Guatemala...Day 3 and going strong
Kent and I made it to Guatemala safely this past Friday, have settled in nicely, been able to practice our Spanish (and, for Kent, learn some Spanish :) and are slowly but surely feeling more and more comfortable with our surroundings.Kent has already blogged about Day 1 (Friday - involving our arrival and some people we've met) and Day 2 (Saturday - involving a hike up a volcano and our first grocery shopping experience) in Guatemala, so I'll just let you read these entries instead of retyping them all.
Today, Kent and I had our first exposure to La Iglesia Evengelica, "El Mensaje de Vida" (The Evangelical Church, "The Message of Life"), the iglesia where we will probably be spending the majority of our time. Joel y Martita, the couple we are renting our apartment from who live right next door to us, came to our door this morning and drove us to El Mensaje de Vida around 8:30am. Church started @ 9:00. A number of people came up to us saying, "Bienvenidos, mucho gusto," or "Welcome, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Those who knew some English usually spoke to us in English thinking that we didn't know any Spanish. Then, those who soon found out that I spoke Spanish reverted back to speaking in Spanish.
The time of singing at the beginning of the service brought back a lot of memories from previous experiences in Mexico and started me making new memories about Kent's and my time here in Guatemala. Most of the songs we sang were very familiar to us but just had Spanish lyrics so it was easy to sing along to. In the middle of singing I almost had to stop because it touched me so much that I was standing in a church in Guatemala City with Kent, singing songs with many people I did not know in a language that I am still in the process of learning...words that I didn't 100% understand, but still was able to sing with my brothers and sisters in Christ, knowing that God was glorified immensely it. Also, seeing them all singing and clapping and raising their hands - the same things that many of us do when we worship God - I could not help but feel a bond with these people who were strangers on the outside, but brothers and sisters at the heart and soul.
After the sermon, we were asked to come up front to be introduced to the congregation. We both walked up, a little nervous about what to expect, and a man started asking us questions in Spanish and I answered them as best as I could in Spanish (a number of people came up to me afterwards and said, "Hablas muy bien el espanol" or "You speak Spanish very well," which gives me more and more confidence as I'm here). After the service, we waited in line for coffee and cookies (cafe y galletas) and had a conversation with a young man named Frances. He is from El Salvador and commuted the 3 hours to come to church this morning (I don't know if he's a regular attendee or not...). Neither Kent nor I realized how close El Salvador was!
While waiting for our ride to pick us up from la iglesia, we met a girl named Sarah H who is from a small town in Michigan - we ended up playing major Dutch Bingo and making many connections. It was a lot of fun! :) Kent and I talked with her for quite a while. She got here at the beginning of May and is leaving tomorrow, so she told us about her experiences visiting the jails (something that Kent and I will do sometime) as well as visiting La Limonada, a place located in zona 1 - a place tourists are not advised to go because of crime and poverty - that we will be visiting tomorrow with a large group of people (the youth group from Maranatha CRC and their 6 leaders and some other Guatemaltecos) to help run a day camp for the kids as well as participate in a work project to build a bathroom for people who never imagined having a bathroom before. Tita is the woman who started this ministry to La Limonada and assured us that we would be safe because of the big group we would be in and also said (in Spanish) that you can really feel God walking through the streets there - you can feel his presence because he deeply loves "the least of these" - those "at the ends of the earth" who no one would visit - that everyone would ignore...but who God has already met and loved with a love we could never comprehend. Needless to say, I am very excited about going there tomorrow to see and participate in what God is doing there already. More on that tomorrow...
We were supposed to get picked up after church by Joel (the missionary we are doing some part-time work with) to go to Antigua - one of the most beautiful places around here, we have heard - especially at night - but we were forgotten by accident. :( It all ended up ok, though. Marvin G ended up picking me, Kent and Sarah up from la iglesia and bringing us to TGIFridays (we didn't really want to eat there because we want to go to non-touristy restaurants if at all possible, but all/most of the authentic Guatemalan restaurants are closed on Sundays so we didn't really have a choice).
When we returned to our apartment, I met some young men named Pedro (a bald man from Costa Rica), Juan Carlos (a man with long dread locks from Uruguay, Paco (from Mexico), and Alejandro (another man from Uruguay) - all men who work for the Liderazgo Juvenil (leadership training office/boarding place). I spoke for a few minutes with Pedro and Juan Carlos - they were both very impressed with my Spanish-speaking abilities (which, again, helps me gain confidence in speaking with native speakers - something that is most difficult for non-native speakers who learn the language in their own country). They all said that if we needed anything they would be more than happy to help in any way they could.
Towards the end of Day 3, I am just so thankful and grateful to God for his faithfulness to us - the way he shows us his love in many ways - one of them through people in a new country. God is so big - so much bigger than what our minds can comprehend. The more I travel abroad, the more I am CONVINCED that people MUST travel to other countries and have exposure to people and places that are different from themselves - as we do so, we inevitably see a bigger and more complete picture of who God really is and how widespread his love for us and for his Body of believers really is, and just how small we are in the whole grand picture of it all.
I very much look forward to see what God is going to do in our lives throughout the rest of our stay here.
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on Sunday, July 01, 2007 at 4:03 PM.
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Que Bueno que llegaste!!!
Espero que Kent se sienta cómodo pronto y que ustedes dos aprenden muchísimo en su tiempo en Guatemala.
No olvides de comprar cosas para tu sala de clases-yo tengo que decorar la mía y no tengo casi nada!!!
Que le vaya bien, Shelly!! Y Felicidades con la boda y matrimonio nuevo!
-Becky Sullivan
Glad to hear things are going good! I'm praying for you!
Much Love!
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