It’s been a week since coming home from Guatemala, and as I talk with my friends, there are many stories of encounters with the kids we saw.  William singing a song for us; David showing me his photo album from our church; holding and rocking Jose Francisco.  Those are great images of encountering God through those kids in Guatemala.

There are also images in my mind of how I can see God working through and in the individuals on the team.  One of my favorite things about these short mission trips is that I get to live in great community for a week.  There is great laughter as we move from place to place.  There are great ideas that come when we put our heads together toward problem solving.  I get to see the core of a person while I watch them deal with joy, stress, sadness, discomfort, surprise, and pleasure.

I love that God puts a team together as he intends, using each person’s unique set of gifts and passions.  Amber loves to dance, and so she danced with some kids, learning some choreography from them and trading some swing dancing and tap in exchange.  Our unexpected visit with the special needs toddlers gave Adam a chance to dig deep to his pediatric clinicals; he did range of motion exercises with the kids and made sure each was held by someone in our group.  Jennifer taught lessons to the young kids at the community center, and I was amazed at how naturally she engaged them with words and motion and activity.  So thankful to have her there sharing her talents.  The toddlers call to Stephanie, and she sat on the ground with them for hours, mesmerizing them with bubbles and balls and her affection.  Kelly has a passion for people, and she always found the kids in the back, longing for some attention. I watched the dance that God had orchestrated, each person bringing His love and presence into the space through his/her own personality. 

We come to Guatemala to serve the orphans, but we are in fact changed through the experience, and we come home with a specific support system of people who understand one another uniquely.  It’s a blessing to see God through this expression of community.

None of us can believe that it’s time to go home.  Didn’t we just arrive?  Have we really been here in Guatemala City for a week?  The week has flown by, but we each have dozens of snapshots in our minds to remind us of the mission this week.

We closed out our week with a visit with 5 and 6 year old kids at a community center, teaching about Jesus calming the sea.  Not so calm? Musical chairs with almost 30 kids.  They had a great time and so did we.

We finished the week with a quick trip to the market to find some treasures to remember our time in Guatemala.  In all our comings and goings, we repeat stories of things that happened this week, of encounters with orphans, and how we see God moving in the lives of those kids and in our own.

Tomorrow is a long day of travel home, starting with an alarm going off at 4am.  See you all soon.

It was our last day at the orphanage, Hogar Solidario.  We were able to see boys we had missed earlier in the week, some boys we always have an eye out for, some of our special needs friends, and a bunch of smiling toddlers.  We ended our day loving on some special needs babies and toddlers, which one of our group described as a good way to end our time with the kids, “sweet and sad”.  In the lives of those babies with limited physical or mental functioning, the importance of our presence with them cannot be overstated.  God is with them always, and today he let us be his hands and feet.  God’s presence in their room, with skin on.

Today started with a devotion about the presence of God being with us and with the boys this week.  About the importance of our presence with the orphans we visit, and how we tell them and show them about the truth that God is with them always, no matter what.  We are being sent by God to be present with these children, like Ruth followed Naomi into a land that wasn’t hers, as well as the way that Paul’s dear friends visited them in prison.  It set the tone for the day.

We spent some time helping in the laundry this morning, and it’s a blessing to help them and pray for those hard-working women.  Can you imagine doing laundry for 600 children day after day?  We folded a fraction of it this morning, but the task of folding clothes is merely a means to minister to some women who rarely get credit for their efforts.  We also delivered the bracelets made by the women of our church at our recent Chix One Day.

Our time with the special needs boys this afternoon included a brief lesson about Joseph, driving home the important point that God loves them and is always with them, and that we come to see them to show them God’s love.  We worked on crafts and gave away small gifts, but we gave countless hugs and smiles, receiving as much as we gave.  I’m not sure all the boy understood the lesson, but I’m sure that God was present in the room while we sat shoulder to shoulder with these great children of His.  They remember our group, and I’m not sure who was more excited to see whom.

There were also difficult moments in the day, in seeing so many babies without parents and a group of children with special needs who all needed to be held and cuddled and loved.  Balancing that are moments where we howl with laughter at something funny said or done by one of the kids or by ourselves.  We are enjoying a chance to know one another in a unique way, and we are building connections to the orphans and one another in eternal ways.

Today was a great day spent with the kids.  We learned from yesterday, tweaked a few things, and really hit our stride today with our teaching, interaction with the kids, and activities we had planned.  The day started with a great (and well-mannered) group of boys 12-14 years old at the orphanage.  We talked about Joseph again with them, and then we made beaded bracelets to remind us of Joseph’s coat of colors and God’s unique love for each of the kids.  We played and laughed with them over football, kickball, basketball, and just hanging out in the shade.  We spent the afternoon doing similar lessons and activities with a great group of kids at a local community center.

Tonight in our conversation, we remembered some highlights of the day:

• Stephanie saw one of the boys from yesterday.  He’d given her a bracelet and wanted to check to see if she still had it.  If she still remembered him.  Of course she remembers him!
• Jennifer sitting in the shade with a small group of boys, chatting and sharing small gifts.
• Seeing some familiar faces today: Isaias, Brandon, Mario, Tito, Hernan.
• Hernan hugging me so long that he drooled on my shoulder.  Not a problem.
• Mario leaving the day wearing name tags that read: “Jody”, “Jennifer”, and “Adam”.
• Kelly making bracelets and getting to know the girls of the community center.
• Affirmation that God has us here to share his love with these boys.