I look forward to sharing the journey of our team as we serve in Guatemala with Orphan's Heart, at the center for severely malnourished
children of the area. Some children have come in at 4 years old weighing 17 pounds or even 7
months old weighing only 7 pounds. Many of these children are unable to sit alone,
hold their head up, walk at 4 years of age because of weakness from
malnutrition. They stay at the center, away from their families until the can
be nurtured back to health...that is where we come in, a week of cradling,
loving and nurturing these little ones.
Today was our travel day but most everything went really smoothly. Mandy and Tara had a
small issue with parking the car with the luggage topper on top of the van.
Let's just say there are probably a few scraps that weren't there previously and
hopefully no low hanging signs in the parking garage were knocked loose. We landed in Guatemala city and Howie,
our leader from Orphan's Heart, ran us through the customs process seamlessly. One of our first impressions were the awesome pimped out buses! We didn't have to
ride in the back of a pick up going 70, but instead, we have a very nice
bus, with a great driver, Samuel. We are actually in Antigua, about 60 minutes out of
Guatemala City. It is a historic, colonial small town with cobblestone
streets and beautiful architecture. I am looking forward to tomorrow, it is an
off day and we are going to see the city, go to the market and some other
touristy things
.
The hotel we are staying in for the week is amazingly
beautiful....different for me as far as mission trips go...no spiders, no rats!
After getting checked in, we had about an hour to relax, get unpacked and
figure out how to get our phones/computers to work. Then we gathered with our
team (which includes the 7 of us from South Shore, Jann (another mother from Florida) and her daughter, Randi (from Colorado), Howie, our leader, and Art and his wife Ilvie (Orphan's Heart's volunteer couple). We spent some time getting to know each other, one of my favorite
parts of a mission trip. Hearing the hearts of people you know and those that
are new to you. Those the serve Orphan's Heart are amazing! We went to dinner
and as we chatted with Art and Ilvie, they shared with Mandy (who had been here
in September) the amazing progress of various children that Mandy met on her
last trip, some had improved enough to go home, others had moved up a level.
The joy on Mandy and Emma's faces (Mandy had shared the stories of each of the
children that had touched her heart on the last trip) as they heard of God's
amazing healing power, that joy spread to all of us at the table even though we
had never met the children. We are all excited to start on Monday and as I sit
outside in the cool night air of a hotel courtyard, I try to anticipate what is
ahead. How will God use us?
How will God touch us? How will God bring us together as
a team?
How will He grow us individually? Am I willing to be
stretched?
Please God, don't let me leave this place unchanged!
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm
19:14
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