And it was there today. We headed out to paint a school up in the mountains above San Lucas Toliman. These schools have very little funding, so painting the walls is a low priority for school leadership. And so one of the things we can do for them is to add a fresh coat of paint.
Painting with teenagers is hard. Painting a school is hard. And yet, today our team saw how much joy can be derived from painting. In your mind right now, you are thinking of a school and what painting it may be like. It is not that. The schools are cinderblock-walled. They are low budget. They are often not in the best shape. But they are a vital piece of the community. The teachers we met have immense pride in what they do and how they seek to better the children who attend. And having the school look a little bit better with a new coat of paint, while it may not seem like that big of a deal, brought almost as much joy to the leadership and teachers we met at the end of the day as it did to our team while we were painting. Painting was hard, but today we painted with joy!
Tonight at porch time, we began to look ahead a few days to our return home. We began to reflect on where we had seen Jesus show up this week. We talked about how we can take what we are seeing, experiencing, and learning on this trip and bring it home with us. We talked about how living missionally doesn't have to mean leaving home, but serving wherever we are. We talked more about the joy we have been experiencing all week and asked questions. Why are we feeling this joy now? How can we take this home? What will it look like to live missionally all the time? The team has had an amazing week, and I cannot wait to see how, just like the disciples in Luke 24, they return with great joy after our encounter with Jesus this week.
Humbled to serve,
The Guatemala Team
