Wednesday in Xenacoj (and San Antonio and San Pedro Laguna)
Wednesday in Xenacoj (and San Antonio and San Pedro Laguna)
Today, we visited the small mountaintop village of San Antonio which is about three or four miles outside of Xenacoj. We literally served a meal to some of the poorest people I have ever seen. The group of 70 children which included younger kids who were not students I’m addition to the students received rice, beans, warm rice milk, and tortillas. We were also able to bless the kids with Popsicles and other frozen treats that we picked up at a store on our way up to the village. The cold treats cost the equivalent of $12.50. Can you imagine feeding nearly 100 kids and teachers ice cream for $12.50?
These children broke our hearts. They were dirty, malnourished, and poorly clothed. We sat down with them and played games with them. At the end of our visit, we toured one of the homes of the village. The home consisted of a small kitchen with an open fire for cooking and a small bedroom with a twin sized bed that slept four. The living conditions were absolutely deplorable.
In the afternoon, we took a long drive to the village of San Pedro Laguna where we stayed for the night in absolute luxury along the shore of Lake Atitlan – one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It was quite a contrast from our morning experience.
Tuesday In Xenacoj
Today held several ups and a couple of downs. All in all, it was a great day to serve and share in Xenacoj.
The day started out bright and early (after the roosters woke up at 4AM) with a three mile run with Hannah through the streets of Xenacoj. Our run took us by women cleaning up the streets, men heading out to the fields, and children making their way to school.
When we arrived back at the Center, we learned that Isaac wasn’t feeling so great. He was starting with a bug most likely brought on by exposure to a third world bacteria. Right before breakfast, it took on another turn as he puked out whatever was in his stomach. And so, he started with the Cipro.
After breakfast, we journeyed to an elementary school on the edge of town. Here we had a chance to feed the kids a meal of rice, beans, and tortillas. 170 kids go to this school, and for most of the kids, this is the best meal they will have all day. GO! Ministries has set up a program that feeds these kids a hot meal every school day. After they ate, we had a chance to play games with them at recess, and we had time to share with the kids in a couple of the classrooms. We played some games that helped them with their English, we shared some words about God’s love for them, and we prayed with them. It is truly remarkable to me how open they are to the message of the gospel.
We returned to the Center where we worked on taking inventory on items that had already been gathered for a giant Christmas outreach. GO! provides Christmas gifts for over 5,000 children in and around Xenacoj. I was also relegated to help “build” a playhouse for kids who will visit the Saturday morning feeding program. We joked that this is the second house that I helped to build in Xenacoj.
During the afternoon, we visited two women who just became widows in the last week. It was sad, but it was also an interesting experience to bring the message of God’s hope and love to these families who clearly needed some comfort in their lives.
After this, our family walked over to visit with Zully’s family (where we build the house last year). We had a great time visiting with her family. Hannah is amazing with her Spanish! She served as our translator.
Tonight, we spent some time working on our widow baskets for the widow party on Friday night. We also enjoyed a time of devotion and reflection. Joshua 1:9 was the verse that sparked much of our conversation.
Isaac was doing much better by the end of the day.
It was another great day in Xenacoj. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Thanks for your prayers for health, safety, and effectiveness as we continue to serve this week in Guatemala.
Monday In Xenacoj
There is a lot to think about tonight as we close out the day. Our family did so many things today in and around Xenacoj. I was reminded that serving others is a big part of worshipping God. And I was reminded of the importance of taking time to be in the presence of God.
In between these messages which bookended the day, we received a Mayan cultural lesson and language lesson of the native tongue. We made our own tortillas and learned how to back weave – a method used to make clothing. We were invited into the home of a prominent family from Xenacoj where we enjoyed fresh fruit and dancing to a live band. We traveled to a nearby capital city where we purchased rice, beans, corn, and sugar for the widows in the community. And we spent some time breaking up these supplies into individual portions.
We’ve had a great time getting to know the Spooner family and interacting with Dave Sgro, Jesse Sgro, German, and German’s family.
A major highlight of the day involved a trip to see the house Hannah and I helped to build last summer. It was obvious that are endeavors last summer were a springboard for this family. I can’t wait to show our youth team from last year the pictures of this house (and I look forward to sharing these with you as we’ll when I have access to our photos).
Tomorrow, we will be going to a local school to share food and God’s love with 170 kids. From there, we will be journeying 3-4 hours away to a community where we will be helping GO! Ministries scout out another place of potential outreach.
It should be a great day!
Safe And Sound In Xenacoj
We made it to Xenacoj!!!
What an adventure so far. Our day started with a early morning breakfast at the Best Western in Newark, NJ. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but we knew we should appreciate it with an unknown of what may be coming in the food department. We headed to the airport in a shuttle and then everything went like clockwork until we found our seats on the plane.
Guatemala City was busy when we arrived. We quickly found Dave Sgro and his son, Jesse. And before long, we met our other partners who came from Ogdensburg, NY. The traffic was pretty bad between Guatemala City and Xenacoj, so we stopped to pick up some chicken at a trusted chicken restaurant on our way.
As we finally rode into Xenacoj, the town was buzzing with excitement as the annual town festival was getting ready to reach its pinnacle tonight. After our lunch, Dave Sgro debriefed us with information about GO! Ministries and about our week ahead.
Tonight, we met Linda and her five children. For all intensive purposes, she is a widow, and her kids are orphans. From what I understand, her husband left her. She is illiterate. She’s 27 years old. She makes the equivalent of $35 per week which leaves her 12 year old daughter to take care of the younger siblings. GO! has recently stepped in to help her get an education and to help her get on her feet. We were able to treat her kids to a fun time at the festival where they roadie rides, played games, and ate food. It’s a night they won’t soon forget, and neither will we!
And now, I try to sleep to the sounds of Xenacoj – fireworks booming, raindrops occasionally hitting the roof, the music of the festival still blaring, and dogs barking. Despite the noise, there is a peace to it all. Tomorrow is a new day, I can’t wait to see what it holds for us.
Into The Great Wide Open
As I type, I’m getting ready to head into the great wide open of Guatemala.
Our family is flying out this morning on a great adventure.
We have some ideas about what we’ll experience. We hope to make an impact on the people we encounter. The reality is we don’t completely know what we will experience and what kind of impact we will have.
Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible. I can’t wait to get back with stories of our experiences.
This week will be a little different here on the blog. I have guest posts scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. I’m planning to put an Ice Breaker up for Friday. While I’m in Guatemala, I’m not sure what kind of Internet access I will have. I’m going to leave Monday and Wednesday open for right now. It will be interesting to see what happens those days. Please check back throughout the week. You may just get a glimpse into the great wide open.
When was the last time you headed out into the unknown? Into a great adventure?
Countdown To Guatemala – Some Details Of What Will Follow
Yesterday, I got an update on what we’ll be doing in Guatemala next week.
Do you want to hear about it?
We’ve been told that the missions field is a place where flexibility is critical, so these details are subject to change during our trip. I’m hoping these details will give you a better idea of what we’ll be doing and will help you pray for us next week as we serve in Guatemala.
On Sunday (the day we arrive), there is a big week-long festival starting in the town of Xenacoj where we will be spending most of our time. When we arrive, we’ll be enjoying the festival with our team, and we’ll be spending time with a young single mother and her five children. I got a little bit of her story when I spoke with Dave Sgro yesterday. You can pray that she would find hope in the midst of her personal obstacles of life.
Monday morning, we’ll be serving a meal to 100 kids at a local school. And Tuesday, we’ll be serving meals to 200 kids at two separate schools. You can pray that this meal would meet an obvious physical need and that it would also provide an opportunity to share the love of Christ in a practical way.
Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll be traveling 5 hours away to another village where we will be helping GO! Ministries explore the opportunity to expand and mirror their ministry to another village in need. Pray for safety in our travels to and from this new village and for confirmation, effectiveness, and discernment in this new venture to bring Christ to the people of Guatemala.
Thursday night, we will be back in Xenacoj to party with the 200 widows from the community. Here, we will have an opportunity to distribute baskets of goodies and necessities to each of the widows. These items were donated by our H.O.P.E. group. Pray for the practical provision and for hope for these women.
Friday, we’ll be serving meals again at a different local school. And Saturday morning, we’ll get to serve kids at the Xenacoj Center. And Saturday afternoon, we’ll visit Antigua as we finish up our final day in Guatemala.
At some point during our visit, we’re looking forward to visiting with the family we built a house for last summer. It will be great to introduce Leanne and Isaac to this family that touched our lives last year. Pray for a sweet reunion. And pray that we would be an encouragement to their family.
Finally, we’ll be traveling back home on the 11th. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for safety throughout the trip. And we pray that we would be open to God’s movement in our lives during this trip. We also pray that our trip would be an encouragement to those back home in the United States that they would find ways to serve in their local communities and around the world.
Next week, I’ll have some guest posts interspersed throughout the week, and I’m hoping to send a couple of updates from Guatemala. Stay tuned and keep stretching along with our family!
What has your experience been with short-term missions? How have you learned flexibility through missions and ministry? What would you like to know about Guatemala that we might discover while we’re there next week?
Ice Breaker – Prayer
Image by VerseVend (via Flickr – Creative Commons)
Each week on The Stretched Blog, I ask an ice breaker question. The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community. I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments. While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.
While we were on vacation, we had an opportunity to visit with my Grandpa who lives in Minneapolis. He flew down to Milwaukee to spend a couple of days with my brother and I and our families. My Grandpa has a huge heart for evangelism. When he meets someone new, he almost always asks them two questions. His first question is the inspiration for this week’s Stretched Ice Breaker.
Question: How can The Stretched Community pray for you?
My Answer: I mentioned it in a post a couple of weeks ago. Our family could use your prayers as we prepare for our trip to Guatemala. Two weeks from tomorrow, we leave for Newark, NJ where we will depart for Guatemala. There are several details that we need to finalize. I need to finalize the financial end of things with GO! Ministries which I should take care of this weekend. Isaac is finishing up his Typhoid medication this week. We need to pack for the trip which includes packing up material for care packages that we will be giving to the ~200 widows who live in the village of Xenacoj. On top of that, we would appreciate your prayers for safety and effectiveness as we travel and minister in Xenacoj.
Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response! (As always, feel free to share links.) And keep STRETCHING!
With this week’s question and answers, I would encourage you to pick at least one of the requests mentioned in the post or the comments and pray.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16
Guatemala Final Support Request
(Note: We’re sending out this letter to family and friends this week as we approach a month before our family departs for Guatemala. Since I consider many of you to be family and friends, I thought it only made sense to send it to you as well via today’s blog post.)
Dear Friends and Family,
Hello! We hope everything is going well with you. It’s hard to believe we’re already into July. The summer is sure to rush by quickly. We hope you’ll have time to relax and enjoy time with family and friends this summer. We wanted to reconnect with you, and let you know about some of the great things that are happening in our family.
We have already been busy with summer activities. Hannah finished up her first year of high school with a great overall experience, and she has already started cross-country practice for the fall season. Isaac will be starting his last year in middle school in the fall. In the meantime, he continues to work on his trumpet and piano skills over the summer. Both the kids are active in the youth worship team at our church. Leanne continues to work part-time as a behavioral therapist for a couple of preschool aged children, and she recently found out that she will be teaching at a preschool in the fall as a four-year-old classroom teacher. And I continue to work at Siemens. Running, blogging, and volunteering with our church’s youth group have kept me busy.
By the time you receive this letter, our family will be less than a month away from taking a trip to Guatemala. August 4th – 11th, we will be traveling to the village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj in Guatemala where we will meet up with others from around the country and Dave Sgro of GO! Ministries to serve in this small village located an hour and a half northwest of Guatemala City. Last summer, Hannah and I journeyed to Xenacoj with a team from our church’s youth group. While we were there, we built a house, installed stoves in the homes of widows, and we led a sports/Bible camp for kids from the village. (To see a video that recaps our experience go to: http://youtu.be/OQ_mQioXHqY)
This year, we will again be ministering to the children and widows in the community. We will help with a feeding program to children in the village. We will also be ministering directly to the ~200 widows in the village. From our experience last year, we learned that Guatemala is home to the 4th highest malnutrition rate among children five and under in the entire world. Most people in the village live on a couple of dollars a day, and there are many who struggle with basic health issues. By returning to Xenacoj, we hope to make a difference for people in the village as we share the hope of Jesus Christ through actions and words, and we anticipate God using this experience in the life of our family as a milestone event.
This trip provides an opportunity to meet the physical and spiritual needs of a community that is desperately in need. More than anything, we would value your prayers for our team and those whose lives will be touched by God through us. We believe that God answers prayers, and we’re asking you to pray for safety, good health, smooth travel, and financial support. Just knowing that you will be praying will give us peace as we go to Xenacoj.
Beyond your prayers, if you are led to join us by financially supporting this mission, we would be grateful. We still need to raise just over $1,000 to cover the total remaining cost of the trip. We have been creative to raise the rest of the money required to make this trip a reality, and we want to extend an invitation to you to participate to help us reach this goal. To give towards our trip expenses, go to goministries.info. At the bottom of the page, choose option 1. After you enter your payment information, enter a special note to the seller. The note should read “Stolpe Family Mission Trip”. This will ensure that your donation goals towards our GO Ministries expenses. It will also ensure that your donation is registered as a tax-deductible donation. (You can also give money to us which we would utilize for our airfare and other travel expenses or we’ll turn over to GO Ministries to pay for our expenses in Guatemala.) This is a journey that God has called us to and we would greatly appreciate any level of support you are able to offer. (Any money raised above the $1,000 will be used to help further fund the feeding program in the community.
Again, we really hope things are going well for you. We’d love to hear an update on what’s going on in your life if you have the time. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this letter, and if you have any questions, please let us know. Take care, and we hope to hear from you soon!
With gratitude,
The Stolpe Family
(Jon, Leanne, Hannah, and Isaac)
For more information about our trip, visit Jon’s blog. Here are links to a couple of the posts that explain our trip:
http://www.jonstolpe.com/2013/01/07/another-leap-of-faith/
and
http://www.jonstolpe.com/2013/01/15/guatemala-update-whats-the-big-deal-about-lunch/
Are You A Missionary? You Might Be Surprised By The Answer
Nineteen years ago when I graduated from college, I wrestled with the decision of my career choice. Should I enter the “mission field” by serving in “full-time ministry” or should I enter the workforce? I was graduating from an excellent school with a mechanical engineering degree and roughly $12,000 in student loans. I knew I needed to pay off these loans, and I knew that God had given me knowledge and skills that would be useful in the traditional workplace.
As I wrestled through this decision, I came to the conclusion that I needed to use my skill in the workplace with an engineering job in the United States. I could utilize the financial gain from this decision to pay off my student loans and to help support missionaries who were serving away from home. I also believed that there were plenty of non-Christians in and around the workplace who needed to learn of God’s love. I believed I could share this through my words and especially through my actions – my example.
Fast forward 18 years, I go on a short-term missions trip to Guatemala last summer. Most of the kids who came on the trip weren’t even born when I graduated from college. (Yes, this trip made me feel old in some ways, but that’s another blog post!) In leading up to this trip, it was the prompting of my wife and our youth pastor that encouraged me to take the leap of faith to go on this trip. Having never been on an overseas missions trip of any kind, I thought my ultimate decision to go was the noble decision to make. After all, I would have the chance to be a missionary!
I had that chance. You can read about it by searching ‘Guatemala‘ in the blog search box. While in Guatemala last summer, I built a house for a family; I installed stoves for those in need; and I shared the love and message of Jesus Christ with complete strangers in a foreign land. How cool is that? How do you not feel good about yourself after jumping into this kind of adventure? Talk about a sacrifice. (Do you sense the pride and lack of humility in these questions?)
Don’t get me wrong when you hear what I’m about to share. God needs missionaries in foreign lands. Missionaries have an opportunity to improve the lives of those in poverty and to bring a message of hope to people who need this message. I definitely plan and hope to go on other overseas missions trips again in the future. (This is part of the reason our family is heading back to Guatemala this summer.)
But I re-discovered something when I came back home. When our group exited the Newark airport on the way home, we were trying to get one last group photo before we got on the bus to go home. As we stood outside the baggage claim, there were hundreds of people walking by us. We just needed one of them to take a picture for us. We asked one person who responded, “No, I’m in a hurry.” We asked a second person who responded, “I’m in a rush, sorry.” We asked a third, fourth, and fifth person, and we received similar responses. Finally, someone reluctantly agreed to snap a picture of our group. When I came back into work on Monday, I heard people yelling and cursing about their present circumstances. I listened as people treated each other with anger and disdain.
What did I re-discover when I came back home? The mission field is right around me where I live and where I work. (I was reminded of this again this week – read my post from yesterday). I am called to be a missionary right where I am. In words and especially in actions, I have a message to share with others, and so do you. I am a missionary! And you can be one too! Will you join me?
When you think of the word missionary, what image comes to mind? Where are you serving these days?
Rally Night TONIGHT!
Tonight is a special night for our family. And if you live in the area (Eastern Pennsylvania), we hope you’ll join us. (If you live outside the area or can’t make it tonight, you can still help out!)
From 5 PM until 7:30 PM, we’ll be holding a Rally Night at the Royersford Chick-Fil-A. A percentage of all proceeds during this time will go towards our short-term missions trip to Guatemala this summer. To date, we’ve raised $3,550 towards our trip. The cost of our trip is right around $5,600. You can find out more about how you can help with our trip by clicking here.
This summer, our family will be taking a journey to serve with GO! Ministries in the village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj in Guatemala. During their trip, they will be working with widows and orphans in the village. Specifically, we will be focusing on a feeding program, kid camp program, and direct service to widows.
Hope to see you there. And thanks for your support!