One Month: Church Friends, Rio Dulce, Dorm Students

These are some of the things I’ve been up to the last three weeks.

Kayla, Chelsea (again, these are the daughters of Michael and Rocky Beene, the missionaries I’m working with) and I went on a weekend church retreat for their church in the city, Intimidad con Dios. We didn’t really know what was going on, but we got dropped off by the bus by some boats and hopped on them. They took us 20 minutes down the coast and we landed at a beautiful camp on the beach. So we had a weekend of worshipping God, playing intense group games, and meeting some really cool people!

The really sweet thing about this weekend however was the opportunity to meet passionate young people from Guatemala who are interested in making a difference in their country. Ever since I’ve come to live with the Beenes, they’ve been talking about how the people from the city don’t know the extent of the poverty within their own country. They’ll tell people about their ministry in the villages and the people will say “What? There’s not people like that here, there’s not people without electricity or without food or clean water”. They don’t really know of the need that exists a few hours outside the city. This kind of reminded me of the situation at home with people living in the city and surrounding towns who have no idea of the extent of the poverty in the reserves just a few hours north. It really seems like God’s had a hand in the last few weeks of trying to bring together the classes and cultures of Guatemala. Kayla and Chelsea told these young people about their ministry and their immediate response was “What can we do to help?” The Beenes always have support and teams coming from the US and Canada, but they realized what a beautiful thing it would be if the people of Guatemala decided to passionately engage in their ministry and help the poor in their own country. So the more we’ve been hanging out with these people from the church, the more exciting ideas they have about how to help with the ministry. In fact, they just did an enormous clothing drive for the mountain villages and are actually all coming up to visit and distribute this weekend. How exciting is that? In two weeks they go from just learning about the situation to actually driving out and helping.

After that retreat I had the opportunity to visit the Beene’s base in Rio Dulce. This is an absolutely gorgeous area of Guatemala. We spent our time there working on the base and making sure that the jetskis and tubes were in proper working order.

After Rio Dulce we went back to the city to drop off Chelsea at the airport, as she had to go back to the states to “work” and “study”. Chelsea, if you’re reading this, I don’t buy it. Come back to us.

From there we came to Zacapa, where the dorm students were just arriving. To recap, the dorm here was built by the Beene’s so that students could come down from the mountains and continue their education past the 6th grade, which is all that’s available in the mountains. The school year is just starting, the kids just came off a three month break. I had the opportunity to meet them all last week, and they are amazing! They are so sweet and so smart! It’s tough to get to know them because of the language barrier, but it’s good bonding just to try out my spanish and have them laugh at me. This is such an amazing thing the Beene’s do here, the kids have a chance to realize so much potential within themselves. Kayla was telling me a story about when one of the girls came down for the first year. They always ask them in the beginning what they want to be or what they want as their career. The girl answered immediately “a teacher” because that’s the only job available to girls where she’s from. Kayla then tells them “No, what do you WANT, what do you love to do?? You can do it, you can be it!”

I also had a really awesome past weekend. Kayla and I had been planning on going to staff a concert event in the city (I have a good idea, let’s ask the english-speaking gringa to wear a shirt that says “staff” so people will come and ask her for help in spanish. what an ideal candidate!) We were looking forward to spending the weekend hanging out, seeing our friends, etc. On the weekends, the kids all go back up to the mountains to see their families. But there are 2 boys here who are from Rio Dulce, which is very far away, so they stay here for the weekend. So Michael and Rocky asked us to take them with us, along with another boy who couldn’t go home for the weekend. So Kayla and I, along with another girl from Zacapa, piled into the little truck with the village boys and off we went. What a cool experience, to take kids to a mall and have them use escalators, elevators, roller coasters and trampolines for the first time ever. They also got to see a concert, another thing they’ve never done before. At the beginning of the weekend, these guys were painfully shy. We asked them if they needed to use the bathroom and they just stared at us, not saying a word. By the end they were laughing and joking. They also got to meet a bunch of the folks from the church, and it was so cool to see the friendships building there, to see the young church people just loving on them and buying them lunch, and how much that meant to the boys. I realized how unaccustomed these boys were to being in the city and out of villages when we went to an ice cream place. One of the boys was inside with us, the others had gone outside and were sitting by the truck across the parking lot. We wanted to take a picture so we asked the boy who was with us to go and call the other boys inside. He walked up to the glass door and started calling the boys, going “Cesar! Mariano!” just right in front of the glass door. He figured since he could see them so clearly, they must be able to hear him. He didn’t realize he would have to open the door. Even something like glass is just so foreign. I can’t imagine how the city would have looked to them. It would be such a culture shock. And they handled it like pros, it was so cool.

Now I’m back at the dorms. Oh, and the blankets are all purchased with the generous donations of friends and family. We’re going to be taking them up to the mountains either tomorrow or this weekend, or maybe both, and handing them out there. I can’t wait, it’s gonna be so sweet!

I appreciate the prayers and support of everyone at home, and it’s amazing to see God work here. I think I’ve realized though that it’s not like you have to go somewhere, to a specific situation, and say “wow God’s really moving here”. I think I’ve come to see, as I’m here, that he’s constantly moving everywhere, breathing life into everything and every situation whether it’s perceived as bad or good. We don’t need to pray for him to start moving but just step into a life of acknowledging his breath in everything. He moves in the ministry of the Beene’s but he’s also moving in the mountains, in the city, in all of the people and nature. He’s constantly doing sweet stuff and I’m blessed when I just acknowledge that.

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12

I’m not pretending to understand why or in what context this verse was written, but I can’t shake it from my brain as it pops up every time I meet a new beautiful person or see the incredible landscape here.

What’s the proper way to end a blog post?? Like, just a “later gator” or what?

Later Gators.