Walking Among Us

Hola from Guatemala! Today was our last day in Santiago and we are all with heavy hearts. Today and yesterday, I literally felt as if God was walking among us just hanging out with His people helping us all to join hearts despite language and cultural barriers. I can feel His presence so close here that it will be hard to leave tomorrow. What things can I share that stand out? So much but I will choose just a few. Yesterday, we delivered beds to the families that have been relocated from Panabaj. I am sure you all saw the post and pictures from yesterday so you can see that when I say "bed"I mean a fold up cot that might be rolled in as uncomfortable extra in a hotel - not a real bed by our standards. Yet the receivers of these beds were overcome with joy and thanks - many receiving only one per family. It was heartbreaking to see such a visual contrast between what we are have and what these people have. When was the last time you gave genuine thanks for the bed that you sleep in? We also visited the homes that our team and past HPCC teams helped to build and got the honor of praying with each family. Let me tell you, Pastor Diego prays with an authority and passion for God that is emotionally overwhelming. I am not typically a public crier but I found myself sobbing as I tried to pray. I also got to try my hand at tortilla making....mission failed?! Everywhere that we go, we are followed by children. I can't help recall from the bible how the children loved to follow Jesus and He always made time for them. Father God, PLEASE let these children have seen a small glimpse of Jesus in us!

We ended the day with the honor of hearing the testimony of Pastor Diego. His faith in God is inspirational and he has warmth that makes you know instantly upon meeting him that he is a man of God. I am positive that all HPCC teams have a warm place in their hearts and prayers for Pastor Diego and his ministry.

Now today, I have to admit that some of the team was a little hesitant about today. We were told there were two church services that we could attend - one was the children's service from 9am - 11am and the other was an adult/family service from 5:30pm - 8:30pm...now that is a whole lot of Jesus - right?? Especially considering that it would all be in Spanish or the native language here so we would more than likely understand little to nothing. Both services were optional for all team members. My family and I decided to attend both. We had to see the VBS kids one more time for sure! The morning service with the kids were great. Frederico was the teacher for the class I sat in on and it was so much like JAM. They had lively songs with movements, a great lessons, and of course the awesome kids! They let us sing a few songs with the kids as well. After morning service, some of us spent the day watching a soccer game that hear was very exciting - I opted for a nap. I feel emotionally spent and needed some rest.

Finally, we ended the day with the entire team attending adult service and I have little words because nothing I can say in words will help you to visualize the experience. If you can believe, our very own Roy gave a testimony that was translated in front of the entire church. Roy's testimony is powerful and he was very "valiente" to share with his new church family. We also shared three songs with our new church family and got to participate in their worship that was passionate and beautiful! A few songs were even familiar to us - helped to feel like there was a bridge that gapped the cultures. Finally, Pastor Diego preached and surprised us all by asking our awesome translator, Cesar to translate his message for us as he spoke it! Cesar was a little nervous but did an amazing job. Pastor spoke powerfully about having a heart for God your whole life through. The time flew by and we were all glad to have gone!

I am so glad to be experiencing this as a family. Had just one or two of us gone, we never would have been able to express the love and need in Guatemala. We will return and we all have a new heart for international missions. The worst conditions that I have seen in our country don't compare to the average conditions here in Cerro de Oro. Please continue to pray for the people of Guatemala and for Pastor Diego and his ministry. Love to everyone at home - we will see you all soon!

Posted by Stephanie Larkins

Chuk Muk

As the days pass by, it is getting harder and harder to take all of this. You know...the good kind of hard. Yesterday, we said good-bye to our VBS kids after having spent four days playing and loving on them. Yesterday was our last day of construction on the two houses we came down to build. And today...today we tied it all together. Of course, if you want to see all the pictures...go here.

There is a community between Santiago and Cerro de Oro that is entirely made up of people relocated from Panabaj. Their homes were washed out in the mudslides and they were moved to government housing in four different sectors. The entire "new city" is called Chuk Muk (pronounced chook-mook) and is the only government housing in all of Guatemala. The houses are much bigger than most of the people have probably ever had and are actually very luxurious in comparison to the homes we see in the surrounding communities. Unfortunately, in the move, these people didn't get to take anything with them and are literally without.

In 2 Corinthians 9:11 it reads: You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

I feel like this verse is so vital to keep in the forefront of our minds. God has so richly blessed us, not just each person on this trip but our country in general. We are so richly blessed that we buy bigger and bigger houses to store more and more stuff. We have money just lying around, in jars or pigs or bank accounts, that we may or may not touch for months or years at a time. We can justify the things we buy yet find it hard to hand over the same amount of money from something we can't physically hold. I am not saying we need to never save or that big houses are bad...but what are we doing with the over abundance that God has given to us. What are we doing with the overflow of blessings? Are we overflowing on to someone else? Isn't that what God is calling us to do?

I am not telling you this to brag on how amazing we are. I am telling you the stories of giving because I feel very honored that we are able to give. I feel so humbled that we are able to overflow on the people in this community, in such a seemingly simple way, yet it makes such a huge difference to them. In Chuk Muk, we were able to provide cots for 40 families. Cots. Metal framed beds that fold up in half, thin mattresses that would be an awful night sleep for us and uncovered springs that immediately made me think of little kids getting their hands pinched in them. Cots. Something to sleep on besides the concrete floor.

And those 40 families? Their children go to the school where we held VBS. Not only are their little precious minds being taken care of during the day while they learn to read and write and pray, but now their little bodies will be able to sleep better at night. Their parents will be able to sleep better at night. Their grandparents can rest their achey bones on a soft mattress instead of a solid surface. They can all rest...a little easier tonight.

We partner with a church in Santiago called El Buen Pastor (meaning the Good Sheppard). Pastor Diego has become a good friend of our church and helps facilitate all this giving so we can help convey the message that the church is helping to provide all these things instead of those "rich white people" that come in to town twice a year. We have learned that the second you hand even ONE piece of gum out to a child in the town, you are expected to give to EVERYONE. And they get feisty about it too. We learned that just handing stuff out was counterproductive to our work here. It was creating hostility towards us if the people didn't get something or between each other if one person received more/better than the other. We want to share Jesus with these people...not greed! Pastor Diego is amazing at sharing the message with the people that God provided this stuff and he uses people like us or those from their church to make these things happen.

What an amazing feeling. We stood in a circle with the community of people, with our friend Pastor Diego and with our translators as we all prayed over these beds and the people receiving them. Do you have any idea how moving it is to hear these people pray? They pray out loud, with full voice and in their own words, right along with Pastor Diego. They cover their faces and all look like they are about to cry. Most of us on the team DID cry...big ol alligator tears mixed between joy and sorrow, heart break and happiness. And as they carried their beds off to their homes with HUGE smiles on their faces, we couldn't help but smile right along with them. Some of them held our hands and thanked us. Some of them kissed our cheeks as they whispered sweet sentiments of which we couldn't understand.

As the moisture from their lips started to dissipate from my face, more tears came. Thank you Jesus for these moments, these life changing , heart shaking moments. I pray those kisses will never dry.