Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the WORD OF LIFE –
On February 7th at 6:00am 12 of us (one from Grace Bible Church and 11 of us from Fellowship Baptist) embarked from the Atlantic City Airport on a mission trip to Palabra De Vida (Word of Life) Guatemala.
Word of Life is an international organization that ministers to young people and adults, primarily through camp ministries in the United States and in over 65 countries around the world.
It was a privilege to offer some tangible support to this powerful ministry that touched my life personally after attending one of their Youth camps back in 1968 in Schroon Lake, NY. (Right after Moses parted the Red Sea)
Through the able leadership of Marcelo Diez, camp director, Word of Life Guatemala has become little heaven on earth. Marcelo has been with WOL for over 20 years and has not lost his enthusiasm for reaching out to the people of Guatemala with the message of Life in Christ. In a poor country like Guatemala, ministry that is going to have a significant impact must seek to meet more than just the spiritual needs of people. It is hard to convince people that God loves them when they are hungry and cold. WOL Guatemala seeks to have that kind of ministry. The week before we arrived a very large church recruited a large group of doctors and nurses to offer their services to the needy people of Guatemala.
Our flight took us through Fort Lauderdale and then finally to Guatemala City itself. Like many third world countries, Guatemala is rampant with poverty.
Marcelo had a plan for us and we were looking forward to accomplishing the goals that were set before us. The plan for our team was four fold.
1. 1. Treat the exterior of 4 large dormitories with an exterior stain. Each dorm will be able to house up to 36 teens for one of the many camp outings. We would get started early in the morning around 6:30 to 7:00am, work until breakfast was served at 9:00, work until 1:00pm, eat lunch and then work again until 7:00pm when we broke for dinner. The temperature was well over 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity so we planned our work so that we would generally always be on the shady side of the buildings which helped. It was tempting not to look longingly at the Olympic sized swimming pool that we could see from just about any vantage point that we worked from. It got so hot one day that they encouraged us to take a short break and jump in the pool which we gladly complied.
2. 2. Assemble 72 new bunk beds for the dorms and disassemble the existing worn out bunks currently there. If it had been America, all the old bunks would have been thrown out, but in this third world environment, nothing is wasted so the old bunks were just recycled for use somewhere else.
3. 3. Install two new drop ceilings in the kitchen of the main food serving area. The roof of the kitchen and dining area was made of thatch. The thatch was full of dust and dirt that would fall on the food while it was cooking on the big grills (we worked on that area first!!).
4. 4. Prepare over 75 back packs and bags of food for the local families and their children. In Guatemala, you can’t go to school if you don’t have a backpack and supplies. The women on our team did all this work. Through donations from a few stores in South Jersey and the generosity of many families at FBC, we were able to provide all the food, back packs and supplies to the children and families free of charge! On the day that we were giving away the food and supplies the mothers, teachers, even the Principal and children all walked from their local school to the campgrounds to receive their gifts. They were thrilled with it all. One of the teachers told us that no one had ever done anything like that for them before.
When the children, teachers and mothers arrived at the camp, the WOL staff put on a program for them that included a tug of war for the boys, girls and even the mothers! Those mothers looked pretty tough. I don’t think I would have wanted to compete against them. One of the members of our team is over 6’ 8” tall which made him the object of stares of all the Guatemalans wherever we went. Whenever Doug was around no one paid any attention to us. One of the games they played with the children involved Doug holding a can of soda in his outstretched hand over his head while two school aged boys attempted to climb up his body and take away the can of soda.
After all the games were over, one of the WOL staff shared the message of the gospel that led to a call to receive Christ as savior. Over forty Guatemalan children and some mothers and teachers raised their hands. That was definitely the most rewarding moment of the week. There wasn’t a dry eye among our entire team.
On one of the afternoons, two WOL staff took us for an outing to the BEACH! It’s not like anything that you dreamed of, but the water was warm and the waves awesome. It was a little choppy for body surfing but we enjoyed it anyway. Getting to the beach is not as simple as jumping on the Atlantic City Expressway. It’s a long ride over bumpy roads full of pot holes. They were doing road work and we observed something that none of us had seen before. In order to prevent cars from running over their new concrete pot hole patches they just put large rocks in around the pot hole. That should give you a clue as to how fast the ride was. The road took us to a river where we needed to board a “long boat” with a 15 horse power Evinrude motor operated by someone who looked like he may have taken one too many boat trips. The boat ride took us through the
mangroves and eventually took us to another small town that bordered the beach. Being on the Pacific the beach was a black sand beach. It didn’t look like Ocean City in the summer although it was quite warm. There was only one other family on the beach as far as the eye could see.
We finished our work on all the projects on Saturday morning and prepared to leave for the 3 hour trip back to Guatemala City via the tourist town of Antigua. Three large volcanoes dominate the horizon around Antigua.
To the south of the city, is the Volcan de Agua or "Volcano of Water", some 3,766 meters (12,356 ft) high. It became known as Volcán de Agua after a mudslidefrom the volcano buried the second site of the capital, which prompted the Spanish authorities to move the capital to present-day Antigua. To the west of the city is a pair of peaks, Acatenango, last erupted in 1972, some 3,976 meters (13,045 ft) high, and the Volcan de Fuego or "Volcano of Fire", some 3,763 meters (12,346 ft) high. "Fuego" is famous for being almost constantly active at a low level. You can actually see the volcano giving off steam or smoke which was a little intimidating, to say the least. They say that occasionally you can even hear an explosion.
We did a lot of shopping in Antigua at the markets. There are no fixed prices on the items. You ask them how much they want for an item and then start bargaining with them from there. Nick was very good at that and could usually bargain them down to sometimes 25% of their quoted price. When I bargained they always seemed happy after we were done. They weren’t happy after bargaining with Nick. Hmmmm. Maybe I need to work on my bargaining skills.
We also ate dinner there in this beautiful restaurant in this ancient building that just screamed with history. Troubadors played their instruments and a group of actors came and acted out a play for us (which we didn’t understand).
We spent Sunday in Guatemala City getting one more day of shopping in and then boarded the plane for our trip home. It was a long day and we did not get in until 1:30am on Monday morning.
It was a rewarding experience to know that you were able to make a tangible contribution to this great ministry.
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