Eternally Focused

Week 2

That week there was a group from St. Paul’s Lutheran from Decauter, IL working in Gualan so we tagged along with them for a few days. They were building two houses and running a VBS in the afternoon for about 300 kids! After the group left, we were surprised with a trip to the zoo with our friend Nancy and her English students and also got to spend some time hanging out with some friends in La Fragua holding their cute babies! 

One of the houses  being built in Gualan was for Candida, a woman in her 80’s who lives with her daughter. She was so excited for her new home saying she had never imagined that she would actually receive a house like this. The other house was being built for Clara and her five children. One of my favorite things is getting to be a part of the joy filled celebration that comes along with a house dedication. Receiving a CALMS house has the potential to completely change a family’s life. On these special days, the room is filled with a sense of excitement and pure happiness. I love watching the faces of the owners as they cut the ribbon and unlock the door to a brand new home and a new life. 

Even more importantly though, these families are being shown the love of Jesus as the groups do their best to be His hands and feet. Could all of the Guatemalan workers do this themselves and probably be even more efficient than us Americans? Most likely. But if the money was just sent from the U.S. and no one came down to partner with them here to build, no relationships would be formed. I saw a quote the other day that said, “You may be the only Jesus someone ever sees.” You just don’t know how much someone has been exposed to Jesus so it’s important that we try our hardest to show people how much He truly loves them. We give our time and effort in hopes that people are able to at least grasp a bit of how much He really cares about them. The pastor at these dedications told the families not to thank the teams but to thank God primarily because He is the one that made this all possible. How crazy is it that He decides to connect us all in these awesome ways in which He allows us to be the answers to someone else’s prayers who lives thousands of miles away? He knows what we need and allows us to be involved in each other’s at just the right moment.

Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless-cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and He’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything-encores to the end of time. 1 Peter 4:7-11

At VBS, we had the pleasure of meeting this woman, Pancha, who claims that she is 45. ;)

 Everyday she would walk up to each member of the group thanking them for being there, giving them God’s blessings, and telling us that she would see them in Heaven. She was persistent and unrelenting in her efforts to proclaim that Jesus was currently up there preparing a house for her and for the rest of us too. This woman was completely Heaven-minded which gave me the realization that I don’t live in that mindset at all, even though that’s exactly how we are commanded to live here on earth. In Colossians 3:2 it says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Philippians 3:20 says, “But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skills by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.” Pancha is convinced in her eternal home and lives her life based off of that hope. I realize that all too often I invest too much into my life here on earth which actually pretty dumb since this life is only temporary. Instead I should be keeping an eternal focus and living in a way that reflects that there is an eternal, perfect, home with Jesus open for anyone that knows Him. 

Candida and her new house

Candida and her family in front of her new house

Clara and her family at the house dedication with the group

Visiting friends in La Fragua

Surprise trip to the zoo with Nancy's students

Jumbled Thoughts from San Pablo

I can’t believe that it’s already been a week since we got here! I wasn’t really planning on blogging this summer but God is already doing some way cool things here and it just doesn’t seem right not to tell everyone about it. Don’t be expecting an award winning piece of writing these are just a few of my jumbled thoughts from my first week here.

Cassie and I arrived here last Saturday and as soon as we pulled into the boarding school, it immediately just felt like home again. We were talking about how incredibly different it felt than last year. A year ago at this point we were filled with so much uncertainty and fear which has now been replaced with excitement and relief to be back in a place we love.  

We were excited to hear that there was a group going to San Pablo this week and that we got to tag along with them. We were there for a week last summer and fell in love with the village and the people in it so we were eager to be reunited with them. One thing that amazed me this week was being able to witness the strength of relationships built in Christ. It is incredible to see the impact people can have on one another regardless of not seeing each other for a year or even speaking the same language. Though Cassie and I had only been there for a week last year, I was surprised how much it felt as if we had just seen the friends we made there and that we were able to pick up right where we left off. Opportunities were given to help make these relationships stronger and on a deeper level and these could only have happened with God. Kids came running over to us calling us by name (even if it was Jackie Chan) and greeted us with huge hugs everywhere we went.

I know that there is often a negative connotation that goes along with short-term mission trips and at times, I can understand why. However, when these trips are done right and those serving are doing it out of mutual respect and with a heart to follow wherever God is leading them, these trips can be life changing both for those coming to serve and those living in the community. I believe that some mission trips are done out of a desire to check serving off a list in order to make one feel like they have done their good for the week, month, or year, to provide a confidence boost in feeling as though they improved someone else’s life. However, coming to a community for a week and building a house, working in the schools, having a vbs, etc. then leaving without truly investing in the community is not beneficial. Though those are good things, they should be done in order to provide a means to spread God’s love and build relationships as that is the way to project real change. In working with CALMS, they ensure that you are working alongside of community members rather than doing things all yourself and leaving them with no means to continue once you leave. You work with those from the community, knowing that they have much to teach you.

Hales Corners (the church group this week) loves this community well and comes 3-4 times a year. On this particular trip, they provided a dental clinic, did some house visits, and had a vacation bible school in the afternoon for the kids. The people in the village know that they are loved and cared for by this church and because of it, lives are being changed on both ends. With God in the middle of it, we were able to clearly see Him working all around us this week.  Here are a few of my favorite God moments from the week:

VBS- We had about 100 kids show up for VBS this week. Every day we began by singing worship songs which was my favorite part. I just love seeing that innocent trust and faith of a child as they belt out the words while singing to Jesus. The fact that so many of them were participating in singing along just goes to show that they have been going to VBS and/or church long enough to actually learn something which gives me hope and fills me with joy. Kids truly are the future and investing in them is important. Building off a foundation of Christ and growing up in the faith gives them great potential in positively impacting their village in the future.

Every day at VBS it can be a little nuts because there are 100 excited kids at once in a small place. This would be the same with kids regardless of where you were in the world. Kids are kids and with that many, it tends to be a bit chaotic at times. Because they are constantly moving around and because more and more keep coming throughout the day, there is no easy way to get a count of how many are there in order to tell Nilss when he goes to buy the snack. Instead he just has to go with his best guess. On this particular day, I was helping to hand out the snack. We were getting close to running out but then as I got to the last child, I handed them the very last package of cookies. We had EXACTLY enough for every child. Though it may not sound like a big deal, I got chills right away when I realized this because it just shows that God is involved in every single detail of our lives, a fact I tend to forget. He loves his children so much that He cares down to the very last detail, even as small as ensuring that every child receives cookies. What’s even crazier is that this is not the first time I’ve seen this happen but the same thing happened in my trips to La Fragua several times. I guess you could call it a coincidence, but to see this very thing happen three different times seems to me to clearly be God’s hand at work.

House Visits-While on house visits, we would go into someone’s house, chat for a bit and get to know them better, ask if there was anything we could pray for with them, pray, read a bible verse and present them with a bible. We went to one house with a woman who said that her and her family had just started going to church recently. She asked for prayers that they would have strong faith as they continued to grow. When we gave her a bible, she was very grateful and excited. She said that ever since she has been going to church, she has been praying and asking God for a bible because she didn’t have one and He had answered that prayer in us. It’s pretty awesome to see God provide for us through one another. Once again, I am just blown away by the huge puzzle that is God’s plan and the way that we are all intertwined in order to complete it. His plan is WAY over my head but I’m thankful that He allows us to see little glimpses of tiny parts of it.

Those are only two of the many ways I saw God this week. Being removed from all of the daily distractions of being back home, it seems that my eyes can more obviously see Him everywhere and I love that about being here. It’s just what I needed. It’s exciting to see Him lead me and equip me whether that means giving me enough guts to help take out someone’s wisdom teeth or being able to somehow know enough Spanish with Cassie to translate on a house visit when our translator wasn’t there.

Being an American, I tend to want to see results right away and to get answers the second I have a question. One thing I often wonder is why God chose to bring me here this summer. There is nothing that I’m really adding that couldn’t continue without me, in fact a person that speaks Spanish fluently could be a lot more effective than I am on so many levels. But I think that through being here, being re-immersed into this much slower pace life and not having all the answers, God is forcing me to totally lean on Him. He’s also changing my perception of a mission trip as I learn more and more how it looks like to just BE rather than DO. Though I often feel like I’m not adding anything, I’m learning to be open and willing to serve in whatever opportunity I am presented with, which could be spending an entire afternoon just sitting and chatting with someone. I will never be able to see the entirety of what part I play in His plan but I do trust that for some reason, being here is at least aiding a little bit in completing that plan and by that, I’m humbled.

Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works; be alert for signs of his presence. Psalm 105:4

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2