Merry Christmas

Today is the day that Jesus was born. This is the season when Christ came onto Earth. This is the time of year that... Oh, heck, I guess all I can really say is that the calendar says today is Christmas, and that is when Christians these days traditionally celebrate the birth of Christ. It also seems like a good occasion to set some thoughts down on this blog. 

As you can probably tell from the intro, Christmas and I have a long and challenging history together. Please don’t get me wrong, it’s not the miraculous story I struggle with – the why behind Christmas - but the when and how that are tough to reconcile for me.  I was a faithful and enchanted celebrant as a child, but the tinsel lost its glitter when I became a young adult, and I spent several years avoiding the holiday and everything associated with it entirely, much to the chagrin and heartache of my friends and family. Eventually I came around to seeing that causing them pain and confusion and missing out on the chance to exalt Christ with my fellow believers was at least equally as unchristian as participating in traditions that I knew were not Biblical and were a troubling mix of different faiths. So, we once again began to partake of the good things that Christmas has to offer, despite the fact that it has become so incredibly commercialized and I still believe that many of its trappings (time of year, tree, decorations, etc) do undeniably have their roots in pagan religious habits. This is where the problem lies for me.

Deuteronomy 12:29-32, Jeremiah 10:1-5, and Colossians 2:8 (among many, many other places) are a warning to us about not mingling our faith in Christ with the faith and traditions of other religions. On the other hand, Romans 14 (among many, many other places) tells us to chill out, pray and think for ourselves, and do everything as a celebration to Jesus. Thanks, Bible, for leaving things just a wee bit ambiguous once again. When I sought the Lord for answers, I couldn’t help but be struck by the dichotomy that we’re not supposed to get religious and legalistic about our faith, but we’re also supposed to be pure about how we live it out. Hmmm…

So, I always find myself a bit uncomfortable this time of year as I try to negotiate the best path forward. I need to honor my God above all else, but in order to be a good witness I have to consider the needs of the people and culture (micro and macro) around me as well. It’s not an easy balance to find, so I always approach Christmas with a bit of confusion and dread as well as excitement. Then again, maybe that’s an integral part of the story of Christ coming to Earth, after all – discomfort. 

Don’t get me wrong, even as I write I am safe, full, comfortable, and looking forward to a big bowl of chili and a slice of pecan pie for supper. (Yum!) However, I’m also uncomfortable as well. It’s not easy to be away from my friends and family. Even though we love, love, love our new country (and new house, since we just moved 5 days ago), I feel further from home than ever during this time of year. I know I was called here. It’s where I belong. I understand that its many discomforts will be temporary (even if they last my whole lifetime), but I’m not even sure exactly what God will do through our mission work, though He’s revealed glimpses of it to me. There are promises I believe He’s given regarding our ministry that are bigger than what I can imagine happening, but I hold on to them with awe and wonder nonetheless, though I don’t know how they’ll come to pass. 

I guess that’s a bit like how Mary must have felt - far from home, carrying the savior of the world, and not even given an easy place to bring Him forth. Yet, the Bible tells us in Luke 2:19 that she treasured up the promises God had given her and pondered them in her heart. There’s a great degree of discomfort in that picture – a young girl, away from everyone she knows, surrounded by the unfamiliar, experiencing great physical and emotional challenges, but holding on to the promises of God anyway. If Christmas is  when we celebrate the story of Christ being born, then I guess that’s what Christmas looks like.

The wise men, too, knew what it was to be uncomfortable. In the whole Christmas story, they are the figures that are often viewed as the most mysterious. Not much is written about them except that they came from the East, brought interesting and expensive gifts to the Christ child, and knew enough to not trust Herod. (After all – they were wise men, remember?) I’ve heard a lot of preaching about this subject, and the nearest I can tell is that the Magi were probably part of an exclusive Babylonian/Persian/Median priesthood, meaning their predecessors (by a lot of years) would have known Daniel – the same one from the lion’s den, and all that – and would have had access to his and other Jewish writings, including prophecies about the coming messiah. (You know, stuff like Daniel 9:24-27.) Their physical journey would have been arduous. They would have been away from home for a long time, surrounded by strangers, facing dangers and discomfort, and they would have done it all because of promises God gave long before that they chose to hold on to and pursue. Sound familiar?

Then again, the whole reason for the season (as repeated by bumper stickers and wall hangings) is the Messiah himself. This was the ultimate example of discomfort (to say the least) regarding Christmas. It couldn’t have been easy for Jesus Christ to set aside his deity to become Emmanuel – God with us, and all of the messiness that entailed. After all, who would want to be restrained to being a tiny, helpless baby, complete with soggy cloth diapers and the inability to communicate? More seriously, though, Jesus knew what He was coming to do. He knows the whole end from the beginning, not just the painful end of his physical life on Earth that awaited Him, and He came anyway. For the sake of humanity, for the sake of people who would make His life hard and reject Him, for the sake of the fallen and imperfect, He was willing to face physical, emotional, and spiritual discomfort for 33 long years. For the sake of the salvation of the very people who would cause him that discomfort, He was willing to suffer it. It’s easy to recognize the suffering on the cross as a part of His story, but what about all the discomfort that came from the moment he stepped into human flesh? That’s part of the Christmas story as well.

I guess, in the end, Christmas still doesn’t look any easier or less confusing than it ever did to me, but that’s ok  Now, at least, I know more authentically what celebrating the birth of Christ should look like –whether you celebrate and honor it on December 25^th or every single day of the year. It looks like entering in. It looks like making the effort and taking the long trips and wading into the messiness and confusion of life for the sake of bringing forth the Messiah, sharing Him with others, and giving Him all of your gifts. It looks like doing things that may seem crazy to the world around you, but that you somehow know are right because of promises from an eternally faithful God that you’re holding on to. It looks like taking the opportunities you’re given – whatever they may be – to bring Christ ever more into the world around you. It looks messy. It looks uncomfortable. It looks, in its own small measure, like the story and life of Jesus Himself, and I can totally get on board with that!

People Are a Blessing

Over the last three years, I have been writing about the things that challenge us living in Guatemala - the hard things.  For the most part, we knew most of those things would happen. We had read books and talked to other missionaries, so we were prepared. But, there is one happening now that I had not foreseen and I didn't realize it would be so hard.

The picture above is from my birthday last year. Those are all our friends that we invited who could make it that night.  As of December 20th, every one of them will have moved from Guatemala.

I have never needed friends as much as I do here.  In the States, I was kind of a loner. Sure, I might call my dad, see people at church, and occasionally have someone over, but for the most part my evenings were spent with my kids and family.

Here, though, because you are living outside your own culture, it is good to have people to talk to and to be able to express your excitement and your anxieties to.  While we have made some very dear Guatemalan friends, talking with them is not the same as communicating the struggles and joys of being a missionary. For that, you really need others who have lived the missionary life and understand.

Most people here are not lifers. They may serve five, ten, twenty, or even thirty years, but most are at least open to the idea of going home. In fact, in many conversations I have had with missionaries, this question comes up, "do you think you'll ever go home?"  We all know what is meant by home; it is the United States.  Some people do say, "I am home," but it is rare.

Most of us moved down here because we felt a call to serve, so we are also open to the call of moving somewhere else.  In fact, the last people from that picture who will be leaving later this month are moving to the Middle East.

Being a missionary is like being in a club, and the other people in the club become family.  No one I know does it alone on the mission field, and when people leave, it is like losing a brother or sister. We lose people who go back to the states.  We lose people who move to serve in other places.  And, we never know where we will end up, either.  Will we be lifers in Guatemala? Will we decide we have served enough and go back to the States? Will we be called to another country?  Someday will that picture be just a memory of people who were here in Guatemala and have moved on?

I don't know the answer to those questions, but I know two things right now: 1.)  I am supposed to be here in Guatemala right now.  2.) I miss those people in the picture a lot.

Thankful

Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in Guatemala. Our weekly cheese vendor knocked on our door this morning. Mark went to work at the Bible school. The big Trigal bus is rumbling by every hour or so. (Then again - the sun is also shining and the flowers and still blooming...) Still, it's strange to be in a place where life goes on when I know almost everyone in the States is gathering together with family and friends. I'm busy cooking a traditional feast  this morning for our Bible school potluck (because I'm American) while I listen to the bustling sounds of life outside (because I'm in Guatemala). I'm awfully grateful for the chance to experience both today, but it also has me feeling nostalgic about Thanksgivings gone by.

When I was a kid, we always went to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. I have such vivid memories of helping put the leaves in the table and setting out the best dishes. There were never quite enough of them when the whole family gathered together, so the kids (who sat at the card table at the end of the big table) ate with the bubbled glass plates that only came out for holidays as well. Once I got old enough to get the best dishes, I wistfully longed for the fun dishes of my youth. They still make me smile when I see them in the china cabinet. My cousins and I would sneak olives from the relish tray, bounce back and forth between the bustling kitchen and the inevitably interesting conversations the men were having in the den. While my aunt carved the turkey, all of the kids would gather around and making cheeping sounds while she fed the "little birds." One grandma would make the gravy, and the other would dish up mountains of mashed potatoes into the dish we always used, jelly into the dish we always used, stuffing into the dish we always used... There was such comfort in that continuity, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to experience it.

When I got older and got married, we decided (as many do) to split holidays, and celebrated Thanksgiving with my husband's family, which is much bigger than mine. As a result, they did a potluck, with everyone bringing something to share. Usually one uncle would cook (or deep fry, in later years - yummm) a giant turkey. One aunt specialized in pies of all sorts of delicious varieties. There were mashed potatoes, homemade bread and jelly, cheese platters, stuffing, and (most importantly) Mark's grandma's strawberry tapioca pudding. Just thinking about it makes me feel happy. Because there were so many people, we took turns hosting. We did so a couple of times, including the year I cooked a 28 pound bird. It was at my in-law's cabin in the woods often, as well as at Mark's uncle's country property where we enjoyed riding horses while we waited for the food to be set out. There was so much family fun in the little differences every year, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to experience it.

For the last several years that we lived in the States, my best friend and I piled her two girls and my three girls and ourselves and all our stuff into a minivan and took a road trip together. One year it was to St. Louis where we played at a children's museum and explored the city. One year we went back to our old hometown where we relived our earliest childhood memories and visited relatives we hadn't seen for years. One year she came and visited my grandparents, since it only seemed right that she should be familiar with the homes and town that were so important to me growing up. My bestie and I have literally been friends for our whole lives, and these girl trips strengthened and expanded our friendship and helped our daughters forge their on strong, vital relationships with one another. There was so much joy in this precious time together, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to experience it.

Since we've moved to Guatemala, Thanksgiving has taken on a different meaning to me. I understand a little more what it means to truly take time to be thankful, and why it's important to do so. I'm sure the first pilgrims longed for their loved ones far, far away.  Nonetheless, they chose to focus on the exciting possibilities around them in their new land, and the new and very different friends they'd made. Somehow the fact that their fellow travelers - the ones who'd come over with them, toiled with them, shared a common background AND future with them - became all the more dear and beloved. I get that now.  I get all of that. Our Thanksgivings here have been a mix of traditional Iowa Thanksgiving fare, Pennsylvania Thanksgiving fare, Southwest Thanksgiving fare, and a dash of traditional Guatemalan fare mixed in. There is so much growth and challenge in celebrating an American holiday here, and I'm so grateful I have had the chance to experience it.

In the end, after all of this reflection, all I feel is tremendously blessed. Sometimes I mourn for the fact that my kids won't know the same traditions that I knew, but I also delight in the opportunities they will get that I didn't. Just think of what stories they'll have to tell, and what traditions they'll be able to carry forward into their own families. I have so much to give thanks to God for in my past, present, and future, and I'm glad we have a day to contemplate and celebrate such things. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

The Social (Media) Missionary

Ah, social media.

(I could just leave it at that, couldn't I, and a good 83% or so of you faithful readers would probably join me in a poignant sigh and shake of the head...)

Social media is great. I had email from its earliest, dialup days, and have been surfing the web (or "net" as we first called it) since it existed. I got on FB years and years ago - just as MySpace and AOL were in the earliest spasms of their demise. I've had a blog as long as blogs were a thing, and have tried out Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and most of the other social media things that I'm aware of. (Though, granted, being old enough to remember life before email also means I'm probably too old to understand or know about the latest and greatest options.) In short, I appreciate social media. I've forwarded and reposted with the best of them. But, I've also been in a relationship with the online world long enough to recognize its problems, especially for missionaries.

Don't get me wrong - I adore more than words can say that I can Skype with my family and they can keep up with what we're doing down here online. It's even better that it runs both ways, so we can be voyeurs too! Heck, I'm using Blogger right now as a means to talk about social media with all of you. Clearly, I appreciate this stuff. The advances in technology (especially for social purposes) of the last 10 years are truly mind boggling, and I, like most missionaries, am grateful for them literally every single day.

However, social media does give me pause.

Back in our "regular life" days, I never gave it a second thought what I put online. I mean, I didn't swear or repost things that said, "If you don't share this in the next ten seconds some horrible tragedy will befall you." I like to think I was conscientious of others. And, of course, I was careful not to put my social security number out there or tell the world that I was going on vacation and our house and all its possessions would only be guarded by a couple lazy cats. Aside from the normal precautions, though, I put up whatever I wanted, and didn't really consider what other people might think of it.  That's not the case now.

First off, there are safety concerns that are different here. Let me reiterate in no uncertain terms - we have NEVER felt unsafe in Guatemala, and we know God and his giant, muscular, sword-wielding angels are always with us. But, the statistics for this nation are less than good. We've known people who have had scary things happen to them. I won't elaborate, but it's definitely enough to make us extra thoughtful and prayerful about what we post. In the States, we took for granted that people who could and would protect us were just a 911 call away. There is no 911 here. In the States, we looked more or less like everyone else (except for being a bit better looking, perhaps). Here, we kinda sorta stand out a little bit, and have to be aware of that. In the States, we were always a lower-middle class family, and the fact that most of our possessions came from Goodwill or Salvation Army meant that they'd already literally been picked over and discarded once by the time we got them, so they weren't likely to appeal to the criminal class or anyone else. Here, even though we make next to nothing in the States for a family of 5, we're considered wealthy. (Of course, we're assumed to be even more so simply because of our light skin and country of origin). Because of all of those things, we have to think twice about what we post simply for safety's sake.

I can't imagine what it would be like for missionaries living in countries where it's dangerous or illegal to share the Gospel!

Another reason we're cautious, though, has nothing to do with the people here, and everything to do with the people back home. For some reason, everyone has a different and very specific idea of what a missionary is, and what a missionary should do... and NOT do. For example, some Christian folks we know are offended by the fact that we don't drink alcohol. Others think it highly improper that we have an X-Box and sometimes play <gasp> fighting games. What this means, then, is that every time we put something up on FB, we're inviting scrutiny of our ministry (and even our Christianity) in a way. Perhaps someone will be bothered by a secular CD or movie in the background of a picture, or a book by an author (Christian or otherwise) that they don't approve of, or a food package for an item that isn't missionary-y enough (don't laugh - this happens). We want, above all things, to be effective for Christ's sake, and therefore we strive to live in peace with all people as much as possible (Rom. 12:18), not cause others to stumble (1 Cor. 10:32), and avoid even the appearance of evil (1 Thes. 5:22). The trouble comes in not knowing what strange thing (to us) could cause these problems! Honestly, judgement and undue scrutiny of one believer by another for inconsequential things is one of the biggest problems in Christianity today, and it can be even harder for missionaries.

But, the last reason we try to be careful what we post is probably the most difficult. We live on donations. Therefore, we sometimes don't feel like we can do what we need to do with our money without being criticized. In the past (when we had regular jobs like most people), we considered whether or not we could afford something, and prayed about if God wanted us to buy or do it before we made any decisions. Now, we have to add another step and really consider what others might think. Please don't get me wrong - we try to be VERY faithful stewards of the funds God so graciously puts into our hands by the hard work and generous donations of others. (Trust me - we're some of the most frugal people you will meet!) BUT, it's hard to ensure that every social media post looks "frugal enough" for everyone's tastes. If we throw up a picture of ourselves eating out at a restaurant, for example, people might think we do so all the time, instead of understanding that we were attending a ministry dinner that was a part of our work here. If we put up a picture of our kids in a hotel or at the beach, folks might start imagining how much it would cost them to go to the same type of place, not realizing that things are not NEARLY as expensive (or nice) here as they are in the States, and we're required to take such a trip in order to stay in Guatemala to continue our ministry. Plus, going for the very cheapest option here can sometimes mean truly appalling accommodations, or even being unsafe. I know it sounds a little ridiculous, but it's also important. It sometimes feels like we can't afford (literally and figuratively) to offend people or make them think we're misusing donations. That's tough.

So, what's a social (media) missionary to do? Should we start adding captions to all pictures explaining away any possible misunderstandings or misinterpretations? ("The name brand shirt was given to us and that's 100% fair trade coffee! I swear!") Start censuring with bold, black lines over any pictures items that could be questionable? ("Sorry, family back home. I've blotted out all the smiles! Missionaries can't look too happy, after all...") Just leave out any and all information that could be problematic? ("Today we --------ed in the city of -------------- with a group of -------------...") Just give up on social media all together?

Um, maybe not. Instead, maybe I'll write a blog post about the challenges of being a missionary with social media, which will help people be thoughtful about their own reactions to posts and updates, and let them know just how hard missionaries really do try to not offend people (but to please Christ, above all). Who knows, it just might work, but not unless you hit ctrl+F7 and forward this blog post to 30 people in the next minute. 

Graduation Day(s)

The Guatemalan school schedule runs from January through October, which means we’ve just completed our academic year.  The traditional end to a person’s studies, of course, is marked by a graduation of some sort. We just celebrated our Bible school’s graduation, and wanted to share the experience with you!

First off, it might help to understand a little more about our students. Many have never finished 12^th grade, or even 6^th grade. Some arrive functionally illiterate. For a lot of our students, Spanish is a second language that they don’t use often. (We can identify with their challenges!) A sizeable number of our students have to take buses or drive and hour or more to attend classes. Almost all of them also are working full time jobs in addition to studying with us. Though our monthly fee is low (between $5 and $15 U.S.), it is still a hardship for a lot of our students to come up with this amount.

Their challenges are real, to say the least. Then again, so is their hunger for the Lord. This year, we had 144 graduates among our three different levels of study. Let me put that into perspective: 

That’s 144 people who have attended four-hour classes once (or more) a week for at LEAST the last three years, many of them for six or nine years. 

That’s 144 people who’ve taken the bus, or the taxi, or their bike, or their car, or who have walked to come to classes in either our location or one of our 12 extension schools. 

That’s 144 people who have decided that their desire to learn more about God and His precious Word was CONSISTENTLY more important EACH WEEK than whatever else they had to do on their class day. 

That’s 144 people who completed their homework, took their tests, attended special workshops and activities, and sat under great teaching when they didn’t have to do so. 

They chose Jesus. They chose the Word. They chose God. 

Wow. 

It humbles me still to know that people are being driven by their desire for the Almighty to take the harder but more important route in life. It humbles me even more to get the chance to be a part of a ministry that provides such solid instruction in Christian living and the Bible. I would say that I am the most blessed person on Earth, but the smiles on the faces of our graduates tell me that they feel the same way.

God is so good! 

Below are lots of photos of our graduation events. My apologies for not getting more or better pictures (especially of the big graduation day). There was just so much to do that we didn't have time to snap pics!  Because this was our largest graduating class ever, it was also our largest audience. The auditorium we use didn’t even have enough seats. What a wonderful problem to have – outgrowing the spaces you use to celebrate the work the Lord has given you!

Our first graduation - for licenciatura (highest level) students was at our facility. These are 3 of our teachers welcoming the audience and graduates.

Our director and one of the licenciatura graduates.

One of the traditions here is that the board helps the graduates into their robes, caps, and sashes. Here, one of our graduates is finishing the process. You can see (to the left) another graduate receiving her cap.

To be official, graduates must sign the book!

Gradates promising to uphold the highest level of integrity and service with the instruction they've received.

Worship is an important part of everything we do - including graduation!

Our speaker (a director of Bible schools in Costa Rica and Nicaragua) did a great job!

The lienciatura graduation took place on the last day of classes for the other two levels, so they still had to take tests once the festivities were over!

Our students host dinners for staff and teachers on their last days. They are such wonderful people!

Yummm!!! They brought in a grill to cook the steak on site.

This was the meal for the other (bigger) class.

Getting ready backstage before our big graduation day! There was a lot of work to be done...

144 caps and gowns to put on in around an hour!

Everyone helps to make the day go smoothly. Rebecca and Sarah were big helps!

One of our graduates proudly walking with his diploma in hand.

Ever study stopped for a photo op in front of the flags after receiving a diploma.

Pictures don't do justice to just how big of a day this is for our graduates, and for us!

It was standing room only in the audience.

Visa Run

Guatemala is a gracious nation, filled with wonderful people and striking landscapes. But, they also (of course) have laws. One of the laws that we are subject to has to do with how long a person can be in the country legally. Like many nations, Guatemala allows for a 90 days tourist visa. After 90 days, however, a person must leave the country for 72 hours. (There are a lot of nuances and options to this, of course, but I'm giving you the simplified version.)

What that means is that, for now at least, we must leave the country every 3 months, whether we want to or not. (Incidentally - this also means that we are filling up our passports quickly. It's 4 stamps - a whole page worth - every time we leave. Mark and I have already had to have pages added.) This is not at all uncommon for missionaries, and we're super blessed that our process is so relatively easy and cheap. One missionary friend of ours who was in the middle east was required to return to her home country (the U.S.A.) in order to renew her visa! Thankfully, we're only a 3 hour drive through the mountains from the border with Mexico. Many times, the process of crossing the border itself takes us as long or longer than the drive to get there. We have to stamp our passports out of Guatemala, pay a bridge fee to cross, pay to get our car fumigated on the Mexican side, go through a sometimes rigorous search process, fill out paperwork and get our passports stamped into Mexico, and then head on our way. Because everyone in front of us has to do the same, sometimes we have to wait a looooooooooong time in line. Sometimes we don't.

That's part of the "fun" of the border - you never know what it's going to be like. For the first several times through, I just took all the passports to the window for immigration to stamp out of Guatemala. On one visit, though, that was apparently not okay, and everyone had to get out of the car and come up one by one. Once, a border agent really, really wanted to convince me that we should just pay a fee at the border instead of staying the required 72 hours in Mexico. That was fine with me, since I was having this 15 minute conversation with the agent and her boss inside the air conditioned office. It wasn't quite as okay with Mark and the girls, though, who were waiting in the car with no idea where or why I'd been been taken inside the immigration building. Occasionally they hassle us for not having certain paperwork. Sometimes they charge an illegal 10Q per passport fee. We've been thoroughly checked almost every time on the Mexican side, but only once on the Guatemalan side. Once or twice, we've been told to go around the line and traffic on our return into Guatemala, which meant skipping out on being inspected AND sprayed. As you can tell, we never know quite what to expect!

While the border crossing itself can be interesting, and there's always something different, we tend to make the rest of the trip as uneventful (and cheap) as possible. When looking for a hotel in southern Mexico, it's important to consider safety. When looking for a hotel for a missionary family, it's important to consider cost. We had a place we were staying before, but they raised their rates and lowered their quality of service. Thankfully, we found another hotel (on recommendation from a friend) that's even cheaper and nicer, and on the beach! Because this place has a suite for rent, we have access to a kitchen, so we can bring our own food along (though, no fresh fruits and veggies, which are illegal to take across the border). This cuts down on costs for eating out.

Honestly, visa runs are a mixed blessing. We wouldn't choose to take this time or money away from our ministry work. Sometimes our 90 days runs out at a very inconvenient time, for example. But, we don't have a choice. As a family, we don't have any other vacations or time away except for these visa runs and our furlough trips back to the U.S. (which really aren't vacations, and are often much more exhausting than being at home even though we love every minute of them). So, we've chosen to embrace our visa run trips as a chance to really be together and relax. We take naps! We swim in a pool! We catch up on emails and other correspondence (like I'm doing with this blog right now)! We look for chances to pray for others or do any outreach that the Holy Spirit puts before us, but we also just soak up free time and the chance to be a family - not just missionaries.

We're prayerfully looking into other options - things that would change what we have to do every 90 days, or allow us two years with no additional requirements at all. I'm sure God will be faithful to help us wade through all the options and possibilities and show us the best possible fit. It would be nice to spend less money and time to stay legal with the Guatemalan government. To be honest, though, if it turns out that our best option is to keep making our visa runs just like we are right now, I'm ok with that, too!

Wheels for Jesus!

It's so much fun to join other ministries in the work they're doing! First off, it's nice to be included. Makes you feel good. But, it's also really fun to do God's work together. To make new friends. To rub shoulders with different people than you usually get to rub shoulders with. Plus, sometimes you can feel isolated and wonder about what else is going on in the world, and getting  glimpse into the work (and heart) of other missionaries is refreshing and encouraging.

We had the chance to work with some new folks and make some new friends this month. As these things often go, we ended up meeting a person from just down the road from where we used to live who regularly does ministry work in Guatemala. (Go figure.)

Anyway (and I apologize if I get these names wrong or miss someone), the ministries we hooked up with were called Bethel Ministries, Joni and Friends, and Mission Mobility. These guys gather and repair medical equipment (mostly wheelchairs, walkers, canes, etc.) and then transport them to Guatemala (and probably other places as well) to distribute them to those in need. One gentleman I met has a prison ministry in the States where he talks to the prisoners about the Gospel, and they have a shop where they repair equipment. How beautiful!

Because they were going to be doing a distribution in our town, Rachel, Rebecca, and I were able to tag along and help out. Rebecca did intake and exit paperwork, including giving every person who came for a chair a number, and taking pictures of the smiling recipients at the end of the day. Rachel and I assisted with translation. It was a humbling experience, to say the least.

Many (most) of the people who came were in desperate need of a wheelchair, and had never had one. The healthcare in Guatemala is bad, especially for people who have very profound needs and challenges. People who are so faithful to do this kind of work - collecting and bringing equipment - change lives! Their carefulness to present the Gospel and pray with people while doing so changes eternities! It was such a blessing to be able to be a very small part of the work these good folks did.

The distribution took place at a rehab center. By the time we arrived, the crew had already unloaded the equipment from the truck. (They'd worked with local organizations and churches months ahead of time to identify who needed what kind of equipment, and had contacted those people ahead of time.) We started by taking the shrinkwrap off the chairs and sorting them in the central courtyard area.

This is where Rebecca disappeared with a volunteer leader to go help with intake. The people had started to come - many from miles and miles away - to receive a new chair! Next up, the organizers started the day with prayer for everyone and instructions for how the distribution would go. That's when things got busy inside!

The crew was simply amazing. Most (I believe) were physical therapists, nurses, doctors, etc. They were so very skillful in helping fit each chair to each person. This was no easy task, since they only had the tools and equipment they brought with them. At one point, someone needed an adjustment made to the table affixed to a chair, but there was no extra wood. Solution? The walkway/ramp between the courtyard and room we were in would work! Many of the fits required an hour or more of work to customize the chair. They were gluing foam, cutting it to the right angle with electric knives, cutting off metal parts, boring holes, adding bolts, screwing on safety straps, and so much more. It was such an honor to see their focus and dedication to ensuring that each person got the perfect chair.

I can't tell you how many people cried that day to receive their first chair, or their mother's first chair, or their child's first chair, and to have it be such a perfect fit and blessing.

Rachel worked with the team that fit chairs for kids. She got to see families whose backstories are unimaginable for us. In her typical, friendly way, she put both children and parents at ease, and helped the team ensure that each family's needs were being met. She had parents thank her. Hug her. Show her photos on their phones of their family vacations. It was a wonderful experience. The best part was being able to pray with the families before they left. That Spanish was definitely coming in handy!

The team I worked with mostly assisted adults. The woman below is 42 years old. She's the oldest of 6 kids, ad has been unable to walk or speak since she was around 15 years old. The family used to have medicine to help with her seizures, but the doctor they were seeing no longer had access to it. She lives with her mother in an outlying town about 30 minutes from Xela. She's never had a chair, and has always had to be carried everywhere. She was hard to fit, but after about an hour and a half of work, the team had the perfect chair for her. This whole family's life has changed. Mom (and the neighbors who came to help) were so grateful, and praised God with us for this gift.

The very few people who came with chairs were in desperate need of new ones. Take a look at what was left behind. These chairs, even in as rough of shape as they are in, will be taken to a rehab facility here in Guatemala, and be made functional again to bless someone else in the future.

Right before the people left in their new chairs, they stopped and got prayed for - each family - by a local pastor. I'm praising God for the divine connections and life changes that I know were made here.

As people caught buses back to their homes (including this one, which had been hired to transport people to and from a local town), there were a whole lot more smiles, a whole lot more opportunities, and a whole lot more chairs along for the ride!