I can’t believe how fast this month has gone by! We have just over a week before we leave for Honduras. I’m already realizing one aspect of the Race that’s going to be very hard for me – we are making relationships daily that we have to leave behind at the end of the month. Already we’re looking at just a couple more visits with some of the groups, and that’s hard to wrap my head around since it feels like we just got here.
I’m honestly not sure how to blog about this ministry, because we are doing so much every week. I have someone who affects me deeply at each ministry location, and sometimes it’s hard to process everything because it’s such an overload of moving stories and sad situations. This is what our weeks look like:
Sunday: Church in the morning (2-3 hours). This past week we helped facilitate a Sunday school class for the kids in the bus terminal in the afternoon.
Monday: Street ministry in the morning at a city park, then a few hours of night ministry with another street group in the evening.
Tuesday: Tutoring at-risk kids in the bus terminal in the morning, hanging out with a street group in the afternoon.
Wednesday: We run a kids club for 20-30 kids near the bus terminal in the morning, then again in the garbage dump in the afternoons. The kids club is a couple of hours of songs, dramas, crafts, and games. This week we also were invited to play street soccer at night with a group at the Tank (a small cement enclosure with some mattresses and couches).
Thursdays: Free in the mornings. We try to go to a local café to post blogs and send e-mails. In the afternoon we visit a refuge for battered women and children. We give talks to the women and play with the kids. At night we play street soccer at la Casona, which is quickly becoming my favorite street group.
Friday: We visit the rest of the street groups. Friday is usually more hanging out and less soccer, since we’re visiting the group that lives in the bus terminal. We also go to the Tank on Fridays.
Saturday: Free day. This past Saturday we were able to take the bus – actually, 3 buses each way – to Antigua to do some exploring. These buses are an adventure. When the right bus comes, you’re practically shoved on-board. If you’re lucky you’re sharing a seat with two other people, but if you get on late it’s standing room only. There is no such thing as “full” on a Guatemalan bus. The road to Antigua is pretty curvy, so even if you’re seated you’d better hold onto the railing and not fall asleep or you might slide right off. You have to be waiting by the door when the bus rolls up to your stop, otherwise it might roll on past with you still on it. You should also understand that just because you ran to catch your sixth and final bus of the day doesn’t mean you won’t stand, packed in there, for 15 minutes waiting for the driver. I really think the public transportation was almost as much fun as the actual day-trip itself!
So that’s basically my week. Much to my surprise, night ministry has by far been my favorite. And I don’t even like soccer much! There’s something very special about going out there at night and just interacting. We’ve been welcomed warmly by the group at la Casona in particular. We set up goals in the street, divide up teams (with Guatemalans and gringos on each team, otherwise we wouldn’t stand a chance), and play. I don’t really know the rules – actually, I don’t know if there are rules. Soccer is a serious deal for these guys, but they’re good sports to people like me who are terrible soccer players.
This week was our first time doing night ministry with a group that spends time near one of the gas stations in town. There wasn’t room to play soccer, so we played some music to dance to. I had to stop and recognize the craziness of where we end up when we follow God’s leading in our lives. I never thought when He called me to missions that I would be on a street corner next to a bar at night in Guatemala being taught Salsa steps by homeless people. One of the women who was with us, Sandy, is quite a character. She’s full of dance moves, freestyle rap songs, and infectious energy. She had just finished performing for us when she said something that stopped me in my tracks. Watching us intently to see what we would say, she said, “Street people have talent.” It broke my heart that she felt like she needed to convince us.
The thing I most want to hold onto from this year is an attitude of appreciation for every kind of person. God’s showing me every day through this ministry the integral worth and beauty of each person. I can see now that I was called on the Race to learn to love. My team and I have talked some about what ministry means to us, and how we define it, especially as it will change every month. The way I look at ministry this year is this: my ministry is to love the people that I encounter, to show them respect and kindness they might not usually receive so that they can understand the love of God through me. So, really, my ministry won’t be changing 11 times this year. It’s the same ministry, it will just be expressed a little differently in each country.
