Category: Guatemala

There is a place in the experience of God’s grace and revelation that you are on “overflow”. At first that sounds like mountain top when you hear it, but overflow today is poured out, overflowing and yet trusting and knowing there is more to come today. The dental team is feeling it physically and emotionally. The teaching teams are feeling it as they encounter needs too great for us to control or fix. In our chaos we are finding peace. In uncertainty we are finding the Spirit moving strongly in us and in our friends at La Toma. It is beyond us and yet, here we are, standing in the middle of what God is doing.

Pastora Myriam is seeing many women in the sessions each morning. Yesterday’s teaching was on reconciliation. Of the 18-20 women attending each day, about 15 of them have never stepped inside this church. They are experiencing God’s grace and love in a place they did not know had it to offer. They are engaging and asking for special prayers and ministry. Forgiveness was overflowing yesterday and with laying on of hands, oil and love…Sherri, Bonnie, Myriam and BJ witnessed the Spirit at work.

In the school our lesson for 4-5-6 grades is focused on Integrity; Respect and Trust in God. We are using the story of Joseph and I think we will add Esther today. We sing for a while (thanks to the amazing trio of Michael, Ansley and Olivia), then they tell us about their family and then we tell them the story. The next part is a melodrama where they act out the story. Ansley (by the grace of God) had a towel of many colors so the “coat” was easy to find. The craft is a bracelet with 3 beads (standing for integrity, respect, trust) and after the children make it we place it on them and say the words as a blessing of God upon them. After all of that we ask them to write a prayer to God for their family and we collect those prayers. We will divide them up at the end of the week and take them into our prayer time.

Yesterday Olivia led our devotion with Proverbs 15:15. It was beautiful and it is what we see. The people of Guatemala are richest where we are poorest. We often measure our happiness, contentment and peace by our material wealth. They measure it all in relationships, family and faith. We all are in need on earth. For the basic of water, food, shelter….AND equally basic: Love and grace from one human to another. Our creator made us this way. This mission has been a reminder to us and possibly even to the community of La Toma that we must see one another as Jesus did those he encountered…truly SEE, listen and share the love that every soul needs so much.

My prayer today is that we will all receive a glimpse of that love before we lay down to sleep tonight. Let it be.

We had the privilege of going into homes for stove installation on Saturday. It is humbling to be invited inside, to see the cultures clash – we with our cameras, the people with their joy. Children with their hands outstretched to give whatever they have, we with our awkward and eager hearts wanting to connect.

The stove is the excuse around which we all gather. We stumble across the language and cultural barriers. Sometimes the stumble is full of grace. Other times it is painfully wrong. And the Spirit of God stands right there with us and covers all of our gaps when and if LOVE is the primary motive. This is important teaching. “love as I have loved you”. However, we cannot love carelessly. We must love – as Jesus loved – with humility, with respect, with grace.

As Pastor Felix led us to each home and closed our prayers with his pastoral prayer we could feel the movement of the Spirit with us. It is strong. Pastora Myriam’s presence with us is a blessing and a gift. It is nice to hear Julio and Angellie speaking with the translators and locals with ease. It is nice to have more of the cultural perspective added to our conversations.

The culture, learning, leadership and love of the church are finding an expression in the mural that is emerging right before our eyes. The artist is our Guatemalan friend, Chester Zepeda.

Chester is joined by a team of joyful painters, encouragers and helpers. Laura’s love and gift of art is shining through like the sun as she works with Chester and his original finds life. The children come and say, “los montanas! Rio! Café!” Julie is encouraging and observing with her social worker mind and her open heart. Terry is finding JOY in painting that he never knew existed. And Ansley and Angellie are taking on the futbol (soccer) pros in the school courtyard. For me, this is a picture of I Corinthians 12.

Indeed one body with many gifts. I see this at work in this team hour by hour, day after day.

On Saturday morning Pastor Myriam led our devotional with a powerful message grounded in Matthew 25:14-29. She encouraged us to give out everything the Holy Spirit gives us each day so we will be empty enough to receive what the Spirit brings to give us the next day too. It is receiving, sharing and emptying that keeps the fullness of God’s presence filling us and flowing through us. Every day.

Mario (Pastor Felix’s son-in-law) loved the mural too and picked up a brush and joined in the creation!

The team has safely arrived….all 17 of them!  This is an answer to prayer. They made the connection in Miami with a gracious pilot holding for a moment for the last one to take his seat.  Isn’t grace in a moment of need so nice?  I was glad to see them all arrive.

We have the hospitality of two Guatemalan cooks with us for this time: Felipe and Aurora. Felipe is a regular cook for many teams and this will be our first experience with her. Aurora is the wife of Pastor Felix and a friend.  So we will be eating Guatemalan food cooked the way it would be in any local home. The hope is that our interactions and experiences will teach us more about the people here.  As relationships form, we anticipate discovering what God is doing here and how we can support and join that movement.

Tonight we will have “orientation” and the leaders of the VIM (Volunteers in Mission) of the Metodista Iglesia will speak with the team.  And I suspect we will all fall asleep with thankfulness and a touch of exhaustion. This always makes for a good sleep:)

We had a good visit with Beatriz earlier in the day.  Her family is doing very well. She took us by the John Wesley School and we were able to see the preparations for an upcoming feria (fair/festival) in June.  The teachers and children were making all of their decorations out of recyclable materials…plastic bottles, paper, etc.  Creativity in motion. It was good.  The principal and Beatriz are going to come meet the team next week.

We also received news from Pastor Felix today that his dear friend, and the friend of many in the USA, Andres, died 15 days ago. He was very sick when I was here in March. I am so thankful for that visit, and knew at the time that it would likely be the last.  Andres has been a partner and friend for Pastor Felix in this community as they did many projects together.  The two of them, along with Norris Allen of Dickson, TN,  have led projects that changed communities forever. Andres lived an incredible life; we were all blessed to know him.

There is a part of me that still wants assess the worth of day by the tangible accomplishments of production. I am aware (a little painfully so) that “production” does not always include what Jesus did with his 3 years of ministry. He planted seeds with his teaching. He healed those who were sick. He took time to hear the stories of those who had been forgotten. He made time for prayer and fed the hungry. Pray that we will be able to follow that way of “production”, in whatever ways it comes. And give thanks along with us, for the safe arrival of the team and the privilege of being here. May we be something of the Light and Love that Christ is to us.

Yesterday I wrote about friendship and today that story continues…though it is through a different relationship. Howard (a Guatemala mission team member of many years) emailed me this morning and asked that I visit someone here in Guatemala whose mother had just died.  Beatriz is known to many who have been coming here for so long.  Howard’s request changed the course of the day and the experience has left me with my heart wide open and my spirit full of gratitude.

We went to the community where Beatriz lives and asked in the neighborhood. The first man we asked knew exactly where to go so he hoped in the car with us. We pulled up to a house with a large black bow fixed to the front – a clear sign of mourning.  There are two periods of specific mourning and ritual in the Catholic tradition and as it turns out this is the day before the first period of “9 days” are complete.  Since her mother’s death, 8 days ago, Beatriz and her sister, father and other family have been in much grief.  The funeral and cemetery services are complete. An altar has been set up in the home and today everyone will come (300-400 people) to pay their respects and to eat a traditional meal.  After the 9 days are complete, another 40 day period of mourning is observed with prayer, wearing black and reflecting.  This is the tradition.

.  

Beatriz was glad to see us and I shared the greetings, love and prayers of Howard.  She shared stories of her mom and life.  She talked about the friendships and sponsorships of people in the USA who have come with mission teams for years; people who have sponsored her education and the education of her sister’s children.  These ties run deep and wide.  It is humbling to hear her speak of the people who have so deeply touched her life.

Friends have come to cook the food which will be served at 1pm and then again a special meal (not left-overs) will be served in the evening. The love and care of friends and family when someone transitions from earth is beautiful.

I was not expecting what happened next.  As Beatriz was telling the stories of the past 8 days she also shared that her cousin died unexpectedly yesterday.  He was 17. A fever…an illness…a death.  As she was showing me around and introducing us to the friends cooking the meal, she asked if I wanted to go see her cousin.  I said yes.

The home was just down the path and when we arrived the area was full. Many children and youth were standing shoulder to shoulder in the crowd. People were spilling out everywhere and then I noticed the casket in a room. We went in.  In a matter of seconds I found myself standing at the casket of a 17 year old Guatemalan teenager and his mother was at my side crying tears that pierced my heart.  It was only a few more seconds until I could feel that same sense of grief as we once stood over my brother’s casket crying giant tears…when he was 16 years old.  Death strikes – hearts break open and all the love in the world seems unable to console.  But it does.  Somehow in that horrific pain of ripping away – there is grace enough just to breath until the next moment. And really, that is what it is …just getting from this breath to the next breath…and repeat until you can find space for something else.

I don’t know why God would allow me the privilege to visit Beatriz today – to give her love from friends far away. I don’t know why I would be allowed to stand with a grieving mother at her son’s casket in a foreign country where the only language I could offer her was tears.   But after some moments passed I remembered that I did have something to say.  (Thank God for translators).  “When my brother was 16 he died in an accident. It broke my mother’s heart. It broke my heart too.  What I want to tell you is that you are going to be able to live and even have joy again…but for now, let the strength of your family and friends carry you for as long as you need them.”

The kingdom of God is rich. It is rich in our sorrow as well as our celebration. It is rich in our weakness as well as our strength.  I am blessed to encounter many riches of the Spirit, and usually in the most ordinary of days.  And with every encounter something changes deep within my soul.  It is a good change; it is a change that transforms me.   Let it be.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  –  Matthew 5:4

I love the sounds of early morning wherever I am. I love the first views of the day, the songs of birds and the movements of life. In Guatemala there are some distinct greetings that the day is beginning. When I hear them in my sleep I know exactly where I am and even something about the day. But it varies from place to place.
In the rural area it is the rooster crowing. I have heard him several times since I arrived. Here at the Bambu it is the loud pulling of trucks as they scale the hill driving past the hotel. And everywhere birds sing: “buenos dias!” and everywhere in the very early morning there are firecrackers to celebrate the birthday of someone who is loved.  That’s right…loud, obnoxious firecrackers ususally at 4 or 5 in the morning.  I have finally come to appreciate even this. Buenos Dias – it is a new day!