A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Today we were off to Antigua, Guatemala, the colonial capital of Guatemala.  As I am sure no one wants to read any more of my blogging, I am uploading photos I took, so you can get a sense of this very special place.  It is the jewel in Guatemala's crown. 

This is in the central park in Antigua.  It is a team tradition to have a team picture taken in front of a fountain.

 A family that plays together, stays together.  In this case, it is a mariachi band on the street.

This Spanish built street leads through the arch to the cathedral, La Merced, built in the 1749 and still in use today.  Mayan women below walking toward the arch.

                                                                 The Market in Antigua, above and below.

This is an all too common sight...an older woman begging while a young child sits by.  There are probably a number of ways to interpret this...never-the-less, it is common.

Thank you for checking out our pictures today.  We are busy packing and looking forward to a safe flight home.
God's blessings and thank you,
Jordan, Nick, Shelby, Lonnie, Emma, Kara, Kelsey, Jeannie, Emily, Jennifer, and Sally

viernes: Home, Sweet Guatemala City, Home

This was somewhat of a different day.  Instead of hitting the road again, after devotions we went to George Leger’s ministry, Only a Child, also located in Guatemala City.  Many Trinity folks have received boxes made by George’s boys as gifts over the years.  About a year ago, Only a Child moved their carpentry shop because of the increasing danger close to the dump. It was fun to see the new facility and to hear the story of how the ministry started almost 17 hears ago as well as how it has changed over the years. Only a Child serves street boys who want to make life altering changes.  Now that may sound like a no-brainer to us, but to a kid who has grown up on the streets, not so much.  We met George’s kids and had a chance to introduce ourselves and learn more about each of them and their struggles to reinvent their lives.  The boys also showed us how the boxes are made, and our kids had a chance to hang out a bit.  George shared his concern with us for the increasing deterioration of life in the City and Guatemala in general. It was a sobering conversation.  One of my passions in teaching has been to share with kids the difference between developing nations and what we use to call the third world.  George is convinced that Guatemala is no longer a developing nation, but rather quickly becoming again, a third world country.  Incredibly interesting stuff.

After lunch, Julian made many trips to the park delivering the sponsored children so we could spend the afternoon together there. (The sponsored kids are those who have made a commitment to work hard in school and attend the weekly ministry worship, and for the most part have sponsors back in the states; in return Groundwork sends them to school as long as they keep their grades up.) This trip to the park was a big treat for all, as we cannot be outside in Guatemala City otherwise, and the sponsored kids don’t get many opportunities to play safely outside.  We had a shortened lesson and songs, and then we got to the serious business of soccer…in the rain.  No one even blinks an eye around here when it starts raining, because after all, it is the rainy season and it is the tropics.  We started in ponchos (not the boys, they forgot to bring them…no comment) but quickly ditched them, so as not to look like the gringos/wimps that we were.  We have decided the international language of adults and children is sports.  It was tons of fun and our Kara-led soccer team was respectable.  Keep in mind we are almost twice their size, so basically Kara was the respectable one and they rest of us just took up more space.  The kids seem starved for fun, and that is apparently our specialty.  Thank God, and I really mean that.  Upon our return, several tearful good-byes took place with Guatemalan ministry workers who attend school on Saturday and will not be with us again before we leave.  (It was not a pretty picture.)

After a thrilling dinner of pizza that arrived on a motorcycle, we met to debrief about our experiences this week with Ginny and Kevin.  Ginny asked each of us to identify what frustrated us the most this week.  Most of us felt it was the inability to speak the language well enough to say what we truly wanted to say to the Guatemalans we were working with as well as the children and adults we visited and played with.  She also asked us what surprised us most this week.  Our answers seemed to focus on how we are all more alike than different and what all people want is just to be liked, loved and cared for.  When asked what we learned about ourselves while we were here, the answers were varied and slower to surface…turned out that was pretty personal stuff.  And finally she asked for one image in which we had each seen God.  That was a tough question for all of us because we had seen God so many places: in shanties, in the faces of children, in dark rooms, in tears shed during home visits, on soccer fields, and most definately in the work of the long-term Americans and Guatemalans serving as Groundwork Guatemala.  What they do everyday, day after day, can only be accomplished with a love for God and a passion to share it; it could not be done any other way.  It is for the chance to witness this faith and commitment, that we are most grateful for this experience.  It was an emotional day.

Thank you families, friends, and most especially Trinity for your support and for this opportunity.

Blessings,

All of us!

 This is Marvin demonstrating how the boxes are made.

Ruth and sponsored student at the park.  Below is serious soccer, not.

Julian, his wife, Lucy and their two year old daughter, Hayse.  Trinity now sponsors Julian and his work at the ministry.  Julian is the exception in Guatemala... a loving husband and devoted father.

This is on the roof of the mission house.  Anyone who is not familar is one of the Guatemalan ministry leaders who went to great lengths to keep us safe while enabling us to meet their people where they live. Front left to right, Manuel, Oscar, Center, Ulie (not even close to the real spelling), Back, Sandra, Ruth, and Caesar.

jueves: Amatitlan, Soccer Balls and Crayons

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Rubber Trees, Sugar Cane and Bare Feet

These are just a couple of the vocanoes that line up along the way to Buena Vista.  Below are rubber trees beeing tapped for the rubber.

Skin conditions are common in Buena Vista.

This morning started early.  When I began writing this it was a little after 7:00 A.M. on the way to Buena Vista. We picked up Chohi in Amatitilan and we were on our way.  Choci is 70+, full of energy and was singing in my ear as I wrote in my journal.  Gratefully, she really didn’t seem to mind…as long as I occasionally acknowedged her by nodding, "Si," each time she changed tunes.  Buena Vista is at least two hours from Guatemala City, toward the Pacific coast, and the ride is spectacular albeit a touch “warm”.  As we dropped out of the mountains, the air got hot fast, the vegetation changed to denser rainforest, and a string of volcanoes appeared, some active and smoking, standing majestically in a line along side the highway.  Truly, the view was spectacular!

About two hours into the trip, we made a left turn onto a gravel/mud road that cut into a sugar cane field on one side and rubber trees on the other. Passing an occasional passerby walking with a large pack on their back, we arrived at “the tree” and turned right.  We were in Buena Vista.

Describing Buena Vista is easy in some ways.  No electricity, no running water, lots of desperate looking animals, and some of the worst human suffering I have ever seen.  Most of these people seem to subsist on whatever they can muster.  Bananas and mangos grow wild everywhere, and there must be eggs, since there are chickens roaming everywhere.  Some seem to glean income from tapping and bagging rubber or working on sugar cane fincas, but basically Buena Vista is shanties made of an occasional piece of corrugated metal, bamboo, a bit of wood, maybe a tarp but nothing substantial; every floor is dirt or mud depending on the weather, the smoke of wood burning fires permeates the air, and inside these homes, it is dark, very dark. 

The rubber trees and their taps, as well as children chewing on sugar cane are fascinating (Emily thought the kids were eating trees), but it was the bare feet that were the killers.  These beautiful people are filthy and nowhere is that more obvious than on their feet.  There feet kind of symbolize the whole situation.  Malnourished animals roam the paths of Buena Vista… horses, pigs, chickens, turkeys, oxen, vacas, cats, dogs…and so do the feet.  Every home we visited had a child that was ill, stricken with something unspeakable, or was mourning the death of someone, usually a baby.  I have no idea how anyone survives in these conditions.  We were pouring DEET all over ourselves to prevent any possible exposure to infected mosquitoes, and these kids were playing in dirt, surrounded by feces of every imaginable source, with very little food, little to no education, and virtually no hope for a future. 

We have talked at length about the difficulty in breaking the cycle of extreme poverty…the extreme poor live day to day, so planning for a future doesn’t even resonate with them.  However, they are open to God’s love for them.  Groundwork owns a plot of land in Buena Vista and this past year Guatemalans built a shelter and “outhouse facilities” from which to operate.  Just to have shade or a cover in the rain, is awesome in Buena Vista, and it creates a place for people in the community to gather weekly with Americans and Guatemalans who come to treat their medical concerns, meet their social needs, and feed their spiritual hunger.  I felt like a rock star in Buena Vista, and all I did was show up.  Groundwork is an organization of real life, long-term, Christian rock stars serving those that suffer as a way of life.  What they do is exhausting, incredibly impressive, and always Godly.  Hopefully, the photos will help you get the idea.  We went in three different directions today with home visits, and all three of mine were tragic…a young woman whose baby was born dead on Saturday and now has an ear infection and abdominal pain.  The next one was a family of four daughters and mother.  The youngest, two-years-old, has to be held constantly; she cannot walk, talk, hold her head up, eat solid food, and had some sort of rigidity in her leg.  The third visit was a young woman (25) with five children.  They all appeared to be malnourished, but one of her young sons was clearly losing a battle of some sort.  At they very least, he looked woefully malnourished and possibly not viable.  And those were just the visits Emily, Emma, Jeannie, Shelby, and I made with Kevin, Sandra, and Oscar.

We saw a lot today.  It was Emily’s sixteenth birthday today.  We prayed with desperately ill sisters and brothers today.  We witnessed mothers in mourning today.  We watched as Choci was unexpectedly taken to the hospital today.  It was quite a day.

Blessings,

Sally Jennifer, Kara, Emma, Shelby, Nick, Jordan, Kelsey, Lonnie, Jeannie, and the birthday girl, Emily

This was the home of the little girl who could not sit or stand on her own.

This is where mothers in shanties place there babies to rock them.

It is customary to have a team picture taken at "the tree".  Check out those roots.

Minor is an approximately 11-year old deaf, impaired child.  He attached himself to Nick like glue!

martes: El Rincon

It’s martes, martes, martes…

It was a late start this morning, because in Guatemala it is difficult to always make things happen the way they are suppose to happen.   When I started writing this, we were on the road to Amatitlan, a city about 45 minutes from Guatemala City, a second, rather poor, gritty location of Groundwork Guatemala.  The traffic was gross.  The condition of the roads is better than they were when I first started coming to Guatemala, but the speed of travel in the City hasn’t changed much nor has the quality of the air…lots of diesel exhaust particulate that pollutes the air, covers the floors, and fills the lungs.  I’m not sure how Guatemalans do it, although life expectancy in Guatemalan compared to North America is quite low.  We have been extremely lucky with the weather which has helped with the pollution, and today the rain is back.

Guatemala has a presidential election every four years.  A president may only serve one term, so a scramble for office takes place every three and a half years.  There are 18-22 candidates running at the moment; Kevin tells me that Guatemalans are convinced it makes no difference who wins the election; none of the candidates will improve Guatemala.  He also mentioned that one of the candidates, Baldzion, has a campaign slogan, “No lies, No promises”.  Think about that.  (I am only mentioning this because we are on the road and there are thousands of campaign signs plastered everywhere from Guatemala city to Amatitlan.)

El Rincon (the corner) outside of Amatitlan is always interesting. It sits at the base of a volcanic mountain, where folks live in shanties scattered along dirt roads and on mountain sides.  Corn grows in places on a grade that must be about 70 or 80 degrees.  If you can look past the poverty and human suffering, it is beautiful, except you can’t.  Our first stop as a group was a shanty I have been to six out of the past seven trips.  The ministry stops to check on Carlos who is a paraplegic and cared for by a family who lives in extreme poverty at the base of the mountain.  A one room shanty has been divided into two rooms with an old table cloth.  The kitchen is  lean-to-ish with a wood fire and basically nothing else, and that seems to include food.  I believe they subsist on corn tortillas made over the fire and I suppose some beans and rice?  There is even more to this story.  Some of you reading this, already know it.  Parents, ask your kids when they return to tell you about the incredible background to Carlos’ story, and about Margarite who cares for him.

After cranking up a bucket of hot water from Margarite’s well (heated by the volcano but not suitable for drinking), we divided into four groups with the Guatemalans and each went on a home visit.  Shelby and Jeannie were with me.  I wish I could tell you about all of the visits, but I can only quickly tell you about mine.  We met a sixteen year named Yomiran, who is developmentally impaired and pregnant.  It was heart-breaking because this situation in Guatemala is the rule rather than the exception.  It even shocked me to learn that Groundwork Guatemala provides prenatal vitamins to mid-teens when they have them, because the girls are likely to become pregnant if they are not pregnant already.  The fathers have moved on and the young teen is left to care for a child in a home of extended family that is already stretched beyond thin.  You see it everywhere here.  We talked and prayed with her.  She was so young, basically the age of our girls, and yet we could clearly see the fear in her eyes.  There is very little childhood as we know it among the poor in Guatemala.

After a lunch of PB&J, we played with the kids that began to gather at the salon…not what you picture…and then we presented our lesson.  The kids did a great job of operating “out of the box”…and honestly as much fun as we had with the songs and dress-up stuff, the most powerful part was when they talked honestly to the Guatemalan kids about what they each worry about.  They were “real” and it was powerful; I think they even surprised each other with their honesty…and everyone began to understand we all worry about many of the same things.  They even shared what they do to stay focused on Jesus and not on what they might otherwise worry about….kid to kid.  Wish you could have been there.  I think many days I have the best job in the world.  By they way, we did it almost entirely in Spanish thanks to Jennifer’s translations done before we arrived, which is really fun…or will be until I create an international incident with a random pronunciation.

We headed back to Guatemala City in the late afternoon and are getting ready to do some tweaking of our lesson before we head to Buena Vista tomorrow.  Everyone is in good spirits and relieved to have a day of lessons behind us.  Dinner was festive, beginning with Jordan tipping over a cup of a Tang-ish like drink that went EVERYWHERE. (Thank you Soenens, from Jordan, for sending disposable shop towels.)  Ginny described the sponsorship program than enables the kids we work with to go to school and the Guatemalan ministry workers to reach out to their people.  Later Emma and Jeannie learned from Marta , Manuel’s wife, how to make a tortilla. I had a taste; it was good.

The kids are high on life right now.  It feels good to make friends, share our stories and faith walks, and hopefully be role-models, all the while learning more about the people in the world they never could have known otherwise.  The good stuff just keeps on coming.  (By the way, there are plenty of Guatemalan roles models for us too.  It definitely goes both ways!)

Blessings to all. I wanted to include pictures of the kids today, but ran into a little problem... me.  They will be there to see tomorrow, sorry.  Keep us in your prayers tomorrow; Buena Vista is a life-changer.

Kelsey, Kara, Emma, Jennifer, Jordan, Nick, Lonnie, Jeannie, Shelby, Emily and Sally

lunes: The Garbage Dump and Our First Home Visits

Today began with a trip to the Guatemala City Garbage Dump.  I haven’t looked at the pictures yet, but I hope to attach one or two.  For those of you that have been on this mission trip in the past, you wouldn’t believe the changes; it is literally filling up.  Guatemala City is cut out of several mountain tops, and one of its very large ravines is the dump.  Each year we walk through a cemetery to get a look down into the ravine to see hundreds of Guatemalans picking through the trash for cardboard and plastic to sell to recyclers for enough money to get them or their families through the next day or two.  It is an unspeakable sight, as is the smell and the thousands of vultures.  Keep in mind, bathroom paper is not flushed in Guatemala, it is put into the trash; the city’s infrastructure is crumbling, so nothing optional can be flushed.  Now think about 7 million people’s garbage in the heat and rain, and you are beginning to get the picture.  What makes this such a powerful experience for us is that the Guatemalan missionaries we are working with grew up in and around the dump and still live just outside of it today.  Virtually every Guatemalan with which we have contact in Guatemala City is tied to the dump financially and historically in some way.  It is very sobering to realize those Guatemalans leading the ministry are there to serve their own people in a very real sense.  It is extremely humbling, to say the least.

After the best black beans and rice in Central America, we headed out to do home visits for the afternoon.  We split into two groups, each accompanied by ministry leaders, primarily Guatemalans.  Our security is a high priority down here.  The Groundwork Guatemalans know what to look out for and make it all look seamless.  When they feel it is safe, we are allowed to go into the shanties to talk with families who receive us with open arms.  It is hard to imagine the same reception at home by Bible toting, unannounced visitors.  They make us feel we are doing them a favor by coming into their extremely humble dwellings to talk with them.  They share their concerns, which are strikingly similar to ours, and then we share Bible verses and pray with them.  The kids all got into the act today…Emma, Lonnie, Kara, Emily, and Jeannie even read her verses in Spanish. Kelsey’s voice was quivering when she read but did a great job and knew she had done what she could to comfort Elise, a mother of many in a home and situation that virtually does not even exist in the U.S.  We did a total of three visits, and when it was over, the kids were starting to put it all together: what is means to be an American, what it means to have brothers and sisters in Christ, what extreme poverty looks (and smells) like, and what their role in all of this might be.

Each of the kids is beginning to find their place here.  We arrived downstairs this morning to Lonnie serving up eggs and toast, when the rest of us had previously planned on granola bars and a smile.  He even took orders for tomorrow; I am still trying to figure out how he knew how to turn that stove on, when I have tried unsucessfully for three years.  He said it was in his blood.  Jordan and Nick, as well as the girls, are extremely able and cooperative dishwashers, no easy task here with contaminated water and timed soaking solutions.  Jordan is also trying to expand his Pico de Diablo pallet.  Shelby, now known as Shelly, is taking it all in, along with the rest of us.  Jennifer is enjoying the Spanish conversations as much as the Guatemalans are… and I had the great joy of accidentally visiting the home of Luis, a high school junior I sponsored several years ago (standing in front of me in the photo) and had given up hope of ever seeing again. We immediately recognized each other…it was truly awesome. 

It was a great day, full of old and new experiences, and multiple opportunities to live the faith.  I think my highlight might have been the realization that Jeannie and Kelsey had responded to a woman in need, even though it was a new and somewhat uncomfortable situation, and had comforted her with God’s words of their choice.  More good stuff.

Tomorrow we head to Amatitlan and the first of our children’s and adult lesson, as well as more home visits, but not before we spend serious time preparing tonight…I’m the only serious one about preparing; a few young men are convinced we are ready to roll; we aren’t.

We are well, happy, and filled with all sorts of anticipation about tomorrow.  Pray for us; all of us want to make this opportunity count.

Blessings,

Jeannie, Nick, Jordan, Jennifer, Emma, Emily, Kara, Kelsey, Lonnie, Shelby and Sally

Happy Father's Day!

First, we want to thank all of our padres, Rick, Jeff, Steve, Mark, Lonnie, Dan, Brian, Pete, Jeff, Louis, and Don, and this brings me to the topic of church.  Just like church may have begun in Clinton Township, our day began with thanking God for fathers at Sendero de la Cruz (Path of the Cross), a store front church not far from the mission house, and Manuel’s (Guatemalan ministry leader) home church.  As 21 of us literally poured out of the van to gather in the street in front of the church, it was clear we were going to have an EXPERIENCE.  The ministry attends different churches from time to time and this one, on this particular Sunday, turned out to be particularly interesting.  We arrived before the previous service had ended because there are raffles between services some Sundays to benefit the church, and Manuel had potentially thought this was one of those Sundays.  It was carnival-like in the street as folks gathered and folks poured out of Sendero de la Cruz.  We were welcomed with words of greeting in English and we returned those greetings with Spanish…kind of poetic.

Worship at Sendero de la Cruz is always a happening, and today did not disappoint.  Each service begins with about 45 minutes of music led by an impressive praise band of sorts and 8 teenagers dressed in orange, flowing dresses dancing in unison while everyone stands, claps, sings and dances… not exactly Lutheran faire as Jordan pointed out…and that was only the beginning.  Some of the songs were those we sing at home; some were new; it was a “Paul Finazzo special”, then the guest preacher began.  The preacher appeared to be a member of the national police in full uniform with guns and clips.  I may have been reading a bit into this, but police officers are sometimes feared here for good reason, so the fact that it was a police officer, a Christian, and there to preach had everyone’s attention. As it turned out, he had a lot to say.  About two and half hours later we left… but not before lots of hugs, hand shakes, well wishes, and more than one mention of the fact that we were all brothers and sisters in Christ.  Those of us that had not been in Guatemala before discovered another cultural difference in worship.  When a preacher prays, individuals pray out loud at the same time and unless you have seen this before, it is a little unnerving as were a few other things that occurred in the service… all good but definitely new to us, not the least of which were the women dressed in white blouses and navy blue skirts and vests, assisting those who were emotionally moved by the service with pillows and blankets. Yes, it was a little unnerving but extremely interesting too.  It was fascinating watching our kids process all of this.  The boys were a little more open with their reactions; the girls could be poker players.  Nevertheless, it was eye opening, led to interesting conversation later, and gave us all another window into the world and the world of believers.

After grilled cheese, tortilla chips and Guatemalan fruit, we practiced our songs led by the ever able Emily.  The photo is from that practice.  If you look carefully, it spells JESUS…from a song entitled “Quien es el Rey de la Selva?” (Who is the King of the Jungle?).  Later we were blessed to be able to go to the safety of a municipal park to play soccer and walk; Sunday is a day of rest at the ministry, so it was great to get outside and move. Kara had a chance to match soccer skills with Manuel’s sons, we discovered Nick may have a future as a goalie, and Emily is working on forgiving Lonnie for the hit she took in the shins.

Tomorrow we head to the Guatemala City Garbage Dump and begin visiting the shanties to meet the people who live in its shadows.  It was a good day.  We talked about Father’s Day and became a little more acclimated to the house, the elevation, the expectations, and each other.  Parents, you would be very proud of your kids.  Hope you had a good day too.

Blessings and thank you,

Kara, Lonnie Nick, Jennifer, Emma, Kelsey, Jordan, Jeannie, Shelby, Emily and Sally