Worship at 6800 Feet

I'm writing from Guatemala today on our Church's Missions Trip to Magdalena with Students International. This has been a great trip. Today our team is out on their various ministry sites and I had to stay back to do a few things around here.

This outreach has been more than eye opening. On the first day of our outreach I went with the Social Work team. Basically this team does the work of visiting people. It was such a blessing to be a part of. We went into El Gorreon, the poorest place I've ever been, and had the most amazing time. The people there have very little, and yet they have faith like I've never seen before. One woman told us about all these terrible things happening in her life and then finished it off with "But I trust God, I know he will make everything right." Wow!

On day two I was with the medical team. They set up a clinic in El Gorreon and people come to the clinic and pay Q5 (about $0.62US) to see the Doctor and receive the needed medication. After the visit with the Doctor they come out to the Social Work team for a visit and prayer (so technically I was with the SW team, but we called it medical). Again, to hear people speak in faith despite their situation was powerful.

Day three was my turn in Appropriate Technology. What that meant this day specifically was pulling electrical wire in the Community center that SI is building. To be honest, I needed a break from the emotional work. I'm not a crier and it's already happened a couple of times, so it was a nice break.

On Saturday and Sunday were our days off. I learned so much from the church service on Sunday. Pastor Mario invited us up to sing a couple of songs, which was a ton of fun, but better than that was the people's worship. The music was led by Marimba, trumpets and drums. Everyone was singing (except for the Gringos who didn't know the words) and obviously having a good time. I really loved the feeling that it was a joy for these Christians to be there worshipping God - such a privilege to be a part of. And let me tell you, that place was ROCKIN'! It was pretty darn loud in there (louder than my loudest Sundays)! People accepted us and made us feel so welcome which was just great!

Over and over I have been impressed with the need for greater faith. If these people can believe that God will work everything out, why in the world can I not trust that as well? All in all, I think the biggest lesson I'm learning is the life of worship. These attitudes and actions that I'm seeing here everyday must be so pleasing to God. Now, obviously, I'm only pointing out the good, but that's what impresses me the most. Our host families are so generous with their things and money.

My only regret is that I came here to try to bless these people and I will likely go home more blessed by them than they were by me.