Team Marrow has been working with Hope Renewed International in Guatemala City this month. We have had the incredible opportunity to work alongside the citizens of an unnamed dump community in zone 3 paving their dirt streets with concrete.
We hauled buckets of trash and dirt to the dump, walking with the Guatemalans and learning how to do this task. They have the brilliant idea to carry it on your shoulder instead of less easy ways. We also carried sand to the street to smooth it out. After we did this it was time for the concrete. We hauled that in buckets as well. We had to walk a little ways then up a small hill every time. It was great to labor alongside them. Most of all it was cool to see them take responsibility for their community.
Along with this we built relationships with the locals, worked on the playground construction, painted the building, and I created some t shirt designs. It has been a joy, but the coolest thing happened today and last thursday.
A little girl named Diana, our friend from the beginning, was lying in bed sick. She has a headache, fever, sore throat, and cough. When we entered their house, we saw her lying on the bed asleep. She looked a bit like a zombie. So we gathered around her and prayed for healing. She sat up a bit. We asked if she had drank water and her mother said she wouldn’t, but after we prayed she drank a whole cup, asking for more. She was already feeling better but not completely, so we prayed again. She felt even better, but still had a bit of a sore throat. So we prayed a third time, and she was just sitting in courtney’s embrace smiling. She only had a little cough when we left, and monday she was back to normal.
Then today another kid we know named Nelson was feeling ill after eating some bad dairy. We prayed and he felt better, but needed rest. God loves his children, and He healed these two through our little group. It was amazing to get to experience this.
So I do not think of this as a dump, but rather a treasure chest rising from the mire.
I have also had the wonderful opportunity to design and paint a new logo on the Hope Renewed building.
After all this, I see how short term mission trips are helpful, as long as you seek to understand the people, work alongside them, and not come in with solutions to problems that may not even exist. Listen to God and the locals, they know what they need.
Guatemala has been great and I have enjoyed working with the people of this community. I may be back one day, who knows?
Much Love,
Saraya
