Guatemala 2: Back in Action!

 

So Guatemala is kinda a crazy place.  Even the drug-dealers' neighborhood is a gated community, and pretty much everyone is afraid of being robbed at gunpoint, which apparently happens a lot.  Every store has a guy with a shotgun out front.  The soup kitchens are full of recent deporteés from the US.  It's also got a little bit of a (to my mind) tragic identity crisis that comes from being, basically, a US colony; free trade agreements aren't exactly two-sided per sé, and also from having a racially-divided society.  It's also the most evangelical country on the planet, and besides among some of the first nation villages, very churched.  And yet it seems to be one of the most unequal and unjust societies as well, with the 11 (?) families ruling the country as kings while the majority of the people live on under $3000 a year. 

 

So my main project while I was there was recording a Spanish-language worship album.  I and Suazo (this guy) spent many an evening messing around with microphones and music in the SETECA (Central American Theological Seminary) recording studio.  All in all, I think it went really well, and is probably the most professional-level recording I've done to date.  There's about five of the songs that make me cry, and I think they will make other people cry too, so I think we've got it. 

 

 

I also helped my friend Adriana and the organization she works for, Life of Hope, with a medical clinic.  I translated and did intake for three days of free clinic in some of the poorer parts of Guatemala City.  This was a lot of fun, and I love translating, but it was weird being with a team of Americans.

(Speaking of Americans, my best friend's family from High School retired to Guatemala, so I got to see them as well.  That was encouraging and fun.  I chatted a lot with their three boys, and we shared opinions on Guatemalan culture, business and ministry ideas, and I strongly encouraged them to get Spanish done learned!  The youngest took the gauntlet and found them a school that three of them have spent the last month at!  So hopefully three-five years from now I'll be able to share about their ministries there.  :)  ) 

 

But the team wasn't all Americans.  This Honduran dentist was interested in doing a short-term trip to Central Asia some day.   Another Dentist in Mexico said the same thing.  I'm a little excited about this.  I found many more than 5 people who were seriously interested in helping us out. 

 Her dad, a pastor, was in charge of one of the prayer stations.  There were a lot of people prayed for.  And a lot of tears shed, especially, when another translator, who had been an LA gangster before getting deported, shared his testimony.  

I also had the priveledge of leading worship and sharing two messages with the motley crue arrayed on the sidewalk there (+35).  Although we ended up singing the same songs cuz they didn't know the songs I know, it was a real priviledge to work with these "Peregrinos." (Pilgrims)  They do a feeding program for homeless drug addicts (mostly glue and paint thinner...which, although it's cheap, it really destroys your mind), and I was invited each of the three weeks I was there.  One of the highlights was singing my song "With Arms Outstretched," which is a cry for mercy with ends with the image of the Father running to embrace the prodigal me.  Even the Americans who didn't understand the words were deeply moved.  (yeah, that was weird)  After having recently read "The Prodigal God," I realized that I'm the sinner, I might think I'm the "better one" but my heart is just as bad or worse as these addicts.  And as I preached about other gods, and called them to think about glorifying God not just with their loud voices, but with their lives, and called them to turn and think about the difference they can make and the call God has for each of them...I was struck by my own inadequacy and sin.  I mean, we are these Peregrinos, clinging to a little glue bottle and sucking on this stuff that's killing us cuz we think it will save us from our pain and fear.  And we hear God's call and God's word, and so often we say 'amen' but that lesser god is still in our pocket.  And we either think that we're worthless and so we say, "nah those words ain't for me." Or we say "I'm working on it" while we clutch our bottle and justify our sin by saying "this week is better than that last week where I really messed up again."  And even though I know that God saves and can grant freedom from sin, I don't always experience it, and when things go poorly and I feel hopeless and helpless, I go back to the same worthless idols.  And I know that most of these homeless addicts won't change.  They'll still be living in the dump if I come back three years from now.  And they could be free.  They could find new life.  But the easier choice is to stay where they are.

 Like this guy.  He used to be a lost cause, but now he's the pastor of a baptist church in the middle of this dump area.  Where other churches fear to tread, he's got thriving ministries with youth, adults, a school, addicts, and his wife's clinic.  These two made me want to stay and help long-term, like another American, Kristen, was doing. Alas, my poor heart will always break for Guatemala.

Suazo took me to this village twice.  The first time, I was given 15 minutes to share at an orphanage.  The girls, super-shy at first, opened up when I asked them their passion.  Then they sang my songs with me.  (In Spanish of course)  One girl said, "we listen to the radio, and the people there don't sing as well as James."  So they really felt like they were receiving a great celebrity (and it's not like they don't meet Americans, they have one living there.).  And I encouraged them to seek to serve, letting them know they are called...and they were really excited and passionate to chat with me afterwards. 

I wish I could leave the story there, happy and nice with a bow.  One thing stuck with me though.  This two year old.  Her eyes...were amazing.  And leaving there I thought to myself "I wish I could take someone with me."  The two-year old had a mom.  She's 15.  This is pretty common in Guatemala, as rape and taking child brides are pretty common.  

Suazo spent a long time talking to the staff about protecting the girls from local gangs.  As an architect, he was designing a new complex for them, and was consulting with some security people for hours that afternoon.  The staff was concerned that the gangs would see the girls as a perfect human trafficking target...that they could break in and steal the girls to use or sell them as slaves.  .  It's hard to describe the anger, the hopelessness that that made me feel...but I've met a lot of people who've been abused lately.  More than I even know.

 Squeaky really only got one day of touristy sight-seeing, but that okay with him.  Suazo made sure that I got to see all the haves and have nots, the mini-American-ness of Guate, and the local flavor and gang tags from the car as we be-bopped around the city.  The contrasts between rich and poor almost seem impossible.  How could these nice malls exist in a city where these other kids work in the dump and live in homes with two walls?

But the time wasn't all tears and difficulties.  We had a bit of a catharsis on one of the last days there.  The Santa Faz community center invited us to take part in their Carnival celebration.  Which pretty much consisted of inviting the neighborhood kids to create confetti carnage, as you can see here.  We were all picking confetti out of our hair and pockets for days afterwards.  We started with confetti-filled eggs, which apparently in some villages in Guatemala, Carnival day is just an all-out egg war.  

 Suazo's sister is a dentist at this school where I was asked to share my testimony and songs with the upper grades.  Here's me shaking a hand. 

 This is the only sharing I got lots of pictures of, Adriana was bored and offered, and I'm so glad she did.  One girl's dream was to sing.  Another guy wanted to do music.  One girl wanted to open an orphanage.  And so when I was singing my songs and telling them about the God who has changed and called me, and the ways He's provided even when I'm afraid.  And how He has a clear call for each of them that's already been revealed.  Some of them, as all teenagers are apt to do, glazed over, but some of them left with newfound confidence and faith in the plans that God has for them.  It was really cool.

The second time we went back to that village with Suazo I shared at a second school.  The music teacher was free and took me from class to class, from kindergarten all the way up to the middle school.  I sang and talked about 20 minutes in each one, talk about wearing out your voice!  :)   It was really cool to see how God brought out different songs and stories for each class, and with the exception of one or two, as I adjusted for the interests and ages of each class, I could tell the kids were getting it as they could.  Lots of eager singers joined me on some worship songs, and then I sang a few of my own as well, talking about what a missionary is and how they are all called to be missionaries, and telling them about the far side of the world.  It was really rewarding.  I told both schools, and the youth group that I got to share and hang out with, that they were so rich.  Although their country is a mess, and money is hard to come by, they had Christian schools and Bible knowledge and so much at their fingertips.  And I tried to impress on them that they would make better missionaries to the poor around the world than most Americans (which they would, because they aren't white and they don't expect to live like Americans do.).

All in all, Guatemala was one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life.  My main reason for going was just to see Adriana, who has been a rock and encouragement for me more than anyone else these past five years.  She and her husband Suazo were such a good example for me of a missional lifestyle and also of an awesome married couple!   I went to Guatemala with the same songs and expectations that I have with whatever city I go to, the same stories and talents.  And WOW, they were used, and almost every time it was spur-of-the-moment, "hey James, want to go to this school today?"  And the coolest thing about this "missions trip" was that I wasn't starting any programs; I was just following around my friends as they went about the ministry that was built into their lives.