Quiche, Guatemala is an absolutely stunning city. There are beautiful mountains that disappear way into the clouds. The grass that covers them is so green it looks as though it could have been a picture from a magazine. The winding roads are a little much for me but still add to the beauty. Everywhere we go confused stares are upon us. You get used to it after a while. The children are so beautiful. Their tan faces have such an innocence about them.
This month our entire squad is staying together and we are living in a compound shared with a public hospital. We have had meetings and worship sessions together to build our community. My team along with one other team are doing ministry at the hospital. The first few days were a little frustrating because we were trying to adjust to the Latin American culture. Things are super slow and not very organized but we are learning to roll with it.
This week we split up and did everything from cleaning floors to painting walls, sanding lockers, and working on a shed behind the hospital. A few of us also split up to pray for babies in the malnutrition ward. There is a sweet, little boy who was abandoned and appears as if he is under a year old but in reality he is three. His legs are maybe twice the size of my thumb and when you rub his back you can feel the bones under his skin. All he craves is for someone to hold him constantly. In that same room there was a little girl, six months old, who also was abandoned. I’m on an all girls team and we love holding some babies. For as long as we are here they’ll get some love! We’ve also been able to make friends with the kids that appear near our tent city.
Now on to my lesson from Guatemala after week one…
Earlier this week I was sanding a rusty locker and got so incredibly frustrated because I couldn’t smooth it out perfectly. There were mounds of I don’t know what piled on top of rust that had to have been building for months if not years. The dust I was creating was so bad it was making my eyes water and the face mask I had on was not cutting it. I began to resent my job. Negative thoughts flooded my mind. Why did I get the filthy locker while everyone else was done in five minutes? How is this fair? Wait a second…why do I care? Reality check. Wouldn’t Jesus clean out that same locker? What makes me so much better? Who cares if everyone else had finished? I stopped for a second and refocused my mind. The word JOY appeared. You’re right, God. I prayed while I was sanding and thanked God for reminding me to find joy in the small things. I came here to serve the hospital and if that means prepping lockers then that’s what I’ll be doing with a big smile on my face!
Philippians 2:1-11
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your interests, but to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearances as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
