The Power of Relationships

Hola Familia! It’s been over a week in Guatemala working alongside the Students International missionaries here. As our times at our ministry sites are coming to a close today, I wanted to share what God has been doing and showing the LIFTers working in the Girl’s Club Site.

Girl’s Club is a ministry site that looks to pour into girls and young women in Magdalena and the surrounding towns. The site is run by a wonderful young woman named Sydnee. Sydnee is a missionary from the States who lives full time in Guatemala working with girls in Girls Club. Kimberlee Collins, Abigail Munson, and Lida Hanson (me) have had the privilege of working with and learning from her. Sydnee’s goal for Girls Club is to create a safe space for girls to come and experience the love of God. She wants them to know that they are loved by the Creator of the Universe. Each day in Girl’s Club looks very different. Most days we are with the sports guys (Aden Cuellar, Matthew Bollman, Luis Rosado, George Adamou, and their site leader Byron). Together with them, we go to the surrounding towns playing soccer, volleyball, and other games as we also share the love of Christ with them. The times we are not with the Sports guys are spent at the Girl’s club site running different classes and building relationships with the women and girls. Sydnee teaches a class on painting nails on Mondays and a macrame class on Thursdays.

Something that has stuck out to me during my time working with Sydnee is her focus on building relationships. The first day we worked with her, we went on a walk in one of the surrounding towns, El Gorrion. The whole time we were walking we kept running into girls that Sydnee knew. She would stop and talk with them for 5-15 minutes each. We must have stopped and talked to at least ten girls. From those interactions, I could see the time and intentionality Sydnee is pouring into each of these girls. Sydnee loves these girls like Jesus does and she does everything she can to make them feel seen and known. Her heart is for each of them to have a relationship with Jesus and to know their worth comes from Him alone. It has been through watching Sydnee that I have been taught and reminded of the power of intentional relationships to further the Gospel and God’s Kingdom. Through watching Syndee and the other SI ministry site leaders, I have seen the value in walking with people and their stories. Jesus walks with us and calls us to do the same with others. He is a personable and intentional God, who asks us to be the same with others around us. Relationships are an important vehicle God uses to reveal Himself through and bring the Gospel to those who don’t know Him. I love this way of ministry because through it you see God’s heart for all people. I have seen God’s love and care through watching Sydnee build relationships with the girls and us. I have seen His heart to have all people know Him. It has been so sweet to witness this and walk with Sydnee in it. Building these intentional relationships is not easy. It takes a lot of time, work, and relying on the Holy Spirit. But it is worth it, and I know the missionaries here would say the same. It is through God and the intentional relationship building of the SI staff, that people have seen and come to know Jesus here. Relationships are powerful and it has been incredible to witness God use them to make Himself known.

 

My prayer for LIFT (that you can be praying for too) is that God would use our intentional relationships with people to further His Kingdom. That we would take to heart all that we are learning here and put it into place in our lives. Pray that we wouldn’t forget all the things we have seen and all the ways we have seen God move. Instead that God would keep these things fresh in our minds and that we would truly learn to love Him and others better through this experience. Thank you for all your prayers! The Lord hears them, and we feel Him answering them. We cannot wait to share more in person of what He has been doing but until then, Hasta Luego!

-          Lida Hanson

LIFT will be climbing Volcan Acentenango this weekend. Pray for safety and a God-centered time as the team pushes hard physically and gets to see the power and majesty of our creator in a way they have never experienced before.

Photo taken by Phil Blae (LIFT 36) in 2016

Missions through Sports

 

Missions through Sports

For just over a week, the Sports Site ministry team has been serving local schools running sports clinics in various towns such as Magdalena, El Tablón, San Miguel, and Santo Tomas. Aden Cuellar, Matthew Bollman, Luis Rosado, and George Adamou (me) have been collaborating with Byron, the Sports Site Leader, and Sydnee, the Girls’ Club leader, to organize, plan, and run different exercises playing volleyball and soccer.

The age groups of the children we are serving are between the ages of 9 and 13. We typically finish each day of sports clinics with small group discussions—this is an intentional time of getting to know each other and praying over the children, which is led by the LIFT students. We have been partnering with the LIFT girls who are part of Girls’ Club—Abigail Munson, Lida Hanson, and Kimberlee Collins.

As a Sports Site team, we have been starting each day studying the book of Philippians and sharing thoughts and insights before closing in prayer. We are so encouraged by Byron’s stewardship of his leadership role and his investment in the LIFT team that is supporting the sports site. We have been empowered to lead devotionals and share messages from the Gospel to the teens throughout the week. Additionally, we have had opportunities to memorize scripture with the teens, which is a practice that LIFT does throughout the year.

The Sports Site ministry would appreciate prayer that the lives of teens can continue to be impacted and that they may see Christ in Byron’s work and through the sports activities. A touching piece of wisdom from Byron is that “even if hell didn’t exist, I would still love God for his goodness.” We, LIFTers, have been blessed to serve alongside the SI staff and Byron, and we ask that you support this ministry through prayers.

- George Adamou

Pain - Healing - Growth

 

Bienvenidos from Guatemala! LIFTers are dispersed over various ministry sites led by Students International staff. I’ve been able to work with site leader Gaby of the Physical Therapy Site in Magdalena.

Together with other LIFTers, Phia and Carlie, we start each day with devotionals before opening the door to a line of patients waiting for relief. The tools Gaby uses to provide relief range from STEM therapy, massage, physical exercises, stimulation exercises, music therapy, Zumba, and even equestrian therapy! The four of us help each patient identify their area of physical pain and address it. Carlie has previous education in physical therapy practice. Additionally, Phia has spent years in physical therapy since she experienced an accident as a little girl. I have no previous education in administering physical therapy other than undergoing the physical therapy as a patient. However, even without previous experience, I have learned I can serve on the team. With minimal understanding of Spanish I am able to get to know each patient in the waiting room. Over time, these conversations provide more information as to why the patient is in physical pain. Often their physical pain is linked to emotional or spiritual burdens. As a result, new patients are often taken aback by the emotional relief that accompanies their physical relief when ending their appointment at the site. We pray with each patient, usually in English. Sometimes we sing worship songs to the patients. Those who need physical therapy often have at least a slight degree of handicap. Therefore, we spend some of our time traveling to a nearby clinic to administer care. Additionally, we do house visits for extreme cases such as paralytics or the elderly.

Certain experiences at the site have stood out more than others. Recently, the community of Magdalena experienced a shock. Their mayor passed away suddenly due to natural causes. His daughter was expecting to dance with him at her upcoming Quincenera, a coming of age birthday party for 15 year old girls. In light of his death prior to her party, Maria experienced severe emotional shock. This emotional shock created inflammation in her body and she came to our office in serious physical pain. Gaby and Carlie administered therapy to relax her nervous system and help her body relax. Later on members of the Sports Site team helped carry her into a larger room of chairs and a guitar. We asked her if we could sing for her. She agreed and began to smile as we played “What a Beautiful Name It Is.” We were able to pray over her, her future, and her knowledge of the saving love of Jesus.

Similarly, we have been able to meet many other people like Maria who have physical pain from emotional causes. At the Physical Therapy site under Gaby’s leadership we are learning how to share the Gospel as well as help people experience physical relief. Gaby says, “Most physical pain originates from heart pain.” As Gaby retains patients who come back for treatments weekly, she continually disciples these patients as they progressively heal physically and grow spiritually. It has been an immense privilege for the three of us LIFTers to experience long-term vocational ministry in the way that Gaby has modelled for us. Our experience has inspired each of us to seek out vocations in which we can minister to those we work with.

Caris Ciccarello

God's Work Displayed

 

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” “ (John 9:1-3)

Here in Magdalena, I’m learning that many people here believe that disabled children exist because they or their parents are sinful. They’re seen as less valuable and less human, and so they’re often shut away at home and kept out of sight of the community. But little by little, the SI special education school is changing that. The school’s leader, Brenda, sets an example for how these people ought to be treated by showing them love, kindness, and patience with every interaction she has with them. The school has been open and taking students since 2015, and its success shows the people of Magdalena that these are people that are worthy of dignity and respect, and that they deserve an education as much as neurotypical people do. Not only are the local people beginning to realize this, but the students themselves do as well through the gospel-filled lessons Brenda teaches them. They raise their hands in worship and praise the God who loves them most of all. In their devotional time they learn about His love and mercy towards them. He created them just as they are – not a single mistake was made. Being with them in these times calls to mind the beauty of the Gospel: so incomprehensible it confounds even the most learned scholars, yet so simple a child can grasp it. And I do believe that these students grasp it, each in their own way.

Another way that Brenda’s love for these students makes itself apparent is in the home visits she does every Friday afternoon. The purpose of these visits is twofold: it allows Brenda to better understand the home life of the students, but it also shows both the student and their parents just how much she cares for them. She intentionally sets aside time to get to know them, encourage them, and pray for them – the very picture of what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We went with her on her last visit to see Selvin, a student we’ve gotten to know well over the past week. Though he doesn’t say much, Selvin reminds me quite a bit of the way my younger brother was when he was a child. He mostly repeats things that other people have said to him, can’t leave the house without his favorite hat, collects toy cars and motorcycles (and can tell when one is missing right away) …I could go on! We stayed for about an hour while Brenda talked to his mom about her health and her work selling bread from their window and woven handbags in the marketplace. All the while, Selvin busied himself with showing us every motorcycle in his collection and all the photos in his photo album. When we prayed for him and his mom, I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between her and my own mother as well. Both are hard-working and tired, but they love their sons deeply and desire above all else to make life even just a little bit better for their sons. And when I returned to my homestay after the visit that afternoon, I shed tears of joy knowing that while the world can be an unkind place to people like Selvin and my brother, it is also full of the God who sees them, knows them, and loves them beyond anything we can comprehend.

-          Jessy Leroy

The Profit of Relationships

Greetings from Guatemala! LIFT has been busy working hard with Students International in all the different ministry sites, but today I have the privilege of letting you know what’s going on in the microfinance ministry.

            First off, microfinance is not what I expected. I was envisioning either helping people with their businesses, or maybe crunching numbers in an office, but we get to do something even better. Our leader, Gerber, takes us around to the different villages surrounding Magdalena, either San Miguel, El Gorrion, El Tablon, or Buena Vista, where we pray for the different people, who have taken out loans and are starting small business to sustain their families, and listen to their stories. The first couple days, I was pretty uncomfortable with the visits since my Spanish isn’t very good, but then I realized that we don’t really need to say a whole lot in order to do good here. Simply being there and listening to them share their stories empowers them and shows them that they are cared for by someone.

            Now for one of the stories: In Guatemalan culture, the girls get married off very young. One of the people we are assisting in microfinance is an 18 year-old girl out in El Tablon named Maybelina. She refused to get married when she was fifteen because she wanted to be able to finish her education before starting a family. Unfortunately, her parents don’t see it that way and will no longer talk to her, and she needs a way to support herself on her own. The microfinance department gave her a loan so that she can open a shop and eventually save enough money to finish her degree in psychology. Maybelina dreams of one day being able to move to Guatemala City and start a therapy center for kids, and also start a family.

            And there are many more people like this, some with pretty incredibly hurtful stories, and it is our mission in microfinance to listen to their stories, enable and support them, and pray for them.

Santiago (aka Noah James Bischoff)

Homestays and Hospitality

 

Guatemala has been an absolutely wild experience so far, from insane hikes and views to walking the streets of the local villages.  LIFT has been able to get a real in-depth and authentic experience of what living in Guatemala looks like.  

A special way that LIFT is able to experience Guatemala is what we call “Homestays.” Students International Ministry partners with local families in the city of Magdalena to have people stay in their houses. It is a really cool way to interact with people who have been living in Guatemala their whole lives, and a great window into the local culture. Most homestays have three to four students living with the family for the length of the trip.

I have been staying with a couple named Ana and Estella. Ana is a local construction worker and Estella is a stay-at-home mom with two daughters. I get to have breakfast with them every day, and dinner with them most days, along with the two other LIFTers staying with me. The hospitality and generosity that we are given is so much greater than anything that we could ever ask for, and they give it to us so joyously. When I think about what lessons I want to incorporate in my life when I get back into the states, I think about the warm comfort of being invited to the dinner table, with a delicious smelling meal that had been prepared for me. Even though there is a language barrier that prevents us from communicating easily and in more depth, some acts of love don’t require words to be communicated. If I have learned anything from staying with this local Guatemalan family that I’ve grown to love, it would be this – be patient, be kind, and give love to those that you may not even know. Jesus will be both served and seen through a life lived in this way.  

Caleb Shuffler

Below are a few photos of the festivities and decorating the streets with "carpets" made of sawdust, sand and flowers and processions (parades) celebrating Quarezma (40 days leading up to Easter) focused on the life and death of Christ.  Also included are some photos of LIFT eating out at the Sky Cafe in Antigua and a humble home in El Tablon (a rural poor community that SI has outreaches and ministry.

EMPEZAMOS!

 LIFT 46 has started its mission trip with Students International (SI) in Magdalena, Guatemala.  We arrived after midnight after a long, but smooth day of traveling on Saturday.  

Our time in Guatemala began the next morning with attending Shoreline City Church in Antigua.  Pastor Nate challenged us all with lessons of what if means to live in the Kingdom of God - a theme that LIFTers have focused on all semester with memorizing the Sermon on the Mount.  The students had time after church to briefly explore the colorful and historic city of Antigua before returning to Magdalena for a time of orientation with our amazing host, Nivia Saravia.

Everyone launched into serving at their ministry sites on Monday and have been going full throttle since then.  It has been a very busy start and no time to stop and write, but things will be normalizing and we will have a sampling of the LIFT students posting their experiences as part of this blog.  Stay tuned and please keep us all in prayer as we desire to learn from the SI missionaries and be filled with the Holy Spirit to serve the Lord for his glory.

                                                                    Sunday in Antigua

                                                                  At Shoreline Church

                                                        Orientation and Worship Sessions

                                                                            Magdalena