Hospitality and Generosity in Guatemala!

Hey friends and fam! 

We miss you so much and are so thankful to see your keeping up with the blog! I’ll start off by recapping a little bit of my perspective these last two weeks. I’ve been with the Sports Site playing lots of Volleyball, Soccer, a newfound sport for me called Polish Ping Pong (it’s so fun), and spending lots of time in devotionals with the children and with my site team. It has been such an incredible experience, I could go on and on! I have learned a lot about missions the last couple of weeks. All of the site leaders are so devoted to God-centeredness in their positions and it’s really tugged on my heart in such an impactful way. As you guys heard a lot of from Ben's post, for our site leader Byron the mission is about so much more than sports. He says that the sports are actually just an excuse to reach these children and teenagers with the Gospel and provide them with a new way of living. Being here, I’ve also witnessed and heard about a lot of brokeness in homes and ways of living. Obviously brokeness exists everywhere, but here it exists in some different and more normalized ways. Twice a week the sports site has been visiting El Tablon. It’s a little outside of Magdelena. It is a poorer area, with dirt roads, a small community, and one soccer field. This community has touched my heart. The title of this blog is Hospitality and Generosity in Guatemala because I’ve witnessed it even here in El Tablon, where the people have very little and kids are often compelled to drop out of school after the 6th grade because their families cannot afford them any further education. This little community where the boys work in the fields and the girls work in the home all day every day. Except for those two hours, twice a week. When they come to the sandy, bumpy soccer field at the top of the hill. They play, they learn, and they hear the Gospel. And for those two hours their worries at home disappear. 

The hospitality in Guatemala in general has been so impactful and eye opening. As you know, we’re being hosted and fed by families in the community every day. They don’t have much, but they have a roof over their heads and food to share, and what they have they consider it all the Lords. So they use their gifts and hospitality for His kingdom work, and that is so inspiring. How often at home do we feel like we don’t have the time, or the right meal, or the house clean enough to host a small two hour dinner? We have so much, but hosting even twice a month can feel like a burden. This isn’t meant to condemn any readers by any means. What I’m getting at is how eye opening this has been to me and I know many other LIFTers as well. God wants to use us, however we look, with whatever means we have, He desires to use us for His kingdom work. And this has been His plan all along! He doesn’t need us, but He wants to use us. Like these host families, we should consider everything we have owned by God. Because it is! Scripture says without Him we can do nothing. We were created by God and for God, how silly of us to consider anything our own. It’s such a simple but difficult concept, and I invite you to wrestle with it as I do. 

As I close this blog, which is so difficult to do because there is so much more to share! But I’ll close with a little story from my time here that hit me deeply:

I was in El Tablon for the first time last Friday and we were about to start our second soccer practice of the day. We’d just finished lunch and there were some little boys playing outside so I thought I’d go join them. We started to play keep-away and we were running all over the field going back and forth, juking one another out (btw these 10 year olds are better than me at soccer). I was exhausted, and these kids don’t get tired lol. But this little boy I was playing with named Marco couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. He was wearing a little red shirt, black pants, and a pair of crocs. While we were playing he walked away for a minute and came back with a little square water pouch that we bring for the kids to drink during practice. He handed it to me because I thought he was asking me to open it for him, but when I tried to give it back to him he said “no it’s for you.” (But ya know, in Spanish). Man, I felt so touched in that moment. I felt the love of Christ shine right through that little boy. Not because I was in need of water, but because of his hospitality. He treated me like his equal, like his friend, or even like his guest on his favorite field. This little 10 year old boy who doesn’t have many materials, but he is made in the image of God and he has love to give. 

I don’t know if he has received salvation, but please pray that he will if he hasn’t. And please pray for God's special provision over his life, along with the lives of all the other children we’ve has the pleasure of getting to know these last two weeks. 

More Prayer Requests:)

-The staff here at SI

-More children to be able to attend High School + further education in Guatemala

-Safety and health for the upcoming hike this weekend

-Safe Travels

-That the Sports site would just continue to be an excuse for sharing the Gospel.

Please continue to ask us questions when we get home! We have so much more we’d love to share with you. Thank you for joining with us on our Guatemala journey:)

Lauren G

ps. keep on commenting, it’s my room's favorite bedtime story reading your comments! (One of the staff members is in our home, so we can see the comments!)