Guatemala Photo of the Day – Right Where She Belongs

While I was “talking” to Lucinda, Hannah was playing Duck, Duck, Goose (in Spanish of course) with several young girls from Guatemala. I captured this moment, because it shows the level of comfort Hannah had being back here for the third time. Hannah is considering a career in Spanish, and I think her experiences in Xenacoj have been instrumental in guiding her down this path. In a year and a half, we’ll be sending Hannah to college. It’s a little scary for us as parents, but there is comfort knowing we’ve done everything we could to prepare her for this step. In fact, I think this is right where she belongs – serving God by serving others, using her gifts (including her Spanish), resting in the present. I can learn a lot by watching my own kids.

Guatemala Photo of the Day – Smiles Need No Translation

Over the past three summers, I’ve relearned a little bit of Spanish each time I am in Guatemala. But the reality is I often have to ask for help from a translator. There was nobody around to translate when I met Lucinda. We tried to exchange a few simple questions and answers with each other, but it was still hard to understand. This all changed when she flashed her toothless smile. A smile translates clearly across the language barriers of life. It’s a good reminder for me to smile.

Guatemala Photo of the Day – A Million To One Shot

Before we headed to Guatemala, I picked up two t-shirts. One was a Superman shirt (my favorite superhero), and one was this Rocky shirt. I’m from the Philly area, and I always liked the Rocky story. In fine print on the shirt, it says “His whole life was a million to one shot.” Maybe this was just the right shirt to wear the day we arrived in Guatemala this past summer.

After we checked in at our new “home” for the week, we walked over to the central park in Xenacoj. Believe it or not, we kind of stuck out. After an exhausting day of travel, I found a bench to sit on while our kids started playing with other kids in the park. This young girl seemed to hang around me for some reason. If I remember correctly, her name was Lucinda. She was quiet. She was missing several of her teeth, and she had a beautiful smile. I remember leaving the park later that evening wondering more about her story. Did she still have a dad? Did she go to school? Did her parents even know where she was? Did she have any friends? And did she know the love of Jesus?

When you go on a short-term missions trip, you have all kinds of dreams and expectations. You want to build things. You want to “change” the whole world – or at least change the village. These are great hopes and dreams, but maybe a short-term missions trip is simply about interactions with kids like Lucinda. We had trouble communicating verbally, but it was clear we connected. We had a million to one shot of meeting each other (actually, it was more like ten billion to one shot), and yet, we met. I’m thankful for the “shot” to meet Lucinda.

I wonder what she’s up to today.

Guatemala Photo of the Day – So Good To Be Back

Standing outside our home for the week, Leanne and Isaac are glad to be back in Xenacoj for their second visit. They can only partially anticipate what is yet to come in the week ahead based on last year’s visit. It feels more like home this time around, but it will be different. There’s no place like home; there’s no place like Xenacoj!

Guatemala Photo of the Day – New Friends

When we arrived in Xenacoj, we had the privilege of teaming up with these three from Chicago. Natalia Shull, Therese Jaggard, and Ken Shull welcomed us as we entered our home for the week. Our trips overlapped. They arrived earlier in the week and would depart before us, but we became friends. The girls immediately embraced Hannah, and Ken and I bonded as fellow fathers, engineers, husbands, and Brothers in Christ. The introduction in the street outside our home was the beginning of several fun and life-changing days together.

Guatemala Photo of the Day – Home

This was our humble home during our last visit to Xenacoj this summer. It was more than many had in the village. A roof (with one small leak), a shower (hot water once in a while), beds to sleep on, a floor, walls, and the best company you could ask for. We define home in a materialist bent here in the United States. In Guatemala, I was reminded once again that home is where your heart is, and a good portion of my heart is in and among the village of Xenacoj.

Guatemala Photo of the Day – A Gateway to Hope

Facing Your Fears About Short-Term Missions

Why are you scared?

What drives you to paralysis?

What prevents you from taking action?

What would it take to get around the obstacles in your way?

Maybe you are fearless.  If you are fearless, I’d love to get in your head for a bit.  I’m not talking about a stupid kind of fearlessness – a fearlessness that would lead you to jump off a tall building without a parachute or another method of safety.

Perhaps being fearless is relative.  Somethings scare me to death, but they don’t faze you.

Many of the questions I get about short-term missions – especially related to my experiences in Guatemala – are related to the fears people have:

Will I get sick?

Will I be safe?

What will I eat?

Where will I sleep?

How will I understand the people I am serving?

Will I make it home safely?

Will people at home think I’m strange for going to a strange land?

How will I get from one place to the other?

Will I be welcomed where I serve?

Will I really make a difference?

If we peal these questions back, we can see that they are really questions based on fear.  I get it.  I had many of these same questions before I went to Guatemala the first time.  And to be honest, I would probably still have many of these questions if I went somewhere different from Guatemala in the future.

It’s okay to have questions.  Here’s the problem though.  At some point, we have to take action.  It helps to get some of the answers to these questions ahead of time, but we may never get all our questions answered.  At some point, we have to take a leap of faith.  We have to trust that God will work upstream ahead of our fears and ahead of our unanswered questions.

I’m in the early stages of planning a multi-week return trip to Guatemala in 2016.

Maybe you are supposed to join me for some or all of this trip.

Just maybe, it’s time for you to put aside your fears so you can take a leap of faith that will change your life forever.

Are you in our out?  Don’t let your fears stand in your way of doing something amazing with your life.

What scares you the most about going on a short-term missions trip?  What will it take for you to overcome these fears?

Hope Rising From The Ashes – Rethinking The Impact Of Short-Term Missions

I received a phone call from my friend, David Sgro, Monday afternoon.   Dave is the missionary I have been working with the past three years in the village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj in Guatemala.  He broke down in tears as read this post to me written by Joshua Hunt.  Joshua is in Xenacoj with a team from AIM World Racers for a month serving in and around the village.  Joshua’s story below is a story of hope rising from the ashes.

Here’s what Joshua Hunt had to say on his blog:

“Hola Justin! Tienes tiempo para ir conmigo a Ayapan?” (“Hey Justin! Do you have time to come with me to Ayapan?”)

German, our local contact, poked his head through our open front window as we wound down the afternoon listening to some quiet indie music.

“Sure?” I responded, somewhat honored to be asked but bewildered as to what needed to be done in Ayapan.

I convinced Karissa to go along with us. Being as AIM technically requires us to travel in at least pairs, I was able to cover my lack of enthusiasm for this new, unknown, late-afternoon task.

As we wound up the ragged mountain roads, our 15-passenger van with only 3 seats in use bounced lightly and rebelliously over the potholes and loose stones. On two different occasions, we squeaked by colorful chicken busses, staring perilously down the mountainside as only fractions of inches separated us from either becoming a new paint job on a public bus or chicken feed at the bottom of the slope.

When we made it to Ayapan, the main schoolyard in the center of the village was empty, save for a handful of boys playing with a plastic ball and shielding themselves from frequent swirls of rising dust. Only a week ago we played fútbol for hours with the schoolchildren during recess. But now, during the approaching dusk, the field felt lonely and void. Walking around the side of what I thought was another educational building, we found a man sweeping a layer of fresh, green pine needles out of a chapel meeting room in to a pile on the portico.

German approached the small-statured man with purpose and intent. After introducing himself to the man and his companions still inside the dim meeting hall, it was clear we were to be introduced as well. I fail to recall the names of each of the six men, but German quickly explained these were the mayor and leaders, city council if you will, of the local community. I strained to maintain my composure; not one of these men stood taller than 5’4’’, and they appeared a perplexing mix of age and youth. Among the weathered and deep-ridges faces, the wisps of grey hair and the various silver-capped teeth, these representatives appeared no older than thirty, not much older than me.

In the minutes that followed, I struggled to keep up with a rapidly interchanging conversation in both Spanish (“Castellano” in the words of older Guatemalans) and Kaqchikel, the Mayan and native language of much of the population in the mountains here.  The conversation continued as we took seats inside the hall.

After a short while, German suddenly turned to me and said, “voy a comprar algo para tomar, venga,” (“I’m going to buy something to drink, come with!”) as he headed to the door.

Karissa and I followed German out to the tienda across the street where we purchased glass bottles of 7UP and Mirinda for each of our group back at the chapel. German paid at the barred counter and popped the lids off one by one. We returned to the seated group, a solemn, yet polite gathering.

Please go to Joshua’s blog to read the rest of this story of hope rising from the ashes.  You will understand why Dave was in tears when he called me on Monday afternoon.  To get there, click here.

After Dave read Joshua’s post, he thanked me and said I was part of what is happening in this village near Xenacoj.

Many people think short-term missions don’t can make a difference.

Maybe it’s time to rethink this.

Short-term efforts coupled with long-term commitments can make a huge difference.

v v v v v v v v v v v

When have you seen hope rise out of desperation?

When have you seen a short-term effort make a big difference?

Homes For The Holidays

The Christmas lights are going up on many of the houses in my neighborhood.  Our family usually picks one or two nights during the month of December to drive around and admire the creativity of homeowners in our area.  To be honest, it’s also a time when we ask each other how much these crazy homeowners must spend on the lights and the electricity for some of these elaborate displays.

In the northern hemisphere where I live, this is also the time when the temperature gets a little chilly.  I’m reminded how nice it is to have a house with electricity, heat, and running water.  I’m not sure if this is really a right, but home ownership with these amenities is an expectation here in America.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for many in the rest of the world.  Countless people sleep in deplorable conditions throughout the world.  They are unprotected from rain, from thieves, and from general privacy.

What if we could do something this holiday season to change this for a family or two?

This year, my church‘s Christmas offering is going towards building two houses in Haiti.  Last weekend, they showed this video:

Christmas Offering 2014 (Haiti) from CHRIST’S CHURCH OF THE VALLEY on Vimeo.

The video inspires me as I consider helping to change the lives of families in and around the village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj in Guatemala.  For some reason, God gave me a dream to build 100 houses in Guatemala.  If you are keeping track, I’ve helped to build three houses so far.  Only 97 more to go.

I love the faith and vision of this video.  This video was shot early this spring by a couple from our church.  They have a dream to build two more houses for the families shown in this video.  And they had the faith to put it out there for our church to help out.  This summer, our church will be sending a team of fifty teenagers to Haiti to realize this vision.  It’s a trip that will change the lives of these two families, and it’s a trip that will have a major impact on the lives of fifty teenagers.

We need to have this kind of vision.

We need to have this kind of faith.

It’s not just about building houses though.  It’s about bringing glory to God.  I can see it in the faces of Keena and Mike Huss (the couple in this video).  It’s not about personal gain or fame.  It’s about pointing people to Christ.  And this is what inspires me more than anything about this video.  This is what it means to have a mission mindset.

If you want to help out with the Haiti project, click here.

If you want to help out with building more homes in Xenacoj, leave a comment or send me an email by clicking here.

What is your vision for the future?  How does it involve changing other people’s lives?