“You are blessed”.
Those words were spoken to me while talking to another missionary couple our host set us up with. Well I mean, of course I’m blessed. I come from a family that doesn’t have to worry about how we will get dinner or if the house will stand a hard rain. I get to drive my own car and go shopping on the weekends and not worry about a thing, I’m so blessed!
But that is not what Ron meant when he told me that. Just the opposite actually.
Ron & Sally: two missionaries who have lived in Guatemala for almost 3 years now. Ron told me that after having an experience with a woman on a 2 week trip here once, he knew this is where the Lord wanted him. He said to me that if you ask an American what poverty is, they will most likely say it is being without food, a home, or a job (sounds reasonable, right?). But during his 2 week trip to Guatemala, he asked a native woman what poverty looked like and she said, “poverty is being without faith, hope, and family”. Now that’s perspective.
I am blessed. But not because of where I come from, although I am thankful for all the privileges I have had in life. But I am blessed because I am HERE. I get to live among these people that value relationships and love so much that without it is living in poverty, no matter their housing conditions.
My world is going to be turned upside down.
Ron then said to me “you have tons of people praying for you back at home, don’t you? Have you been praying for them?”
Yikes.
I am so thankful for all of the support and prayers from everyone, I am. It is much needed. But just as much as everyone is praying for me, I should just as much be praying for THEM.
I am blessed to get this opportunity and to be able to experience God in ways such as this. I am so thankful that I get to live among these people who have a different view on what it means to be without. I pray that we all start to have the same mindset and remember what is truly important!
On a similar note, the Lord is really starting to break my heart for the people of Guatemala. I love them, I love this place. After attending our 8 year old neighbor’s funeral and praying at the morgue with families of mudslide victims, I am starting to be extra thankful for the problems that I face. My heart aches for the people of this country, but I am able now to use that heartache that I have and remember why I am here. As hard as it is to look at a woman who has lost 5 family members and is still waiting for her 17 year old daughter to turn up in the rubble and utter the words “thank you Lord for this day”, I know that God has me here for a reason. I want so badly for these people that I am beginning to love to know how much more their Father in Heaven loves them. So I will sit in mourning with them. I will cry with them. I will be angry and happy and excited with them. I will smile until my cheeks hurt watching them get baptized, because I am starting to get just a small taste of what God’s immeasurable love looks like. Thank you Lord.
