Guatemala Trip - Day 4

Day 4: What an amazing day. God allowed us to interact with kids throughout the day, to get almost halfway done with our work, and to see the first of 2 murals done. It has been a wonderful day.

The day began with a discussion about the passage in Matthew 5 that dealt with us being salt and light. We were challenged to function like salt and light in the world by preserving, healing, exposing, enlightening, etc. We talked about what it means to be salty in the world, and the difficulties that we will face if we seek to live as God asks us. We talked about the importance of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to let us know when to expose sin or when to illuminate the love of Christ. We were encouraged to help develop patterns today.

After breakfast we made our way to the Verbana child care center and began our day of painting. During the day, we were able to play basketball, soccer, football, and frisbee, blow bubbles, chase bouncy balls and balloons, whatever gave us opportunity to interact with the children. Three of the team members were asked to help in an English class, so they helped the children practice their English communication. They loved it – finally they were the ones that knew the language. It was a great outreach. We handed out John 3:16 coins to the children – they loved them. It is our desire that they take them home and be constantly reminded of the love of Jesus. We know the word of God does not return void – only eternity will tell us of the effect of those coins. We also had a candy scramble at one point in the day. Imagine about 50 kids playing soccer/basketball/etc on a small court and all of the sudden 1,000 pieces of candy are thrown all over the court. Kids were running everywhere – screaming, picking up candy all over the place. They were having a great time, and so were the teachers and the team members. I had the privilege of teaching kids to throw a football – Otto was the first of these boys. He was very energetic – and quickly learned to throw the ball well. I really enjoyed teaching them even though we could not talk with each other.

Later in the afternoon, we heard a number of sirens, and I asked the guys I was working with, Marco and Juan, if they were policia or ambulancia. They said, “ambulancia”. On our way home, we were informed that literally right outside the child care center another bus driver was shot and killed. On our way home, we had to drive past the bus – with the driver still inside. They were waiting for the judge to show up at the scene, as is Guatemalan custom. It made for interesting conversation – the most interesting part was the fact that the locals were not gathered around to watch – with all of the deaths of drivers in the past year, it seems that they are not even affected by another devastating event.

Dinner was wonderful – we had rice and corn with a oriental stir fry on top. It was delicious. After dinner we sat and did our usual recap, I was pleasantly surprised by the openness and willingness of the younger team members to share. The team encouraged one another. They made observations about what they saw in each other. They talked about what God was teaching them. Walter talked about how God had helped him make it through a very difficult day as he was struggling with a migrane. James shared how God had showed him the importance of taking time to share with the kids over just completing a task. Josh encouraged the team by talking about each member and what they brought to our team. Becca jumped to the front of the class to share her experience in the class with the kids. It was an amazing team building time.

Add to that (after a game of Rage), the team got together and worshipped in song. I am writing right now at 11:24 in the evening, because I just encouraged the team to head to bed as some were getting tired. It was an amazing day – full of excitement and the hand of an amazing God.

Tomorrow we visit Las Vistas and then head back to Verbana. We will be visiting with 28 children that are sponsored by the team (and the church in New Hampshire). It'll be a great day!