were four beds in the home and the chickens were running all over them and you can just imagine what else. The gate ended up being just a sheet of metal - which is all that protects them at night. God is definitely watching over them for safety! After fixing the gate, they used a pick ax to cut down weeds that had turned into small trees - the neat thing was that the kids got the neighborhood kids together and they took the weeds and used them as horses to gallop around the street. The street was dirt with lots of potholes and some "kind of liquid" running down the middle. Bobby is considering throwing away his sneakers instead of bringing them home.
Dan, Trent and a new friend of ours, Amy, headed to "Squatters Village" yesterday to interview some of the people for the Pastor Trent has befriended. Hopefully the Pastor will make a video to share with his congregation some of the ministries taking place within the village. The interview was about how the church was helping them survive. There are many gangs within the village and an older boy who was from the church was hanging out with the younger boys (ages 9-12) keeping them occupied to keep them off the streets - Praise God for this young man!
Many of the heads of the children we see at the school and in the surrounding villages are misshapen. This is because the moms don't pick up the babies so the babies do nothing but lay. This happens particularly when the babies are "disabled" or mentally challenged. This occurs frequently due to the high incident rate of incest. It just breaks your heart!!! There are a lot of mission teams that come to this area, yet it's never enough, but we must not give up or be overwhelmed. We must pray - pray - pray and follow God's direction for where He wants our love and action. We are here to represent Him and we will do so no matter what danger or obstacle seems to stand in our way.
Yesterday the paint crew finished their work and as a reward...we get to dig ditches today. The cabinet crew will finish the cabinets today, but will not be able to varnish as it's too windy. It's the dry season now and there is a lot of dust and wind. The dust gets into everything! The bike rake crew got promoted to laying wire into open ditches (surrounded by PVC piping, of course), as that became the more urgent need. School starts next week and they should have about 350+ kids at the Christian School. This is a large source of income for the Home and enrollment numbers are down from 400 last year. Some are not enrolling their kids this year because they're unemployed. Some are unemployed because their job was to assembler or sew products for the US. With the US economy down, orders are down and there is no work for them. Such a vicious cycle and for us, we can still eat while the economy goes awry but for Guatemalans, it is detrimental and a matter of survival.
Larry, Lori, and Bobby left the compound to fix a woman's gate into her home. She is dying in the hospital of cancer and her 4 children are at home alone. The oldest continues to pass out and no one knows why. Lori is a nurse and she was to check her vitals, etc. She suspects malnutrition, but of course, there could be so many other reasons for it. As she was in the home, she saw some kind of meat in a pot - raw and not refrigerated. There four chickens running around the home that kept knocking the lid off the pot and eating the raw meat. The kids would shoo away the chickens and put the lid back on the pot. There were four beds in the home and the chickens were running all over them and you can just imagine what else. The gate ended up being just a sheet of metal - which is all that protects them at night. God is definitely watching over them for safety! After fixing the gate, they used a pick ax to cut down weeds that had turned into small trees - the neat thing was that the kids got the neighborhood kids together and they took the weeds and used them as horses to gallop around the street. The street was dirt with lots of potholes and some "kind of liquid" running down the middle. Bobby is considering throwing away his sneakers instead of bringing them home.
Dan, Trent and a new friend of ours, Amy, headed to "Squatters Village" yesterday to interview some of the people for the Pastor Trent has befriended. Hopefully the Pastor will make a video to share with his congregation some of the ministries taking place within the village. The interview was about how the church was helping them survive. There are many gangs within the village and an older boy who was from the church was hanging out with the younger boys (ages 9-12) keeping them occupied to keep them off the streets - Praise God for this young man!
Many of the heads of the children we see at the school and in the surrounding villages are misshapen. This is because the moms don't pick up the babies so the babies do nothing but lay. This happens particularly when the babies are "disabled" or mentally challenged. This occurs frequently due to the high incident rate of incest. It just breaks your heart!!! There are a lot of mission teams that come to this area, yet it's never enough, but we must not give up or be overwhelmed. We must pray - pray - pray and follow God's direction for where He wants our love and action. We are here to represent Him and we will do so no matter what danger or obstacle seems to stand in our way.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Zoo with the Kids
Yesterday we were able to take the kids on a field trip to the zoo. Only those who have had good discipline ratings were allowed to go so that narrowed it to 12 kids. We had so much fun with them and laughed at them doing the animal sounds at each cage to get the animals to respond. The Howler Monkey was the most fun with boys trying so hard to get that monkey to howl - but alas it was lunch time for the monkey and that was his priority. In Guatemala it is so much easier to see the animals. The fences are about three feet high in the areas where the animals are down low and but there is only a few feet between you and the animal. We were hoping Dan's hat wouldn't fly into one of the lion cages as none of us were going after it...we did tell him we may go after him if he fell in...:). We then took them to McDonalds and a merry go round in a local mall. McDonalds tastes just the same but it's an outing when you go there - for middle class it would be like going to Red Lobster.
The mall we visited was very posh and expensive in every way. Marble and glass - fancy lights and nice furniture. There were many American stores there but there were few patrons. One wonders how the mall five floor sustains itself.
On Tuesday we took a trip to a market in Antiqua. We went high into the mountains to get to the town and saw homes that you and I would not allow our dogs to live in. The mountains are steep but lush. We saw plots of land dug into the mountain for farming. There are still large trees within the farming areas so the workers can tie themselves to the trees so they don't fall down the side of the mountain. Many are killed each year. We went past a "squatter's village" where one of the past President's wives gave the land to the people so hundred flocked for a piece of land that is about as big as some of our garages. They built their homes out of tin or cardboard or whatever they could find. No electricity or sewer or water was provided. Some of them now have electricity. The strangest thing is that those people will come to their jobs dressed and clean as you and I. They are prideful of how they look - they may only have a few items of clothing, but many of them seem to keep themselves looking beautiful. They use stones to wash their clothes and their "whites" are whiter than a whole bottle of straight Clorox could get my son's socks clean.
The market place was quite a sight. Hundreds of vendors that you have to barter with. You never pay what they ask. Most of them speak enough English to barter with and if you're not comfortable then you walk away and go to another vendor. Of course, there is a lot of pick-pocketing and crime going on within the market, but it was interesting to see the native people who, by the way, are much shorter than we are. They watched us carefully to see if we would pull out piles of money or just little amounts - you can never trust us Gringos :-). The market held many bright colored fabrics, quilts, blankets, pocketbooks, scarves, carved items, hammocks, small trinkets, clothing, etc. but not much pottery. The booths are small - maybe 8' by 8' and literally packed with items. The streets of Antiqua were cobblestone and very bumpy - almost made us carsick. I don't see many older people around but noticed that the younger generation and older generation with return your smile while those in their 50's seem to give us the "evil eye" (probably not, but they are definitely not as welcoming).
One of the staff members said to me yesterday that they need to be careful that they don't try to "save someone" who really doesn't need saving. With our baseline of our culture as all we know, we tend to feel pity and want to help those who are worse off than us. But many of those folks are in a great place spiritually. The US is becoming one of the richest mission field due to our spiritual famine. While we're gathering more to have a comfortable life, we're neglecting Who it really came from. Think about that - it's tough to wrap your mind around but if you really think through it honestly, I think you can at least acknowledge truth in it.
Some of the people seem overweight here, but it is definitely because of the beans, rice and tortillas that is mainstay of their diet.
-A servant
The mall we visited was very posh and expensive in every way. Marble and glass - fancy lights and nice furniture. There were many American stores there but there were few patrons. One wonders how the mall five floor sustains itself.
On Tuesday we took a trip to a market in Antiqua. We went high into the mountains to get to the town and saw homes that you and I would not allow our dogs to live in. The mountains are steep but lush. We saw plots of land dug into the mountain for farming. There are still large trees within the farming areas so the workers can tie themselves to the trees so they don't fall down the side of the mountain. Many are killed each year. We went past a "squatter's village" where one of the past President's wives gave the land to the people so hundred flocked for a piece of land that is about as big as some of our garages. They built their homes out of tin or cardboard or whatever they could find. No electricity or sewer or water was provided. Some of them now have electricity. The strangest thing is that those people will come to their jobs dressed and clean as you and I. They are prideful of how they look - they may only have a few items of clothing, but many of them seem to keep themselves looking beautiful. They use stones to wash their clothes and their "whites" are whiter than a whole bottle of straight Clorox could get my son's socks clean.
The market place was quite a sight. Hundreds of vendors that you have to barter with. You never pay what they ask. Most of them speak enough English to barter with and if you're not comfortable then you walk away and go to another vendor. Of course, there is a lot of pick-pocketing and crime going on within the market, but it was interesting to see the native people who, by the way, are much shorter than we are. They watched us carefully to see if we would pull out piles of money or just little amounts - you can never trust us Gringos :-). The market held many bright colored fabrics, quilts, blankets, pocketbooks, scarves, carved items, hammocks, small trinkets, clothing, etc. but not much pottery. The booths are small - maybe 8' by 8' and literally packed with items. The streets of Antiqua were cobblestone and very bumpy - almost made us carsick. I don't see many older people around but noticed that the younger generation and older generation with return your smile while those in their 50's seem to give us the "evil eye" (probably not, but they are definitely not as welcoming).
One of the staff members said to me yesterday that they need to be careful that they don't try to "save someone" who really doesn't need saving. With our baseline of our culture as all we know, we tend to feel pity and want to help those who are worse off than us. But many of those folks are in a great place spiritually. The US is becoming one of the richest mission field due to our spiritual famine. While we're gathering more to have a comfortable life, we're neglecting Who it really came from. Think about that - it's tough to wrap your mind around but if you really think through it honestly, I think you can at least acknowledge truth in it.
Some of the people seem overweight here, but it is definitely because of the beans, rice and tortillas that is mainstay of their diet.
-A servant
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Third Workday - Monday
Day three turned out to be a "hard labor" day. The paint crew finished the three bedroom apartment by lunchtime and after doing the lunch dishes for 100+ people headed to the ditch digging crew to fill in the ditch which contained the simple sewer lines (which just end up draining into a "field"). The bike rack crew ended up pulling wire through a different ditch located in front of the school. The cabinet crew continued assembling the cabinets and the paint crew will eventually varnish them.
Sheila and Oscar had their birthdays this week and the neat thing is that everyone comes to celebrate and sing happy birthday. There is enough cake for everyone and hugs are plentiful! How awesome is that for an abandoned and abused child - to feel the love of a family and God - what more is there in this life?
As we continue to interact with the children and staff and see more of the Guatemalan people outside of the school, their appears to be such an air of contentment. They have so little, but they aren't "seeking more." They don't continually want - want - want. They have their family, shelter, food, community, church. Unfortunately, there is a 50% unemployment rate, which then increases the crime rate as desperation for food ensues. I truly believe God has blessed this home to use each and every child here to make a difference in this country. There is one young lady which I personally will continue to follow as she wants to be a pediatrician. She begins this journey on Friday, taking 18 classes. The school is confident of her ability and intellect to be successful with her dream and this workload. They will pay for her education as everyone is family here and that is what you would do for your child.
Some of the kids from the school went to another Children's home to help out with needs. That home provided the children with a garbage bag for their belongings and a space on the concrete floor to sleep. BUT, it also provided food and safety for the children. This Home has been so blessed by God through donors who just continue to give without reservation. It is enlightening to see how "frugal" the school is with every penny.
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