Hello all! I am glad to say that God brought me and everyone else back safe and sound from Guatemala. I just wanted to share with you all everything that happened on the trip. Most of the group left really early (3 a.m.!) the morning of Friday, March 16. I, however, was in the group that left on Saturday—at a much more decent hour, at 12:30 in the afternoon. We had smooth travel, and we arrived in Guatemala late that night (about 9), so we were shown our sleeping accommodations—mats made out of bamboo spread out around a campfire. Just kidding. It was actually quite comfortable beds at a place called SETECA, which is a seminary type of school.
At breakfast the next day (Sunday), I was introduced to the chocolaty spread and rich goodness of Nutella. This sustained me physically throughout the rest of the week. After breakfast, everyone hopped into the vans and 38 some people set out for church. First, we went up to the top floor of the church to help feed some hungry kids breakfast. At first, it was a bit difficult for me to jump in and interact with the kids because of the different language, but soon I was able to relax with the thought of, “Okay, these are just kids. I can do this.”
After that, there was Sunday school and church. One of the songs that was sung was “Yo Tengo un Amigo que Me Ama (I Have a Friend who Loves Me),” which I sort of knew from a VBS that I had gone to when I was a little kid. There were people who translated the message into English, but since I am a predominantly visual/kinesthetic learner, it was very difficult for me to pay attention to what was actually being said.
After church, our big group went to a restaurant called Piccadilly’s. As was the case with dinner each subsequent night, it took what seemed to be a long time for all of the drinks and food to finally arrive. I had to be patient and remember that there were a lot of people in our group, so things were going to be much slower than if I had just gone out to eat with my family. At first, it felt weird having Chinese, seafood, and Mexican food for dinner each night (since it did not feel right on a mission trip), but I learned to enjoy each meal as a time of fellowship and getting to know the people with whom I was serving. (In case anyone thinks we may have been extravagant in our eating habits, our most expensive meal came out to a little bit over $10 a head.)
Each day, we rolled out at about 8:15. We had a variety of different ministries: construction, evangelization, VBS programs for kids, English classes, and a medical clinic. For three days, I was part of the medical clinic. I was in the pharmacy part, so it was sort of like running a concession stand, except I was passing out drugs and not food, and the people did not have to pay for them. There were four “doctors” who would highlight the different medicines needed on a sheet of paper. My job was to find the drugs on the shelf. Then, another person would explain in Spanish the dosage of the drug.
Monday evening, there was a church service for the “Los Peregrinos,” or homeless people. It was mostly men, but some women and children came as well. First of all, there was singing and a devotional that one of our group members, Chuck, gave. After that, our group worked together to pass out food to the people. There was bouncing music being played, so the atmosphere was one of love, joy, and peace.
Wednesday was the team’s free day. Unfortunately, it was also the day that my stomach was acting up. I also had a headache, sore throat, and cough. However, I still felt well enough to go along. We went to Soila and Sylvia’s home (these ladies cooked lunch for all of us each day) in San Antonio. They had many goodies set out for the team to look at and to purchase. After everyone had had a chance to buy souvenirs, we were given a presentation about the culture in Guatemala. Weddings, in particular, were talked about, and part of the group was able to participate in one. The grinding of coffee and weaving was also demonstrated. After the team was done at San Antonio, we went to Antigua, a popular tourist attraction with markets.
On Thursday, people from a beauty school came in to give the locals free haircuts at the church. On Thursday evening, the team went to Mama Carmen’s house, which is sort of like an orphanage. Mama Carmen takes in the kids that are not wanted by anyone else. Many of them have some sort of physical ailment. One thing that was probably a big take-away for me from the trip was when all of us were eating pizza together. I just got this overwhelming feeling that what we were doing—having people from two different countries and languages eat together—was genuine love and fellowship and that we were all God’s people. In response to this realization, I began to hum softly the song “How Great Thou Art.” That was truly an amazing experience for me. The picture below with me and the kid is my favorite one from the trip.
On Friday, I was part of the kids/evangelization team. Since there was so much construction work to do that day, we had been planning on doing the kids ministry near where they were working. However, since many of the kids in that area were in school, the kids/evangelization team ended up working on a project called the Accion de Amor with the construction team. Whenever there’s a mission trip that involves construction, there will always be buckets and assembly lines. We had to move buckets with concrete up to the roof of a building in order to make a floor. In the morning and afternoon, home visits also took place, so I went on both of those. We would give each family a bag of food and ask them if they would like to share a personal testimony or if they had anything for which they would like us to pray. Many of the stories were sad but also encouraging. Abuse of women by their husbands seemed to be a prevalent theme, unfortunately. Friday night, there was a food distribution at the dump. Obviously, not all us could actually pass out the food, so most of us helped with keeping kids occupied while they were waiting in line.
Saturday was known as the “Lord, what were we thinking day?” On that day, there was a big event mainly for children. Over 800 people attended! There were bounce houses, a swimming pool, wordless book bracelets, coloring pages, balloon animals, face painting, and more! In order to feed all the people lunch, our group formed yet another assembly line and passed along plates of food. It took what seemed a long time (maybe 40 minutes), but praise God that there was enough food for everyone! The final event was breaking piñatas—50 of them, and they were the biggest piñatas that I have ever seen! The kids (and even the adults) definitely had a blast!
On Sunday morning, we had an early morning flight. As we left, the question that Dr. Walenciak had posed to us lingered in my mind: “What now?” I had already been to Costa Rica and Jamaica on mission trips, so I had seen poverty before. However, I still left feeling more thankful for hot showers and cafeteria food, since a lot of people do not have those things. If anything, though, I feel that God really told me, “Just trust me with your future,” because so many different questions have been running through my mind lately. Where will I serve this summer? What should I major in? Who should I marry? Or should I marry at all.
Overall, the trip was excellent, and I really do believe that God did some great things through us. I am sure that many seeds were planted, and some seeds were probably watered. Some probably even grew. None of this could have been accomplished without you—my prayer and financial support team. Thank you, so much. All glory to God!
