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!