To Be a Missionary...

This last weekend was our first of three Ministry weekends, where our teams are divided into smaller groups and living in Host Homes in El Tejar. Both teams are working with different churches to help out where they could use help during this time, and are seeking to learn as much as possible from the church, the people and the culture. For the coming weekends, we will be staying in the same host homes, giving us a chance to get the know the families better and to interact with them more. I am in a host home with Sam and Keryn, who are both interns this year. Our home is small and busy, with people, dogs and a parakeet all making it their own home. The food is wonderful, though after this weekend I have become sick; my "Canadian Stomach" is finally catching up with me.

At first, getting sick was wearing on me emotionally as well as physically, because it seems I have only been presented physical challenges to overcome in our time here; first the crutches, than my hand, and now my stomach. I awoke this morning with a nasty fever, so sick that I could hardly make it down the hallway to the bathroom without fainting. Another girl in the program has been on bed rest for the last week or so, due to an extreme case of food poisoning, and I have been worried by the idea that my sickness might last that long. Spending the afternoon in bed unable to move is never something I enjoy, but especially when I know I could be out and about doing things, being involved in helping people or seeking God's will in some way. In the midst of my feeling awful about my condition, however, God sent me some encouragement through the form of one of the friends I have made here at GBS.

Before leaving for the weekend, I had added one of the Guatemalan guys on Facebook, a friend I had met through meal times. When I came back from the weekend, I was surprised to see that he had gone through a bunch of my photos and commented on them. He was particularly taken with a photo that captured the sunset from my dorm room back at Prairie. He liked it so much that he made it his profile picture, with a caption explaining that I, his Canadian missionary friend, had taken this photo at my school back in Canada. He also wrote about how it, for him, captured the glory and vastness of God in a simple photograph. The fact that he called me a missionary, when that is what I have been going to school for for the last few months, surprised me, as in Canada most would not consider me a missionary, but a missionary in training. This, however, reminded me of the concept that we are all missionaries, all put on the earth to fulfill God's will; we don't have to have special training or be in a foreign country to be a missionary, I can be a missionary wherever God puts me.

I also found this encouraging looking into the future. Ii have no idea what I am going to do after this year of school. I have applied for the internship in my program, and I would love the opportunity to do it, but I don't know if that's where I'm supposed to go, what I am supposed to be doing. My best friend is also applying for the male internship, which would present a very interesting situation were he and I to receive the internships. The reminder that I can do God's will no matter where I am or what I am doing was comforting in this time of not knowing whether or not I will be returning to Prairie in the fall. God is good; even, especially, when times are hard down here. His grace is evident in all of creation, and His providence is a blessing I do not deserve.

Volcan de Pacaya

Yesterday we had our first adventure day of our stay in Guatemala, and we climbed Volcan de Pacaya (Pacaya Volcano). The hike was about 2-3 hours to where we stopped. The hike itself was fairly difficult at times, as the trails were covered in deep volcanic sand and rocks that made walking difficult for most. For me, it was my first day off crutches in a week, so it was even harder for me. I hadn't used my left leg in a week due to a small fracture in my foot, so suddenly doing something so strenuous was quite hard on my leg. But although it hurt, I kept going, knowing that I would hate myself if I missed out on climbing a volcano because of a little pain.

The original plan was to go all the way to the top, which would have been intense, as Volcan de Pacaya is an active volcano, but the wind, weather conditions and more frequent earthquakes lately made it dangerous, so we didn't reach the top. On the way up, the views were amazing. You could see the other neighboring volcanoes, the rolling hills, Guatemala City off in the distance, and the hardened lava from the last big eruption that occurred in 2010. When we were about three quarters of the way up, we came across a small shop called "The Lava Store". It is the only store I know of that is set up on the edge of an active volcano. It sells handmade jewelry made with volcanic rocks. All the proceeds go toward community support in the areas around the volcano, as the local communities have suffered much loss and property damage due to the eruptions. The pieces they sell are unique and quite beautiful. If you would like to learn more about them, you can visit their website: www.pacayadesigns. com.

A short ways past the Lava Store, I got the bright idea to climb up on a giant volcanic rock for a photo opportunity. The rock I was climbing on to get on to the bigger one decided to give out, and I found myself caught between two large lava rocks, my left hand slightly mangled in the process of my fall. Climbing back to the group, I had to be especially careful as to not get any more rocks in the gash, so it could be easier to clean out. Just after we got my hand bandaged up well enough to keep my from bleeding everywhere, we stopped to roast marshmallows and toast our sandwiches over a vent. Then we explored some of the caves. We spent a lot of time goofing off, taking crazy pictures and examining the varying colours in the rocks. When we had had our fun, asked our questions about the volcano and nearly had our fill of being goofs, we began our descent back down the volcano, piled onto the bus and headed back to GBS.

It was a crazy fun experience, though I would have loved it if we could have gone all the way to the top and seen the lava pools. Maybe next year!

Potter's House

On Wednesday, January 25th, we went on a field trip to an organization in Guatemala City called Potter's House. Potter's House works in and with the people who work in Guatemala City Dump, the people who are so caught up in the poverty cycle that they scrounge around through the trash to try to find something they can sell for a few quetzales. The trip started off as most do, with a short presentation that showed the work Potter's House does, and told the story of a few of the people, dubbed "Treasures" by Potter's House, who work in the dump.

Potter's House has five programs they run: Personal Development, Education, Healthcare, Micro-Enterprise, and Community Support. These programs have been developed over the past twenty five years to be as effective as they can be in their fields, to give aid to the Treasures, to teach them self value, how to care for themselves and their families, and even how to work toward a better future. All of the programs are designed to build up the Treasures to learn to not be dependent on organizations like Potter's House, but to teach them how they can better manage with the support of people who care.

Potter's House provide a range of things for the Treasures vary from training leaders, after school programs for children and parenting classes for parents who work in the dump, access to medical clinics, doctors and prescriptions at a reduced price to make it more affordable to the treasures, business training and small loans for Treasures wishing to start their own business, house building projects, nutrition programs and distribution of basic food, clothing, shoes and other necessities. By providing these to the Treasures, it enables the Treasures to learn how to better care for themselves, their families, and to have a better chance of one day escaping the harsh poverty cycle that clings to most of the majority world.

After the presentation, we went to the local cemetery, which overlooks the dump. This made everything we had learned sink in really deep. The mausoleums neatest the gorge that contained the dump were weathered, broken and neglected, a sharp contrast to the tombs and mausoleums near the front and middle of the cemetery. Nearing the edge of the gorge, there were vultures everywhere; and I mean everywhere. They were perched in the trees, on the mausoleums, on the ground. Clouds of them soared through the sky, diving deep to harass the people who were hard at work sifting through the garbage, hoping to find something they could sell to provide food and clothing for their family. Hundreds of feet about the dump, the stench of the rotting trash was still overwhelming; I could only imagine how bad it would be in the dump itself. There are approximately 1100 people who work in the Guatemala City Dump everyday, risking their health to sort through mountains of garbage while trying to avoid the dump trucks that paid no heed to them.

That sight tore at my heart, knowing that this is how thousands of people are the world live, and that this wasn't even the worst of it. I did find some comfort in the work that Potter's House does, though, because one of the girls we met who works at Potter's House grew up in the dump, went through the programs offered by Potter's House and now is doing much better, living an all around healthier life and helping others find the same.

Iglesia de Jesucristo Betania

Today was our first Sunday attending the churches we will be spending our ministry weekends with. The church my Impact group attends is called "Iglesia de Jesucristo Betania", or "Bethany church of Jesus Christ". The service this morning was very interesting for me, as I come from a baptist church and this church was extremely charismatic. I have always wondered why people within the church seem to make a lot of comments about Baptist churches being withdrawn and calm when my church isn't really like that, but even though my home church may be fairly charismatic for a Baptist church, Iglesia de Jesucristo Betania is definitely far more charismatic.

The church service started before the church was even half full, but by the time the opening prayer finished, the church was packed. During worship, the voices of the people soared as they sung and cried out to God, thanking Him and praising Him. Some people danced, a lot of people cried, and everyone seemed to be overwhelmed with the Spirit of God moving within the place. I didn't know most of the songs that were sung, but I was able to pick up on what some of them were saying and sometimes was even able to sing a long a little bit.

After the worship time ended, our group was brought up front and introduced to the church, as we will be returning for the next three weeks to attend church with them and help out wherever they can use assistance. After our introduction, we were brought upstairs where we were given the choice of going to help with Sunday School for different age groups. There we split off and went to watch how things were run in the church. I spent the morning helping a class of about 8-10 year old girls who were working on cross stitching projects that pertained to an ongoing lesson they had been learning the past couple weeks. The young girls were very eager to question me about everything they could think of once they discovered I spoke a little Spanish. I'm not sure if I made it clear to them that I will be returning or not, but I do look forward to being able to speak with them more next time. It seems everywhere I go I have more and more incentive to better my Spanish skills.

First Night at GBS

Today was an incredibly long and exhausting day for all in our group. Early mornings, long walks with all our luggage, waiting for the bus that was running late, the bus ride to Chimaltenango and just sheer exhausting impressing itself on the group made the day seem a lot longer than it was. Once we got to Guatemala Bible Seminary, however, there seemed to be a bit of a rejuvenation despite the looming tiredness. Shortly after our arrival we were shown to the dorms, and then we had lunch.

During lunch we had a small earthquake, which was a fun experience. We were eating and all the sudden a handful of us got really dizzy and couldn't figure out why until we looked around and saw everything shaking and realized it was an earthquake! It was the first earthquake I've experienced and it was quite a lot different than what I was expecting it to be like from what I had heard. (Shortly after typing this I was told from a friend that our location was 230km from the epicenter of a 6.3 earthquake, so I guess it was a fair size!) After lunch we broke off into our Impact Groups to tour Chimal, but I sat out of this because I needed the rest after being on my crutches so much yesterday and this morning. After the tour, we had a debrief session and were given the basic run down of the rules and what not here.

Alex, our field director was telling us about how the boys at GBS tend to be flirty with the girls from Prairie. The way he explained it was, "Like leopards looking for bambies they shall chase you... Rawr (accompanied with a hand motion) So travel in groups, so you can run faster!" It was fairly amusing. We ate dinner mixed in with the Guatemalan students and tried to use our Spanish. I'm hoping we can continue to improve out Spanish so we can communicate better and get to know the other students better during our time here.

Tomorrow morning we're off to our ministry sites where we will be spending the weekends working with churches in the various areas they need help. The ministry weekends will serve as practice for our ten day ministry practicum that will come after our stay at GBS. I'm excited to see how things will continue and to see the growth and experiences that lie ahead. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our group for the rest of our time here.

Visiting an Orphanage

On Wednesday, we visited an orphanage outside Guatemala City for a field trip. The orphanage we went to currently houses roughly 75 children of various ages as well as assists in a small nearby community with poor families and children's programs. The experience of visiting an orphanage is a unique one, and one can learn quite a lot in a short time there.

For starters, the way the children interact with each other is unique, as they have developed a very strong family sense within their community, learning to rely on each other and help each other out. They are also extremely content, happy with the little they own. The faith and sense of hope they possess is encouraging. They are also a lot of fun to play with, especially after nearly two weeks of Spanish school when you are able to communicate fairly well with them. Our visit included a tour of the orphanage, an activity time with the children, where the children were told to find a big kid to cuddle and hug while we watched puppet shows. We also got a chance to dance with the children and pray with them as they got ready for a snack. The only thing that was asked of us during our visit was that we give the children the only thing they really need: our love and attention.

This experience reminded me of my trip to Mexico July 2010 in many ways. In Mexico, I befriended a five year old boy named Olvaldo, with whom I played nearly everyday. At the orphanage here, my little buddy's name was Pedro, and he was only four or five, but he was one of the cutest children I've ever seen. Overall, the experience was fun and enriching. I had been feeling rather sick earlier, as I had a bad allergic reaction to some food, but I am incredibly thankful I did not miss out on this opportunity to share and express God's love with His beautiful little children.

Prayer requests: As we finished Spanish school in Antigua today, we leave for Chimaltenango tomorrow. Prayer for safe travels, health and good community would be appreciated. On a more personal note, I either managed to break a small bone in my foot, or obtain a stress fracture. There isn't anything that can be done for it, but I got crutches today to ease the pressure on my foot, as we do a lot of walking. The crutches have eased the pain quite a bit, but it is difficult to maneuver through the cobblestone streets and uneven sidewalks. Prayer for healing, lessened pain and easier travel would be greatly appreciated. Also, prayer for home lives, families, and situations at home would be appreciated, as there is a lot going on within the lives of every member in Discover and we don't want that to take away from our experiences here and the chances we have to grow and learn.

Viaje de Estudios a la Platacion de Cafe

On Saturday, we went on one of our first field trips in Guatemala, visiting a coffee plantation, as coffee is one of Guatemala's largest exports. We toured the plantation, which was huge, learned about the delicate processing of coffee, and hiked into the mountains to see a waterfall. The knowledge we gained varied quite widely. For instance, I thought coffee was actually from a bean, when it is more like a fruit, and it's called a coffee cherry. The process of preparing coffee is so delicate that the slightest mistake, leaving the beans soaking too long or drying too long, will ruin the entire batch. I also learned that it takes three years for one mature tree to produce one pound of coffee. Now consider that fact when you think of how much coffee is consumed around the world on a daily basis.

Another interesting fact is the coffee industry is a multi-billion dollar industry each year, yet the workers at plantations see only 10% of that money, working long hours of hard labour for very little pay. The owner of the plantation led the tour with a translator. He is one of the richest men in Guatemala, but his attitude was so different from those of richer people in Canada and the United States. I hadn't realized how much there was to processes coffee and it was neat to learn about it. The hike to the waterfall was a huge highlight for my day. The hike was rather long, with many parts that involved scaling large rocks with a rope. It was an invigorating hike, and the perfect day for hiking. While we didn't learn as much about the plantation while on the hike, we were able to practice speaking Spanish with the guards who managed to do the hike while carrying guns and packs.

This week we are staying in host homes in downtown Antigua, where we are learning to put the Spanish skills we have obtained over the last week into practice while continuing in our Spanish and Theology classes. On Saturday, we will be driving to Chimaltenango, where we will be staying at Guatemala Bible Seminary, attending classes there and preparing for our ten day ministry practicum that is to come.

This morning was the last morning I had to take the chicken bus into Antigua, and it was the busiest I have seen the buses yet. The first bus was too full, and on the second one that came by, the one we caught, we were literally hanging out the front door because there was so little room on the bus itself. Today was the first day of school for the Guatemalans, so town was and is much busier and us girls have experienced more of the "machismo" culture today in the past week.

Prayer requests for this week include the ability to communicate effectively with our host families, learning to practice our Spanish. Safety while wandering around town without our Impact leaders or directors, and Spiritual growth within the next week. I ask personally for growth in my confidence in speaking Spanish, and for preparation for the ministry projects that lie ahead.

La Fin de la Semana Primera

Well, today marks the end of our first week in Guatemala. After five days of early mornings, five hours of Spanish class and afternoons full of spontaneous adventures, I am sure the whole group is looking forward to being able to sleep in for a few hours tomorrow before we leave to have a tour of a local coffee plantation. It amazes me that we have only been here for about a week, but at the same time I can hardly believe it has already been a week. I have been a bit confused by this phenomenon lately, but it does not bother me too much. Our days have been very busy, and our nights short, filled with as much sleep as we can possibly squish into them.

After surviving the first week, I am looking forward to our weekend ministry projects, going back to Spanish church, and starting a new week, this time staying in a host home with a local family. We certainly have already had a handful of small adventures, and I am sure the best is yet to come. We have only witnessed a small part of the beauty of Guatemala, and we have only just begun our journey here. Being immersed in the culture, part of me does not completely look forward to returning to Canada, because it is so very different, and I have already started to grow accustom to the ways of the Guatemalans. Though I knew the first day I was here that I would have a hard time wanting to leave this place.

Even though Canada is a beautiful country and I love my home country to pieces, Guatemala holds a different kind of beauty that reaches into your heart, holds on and opens your ears to hear God's voice in the breeze. It would be incredibly hard to look at this place and deny God's existence; His finger prints are everywhere. I have seen only a fraction of both the work He has done here, and the work He has planned, and I eagerly look forward to see what more He has in store for this country and those of us on this trip.

Prayer requests from the group have not changed too terribly much. There have been some small health problems starting to flare up, so prayer for health, strength and protection from major illnesses within the whole Discover group would be wonderful. I also know that a few people within the group feel very much on the outside, despite attempts made to show them that they are an important part of our team and family, so I would like to ask that a sense of family, community and belonging would be established in the weeks to come and that we would find the words to encourage our friends when they are having trouble. My personal prayer requests are that the relationships being developed within Discover would be blessed and strengthened by God, while we learn to overcome problems together and learn to be a family and a team; and that God would present us with many opportunities to put our Spanish into practice and be able to be a light for God, doing the work He wants to be done while we learn.

La Escuela de Espaniol

This morning brought about our first day of Spanish school in downtown Antigua. We have been divided into partners, and are learning on a basis of two students to one teacher, giving us a chance to get to speak the language more than we would in a larger classroom setting. We had five long hours of straight Spanish lessons, going over simple conversations, introductions, some vocab and beginning some verb conjugations. Communicating with someone who hardly speaks English when you are only able to speak a small amount of Spanish can make for quite an interesting experience. I have had three years of Spanish classes prior to this, in high school, but because most of that was written work rather than verbal work, I have found I can understand more of what is said, but it sometimes takes me a few moments to recall how to respond, even though I know how to.

Between reviewing an abundance of Spanish words, laughing at our mistakes and misunderstandings, and sharing about our lives we had a lot of fun and got a chance to learn more about our partners, our teachers and even ourselves. I played translator between my teacher and my partner for a bit, which was quite entertaining, as my partner couldn't always understand what we were discussing. Getting a chance to dive into the language in this way has already been a great and beneficial experience for me, as I have found that I lack confidence in my ability to speak Spanish, and I hesitate and second guess myself even when I know how I am supposed to respond in conversation. Being able to work in such a small group gives us the chance to speak more, and for the teacher to focus on making sure we're picking up the language and understanding what we are being taught.

After the school day, a lot of laughs and a lot of relationship jokes, we headed out to wander around Antigua and explore the market places and see what they had to offer. During this time, we had several interesting encounters with the locals, ranging from some guys trying to pick up some of the girls to some of the group getting hustled on the bus when they gave their bus money to a man they thought was collecting bus fares, who turned out to only be collecting donations. Wandering around the mercados (markets) proved to be interesting, as everyone was trying to get us to buy from their shop, and the competition between shops made it fairly easy to barter down prices.

Tomorrow we will be reviewing what we went over in class today and then we will continue on in our studies, learning more difficult aspects of the language and it's uses everyday. Continued prayer for patience, and understanding within the classroom would be greatly appreciated, as well as prayer for us to be able to pick up the language with relative ease, and to learn to speak the language with confidence.

Day One!

Our first day in the beautiful country of Guatemala is now coming to an end, and I am sure most of us are very much looking forward to the prospects of going to bed. We started off our day riding a "Chicken Bus" into Antigua, where we went to church and then proceeding to explore the town. Tomorrow will be a very early morning, especially for me as I am on the breakfast prep team and need to be up just after 5 am. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our two weeks of intensive language school, where we will be learning Spanish from 8 am to 1 pm. During the next week, we are staying on the CEMI compound (Just outside of Antigua), and next week we will be staying in host homes in the city of Antigua.

We arrived at our base late last night, were debriefed on some things we ought to know, and it wasn't long after that when we all found our beds and fell into blissful rest. The main point of the rundown last night was, "If you hear what sounds like gunshots in the night, don't worry, it's just fireworks. If you hear what sounds like a volcano erupting, it probably is! Oh, but don't worry, they're all over there." The CEMI campus is surrounded by towering volcanoes and beautiful vegetation. It is a peaceful escape from the crazy amount of things we have to do, and I look forward to finding relaxation here while our list of tasks grows.

I am not sure how often I will be about to update this blog, especially during our stay in host homes, but I will try as often as I can to write about our adventures, the highlights of our days and any prayer requests we have. Today, I would say the highlight was while we were in Central Park in Antigua. Our group had just finished eating our bagged lunches and were taking in the sights and the wares of the vendors when our program director, Kyle Jang was caught off guard as a bird pooped on his head. While it would have been a terrible thing to experience, most of us found it amusing, and even Kyle was able to laugh it off and bring it up as an eventful experience during our debrief this evening.

As of yet, looking forward to the Spanish school that we start tomorrow, we ask for prayer regarding out classes. Please pray that we are able to pick up on the language with relative ease, and that we will be able to benefit from the use of it. Also, we have four of twelve students on academic probation currently, so prayer for their studies especially, as well as the rest of us, would be greatly appreciated. Focus, understanding, health, rest and patience are things we all could benefit from as well. Aside from these, I personally ask for continued prayer in the relationships within the group, within our teams, and even within individual friendships, as the stress of being in a new place, learning a new language and having to do theology classes on our own time can be quite overwhelming and we have had a handful of relational issues within the group already. Being able to overcome these challenges as a group and learn to grow together in Christ is a life lesson that all of us could learn, or learn better.

T- One Hour

Well, here we are, with less than an hour before Discover embarks on their two month adventure in Guatemala. It is about quarter after two in the morning, and we leave the campus at three. The last few days have been chalk-full of intense theology classes and various preparations for the trip. Today, we finished purchasing our text books, got the final details ironed out and packed our bags. Now, we are all waiting around to start this journey together, with hopes that the trials that lay ahead will bring us together and strengthen us as a community. Our group is extremely diverse, with new Christians as well as Christians who grew up in the church, and basically every personality type one can image. There are six girls, six guys, five interns and our two program directors heading down to Guatemala to see what the Lord has in store for us in the months to come.

All of our schooling up until now has been building us up for this trip. During our time in Guatemala, we will be attending intensive language school, Guatemala Bible Seminary and participating as well as leading various ministry projects in the areas we will be staying in. We won't be staying in one place the whole time, we start off in host homes for the first two weeks during language school where we will hopefully pick up enough Spanish to get by for the remainder of our time. From there, we move to Guatemala Bible Seminary, where we will be staying for the longest period of time. Following that, we will again be in host homes, on practicum, working on various ministry projects our teams have constructed from what we have learned. Throughout this time, we will be visiting a variety of organizations that work in various fields throughout Guatemala, taking in as much as the culture as we can, and learning as much as we can.

At this point, our prayer requests are fairly simple: Safe travels; good group dynamics; a community strengthened in Christ, especially during the hard times; personal growth as well as team growth; the ability to gain understanding and knowledge from the things we witness and the people we meet; health concerns; and spiritual guidance during times of warfare. I will post updates and prayer requests as often as I can, so that we may be able to keep all those interested in hearing about our adventures in the loop. We are praying that this will be a life-changing growth experience for all of us involved, and that in our seeking Christ, we will become better missionaries for His causes.