Day 3: Reality Check

The blogger is struggling a bit with exhaustion at night, so I am trying to blog earlier today. I will send this as soon as I am able to attach photos.

Missionary Carlos showed up this morning wearing a 2004 Trinity Spartans Basketball Camp shirt. Brian Anders gave some to us last year to be used as Christmas gifts.  Love it!

It has been an extraordinary day.  The day began with devotions on the roof with the entire ministry...  Ginny and Kevin, the eight Guatemalans and 17 of us under a warm Guatemalan sky. Picture it: 27 plastic molded chairs and stools in circle with active volcanoes in the blue background. Jim U. volunteered to be the subject of an object lesson on God's love for us despite our sins and failings.  The young Guatemalan missionaries always lead potent devotions in English, Spanish and Spanglish.  It is a joy to renew friendships with these brothers and sisters, and  we are equally thrilled to expose our newest team members to these Guatemalan role models.  We can serve because of their call to serve and ability to keep us safe each day.  Ginny, Kevin and the eighth Guatemalans are a privilege to work with and role models for all of us.

Trinity with Only A Child Ministry

Our first stop today was a ministry for street boys called Only a Child.  Trinity's eighth graders are acquainted with Only a Child by way of the boxes they receive before eighth grade graduation each year.  The boxes help Bostonian George Leger provide employment and support for street boys and young men who desire a better life... housing, education, a job in the carpentry shop, and a shot at a future in a Christian home.  George's story is riveting. Originally a pastry chef from Boston, he found himself called to Guatemala in his mid-thirties after reading a story in a Boston news paper about a homeless, Guatemalan teen who did not survive the streets of Guatemala City.  Twenty-one years later, George continues to do the difficult work set before him with humble dignity.  We met the boys, had a chance to ask questions, hear their stories, tour the carpentry shop, and just get a sense of the struggles and successes each boy has faced.  Humbling.  It is always humbling here.

Scrambling for Recyclables at the Dump

Our next stop was the Guatemala City garbage dump. The dump is central to the ministry's story.  Many of you know the story.  Working in the dump is literally the only job available to many Guatemalans of Mayan decent.  Mayan communities were decimated during the country's civil war (1960-1996),  and those farmers and artisans who did survive were forced into the city to find work.  Most spoke one of 22 Mayan dialects; most did not speak Spanish.  It was the beginning of a cycle of extreme poverty that plagues Guatemala today.  Many of the Guatemalan missionaries have strong family connections to this dump.  Their commitment to serve their own people and the faith they are determined to share speaks volumes to each of us.  As we stood high above the dump from a municipal cemetery, we witnessed hundreds eking out a living by rummaging through human waste and refuse in order to find items to recycle.  Again, humbling.

After rice, beans and tortillas at the mission house, we again headed out, this time to do home visits.  As I have written in previous years, it is a life changing experience to be welcomed into a shanty to talk and pray with its residents.  Half of us went to La Liberated and the other half to Sandra Colom.  Both are squatters areas outside the garbage dump. It is very difficult to capture this experience in words.  It would take sounds and smells... virtual reality to even come close. We primarily visit women surrounded by lots of children.  Their stories are varied and beyond heartrending.  Each of us shared verses, words of encouragement, and prayers.  My group's last visit was with Maria Jose (below) who said she had lost her desire to live.  On her dirt floor, in a corrugated metal shanty, we prayed, we cried, we read, we hugged, and we left feeling we had been in the right place at the right time.  Please pray for her.

There are five more stories today just as moving as Maria Jose's.  There are no words except we have been blessed beyond understanding to be here together to grow our faiths individually and as a family.  Thank you for allowing us to be the face of Trinity in Guatemala.

Love and blessings,
Lauren, Amanda, Kara, Riley, Alaina, Olivia, Bruce, Jim, Jim, Nate, Debbie, Sue, Jenna, Emily, Emma, Kelsey, and Sally