I know, I know, it has been a bit since my last blog; I apologize. Honestly though it feels like time has just kinda flown by, It feels like I just wrote the last blog a couple days ago. I look at the date, and its like…whoa!! 10 days ago? have we even been here 10 days??
Well in these past 10 days, we’ve had the opportunity to serve a few churches by cleaning and painting, visit with local families in their homes, listen to their stories, encourage and pray with them. We finally met with the medical team that we will be working along side, holding almost daily clinics in different parts of Guatemala in smaller towns/villages. We’ve gotten a chance to tour Huehuetenango’s small city center and soak up more of this interesting town we currently reside. We even got a chance to visit a small Mayan ruin located not too far from us…pretty cool!
In these past 10 days, in some crazy maneuver trying to get out the back of a pickup truck, I also unfortunately dropped my camera and lens. Yes, my heart dropped and it hurt bad, as I saw it drop to the ground with a hard hit that sent the lens flying away from the body of the camera in its own peice into the dirt. This happened nice and early as we got to this small town and church we would be serving at for the day. At that moment I knew the incident would set my tone for the day, and right then and there, I had a choice to make. Would I allow this to get the best of me today, or even the the week, as my teammates helped me pick up the peices, or would I give it to God, although saddened, understanding that my attitude was important and it affected how I participated in my Fathers cause for the day.
Small town where we served and camera broke. The church is at top, 2nd bldg(peach) on left. This pic was taken with my cell phone.
Examining the damage, it was clear the lens had cracked off and was physically damaged where it could not be attached to the camera body or even used. The body of the camera had a good size crack that went across the side but thankfully, remains functional. As you can imagine, the day tunred out to be a little bit of a tough one for me, but the Father really gave me grace to go through it, and hopefully without the negative tone as can often be the case in such situations. It is still a little hard to think I will not be able to use my camera as much as I would like to and my favorite everyday lens sits beside my bed pretty much useless…2 weeks into the trip.
Alhough it stinks, for the most part, I have come to terms with it, and have greived the loss. I’ve been asking, and thankfully from just about the minute it happened, ‘Lord what are you doing in this situation?’ That His plan for me even through this situation will come to fruition. Maybe i’ll get to learn something new, or maybe even a growth in me that comes from allowing Him control of even that area of my life as well…
So yea, in these past 10 days, the Lord has begun working in me and our little team community as much as He’s been working thru the different serving opportunities we’ve been a part of. Speaking of which, as I mentioned, we are currently working with the medical team from Lee University. It has been pretty interesting, even though sometimes hard. Hard in seeing some of the medical issues people come with, looking to get cured, and sometimes there isn’t one. If you have a monent, read Cori’s blog(my teammate) about her perspective on ‘Martha’.
It’s also been a little hard in serving in just the littlelest of ways, that often does not seem like much; running small type errands for the medical team, setting up triage, even though often wanting to do more. Playing a sort of a support role has been a very humbling experience, filled with growth for me as a team member, and as a team leader. I have also found myself not very willing to walking up to people as they wait to be triaged(prioritizing patients to see doctor) and pray for them. I don’t know if its just the language barrier, or more of just me. I’ve just taken the approach of having God provide me with opportunities as I interact with the people as they wait. If the Lord gives me what I recognize to be an opportunity, by His grace, I will be obedient to follow through with it. But not quite specifically going to each person and praying for each one. I don’t know, I’m still working on this one, we’l see how He directs.
With that said, its been a real blessing being able to serve with the medical team. Apart from having more group of people our age group that also speak Inglese, its been a great time getting to fellowship with them and just learning more about medicine in general. The days are long, my team is up and out of the house early(6am, sometimes earlier) and back late in evening, depending on travel distance, but definitely rewarding in its own way and because of the Father.
People waiting outside our makeshift clinic to see a doctor. Teammates discussing strategy.
Do continue to keep us in your prayers, that we will continue to be willing to give up more of us and our entitlements, for His cause. For continued direction in leading His team Abandon and for the growth and bond that has already begun in an amazing way in the team. In the mean time, I will look to be more frequent with my updates.
