Guatemala, October 11th-17th, 2014

Orchard Hill Community Church, Victory Life Church & Friends

Wow. What an adventure it has been here in Guatemala at the Malnutrition Center. Friends who took the trip last year gave us an idea of what we might experience, but this went way beyond our expectations! Monday morning started in the baño (bathroom) with eleven little "chicks" sitting on a little bowl they call pots. My mom and I thought it was so funny. They sit on those pots and they are so content. The "Chicks" are the toddlers at the center, and they are currently potty training. It is a funny sight to see when they sit on those pots. In the morning when we get them off their pots they take a bath and then we get them ready for the day. 

The other day I was playing with my "non favorite" (as we call our favorites), Anibal. And I said to him,"I love you!" And he said right back to me "I love you!" It was the cutest thing ever. In the lunch room, a little boy came up to me and started climbing on my back. Ever since I gave him a piggy back ride on our first day, each day since then he has come up to me, given me a hug and said,"I love you." He is such a sweetheart. I can't believe I am on this trip loving on these kids. I know that everyone on this trip will go home feeling changed. I know I will! 

There is one thing that I have had a hard time with, and that is the language barrier. I think others have had a hard time with that, too. But God gave us different languages so that we can communicate not just by what we know but what others know too. I realized that you can communicate even though you are from different backgrounds. For example, with the nannies at the center, if a baby needs a diaper change, you don't need to know how to speak Spanish to tell them that. You can (as I have) use hand gestures. 

There is one language we all have in common here and that is Love. LOVE is what these kids need. You can tell the nannies love the kids, but they don't always have enough time to spend quality time with every child. This is why it is important for teams to come down here. God brought us across the world so that these kids could be loved in a special way. God says "Let the children come," which I think means to love them, because they are just as important as you, me or anybody. Any time you have the chance to love on some kids take the opportunity, because it will change your life and your world forever.

- Kensley H.

  (11 yrs. old and and trying to become more like Jesus every day.)

Guatemala, October 11th-17th, 2014

Orchard Hill Community Church, Victory Life Church & Friends

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." Psalm 121

This place, the malnutrition center, it really isn't a place that you can put into words. Yes, yes, I know that many people say that about any number of things or experiences, but truly there is no adequate explanation I could give that would allow you to feel the joy, the hurt, and the love that is ever-present in this place.

I can show you pictures. Ones like these:

Or these:

Pictures of the children, the staff, and the team, living life with one another. You see a lot of smiles, and that would be because joy here abounds. Yes, the Lord's goodness is TANGIBLE here! We have seen walking talking miracles, we have seen the amazing changes that are happening in the center itself, we have fallen asleep to the rainstorms in the mountains, met people we cherish, and received more love than we could give. The Father is so faithful to His children. For example, today I asked one of the Ducks (the group of older boys) if he knew that Jesus loved him. He just gave me a little patronizing eye roll and smiled sweetly and said, "Si..." It is a testimony to the movement of the Spirit that this little boy could have known so often and so well the love of the Lord, that it seemed so ridiculously obvious to him! How could God not love him? Amen little Duck! God is good, and that is evident here. 

However, there is a lot that is not seen in the pictures. You don't hear the cries or the laughter, you don't smell the flowers or the diapers, you don't taste the food or the water (which you shouldn't anyway), you don't feel the hugs or the kisses- you just can't glean from sentences and snap shots what the experience of being here would give you!

One big part of what is gleaned from that experience is the understanding of what it means to be content. Paul talks about this in Philippians when he says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." There is a secret my friends- a true secret involved in learning what it is to be content.

I struggle with contentedness, and I would say that I am in the plenty category of Paul's statement. Sure I'm a grad student and money is tight sometimes, but in general, life is overflowing with blessing and sustenance. Yet when I come here, I see contentedness in the hearts and lives of the children, people, and teams in the Center. I don't mean all they do is smile and never want anything. But there is a certain contentedness that I do not always exude in my own life. There is need here. I have seen it at the Center- families bringing in their children for lack of enough food to live. Children sick and dying, hoping with all hope to get well- and these are just to name the basics. Every time I come to the center I am sobered into realizing how much excess I have in my life. My prayer has become this: may it never be said that I had excess of anything that I did not seek to share. So how, in the midst of this deep need, can there be such contentedness? 

I think that goes back to that secret I mentioned... The secret told to us in 2 Corinthians 12 (another gem from Paul):

"But He [God] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you...'"

Grace. God's Grace- that's the secret. After all, with God's grace, what can't be done? What can't be provided? What do we need but God's grace? The people here see that and know that. They feel it in the loving embraces and the warm winds. We feel God's grace in the plates of nourishing food and in the newest and weakest child to arrive at the center.

So take a deep breath and be content; you have what you need. God's grace abounds.

-Laura C

Guatemala, October 11th-17th, 2014

Orchard Hill Community Church, Victory Life Church & Friends

It's Tuesday! I'm still feeling completely overwhelmed with a roller coaster of emotions! I'm pretty sure I've never felt so many conflicting emotions simultaneously before. One moment I'm smiling, the next, I'm so choked up I can hardly keep from bursting into tears. Leaving my family and country and all familiar and coming to a foreign place that is so different from what I know is very overwhelming! I'm a homebody and have mostly been a stay at home mom for the past 21 years. Just traveling up here in the mountains is a stretch! Such beauty! Amazing! 

This week, I'm working with the "Dolphins" which is the group of babies and children that come into the center who are in most critical need. They are usually the newest to the center, and the ones who have the most sever cases of malnutrition. Yesterday when we walked in they were just finishing their breakfast and beginning baths. My first exposure to them was taking a freshly bathed little one and dressing them. I've never even changed a preemie before, let alone a child who is 18-24 months and yet still in a size 1-2 diaper. The skinny little legs and tiny fingers make me cry as I type this. One little guy is 4 months old and yet I'm dressing him in clothes that are preemies and still hang on him. Such precious children! 

The children I'm with are all developmentally delayed but oh, those big brown eyes! You can coax smiles out of a few of them, which is truly rewarding. We did get a smile out of the baby today who yesterday he just stared at us! 

The children here are so well behaved. They sit and patiently wait for their bottles or their food or to be changed. They love to be held and do not like it when you put them down!!  It's fun working with them on leg/arm strength. I know them all by name now and what's special about them. The nannies are fantastic and care very much about them. I honestly don't know how they can do it each day out without help. It's crazy enough with 3 extra of us in there helping! 

My biggest take away so far? LANGUAGE doesn't matter! Those babies love to look at you in the eye and have you smile and talk to them. It matters NOT that you speak English and they don't understand it. They understand LOVE and that's what matters! The nannies too! Between pointing and a few basic words, we understand each other. 

These kids, let me tell you, they have distinct personalities just like our kids! They don't like their noses wiped or their nails cut! They don't like being hungry or dirty. But they DO love to be held and cuddled. They do like to be tickled and laugh. They feel the love and THAT is why I came. To be LOVE to them! It humbles me as nothing else has in a very long time.

-Jodie Koster

Guatemala October 11-17, 2014

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Guatemala, October 11-17, 2014

Orchard Hill Community Church and other friends from Michigan

As a returning volunteer to the Orphan's Heart malnutrition center in Guatemala, I thought that I wouldn't be as emotional as I was during my time here last October --  I was wrong. Walking into the malnutrition center, hearing the cries of the babies, seeing the photos of the many children who are being cared for here, I was overwhelmed with the same heartache I was filled with last year. An overwhelming realization that there is so much hurt in this world. So much brokenness, so much hunger and pain. Last night as I was struggling with these feelings I decided to look at what verse my daily bible verse app on my phone had picked for the day, and I was surprised to see that the verse fit perfectly with what I was experiencing here, "The one who gives to the poor will not lack, but whoever shuts his eyes to them will receive many curses." Proverbs 28:7. While this may seem harsh, I can see how well this verse pertains to my time here in Guatemala. I feel as though myself, and Americans in general, struggle at times with shutting our eyes to the needy and poor. It's almost easier to pretend that such hurts don't exist in the world. We shelter ourselves in our own little American bubble, failing to see beyond our own selfish wants into a huge beautiful world that needs the knowledge of God's love. Being at the center here in Guatemala I have decided that I need to stop being passive. I need to stop forgetting about the hurting world that exists outside of my comfort zone. Jesus calls us to, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15. The time is now. The people of the world need to know the love of Christ. Holding a baby here at the center, giving one of the beautiful, hard-working nannies a helping hand, changing a diaper - they all are small ways in which the kingdom of God can grow. I see God's work here at the center every hour of every day. Children are becoming stronger. Lives are being changed. Today the chorus of "Jesus Loves Me" being sung in Spanish by beautiful children, rang though the center loud and clear. The name of Christ is being proclaimed. We have answered a call to Christ this week - I urge you to do the same. 

- Rebekah Karel