The day before my team started our ministry , our host, Sally, asked us to help her with a free lunch in the town square. We went out that morning and passed out tickets to the lunch. I partnered up with one of my teammates, Stephanie, and we walked through the market trying to decide who to invite to the lunch. Steph handed out her tickets pretty fast, but I took a little longer and even needed a little push from my teammate. Eventually I passed out my tickets to some women waiting for the bus.
We waited in the square for the rest of the group to return and met a 10 year old boy and his friends. They all looked to be around the same age and they worked as shoe shiners. They said they heard we were passing out tickets to a free lunch and really wanted to come. We found an extra ticket from another person in our group and told them they should come any way.
We went back to the compound to put together the sack lunches and were able to make 100 lunches. Sally was not feeling well so she couldn’t come to hand out the lunches with us. She sent a friend to meet us in town and translate for us.
When we got to the town square, there were already people waiting for us. They wanted their free lunch and with our limited spanish we told them we needed to wait. Sally had given us a plan of how the event should look. First an explanation of why we are in Guatemala. Then a few people would share their testimonies and we would sing a few songs in spanish. Then we would pass out lunches.
After a while we decided to sing some songs to pass time while waiting for our translator. We sang our songs and the crowd started to get restless. A couple brave people in our group did their best to explain in spanish who we are and why we are here. They read a passage from a spanish bible we had. Then we said we would pass out the lunches and a big crowd gathered. We passed out lunches to all the people that had tickets which only turned out to be about half of what we had invited. After all the people with tickets were served, we wanted to pass out the rest to whoever wanted them. People wanted a lunch so bad they were pushing to get closer to the stage and all the women and children were in the front being pushed up against the stage.
Holding lunches in both hands looking out at this crowd, I froze. Who do I choose to give the lunches to? Who needs it the most? I couldn’t do it. My heart broke for these people. I passed the lunches off to a teammate and watched as the last lunches were given and the crowd dispersed. Our group regathered and discussed what happened. A few minutes later our translator arrived and another crowd gathered to hear 2 of my squadmates share their testimonies. After that we asked if anyone wanted to be prayed for and many people did. We split up and each small group prayed for someone.
In the end it was a great day and we were able to accomplish our goals even though it didn’t go as we had planned.
Our brave squadmates preaching the gospel in spanish!
Singing some spanish songs!
