Why Are You Here? (The Guatemala Experience)

As a former missionary kid, I am strongly attached to the Philippines where I grew up for ten years. I have always felt like that was my home. Now I think I have found my home away from home.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Guatemala, a part of the world that I have never visited before. From the moment I stepped out of the airport and took in the scenery while riding the bus to our destination, it was almost a mirror image of where I grew up in, from the highly populous Guatemala City filled with vendors, historical art, and citizens crossing the streets, to the more rural countryside of Zacapa, seeing small villages filled with children. The only difference was that traffic was lighter and there were a lot more cacti out in the provinces, and the country must be known for its piñatas.

 

I came to Guatemala out of an invitation to serve in a mission project with my grandparents and a few other family members. We all came together with twenty or so members of my uncle and aunt’s church close to Mobile, Alabama. Our ministry consisted of serving at a village in Zacapa through medical and dental work.

As a missionary kid, I am used to traveling to different countries, experiencing new cultures and working with teams to do ministry work around the world. What made this trip different from others is that I came without knowing fully what I was doing. Usually I come into a place with an agenda in mind, or have an hour-by-hour guideline on how the day will proceed. But this time I came in the first day and wasn’t sure what we were going to do the next day. I basically hopped on a plane, arrived in Guatemala and said, “I made it. Now what?”

As strange as it seemed to go without knowing a whole lot of what the week had in store for me and the group, it was a first step to what God taught me. Because I am used to following a plan, I usually get irritated when that plan falls apart due to uncontrollable circumstances. And sometimes when I try to follow the plan, I forget about the main ministry project at hand. I think that God wanted to teach me to follow in faith and obedience to go and let Him do the work from there.

When I got off the plane, I didn’t even know what the country itself would be like. My grandparents did tell me what it was like living in Guatemala, but I didn’t go expecting it to be just like the Philippines. I learned from experience not to expect one place to be the same as others that I have visited in the past.

Another aspect is how Jesus sent His disciples, instructing them to go and preach the good news across Judea, not bringing any supplies with them so that God would provide for them during their journey.

While we were there, God showed me that I was capable of things that I never thought I could do before. Our assignment was to help set up a medical and dental clinic in this church that my grandparents helped build in a town called Conevisa. The team included members of the church that my uncle pastored who were either doctors, nurses, dentists, or just regular volunteers. I mainly helped by offering to assist with tools or help direct people to the places they needed to go, and on one occasion I literally had to brush a kid’s teeth. I also helped go through the village and, with the help of a translator, spoke to people to tell them my story of how I met Jesus and tell them that the same gift I had was available to them.

 

The highlight of my trip was seeing the Holy Spirit at work in my life, empowering me to overcome my uncertainties and let God use me to make an impact in the lives many people by being on this trip. I can gladly say that I have witnessed eleven salvations, including one where I had the opportunity to help a young man pray to receive Christ.

There is more that I want to share about trip, but I preparing a full length article that goes into more detail the work we did in Conevisa. I look forward to sharing it on my blog soon.