My Trip to Guatemala
I'm not sure where to start. So much has inspired and challenged me in the past three or four weeks. But I guess I'll start with my mission trip.
On Spring Break I left with 15 other Northwestern students to go to Guatemala. Last fall when I decided to go on this trip, I only knew one person who was on the team, but now I feel like we're all sort of a family because of our common experience.
We worked with a missionary couple named Dave and Becky at their LifeHomes. They have started three of these LifeHomes, which are sort of like orphanages. These are a refuge for children who have been abandoned, abused, orphaned, and drug-addicted. One of the homes is specifically for children who have HIV or AIDS. The children get to experience the love of Christ in a situation similar to a family.
Much of what we did each day involved simply building relationships with the kids. One of the LifeHomes is for boys ages 11-17. These boys would often help with our work projects after school. We also played soccer with them, had two bonfires with them, and led devotions about the fruit of the Spirit each night. We all miss these boys a lot! It was interesting to try to communicate with them, since we knew very little Spanish and many of them knew very little English. There were a lot of thumb wars and hand-clapping games. We were all impressed that they knew some Switchfoot, DC Talk, and Jars of Clay songs, and our group leader Justin played these on his guitar for us. Some of the boys did know English though, and that was a great help, as one of them was able to translate for us during devotions each night.
I spent several of my days working in the LifeTenderMercies Home, where several children with HIV live. I fell in love with these kids more than any of the others. They just need love so much, and they have so much love to offer.
We also did several work projects while we were there. The girls switched off with painting to complete several rooms. The guys (and sometimes girls) did some electrical work and mixed cement to build some stairs outside and to work on a wall around the property.
We also ministered to the community (and they ministered to us!) through a Vacation Bible School and 2 church visits. We had about 150 kids show up for VBS from the surrounding villages, dressed in their traditional Guatemalan clothes. We sang some songs (in Spanish), did a skit/puppet show and a Bible lesson, helped the kids make bracelets (with fruit beads to remind them of the fruit of the Spirit), and then just hung out with them, playing futbol, or in my case just letting the kids be fascinated with my digital camera. After a while I was able to take advantage of the Duck-duck-goose shirt that I was wearing. I pointed to the ducks and the goose to find out what words to use in order to play the game. It was great fun. One of my favorite parts of VBS were seeing the moms watching their kids. Some of them came and made bracelets for themselves too. I was glad that they were so appreciative of us, and it was good that they heard the gospel too. And my other favorite part was when the kids had to go, almost all of them would say Adios and hug every one of us goodbye. Oh, it was so cute!!
We also visited two churches. At each one, three of us shared testimonies and one shared a sermon (through our translator Roberto). We also sang some songs in English and Spanish. The night before the first church, I was asked to prepare my testimony to share. Somehow I just knew that if God wanted me to get out of my comfort zone, he would have me give my testimony. It actually wasn't bad at all. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I talked about my struggles with lack of confidence and with complacency and encouraged the people to pursue God with all their heart. The other speakers spoke about similar things (though we hadn't planned it) and at the end I think about 20 people came forward to show that they desired a closer relationship with God. It was great to lay our hands on them and pray for them, even if they didn't understand our language as we prayed.
Another thing that meant a lot to me on this trip was the teaching. Just about every morning and every evening, one of the missionaries would spend an hour (or more) teaching us from the Word and from their own testimonies. This was challenging at times, because I was forced to think about what I believe and why I believe it. They are very charismatic in their beliefs, which I am not used to. I was glad that they didn't try to push anything on us, but they told us what they believed and why and told us to search it out for ourselves. This was so good for me! And though since then I have found points of disagreement with things they taught, there was definitely a lot of truth to it, and our whole team benefited a lot from all they taught us. I learned a lot about faith and the Holy Spirit and the power we have as Christians--especially through their many testimonies of healings and other miraculous things they've experienced. (Maybe I can mention some of these later on.)
Every day we were "forced" to spend one hour alone with God. This was so wonderful!! Just sitting on a Guatemalan mountainside away from everything and seeking God and seeking Truth...It was a good time to rejuvenate and draw closer to God, but it also forced me to really dig deep into scripture and decide what I believe. I came back from the trip with a lot of questions, but this has been very good: as I continue to seek answers, I find that God is faithful to give us wisdom and help us understand his word. My time with God was so vital that it was almost a no-brainer by the end of the trip: I needed to spend this time with God every single day. I didn't know if I could accomplish a full hour every day, but I committed to it. The beautiful thing was that 2 days after we got back, we had a chapel speaker here at Northwestern who challenged the students to that very thing: spend an hour each day alone with God. It's so exciting to see that others are being changed, and that we can keep each other accountable.
Speaking of that, the relationships built on this trip were so good! I didn't know any of these people before we signed up for the mission team, but now we are all really good friends. Whenever we see each other (even now, over 2 weeks later) we pretty much freak out and hug each other. I'm so thankful to have these friends (all of whom are upperclassmen that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise), and it's great for us to be able to keep each other accountable so this won't be a mountaintop experience that soon levels out into a valley, but we can stay on fire for God for a long time.
So that's my mission trip...A long post, I know, but there's more to come--Hopefully some pictures and stories next time.
And since I don't have time to tell you all my exciting insights from Desiring God by John Piper, why don't you all just read it for yourselves? :) good stuff
posted by Alyssa Dawn @ 9:27 PM
0 comments
