Lost

Today the team woke up at the Vista Real Hotel. This is one of my favorite places. I love to get up early in the morning and sit under the Statue of Michael the Arch Angel and smell the Jasmine with wafts of car exhaust in the air. As Greg Reed said last summer, “It is a smell that just welcomes you to Guatemala”. It is a smell that you fall in love with. It is a smell that I get lost in. It is a smell that I find myself in too.

After this quiet morning welcome to Guatemala. I head into the restaurant for breakfast.

“Lost! One of our bags is lost! It never came to our room last night.”

This is the first hiccup of the day. Ok let’s go check the bus. Josue has been loading the bags, and the tarps are already on the luggage. I hated doing it, but we needed to find it. Josue counted the bags and thought that we came up with 43 bags, 43 bags? 2checked bags x 13 people + 13 carry-on bags, plus translator bags. The number sounded good, we were going to have to trust God on this. If God wants us to have what is in the bag than it is there, if not, it is not. Throw the tarps back on and let’s get going.

"Lost! I just had my notebook with the budget in it, what did I do with it. I just set it down at the store that we bought school supplies at. And POOF, it’s gone.”

We looked around for a little bit and decide to go. I can figure it out. It was just a book with numbers in it. Nothing actually lost. Let’s go we have a long trip ahead of us.
On the way to Santiago, It rained and the roads were washed out all over the place. Josue was incredible in his driving abilities. We made it safe and on time to Santiago.

We finally make it to Posada de Santiago...“Lost! They booked the room we were going to store our supplies in and have our team meeting. “ The hotel said we could rent the owners house next door to store our supplies and hold our meetings. But the price of$30 dollars a day was pretty steep. We can figure something out. Let’s just get into our rooms and we will be creative.

“Lost! “ Tara comes running up the hill. Amy thinks she left her Passport at the Vista.

We unloaded the bags from the bus. Josue’s count was right. The Missing Larkins bag was found. Josue went to get the school supplies out of his trunk. Look it’s my missing folder. It was in the basket of the shopping cart and Josue saw it and threw it in his trunk.
A call to the Vista Real, housekeeping found the pass port and had turned it in to the office. It will be in there safe until we return.

“Thank you Lord, for this day of lessons.
I remember why I came.
You have found me again Lord, and Now I am lost in you.”

Sometimes we think our mission is the stuff we bring. My focus was wrong in this. What we bring is the LOVE of Jesus. This is all we need. It does not matter what we bring in those bags if we don’t bring the LOVE of Jesus with us. I was lost in the stuff Lord, but you found me and I LOVE you.

Sometimes we as Christians think our mission is about numbers. How many will be saved. How many supplies can we bring? How much money can we donate? How many people we can medically treat? What we really need to focus on is the LOVE of Jesus. How much love is in our heart? How much do we LOVE our neighbor’s? How much do we LOVE our Lord Jesus? How much Love is in you? “Lord I was lost in the number of supplies. Lord I was lost in in “our” budget and you found me. I LOVE you Lord.

Sometimes we as Christians think missions are who we are. “We are Christians and we are bringing the word of God to these poor people.” Or we think we are very good Christians because of how much we are helping these people by building their houses. We even start to address ourselves as “Missionaries”, like it is a title to be worn with pride. We are nothing if we do not have the LOVE of Jesus in us. Everything I have earned is filthy rags next to the LOVE of Jesus. They should now us by our LOVE. Not by who we say we are. Not by what we bring. Not by what we build. BUT by our LOVE they will KNOW we are Christians. By the LOVE that Jesus has washed us with while we were still sinners should overflow and they shall know His LOVE that they see in us and know that we follow you. Lord I was lost in who I was. But you found me and I LOVE you.

Today I needed to refocus on why I was coming here. My Lord Jesus has helped me with this. It does not matter what I bring if I do not LOVE. It does not matter what the numbers are if I do not LOVE. It does not matter who I am If I do not LOVE. Lost supply bags, lost budget numbers, lost passport. We are lost if we do not LOVE Jesus. And if we truly LOVE Jesus we LOVE people. AND If we do not first focus on LOVING these people they may never know the LOVE of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord we LOVE you. We are here because of You. You invited us to be a part of what You have been doing here since You created this world. Thank you for LOVING us.

Written by Barrett Hartmen