Guatemala (Day 2)
Even though it was only our second full day in San Lucas Tolimán, it feels as though we are developing some patterns to our day. We woke up at sunrise to a stiff cool breeze that came across the water of Lake Atitlan. We stretched our bodies that were sore from yesterday's work and started our twenty-minute stroll across town to the school for breakfast. The town was already awake and abuzz with three wheeled taxis and uniformed students headed off to school. A few of us grabbed some coffee to warm our hands and wake up our bodies, but mostly we chatted and pointed out all the new things we were noticing as we dodged the street dogs and motorbikes.
After breakfast we headed for the town’s central square. The square is home to street vendors, stray dogs, a burnt down government building, shaded benches and the very important town basketball court. It was time for some basketball ministry! Nothing brings a crowd like eighteen “gringos” ready to play ball! Our goal was to help teach the local school teams some new skills, but before long we were running a basketball clinic for kids from all over town. We worked on boxing-out, foot work, and most importantly some bi-lingual smack talk. In the months to come, we will be watching to see if our clinic makes an impact in the local school’s record this year. Our hunch is that it will not, but what we really hope is that it will make an impact on eternity.
Tuesday is also market day in San Lucas. So, after a few cold bags of water (yes, we drink water out of bags here) and some Gatorade in glass bottles, we entered the market to explore our new friends’ everyday lives. The market is a maze of streets and alleyways filled with everything a local resident could need or want. There were buckets filled with colorful flowers, tabletops covered in meat and fish (some dead and some still moving), cooked food and raw food, clothing and crafts, spices and sweets, chickens and rabbits, housewares and hardware's. We saw it all and smelled it all, and it was beautiful!
After a break for lunch we headed out for more relational ministry in a poorer neighborhood that we accessed by walking over a suspension bridge that made Busch Garden’s roller coasters seem like a cakewalk. But once again the local kids came running when our students pulled out a soccer ball and some craft supplies. After a few hours of beautiful chaos we worked as a team to teach the crowd of eager children about Jesus calming the stormy sea. It was hard not to imagine that even as the disciples grew frustrated with Jesus and shook him awake saying “why are you sleeping Jesus? we are dying here!” that many of the children listening to us may have been asking the same thing. It was tough for our team to experience the desperate lives we encountered. These young children we were visiting live hard lives. It was a quiet van ride back to our hotel.
After showers and dinner and another
stroll through town, we spent some time journaling and talking about our
day.
To direct our hearts and minds we opened the Bible to Luke
12:13-21. Jesus says in these verses, “one’s life does not consist in
the abundance of his possessions.” That’s good news for the people we
met today, but challenging words for us. Do we keep building bigger
barns? Do we rest in the abundance of our possession? Or, do we, like
the wise and humble people we met today, find our assurance in the God
who gave everything up for us so that we could find life in him? These
are tough questions for us all.
Privileged to serve (and eager for tomorrow),
Rich and the Team
