9 Things I Saw, Felt, and Heard Last Week in Guatemala
Last week a team from New City Church spent a week ministering with our partner church Casa De Libertad - Los Chilitios, in Los Chilitos, Guatemala. Below are nine things that stuck out to me from the trip.
1) Jesus changes everything
Unfortunately, many view Jesus simply as someone who can help them get to heaven when they die. And while it is true that Jesus (and not us trying to be good people or earn God’s love and forgiveness) is what makes it possible for us to receive grace, forgiveness, and be included into God’s Kingdom, he actually changes our entire lives.
For example, Cayetano is one of the local villagers in Los Chilitos (where we spent the week and where our partner church is located). He became a Christian a couple of years ago even though he originally hated Mitch and Amanda (more on them in point #5). After understood Jesus for who he really is, so much about him changed. He has an incredible story of being abusive towards his wife, neglectful of his family, and living only for himself. Until Jesus.
Not only has he experienced the love and grace of God through Jesus, but he has completely changed as a husband, father, and friend. It was incredible to hear some of the other villagers speak about Cayetano with so much respect. It was such a reminder that we don’t change for God to love us, we change when we experience his love and follow Jesus with our lives. Jesus changes everything about us.
2) You drink a lot more water but don’t pee as much because of how much you sweat
Is this too much information? I’m not sure but it’s something that really struck me while in Guatemala :). You drink a lot more water because of all of the walking, heat, and therefore sweat that you produce. But because we sweat much more than you normally do, I think used the bathroom even less than I normally would. That’s pretty crazy because I’m sure I drank triple the amount of water I typically drink in a day.
3) Talking about faith isn’t as hard as we make it out to be
I’m not saying faith conversations aren’t hard or can’t be intimidating, but I do believe we make them out in our heads to be much harder than they actually are, and then we rarely, if ever, have them. To be fair, I do think it is easier in a setting like we were in on our trip to have conversations of faith. Many of the people we talked to expected us to talk about faith, the cultural setting in Guatemala is such that people are much more open (generally speaking) to talking about God. Add to it that it’s a much more hospitable and friendly culture and it makes it a little easier.
That being said, even in an American setting, most people will not get mad at you for simply asking questions and talking about who you believe God to be. After all, the grace and love of Jesus is good news. And this is something I am telling myself. This trip has helped me see the importance of being more intentional about faith conversations and I am grateful for it.
4) Bring out the chairs
At nearly every home we visited, whoever was home would stop what they were doing to spend time with us. They also all had some assortment of plastic chairs they would bring out for us to sit on. It was an incredible difference in culture where we are always on the go, but they are always willing to just be. And because relationships matter to them, everyone has extra chairs for people to sit with them in their homes, even if we could barely fit.
5) Casa De Libertad - Los Chilitos is doing incredible work
It was really impactful to see how the Gospel has been taught, spread, and even believed in the village of Los Chilitos. Thank you to pastor Mitch and Amanda Munoz, who originally started this work five years ago. Tim and Kathleen Pfeuffer, whose one-year anniversary of moving down to Guatemala from the U.S. to join Mitch and Amanda happened on our trip. Esau who is local to Guatemala and has an incredible story of violence and pain and who God completely transformed and has also joined the team in Los Chilitos. Cayetano who lives in Los Chilitos with his family and is studying to become a pastor so he can one day lead the church in Los Chilitos. And to his family’s incredible hospitality to all the mission teams who come down.
You guys are doing an amazing job. Thank you for your faithfulness. The work may seem slow, but God is using you to completely change the village and the lives of so many.
6) Who you believe Jesus is today matters
This, of course, isn’t new information. But I was struck by the clarity with which those whom we were working with and came with us on the house visits encouraged those we were speaking with to make a decision on who they actually believe Jesus to be. It wasn’t in a forceful way at all, but simply because what we do with Jesus is more important than anything else and therefore we all must decide what we believe about him. Once this life is over God will give us the desires of our hearts (eternity with him or away from him), and if people aren’t encouraged to make a decision on what they actually believe, many of us would keep living as if it doesn’t really matter.
In my experience, and I am totally including me in this, in the United States we will talk about Jesus and who he is and why it is important to follow him but often skirt around asking someone if they are ready to make the decision to give their lives to Jesus today. If we never ask if people are ready to take the life-changing step of following Jesus, we shouldn’t be discouraged when they don’t.
7) Coffee smells gross
I’m not sure where in the process of cleaning or making or grinding the coffee beans this takes place, but at some point in the coffee process it really stinks. Everyday on the way from our hotel to the village there was a certain point on the bus ride where it smelt horrible. They told us it was from the process of making coffee. I can’t imagine having to work in a smell like that everyday.
8) Fire wood isn’t worth it
The last day we were there, we able to visit the field that Cayetano grows corn. First, it was a hike to get there, and he does it everyday. Not only that, but during harvest season he makes it with a 100 pound bag of corn on his back. What makes it worse is that they way to the cornfield is mostly downhill, which means you not only have to climb uphill to get back home at the end of a long day in the sun, but in harvest season you are carrying the corn uphill.
Because you aren’t allowed to cut down trees on property you don’t own (even though there are trees everywhere) they cut wood from some of the trees in his corn field for their family to use. As a way to help out a little, we all took back some of the cut limbs when we went back to his house. It was so difficult. It was hot, the wood was heavy, and it is a relatively steep climb back. I know they get used to walking terrain like that because they do it all the time, but I still can’t imagine having to do that every day.
9) No A/C, no problem
From the time we arrived in Guatemala until the time we left, we didn’t experience any air conditioning. It was in the upper 70’s every day and under the sun it gets pretty warm. It’s a cultural (and cost) thing that most places don’t have it if you aren’t in a bigger city (and certainly not in a rural village like Los Chilitos). I always bring a small fan with me when I travel so I at least had that right next to my bed and blowing straight into my face every night when I slept. Otherwise, I’m not sure I would have slept much at all. But it really wasn’t that bad and you get used to it after a while. Not enough, however, to live without it back home :).
Check out our trip below