Friday part 3: The Guatemalan mission leaders

This past week in Guatemala has been an amazing one. All of us have formed strong relationships, not only with each other, but with the children in Guatemala and the Guatemalans that work with Groundwork Guatemala. Our week was made even more meaningful with the help these wonderful Guatemalans.

The five Guatemalans that work at the mission are Sandra, Ruth, Manuel, Oscar, and Julian. Each one of them is always cheerful and willing to help. Some of them have come from rough places or backgrounds, and they still manage to be happy everyday. When they are out helping others, you can tell that they are genuinely happy to be there and working with the children and adults.

These five people are what keep the mission going. After a long day when the teams are tired, they find a way to make a team smile and become energized again. These leaders are teachers, friends, and an ear to listen. They truly are the perfect examples of God working in some one's life.

Everyone, thank you for reading these blogs and always encouraging us to keep going. Without all of you, we wouldn't have been able to go on this trip, meet amazing people, and have the experience of a lifetime. We really appreciate all you have done for us. All of us are sad to have left Guatemala, we miss the people and the country, but we're also glad to be home; we can finally drink the water! Please keep Groundwork Guatemala and the people that work there all year-round in your prayers, and again, thank you for always supporting us.

Love,

Your 2010 Trinity Guatemalan Mission Team

Friday: Part 2, Information on Sponsorship, and Many Thanks!

I am sorry we were unable to finish our account of Friday in the airport on Saturday; customs took a little longer than we anticipated, there was a quick stop at McDonald's to confirm we were back in the States; then we just flopped at our gate, until the "young ones" decided to sing again. Oscar in Guatemala had told them they should open the window of the plane and just start singing, and since we were pretty sure that would not work, they chose to surprise and entertain weary travelers at Gate 87 in Houston. Our flights were "interesting" and we arrived home safely about 6:30 P.M. last night (Saturday). But, now back to Friday afternoon.

Friday afternoon, the children in Guatemala City that are sponsored by Groundwork Guatemala, walk to the mission house to spend time with the mission teams and the Groundwork staff, to talk, play, receive medical attention, and receive encouragement in life, school, and faith. No one ever officially put it that way, but it seemed to me that was what was going on. The kids come from the shanties and areas we visited Friday morning and have been selected for sponsorship because of their willingness to study, desire to attend school, parent/parent's belief in the importance of education, and willingness to participate in Groundwork activities to spread the love of Jesus in their communities. Groundwork also sponsors children in Amatitlan and Buena Vista. If you are interested in the sponsorship program, you can learn more on their website at http://www.groundworkguatemala.org/, but I want you to know that 100% of the $30 per month that it takes to sponsor a child goes to pay for their schooling. Their school supplies are also provided by Groundwork thanks to your generous donations; school supplies also go to non-sponsored children so they too can attend public schools...a less desirable education, but children cannot even attend a public school in Guatemala unless they have the required school supplies. Sponsored children must also turn in their grades as proof they are working hard and to make them accountable; it may sound harsh but it is done to teach the kids the importance of a work ethic and to help ensure these children will have a chance at a better future and as a result, hopefully improve the lives of their families, not to mention to set an example for all who watch them change and grow. Of course, all of this is coupled with God's word and His love for all of his people, and His special love for those who suffer. Groundwork has a tough job, but they are making a difference, one relationship at a time in three different locations. It is all very impressive, and again if you are interested in being an active partner, check out their website, talk to any team member, or email me at sbuss@trinityct.org.

So back to Friday afternoon...Again we sang with the sponsored kids, their mothers, a father, and some of their siblings, then Manuel worshiped with the parents on the roof. We took the kids...and again used volleyball to bond as sisters and brothers, and to just have fun in a safe, loving environment. The Groundwork van was moved to the street, the gate closed as usual, and we played volleyball over a clothes line (note the clothes line in the picture) in the small ministry house yard. In attempt to cut down on the "destruction" we used beach balls, but you would be amazed how a determined kid can spike a beach ball, particularly when that particular game was the Guatemalan kids versus the Americans...in our defense the sun was in our eyes and we were greatly outnumbered. (They are quick learners.) After we said our good-byes, it was time to tell the Guatemalan leaders of Groundwork good-bye, which is difficult for so many reasons, not the least of which is the fact they are going home to the shanties and block houses by the dump, in the dangerous areas we had just experienced that morning. Again, you have no idea...and frankly we just just have a glimmer of an idea of the width and depth of what goes on here. I just know that Groundwork Guatemala and their American and Guatemalan staff "give their all" for the extreme poor in Guatemala everyday, and they do it with determination, grace, patience, a sense of humor, and always with God and His word.

Friday night we debriefed with Kevin and Ginny, an emotional and essential part of processing the experience and preparing for the return home. We also, as a team, exchanged small Guatemalan secret sister gifts, further cementing our friendship and commitment to each other, to God, and this opportunity to serve. As we fell into bed Friday night, we felt a little melancholy, a little relieved, incredibly fortunate, and physically and emotionally exhausted.

Again, thank you for following our experience these past 10 days. The only thing as good having this experience, is having loving people to share it with. Thank you for your support, your concerns and encouragement, and most especially your prayers. It has been an honor to be known as Trinity Clinton Township in Guatemala, and all of you made that possible. Thank you and thank God.

Lovingly and In His name,
Ali Corace, Kayla Napier, Anna Page, Nicole Paquette, Emily Racey, Jenna Thompson, Lisa Voiland, and Sally Buss, very fortunate Guatemalan sisters
P.S. More pictures will be attached in a second posting later today.

Friday, Part I

Today's blog may not get finished tonight, but perhaps in the Houston airport tomorrow. It's late and we have to leave for the airport at 4:30 A.M.

What a day! This morning we went to "Sandra" the newest squatters area outside the Guatemala City garbage dump. It defies words. There is probably a significant difference between urban poverty and rural poverty. Urban poverty may be more dangerous, but what we saw in "Sandra" was the worst of the worst in extreme, urban poverty. "Sandra" sprung up on an area that was formerly part of the dump and declared open for squatters. There is no water, electricity, unless it is boot-leg, and no sanitary facilities. It is a disgusting place where most children are beyond filthy, "smells" emminate from the obvious and not so obvious, and still children want to play ball, color, and sing. It was hot and uncomfortable as we prepared to begin, in part because we were shaken by what we were experiencing. It was a heartbreaking scene...precious children thrilled to play, talk, and be hugged, in a setting too unsettling to get your head around. Older children watched us from a distance, with suspicion and perhaps even some curiousity and some contempt. It was hard, really hard.

When we were done, we jumped back into the van and headed the short 3 minute drive to La Libertad, which in comparison seemed like the suburbs, and believe me it is not! We hung out with kids of all ages, again singing, coloring, and holding babies for the young children who had brought their even younger siblings to enjoy the fun. Babies in Guatemala are swaddled much of the time and kept extremely warm, despite the tropical weather, and that includes wearing knit beanies. They believe it will keep the babies from getting chilled or sick. They were beautiful children in the ugliest of conditions...again, very hard to witness. It is clear childhood means something very different here than it does at home. It is almost nonexistent.

Forgive me, but this is going to be completed tomorrow or Sunday with photos. They are being downloaded now. We look forward to finishing the description of our day and to sharing pictures of the Guatemalans and Americans who do this work tirelessly every day.

Again, thank you for sharing in our faith walks. It has again been a life altering experience. I feel a little sorry for our families and friends; we have a lot of pictures and even more stories. And although we hate to leave, we are anxious to get home.

Please pray for our safe return, Groundwork Guatemala, and the people here who endure so much and still find the heart of Jesus in their midst.
Blessings, always,
Your Michigan Guatemalan sisters

Laughter/Reir

It was a great day; it stopped raining! Early this morning we headed off to Amatitlan again, this time to the city. We have been singing in the van on the way back from our destinations each day, but the mornings are different. There are about 13 or so of us in the van each day, but mornings are a scramble for the least offensive location in the van and a few extra minutes of sleep. This morning Oscar (25 year old Guatemalan), Emily, and I were sitting/sleeping in the last row of seats in the van (and Emily had the not so good fortune to have the center seat, which is really no seat at all). Emily was sound asleep when we hit a bump, and next thing we knew, her head was on Oscar's shoulder. It was good stuff...Anna and Ali will never let her forget it.

Upon our arrival in Amatitlan, we again set out on home visits, this time in three groups. Each group had different experiences. My group, Anna, Ali, Manuel, Oscar, and I drove to the other side of the city, which was basically on the side of a mountain. We climbed more steps than I could remember to count as we climbed, only to find the nicest grandmother, mother, two sons, young neighbor and young son at the top. It was an unusual visit because the the sons were in their twenties and were still living in the home. Many Guatemalan men in poverty disappear, dessert their wives and children, or spend all their money on alcohol and then abuse their families. Manuel wanted to reinforce what the sons' responsibilites were to the family, particularily because many young men in Guatemala father children, then take off. Young men in Guatemala are also murdered in random and not so random violence at incredibly high rates. The grandmother wanted us to pray for peace...domestic (Guatemalan) peace, something most Americans take for granted. It was also another opportunity to watch a Guatemalan baby learn to crawl. Not surprisingly, babies seem to be held a lot, in some pretty clever ways, but I can't figure out when or how they learn to walk since many of their homes are dirt or mud floors and really not fit for crawling or exploring of any kind.

Lunch was a treat. A friend of the ministry in Amatitlan makes teams lunch on Thursdays in her block house...beans and rice. After lunch we set up the volleyball net in the "park" (a slab of cement between two block houses) across the street and got ready to do our thing again...music with increasingly animated (and original) hand-motions, our volleyball lessons, our Jesus lessons, and lots of reir...laughter. Because we are not allowed outside unless we are with the Guatemalans during our daily planned activities, the opportunity to teach and play volleyball and other random forms of ball outside is a joyous event. The kids don't have much going on in their lives, so they seem to love to play, although every game has the potential of turning into soccer. We each bonded with different kids, again ranging in age from about 3 to 15. It was tons of fun and it didn't rain a drop, well, maybe a drop, but that's all.

Before we left Amatitlan, we stopped to see Lake Amatitlan. It is beautiful, although polluted, surrounded by volcanic mountains. We also took a short, spur-of-the-moment boat ride on the least sea-worthy vessel I have ever seen. The whole time I keep asking the girls if they could swim; they could, but it turned out the Guatemalans couldn't. No worries...there were lots of empty 2-liter pop bottles to use as flotation devices. At any rate, it was thrilling to be carefree for a few minutes.

Thank you for reading and looking at our picutres. We are high on life today...lots of good stuff and less of the sad stuff on this day. It was hard to pick out pictures tonight; none that we hurriedly picked, caught the moment perfectly, but we will have a few hundred to share later. Again, thank you for your interest, and again forgive the spelling.

Blessings,

Ali, Jenna, Anna, Emily, Alyssa, Nicole, Kayla, and Sally

Shreiks of Laughter

It should have been no big surprise that it could rain 24/7 in the rainforest in the rainy season. Nevertheless, we were surprised when it rained again today. We were up early this morning for the 2+ hour drive to Buena Vista, about an hour from the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Buena Vista literally sits in the middle of a sugar cane field, about a half an hour off a main road, with one "street" down the middle, a former railroad track. The shanties are made of corrogated metal sheets, bamboo which grows around Buena Vista, railroad ties (not too surprising) and little else. As I mentioned yesterday, Buena Vista has no electricity or running water. It is like stepping back in time. Pigs, chickens of every imaginable variety, dogs, and children were checking us out at we arrived to lead the singing with the adults and children gathered to greet Groundwork Guatemala for their weekly worship. Once we had exhausted our repertoire of music, and the crowd had outgrown the leaky tarp under which we had all gathered and a pop up tent we had brought along, we headed for the soccer field left by the sugar cane company that owns the fields on one side of Buena Vista. The adults stayed to worship with Manuel, our Guatemalan driver and a ministry leader. The kids ranging in age from about 4 to 16 followed us to the field in the pouring rain.

This was no ordinary soccer field experience. First of all, local men were out cutting the grass for us with the Guatemalan answer to the lawn mower, the machete. Then there was the wild horse and her foal. We just played around the horses and their "droppings". Of course the balls would occassionaly roll off into the mud or the brush. On one of the trips into the mud, one the Guatemalan boys found two Mayan artifacts...a rather common occurance for them, but for us, it was truly amazing. They were easily 1000 years old; the picture is above. (I think the pictures are in reverse order; can't figure out how to move them.) Now throw in beach balls, instead of volleyballs, one blue soccer ball, about 50 or 60 children, about a billion mosquitoes, at least twenty red ants, all on Nicole, and gringo ponchos in assorted silly colors and conditions, and you have the scene. There were shreiks of laughter as the younger kids bumped and set and basically wacked beach balls to each other and us, and the soccer players raced back and forth strutting their Cental American stuff, while we just watched in awe...and goal tended...not too successfully. There is no way to adequately convey to you how poor these people are...they are malnurished, diseased, and just like the kids back home. Many don't have shoes, all are surrounded by filth, and still they persevere and many know that Jesus loves them. It was clear that their lives were so difficult, yet they found joy in balls, and competition, and friendship. It was an amazing morning.

In the afternoon, we again went on house visits. Most of these visits were outside, as the shanties there are less closed off than in the city. We sat or stood in the mud yards and listened to heart breaking tales of personal loss and great faith. All around us women were washing clothes in pelas with contaminated water from the river in which they also bath and drink. Many of the skin conditions we saw were as a result of exposure to that water. Groundwork is attempting to obtain a grant for a well for Buena Vista. Hopefully, the pictures will help give you an idea of what it is like there. Honestly, trying to describe this is not easy; just think of National Geographic, throw us in, and that is what our day was like.

Groundwork Guatemala and their American and Guatemalan staff work in places that are so uncomfortable, its hard to be yourself, until you remember kids are kids, families struggle everywhere, and Christian brothers and sisters lift each other up...with Groundwork's example, we tried to do our best.

Tomorrow we are off to Amatitlan, this time to do our thing in the city...another adventure in living and in faith. Why do I have the feeling it might rain again?

Blessings,
Your Guatemala Mission Team

Es un bueno dia!

You know that saying, a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, this blog is going to be about 1020 words. We are tired and need to get up very early tomorrow to go to Buena Vista. We spent the day outside of Amatilan, the area which experienced some of the most devastating mud slides a few weeks ago. It is still difficult to travel in this area, and the stories of lost lives and shanties, once you have met and talked with the people, are difficult to process. The first two photographs are from house visits today. Most of the homes contain extended families and very little else. The woman in the photograph below is Margarita. Her story is a powerful one. Carlos, a man from Honduras who was a friend of her husband's molested her daughters. While in the process of pursing one of the girls, he fell into their well and lost his leg. The faimily cared for him, he found Jesus, and he has been with the family ever since. Margarita is Carlos' main caregiver.

The picture on the bottom is the beginning of our volleyball VBS lesson. Alyssa made up a cadence to go with the volleyball skills we wanted to teach and what we wanted to share about Jesus, so of course we made up actions to go with it. It goes like this:
Set your eyes on Jesus now,
Serving God will be our vow.
Dig into His word today,
Blocking all of satan's ways.
Spiking interest into God's word,
Pass it around, it will be heard.
I know it is a little cheesey, but it seemed to get their interest and we had a great time teaching the approximately 50 children volleyball skills and Biblical lessons attached to each skill. It is hard to imagine that only a few weeks ago, many of their friends and relatives, as well as homes were washed away by a tropical storm. I think we provided a small, but badly needed break from the devastation. Additionally, we were relieved to get this first day teaching over and have it feel like it was right.

As you can see in the photographs, we are fine. Each of us has had an ache or pain, but nothing that a bed, peanut butter, Tylenol, or indoor plumbing couldn't solve. Tomorrow is another adventure, one that will take us back in time...Buena Vista...no electricity, no water, no bathrooms, no kidding.

Thank you for your checking on us.
Blessings,
Ali, Jenna, Anna, Kayla, Nicole, Emily, Lisa, and Sally

P.S. It did rain again today.

It was quite a day.

Where do I start? For some of us it was a day of firsts. For others it was a poignant reminder of what extreme poverty looks like and how brothers and sisters who struggle, stay faithful in the face of daily hardship.

Our first stop was a ministry called, Only a Child. It was started 15 years ago by a pastry chef from Boston named George Leger. George started a program for street boys that still serves homeless teenage and older boys/men. George's boys live and work together in hopes of learning how to be productive, Christian men. The boys work in a wood shop making cedar boxes, go to school, and learn to live like a family. Our girls were amazed by their stories and the boys enjoyed talking to girls who had come from such a long distance because they cared about them, their people, and wanted to share the love of Jesus. The girls told them exactly that, when they were asked, and the boys seemed genuinely touched at the girl's sincerity and interest in them. It was moving to watch this exchange. Some of the boys are in their 20's and still in 6th or 7th grade; they did not attend school when they were on the streets, and in Guatemala everyone does every grade, even if you start as a young adult. Some now attend college but still live with Only a Child, as it is the only family they have ever had. It is a small but impressive operation.

Ginny reminded us last night to "be still", just like Pastor Ken did during Lent. When we all looked out over the dump, there was nothing to do except be still. The vastness of the garbage dump itself and the humanity stifting through its filfth was overwhelming, not to mention the stench, the vultures, and the cemetary from which we viewed it. The Guatemala City Garbage dump is so far off the radar in terms of American life experience, we couldn't do anything except "be still". I think what moved us even further was the fact that one of the young Guatemalans who accompanied us to the dump and now works with Groundwork Guatemala as a teacher and "nurse", once worked in the dump for five years. She continues to live close the dump with her extended family, as do most of the Guatemalans working with Groundwork in leadership roles. They live and work with the people who need them the most. It is humbling.

The afternoon was spent doing home visits in La Libertad, the squatters area outside the dump. We broke into two groups; Jenna, Lisa, and Nicole went with Julian and Manuel two Guatemalan men from the ministry, and Emily, Ali, Anna, Kayla, and I went with Sandra, also a Guatemalan, and Kevin. In total we visited with seven different families in their shanties or on the street. Each was very different. Some were medical visits, some were to reconnect with people who had been served by the ministry and had known issues and challenges. Without describing each in detail, we prayed, sang, hugged, and talked with brothers and sisters who had incredible personal challenges such as cancer, diabetes, loss of husbands and children, alcoholic family members, children at risk from influences in La Libertad and beyond, sick children, not to mention that each was desperately poor, living in a place so unimagineably filthy and dangerous, it is hard to describe without pictures. All families made us feel as if we had done them a favor by visiting them; we felt they had done us the favor by allowing it. It was an emotional day, full of shocking new images and the realization that all of God's people are basically the same.

Tomorrow we head to one of two sites in Amatilan, a city about 45 minutes from Guatemala City, to begin our volleyball VBS camp and more home visits. Rain or shine we are ready...and I have a bad feeling it will be rain. It has been very cold and rainy the past few days, remnants of another tropical storm; the girls finally broke down and started wearing their ponchos. The tropics are quite an adventure, but we are happy and healthy and blessed to be here. Hopefully, we can get some pictures on the blog tomorrow. We are not permitted to take our own pictures outside the ministry house for our own protection. Kevin is taking pictures, however, so hopefully I can get his camera tomorrow night and attach some to the blog.

Thank you for your interest, and again forgive the spelling errors. Without spell check, I am a shell of a woman.

Blessings,
Sally and her "Guatemalan" sisters