A Week in the Mountains

This past week Cassie and I went along with a group to La Avanzada, a village near La Union 2 hours away from here up in the mountains. This is the village that Cassie had gone to two years ago so she was super pumped to go back and see her kiddos and I was excited to go along, meet a new team, and visit a new village. Little did I know how amazing this week would turn out to be.

We went along with Divine Shepherd, a church that has been working in that village for the past four years. We were pretty excited to find out that it was a student trip so almost everyone that went was in college so it was a lot of fun to hang out with more people our age. We spent the week doing a variety of different things, some that we had planned on going into the trip and some that God revealed to us while we were there, sometimes hours or minutes before. I don't know how anyone could go there and doubt that God is alive and active as the results of His work are everywhere. God is working through Divine Shepherd to do some incredible things. God has worked through them in the past to teach the children the Gospel message through song, build strong relationships with community members, provide incaparina through sponserships, (a vitamin drink given students who may have nothing else to eat), and spread His word giving out Bibles. But God clearly isn't done there yet and while we were there, the leaders of CALMS and Divine Shepherd got to meet with the village leaders to plan for the future. The village leaders asked them to help them train others to lead a youth group, as investing in the youth is extremely important in this community in order to make changes. This was the idea of the community which means that they will be more invested and dedicated to make it work, they just need help getting started. What an awesome opportunity that has the potential to bring about such huge change for the better. 

The whole group

One of the things we did while there was visit the schools in the village. A long-term missionary there, Charles Cohen has been working in the schools teaching them through music. It was awesome to be able to praise God with them and to see the faith of a child as they sang and prayed. We colored with them, taught them some english words, did our best to read them bible story books in spanish, and just hung out with them trying to show God's love to them through giving them love and attention, high fives, smiles, and lots of hugs! As I watched the tiny preschoolers sing, I couldn't help but see their potential and think about what they could grow up to be. Through this foundation of faith God could be molding community leaders that could bring others to faith and help to cause radical changes in La Avanzada. Its amazing how both therapeutic and inspiring the joy and faith of a child can be. 

Another thing that we got to do was help to fulfill God's command of feeding the hungry as we got to take part in serving chicken soup to the community. While there an opportunity arose to finish constructing a stove so part of our group did that. During house visits, one of the groups visited an 86 year old woman named Felicita. They discovered that she has severe gangrene on her toe and has been living with the infection for months, no longer able to stand the pain. Our leaders felt the Holy Spirit move them to take action and were able to transport Felicita to Zacapa to get medical treatment. While there she found out that he toe needs to be amputated so please keep her in your prayers! Another opportunity we were given was to learn to make bread from some of the local ladies. It was a really great way to build relationships through doing something that is a part of their everyday lives and they were very patient even though I was struggling and dropped an entire roll on the ground, couldn't figure out how to knead it, and accidentally left several of my hairs in the dough for them to pick out. Afterwards, we got a chance to pray with them and later in the week we got to teach them how to make chocolate chip cookies.

Standing in line for soup

My favorite part of the trip was doing house visits. Miguel informed us that there are 110 houses in the village and that we were going to visit all of them which was pretty overwhelming, especially because these houses are not perfectly lined up in a neighborhood but spread out all over the mountain separated by dense jungle. The only way to go to some of these is tiny paths that are muddy and super slippery because of all of the rain. I couldn't believe how kind and welcoming everyone was to let us into their home. I would never let a bunch of foreigners into my house if they just showed up at my door at my house in the middle of nowhere. We gave each of them a picture frame with a picture and a bible verse inside, Romans 6:23. We would explain the verse and the picture and then pray with the family.

The absolute best thing ever was when we would be praying for them and they would be praying out loud at the same time in spanish. Most of the time they were thanking and praising God and sometimes thanking and praying for us. In those moments I felt the Holy Spirit and was blown away by the unity we shared being brothers and sisters in Christ. It was so encouraging to hear them praise God despite their circumstances. Many of their living conditions are unlike anything I've ever seen, houses made of mud, sticks, tarps, and corrugated rusty metal. None has electricity or running water and many were tucked away far in the mountains. I have no idea how they managed to even bring up materials there to build their houses. I was dead from walking up the path once and here they use it every single day to walk to school, carry laundry, or food, go to work, etc. But regardless of this, they were praising God for who He is and who we are in Him. All too often I find myself praising God because of all of the things He has blessed me with yet I forget to thank Him for the MOST important thing, which is sending His son to save us and for being all powerful and all knowing. On our last few house visits, a few little boys tagged along. During the prayer, we heard them talking and just as I looked up to shush them, I realized that their eyes were closed, their little foreheads furrowed and rather than talking they too were praying and repeating everything that the translator was saying in his prayer. The sight brought tears to my eyes.

On another note, we stayed at cement community building where we created a little camp inside setting up tents in order to keep the nasty bugs and massive moths out of our faces. For those of you that know me well you know that moths are in my top 5 list of things I hate most in this world so this was just one way that God decided to stretch me this week. However, it was actually a lot of fun staying in that building and roughing it a bit and being in such close proximity really created a community atmosphere. I was able to get to know everyone really well and immediately felt like I was part of the group because they were all so welcoming. I forgot that I hadn't known all of them more than a few days.

Home sweet home for the week

Another interesting aspect of the trip was getting to hold and make friends with some of the poor creatures that I would later consume for dinner. The first was a chicken that Miguel so kindly brought to our living site and proceeded to slaughter in the boys shower. That was an exciting evening to say the least. He made some chicken soup that was actually pretty delicious but I did avoid the heart, blood, and other various organs that were included. The second animal that I befriended was an armadillo. This one I was a little more hesitant about but when in Guatemala...! I felt so bad for it because the poor little thing was shaking when we held it, not a good way to enjoy your last few hours of life. I still can't believe I ate it, the thing I mostly struggled with was seeing it's scaly little feet and toenails sitting on the plate. But it really wasn't too bad, it kind of tasted like pork, not that this means I will be regularly eating armadillo from now on. Now, I'm just hoping signs of leprosy don't start to show up!

The week in La Avanzada was an experience unlike any other and I feel extremely blessed that God allowed me to be a part of it. I had been praying that I would more obviously see glimpses of God working here. Sometimes, I'm kind of dumb and miss seeing those unless they are right directly in front of me but God truly answered my prayer this week and allowed me to see so many instances that were no doubt examples of His love and power. As a fellow team member brought up in our last night of debriefing the greatest thing you can do is love, love God, love where you are at, love what He is doing, and love those around you. This week gave me a chance to really experience and learn that is the greatest commandment.

 In addition, I witnessed genuine joy in La Avanzada as well as in the rest of my time here in Guatemala. I've always considered myself to be a pretty joyful person but happiness and joy are different and my heart is not always as joyful as it should be. These people here possess true joy because they have found the most important place to invest all of their hope and trust in, which is God alone. All too often, we search for other places in our lives to place all our time, efforts, and emphasis on whether that be relationships, materialistic things, our dreams and goals, or even our families. And while those things are not bad things to invest in, I often forget to ultimately love and serve God above all else which is where you really find true joy.