Mission Trip To Guatemala

Introduction

As I was thinking about writing this post, it was hard to figure out where to start to digest the experience that was Guatemala. As I was writing last week, I was on the first leg of my journey to Guatemala. As I write this, I am on the final leg of my journey back home, and I am excited to be headed home. It was an incredible trip, and there was so much that I learned and got to experience while out there.

Day 1

We arrived in Guatemala late Saturday night. We were picked up in a school bus that had been repurposed as a local transportation vehicle. The outside of the van was decorated in all sorts of graffiti designs similar to what I would expect to see on train cars in America. We got into the bus, the inside illuminated in a red glow from the LED lights lining the ceiling of the van.

After we will loaded up, we were off to our final destination, the New Life Children’s Home. As we drove through the night city, there was little to see as much of the city was densely packed, leaving little to see as we drove. Our driver, a seasoned Guatemalan, weaved through the chaotic traffic flying through what I thought were stop signs and traffic lights. In the coming days, I would learn that Guatemalan traffic laws are seen as more of a suggestion than rules to follow. I asked our host about this, and he explained that the traffic laws are not enforced, and so they are simply not followed. So can you either adapt or get run over.

Day 2

The morning of our second day and our first full day in Guatemala was Sunday, so we all woke up early and packed up to head to church. Once again, we all packed up in a school bus converted to public transportation, and we left for church. Again I was blown away by the driving style of the Guatemalan people. When someone says bumper-to-bumper traffic in Guatemala, they mean it literally. Traffic packed so tightly that you’d be lucky to have space to walk between vehicles. And if you let more room than that between two vehicles, then you’d very quickly find a motorcycle swooping in and splitting lanes.

Days 3, 4, 5

These days were packed and exhausting; we would work all day, trimming trees and doing all forms of groundskeeping during the day, and then the evenings we would spend hanging out with the children, sharing meals with them, and attempting to communicate as best as we would despite the language barrier. Having heard the stories of some of the children and hearing the horror of their stories was truly heartbreaking. Hearing stories of the sweet innocent children who were the victims of all forms of abuse, physical, emotional, mental, and sexual, was enough to make you just want to cry.

I was told the story of one of the boys there who was literally kept as the family dog. He would be tied up and only allowed dog food. I was told the story of one of the girls there who had been “rented out” by her own family to make money. Some of the children there had seen their parents publicly executed or been witnesses to the death of their parents and loved ones. Others were used in satanic rituals, where people were literally seeking to make a pact with the devil.

The words I write here can not do justice to the stories of these children, who, despite their suffering and hardships, often still had the ability to love and laugh with us while we were there. These precious children, over the course of the week, attached to many of us. All they wanted was someone to love them and who they could love in return!

Some of the children would be guarded as they know the pattern; we, the “gringos,” the “North Americans,” would come to visit and then leave again shortly thereafter. And so some saw no point in attempting to befriend us; we would be just another person who would come and then leave their life, and I can honestly say I don’t blame them. But as a whole, even those who were guarded, if you would simply love them and attempt to connect and love them, they would usually reciprocate.

Day 6

Our day of being a tourist in Guatemala was spent touring the city of Antigua, where we visited an old convent building. We explored and saw the beauty of an old city filled with history. We saw from a distance a minor eruption of one of the region’s many volcanoes, sending ash plumbs into the sky like some great giant blowing out a cloud of smoke from a smoking pipe. The beauty of Guatemala is seen in its natural environment, with exotic flora unfamiliar to a Texan.

We visited a coffee plantation seeing the history of how it became a multi-billion dollar global export. We learned the story of chocolate and how it was discovered and processed. There was so much that we saw and learned that, in certain moments, it felt unreal. I felt as though I must be walking in a staged scene. The incredible beauty of the country, known by some as “The Land of Eternal Spring,” was something I have a hard time articulating well.

Day 7

Our final full day in Guatemala was spent working though we only did a half day of work, and at that point, we were all exhausted from a week of working and playing. That evening during our evening meal, we had a special moment to reflect on the week’s events, and we and the children were given a chance to speak on our experience and speak to the children. It was an emotional evening as many of the children got up and shared their gratitude for us coming out and serving. Over and over, they thanked us for coming out and leaving our families to spend time with them.

As I listened to each of them share their experience of our visit, the thing that stuck out was how much these children craved to have a family, to have a mother and father who they could run home to and who would love them. I learned that there used to be many children who American parents adopted, but eventually, this had to be stopped as this created an underground racket for kidnapping and selling of children for adoption.

Day 8

As we left Saturday morning at 3:30 am, I found myself reflecting on my experience and trying to organize my thoughts, and figuring out how to write them out was something that took me a while as there was and still is so much to unpack. My heart breaks for these children, and pray I will keep a soft heart and continually remember to pray on their behalf.

As I landed back in Lubbock on Saturday evening, I also finished reading through “In Order To Live” by Yeomi Park, a book I started at the beginning of our trip. It was poetic to close the book as I sat on a bench at the Lubbock airport, awaiting my ride that would take me home.

I often complain about so many things, and I often forget how very blessed I am and how God has blessed me beyond measure. I often come before God, asking Him for more and more, thinking my life is so hard or feeling as though I deserve something. I come before God asking for the things I don’t have rather than just being grateful for the countless blessings I DO have. I was struck by my own audacity to ask anything else of God when I have so so much already. How dare I ask for anything else! And yet God lovingly and patiently continues to bless me and answer my prayers. We are all His children and whom He loves no matter where in the world we live, and He loves to give us all good gifts. None of us deserve any gift from Him, none of us have ever deserved anything from Him, and yet He gives. I wrote briefly last week about my failure to be grateful, and today as I write this, I pray that I can and have learned to be ever grateful for all I have been given and blessed with.

I pray this post finds each of my readers well, and I hope I was able to paint just a little of the picture of my trip to Guatemala.