Well, it’s been a week. We’ve begun working in our first ministry, which has been eye-opening, sometimes uncomfortable, and also more fun than I had anticipated. More on ministry in a bit – first, here are some things that might surprise you about my first week.
· I have a bed, a warm shower, and coffee every morning.
· Packing those long-sleeved shirts was not a waste of space – right now I’m wearing a fleece over my long-sleeved shirt and I’m wrapped up in my thermal sleeping bag liner.
· Sharing a room with 4 other grown women is not only possible, but can be fun.
· Cramming onto a crowded public bus for an hour on winding Guatemalan roads is way more fun than it sounds.
· Foreign food is not a challenge – I’m pretty sure I’ll be gaining weight on the Race, not losing it.
· Soccer just might be the best ministry tool ever.
This week has been a whirlwind. In seven days we’ve already experienced vehicle breakdowns, catching a ride with the police after the breakdown, a lot of local culture (including the craziest tow-truck I’ve ever seen), soccer games with the locals, and heart-wrenching ministry.
So, about the ministry. I was excited about this ministry, but pretty nervous too. We’re working with the Street Revolution in Guatemala City, which is an incredible ministry that focuses on serving homeless youth in the city. I feel like working with the Street Revolution the first month has been great because we are being thrown whole-heartedly into really intense ministry. We go out onto the street corners to basically hang out with the homeless. Many of them are young, but really it’s all ages. I wasn’t prepared for just how raw and real this ministry is. At times it seems like we couldn’t be making a difference by playing Uno, painting nails, and talking, but the point is that we’re spending time with people who aren’t ever given positive attention. I’m learning that for the homeless, sometimes the greatest gift is just to be acknowledged.
Many of the homeless here are addicted to solvent, which they pour on rags and sniff all day. It’s so hard to sit there and watch these young teenagers get so high they can barely talk to you. It’s almost worse when they start to come out of it, because you can see glimpses of the kids they might be without the drugs. Life is hard for these kids, and drugs are a way for them to disengage from the reality of street life. Even if all we ever do in this ministry is distract them from the drugs for a little bit, I think it’s worth it. The street dynamics are so fascination. The groups we visit are individuals who have formed a type of family unit to take care of each other on the street. They are all ages, all types. I think it’s interesting too that I haven’t been asked for money once, or even food. We take a soccer ball with us, so if there’s space we play. Every single Guatemalan I’ve met is 100 times better at soccer than I am, so these games are pretty entertaining for them. If there isn’t space for soccer, we play cards, do crafts, or just talk. We’re blessed with native Spanish speakers on our team, which is a huge advantage, but everyone is able to communicate in one way or another.
If you’re thinking that playing soccer with the homeless that live in the park in the morning, then hanging out with the street youth getting high on the corner in the afternoon isn’t what you expected me to be doing, you’re not the only one! I think this has been a pretty eye-opening ministry for all of us, but I’m grateful for it. The Street Revolution staff have a wonderful thing going here – these aren’t strangers for them, some are people they have been working with and getting to know for years. Although we only have two weeks left in Guatemala City, we’ll be visiting several groups a couple of times a week and hopefully get to know them a little better.
I want to share a little bit about one of the kids I met this week so that you can be praying for her. One of our ministry areas will be tutoring at risk kids that live at a bus terminal in the city. These homes are just shacks built into an alley by a bus terminal and market. To get there you have to descend through dark, dirty alleys to a small central area that has become a classroom of sorts for the kids. And there are so many kids. We spent a couple of hours with them, helping them with math, reading, and drawing. I spent some time with a girl named Blanca, who is 6 years old. She loved the story of Blancanieve (Snow White), and when I stopped reading she quietly recited her own version of the story for me. It’s heartbreaking to think this little girl might end up fending for herself on the streets someday. Many of the teenagers we’ve met have been on the streets since they were 9 or 10.
This blog was a little longer than I’d planned, but hopefully it gives everyone an idea of what life looks like for me right now. This ministry is heartbreaking, but it’s also an amazing chance to grow and learn. It’s impossible to include everything that’s been going on in one blog, so feel free to e-mail me if you’d like to know more!
