We are here in Guatemala, and we posted up all of our tents right across the street from a hospital. This is one of the only hospitals in the area and people come from 4 to 5 hours away to get anything from simple medicine to major surgeries. I met a man who lives 75 miles away. His brother fell from 7 feet and messed up his intestines. He has been at the hospital for 15 days and has been sleeping outside waiting for any news about his brother. The doctors said that he could be there for up to 25 days. So this man is just waiting in anticipation.
Literally 30 yards from our tents, across the street, there is a hospital full of people who are in pain, dying, and waiting for the worst news or the most relieving news of their current lives. So close to us there is so much brokenness, so much hurt, so much pain, and it is right across the street.
I do wonder what it looks like from the other side. To stand across the street and look from the hospital’s side at all of these tents. From the outside it looks like a bunch of happy Americans who are trying to make a difference. Each of us has a really nice tent and a really nice backpack. We are smiling, playing games like soccer and ultimate fris-bee, and having personal time reading and journaling. From across the street, I’m sure we look like we have an amazing life.
But when you get deeper, when you look past the tents, the games, and the smiles, you see there is something deeper, and that there is brokenness. As we get to know each other more, we see the pain and the hurt in each other’s lives. Multiple girls and guys sharing stories of being taken advantage of as children, drug, alcohol, and sex addictions, anger, father issues and so much more.
If there were a hospital for emotional baggage, it would be right here, right where we are. But the good thing about a hospital is that there is healing there. That is exactly what is happening. Things are coming to the surface and healing is beginning to happen. Whether it takes 25 days or 25 years, the healing process is starting, relationships are going deeper, and letting go of the past is happening.
We are all letting go of this crap that is like a weight on our shoulders and we are refusing to carry it any longer. We have given this stuff to God, and it no longer defines us.
Literally 30 yards from our tents, across the street, there is a hospital full of people who are in pain, dying, and waiting for the worst news or the most relieving news of their current lives. So close to us there is so much brokenness, so much hurt, so much pain, and it is right across the street.
I do wonder what it looks like from the other side. To stand across the street and look from the hospital’s side at all of these tents. From the outside it looks like a bunch of happy Americans who are trying to make a difference. Each of us has a really nice tent and a really nice backpack. We are smiling, playing games like soccer and ultimate fris-bee, and having personal time reading and journaling. From across the street, I’m sure we look like we have an amazing life.
But when you get deeper, when you look past the tents, the games, and the smiles, you see there is something deeper, and that there is brokenness. As we get to know each other more, we see the pain and the hurt in each other’s lives. Multiple girls and guys sharing stories of being taken advantage of as children, drug, alcohol, and sex addictions, anger, father issues and so much more.
If there were a hospital for emotional baggage, it would be right here, right where we are. But the good thing about a hospital is that there is healing there. That is exactly what is happening. Things are coming to the surface and healing is beginning to happen. Whether it takes 25 days or 25 years, the healing process is starting, relationships are going deeper, and letting go of the past is happening.
We are all letting go of this crap that is like a weight on our shoulders and we are refusing to carry it any longer. We have given this stuff to God, and it no longer defines us.
