Guatemala Short-term Missions trip

Day 2

Home Visits

A small group of four of us, plus some of the local missionaries, headed out on some house visits today. A city employee, similar to a social worker joined us and was the one that connected us to these families in need. It’s going to be impossible for me to put into the right words the weight of what we experienced today. The needs varied from family to family but regardless, the needs were immense.

We brought a 50lb bag of food, backpacks for school age children (school supply costs often prevent children from attending), clothing and shoes for each family member, a hygiene pack and a Bible for each family.  It doesn’t feel like enough - but I’ll come back to that. We sat on stools and talked to each family - listening and learning of new needs and how they’re getting along, and more importantly encouraging them and reminding them about the love God has for them, despite the difficulties that life brings. Difficultly is a tricky word - a bit subjective. We quickly realized that “difficulty” is not comparable to what any of us have ever experienced. What we brought certainly didn’t feel like enough - at least not long term. Except remember that part earlier where I said we brought them a Bible - that’s the part that is enough. His Word is true and everlasting. God’s love is enough. He is provider even in our lowest of circumstances and He has hope, even for the least of these.

Concrete

Today part of our team went to one of our home builds to make and pour the concrete floor for our 1st home build. We put cinder block around the perimeter of the home. Then we shoveled sand in the middle of the cinder blocks and leveled it to prepare for spreading concrete. The next step was mixing sand, rocks, concrete mix and water with shovels to make the cement. Finally we poured and finished the concrete floor by using shovels, wheelbarrows, and hand trowels.

We really enjoyed being able to interact with many children and families while we were building. We loved being able to hand out candy and toys to children who were overjoyed to get the gifts. Several of the teens from our group connected with the children by teaching them the 'bottle flip.' They all had so much fun playing together, even through the language barrier.