The main highlight was the ministry contacts that my team worked with. They were the Lopez family. They are the main reason why I liked Guatemala so much. When I think of Guatemala, I will think of them. Their family consists of Pastor David, his wife Loli, their son Rene who‘s 19, their daughter AnaLucia who’s 14, their son Julio who’s 8, and their nephew Erick who’s 25. We worked at Pastor David’s school with Pastor David, Rene, and Erick a lot, and we’d have a big, delicious lunch made by Pastor David’s wife Loli every day during the week, and we went to Pastor David’s church. I could see the love of Christ though them. They were so hospitable, generous, and loving to us, and really encouraged us in Christ. The family is very real and really close. They all help out at the church and you can just feel their bond. Rene and Erick were really nice to get to know as they are good men of God and just fun in general and they speak English really well. And Julio was so loving to us and he was so feisty and demanding in such an adorable way. I pray that we were an encouragement to them and to their ministry, and I will miss them.
The main challenge for me was working with the different spiritual levels/backgrounds on my team. I was able to process through it, and I realized that I had some judgment and bitterness in my heart, and I’m praying for humility for myself and to be able to love better. The bitterness stemmed from the fact that I wasn’t feeling challenged to grow spiritually by my team, and it was an unconscious expectation that I had. I totally remember being at the same spots at points in my life as some on my team, and I know that I have a lot to learn from everyone. I’m praying to learn to validate people for where they’re at and what they’re struggling with more than I have been even if I‘m not at that point or struggling with that. I struggled with knowing how much grace and how much truth to give and the balance between accepting someone for where they’re at and also calling them out so that they can grow. I realized through all this that I actually am being challenged spiritually, but it’s just in a different way than I had expected. Sometimes it’s easy for me to compare myself to others or be motivated by them, but I’m learning to pursue God regardless of if anyone is with me and to not compare myself to others. I also heard someone say that our first ministry is to our team, and I really think that‘s true, and I need to remember that. I’d like us to pursue Christ with a passion and to pursue excellence and to not be mediocre, but great.
Random Cultural Observations- It seemed in Guatemala that the men had a lot of respect for women in that on the bus, I always saw men giving up their seats for women and that women seemed to have more traditional roles. I did notice some things like women cops though and things like that. Also, the men we knew would sometimes give us women a kiss on the cheek when greeting, and I think that’s kinda cute because in the U.S. only like your family member would do that. Another thing I noticed was that us from the U.S. were usually a lot taller than the Guatemalans. Also, something that was interesting was that we were told that dancing to some people in the town we were in was considered something that a Christian doesn‘t do, so I had to try after that not to dance, and I love dancing. It’s not Biblical to me, but it’s good to respect other cultures.
