Beautiful in His Sight

Relationship is the biggest way God reaches the hearts of people. And just as Jesus did, we in LIFT, through Students International and the amazing staff we work under, are making it our number one priority in our daily routines. One of the amazing opportunities some of the ministry teams have gotten to take part in to build relationships is when we visit people in their homes. I am in the Women’s Social Work mission working under the beautiful and selfless social worker, Shenny, and getting to visit the homes of the women we are working with every day so closely with her is an unreal experience.


These women and these families are more beautiful, more humble, and more resilient than anything I have ever seen. Some days it’s hard—the days when we have to sit in a room of nothing but sagging mattresses and a little gas stove. Wet clothes covering the window and door and streams of dirty water running across the dirt floor. Listening to a desperate mother explain how her husband can’t find work and her kids don’t have uniforms for school and she has an illness she can’t cure. But some days it’s so good—the days when we hold tiny kids in our laps and play games on the floor and learn new Spanish words through giggling toothless grins, and hear from a mother of six how Jesus has saved her from the despair of the loss of a husband to alcoholism. And at the end of every day, good or bad, easy or hard, God is always the center and He is slowly and radically working in the lives of all these families here in the villages of Magdalena and San Miguel. We get to pray together and sing together and share our testimonies, and lay hands on the sick and broken and share the gospel in the most unlikely circumstances. The Holy Spirit is moving and working in ways we can’t imagine or describe, and we all come back full of stories of His goodness and mystery every day.


Today our outreach group is throwing a baby shower for a woman in the town of San Miguel named Ruth, and I expect it to be a time of great joy and peace and blessing. This is a very special opportunity for us and a beautiful reminder to me of how much life is in a place of so little and of how God can do something so big with something so small.  Please keep sending your prayers this way for both us and the beautiful people of Guatemala!


Blessings.


Elizabeth Flannery

 

A Grateful Heart

Con mucho felicidad, después de nuestro concurso de talentos, hemos cantado la nuestra canción favorita “Let Us Adore” con nuestros nuevos amigos que participan al programa Global Bridge por nueve meses en Guatemala.

Trying to speak Spanish eats up a big part of our days but we eat so well that we have not lost any weight yet! As I wrote above, we had an amazing time two nights ago with the students from the Global Bridge program, a nine month missionary and study abroad program with a language learning component (www.globalbridgeprogram.com/global-bridge). We exchanged quite a few laughs and cheers as some of us heroically jumped in the middle of the circle to show their stunning – and weird – talents. To cap off the evening we gathered around the other team and we sang “Let Us Adore,” our LIFT theme song. The whole experience reminded us of the uniqueness and the blessing of Christian fellowship and being able to share with one another the gifts that God has individually given us.

And God has indeed blessed us with so much! We LIFTers are starting to see that having less does not affect our capacity to be thankful to God. Material possessions do not determine the state of our hearts. In fact, some of the people we meet during the day are literally “dirt poor” yet their heart is a harvest of gladness. A lady I visited lives in a house made out of sheet metal with no floor but the dirt soil, and leading up to the entrance the ground is littered with garbage. As she shared with us her story, nothing but gratefulness to God for his provision and blessing was coming out of her mouth: “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? (James 2:5).” We get to see amazing smiles on the faces of people with amazing stories of how God has rescued them out of the dominion of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of light. They testify to the most important transaction that happened in their lives was their salvation. Money matters but it matters less when Christ owns our hearts.

We hope that in these next nine days we will learn more about being rich at heart: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” says the Lord (Matthew 6:21). Where is your treasure?

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1)

-Philippe Blais

Come and Live

The days go by quick here in Guatemala and it feels as if the town of Magdalena never sleeps. The hustle of the town is a good way to keep us on our toes, literally. This is one way that LIFT has redefined our lives, as a flexible and fast paced schedule is a familiar expectation for us. Now, after having lived in the country for almost a week and the culture shock begins to settle, it has become clear to us what the Lord has prepared in advance for this trip. We have placed our hope and trust in the Father to allow those who need love to be brought into our paths.


I was personally placed in the health care clinic under our wonderful missionary nurse, Abby! In this time we have been trained to take blood pressure, blood sugar, and height and weight. This has given us the opportunity to use our hands-on training to work in the clinic, doing health check-ups for the men, women and infants. It’s been a joy to see the work of the missionaries here in Students International produce a healthy physical and spiritual change in their lives. Praise the Lord that we get to be witnesses of his work among the Guatemalans and share with them the importance of a relationship with God. While working on the sites we get the opportunities to pray for people and ask for requests. This is one experience that I’ve never had; praying for others that cannot understand what I am speaking. But I’ve come to realize that praying for those in a different language has felt like true intercession and honestly, I think I prefer it. Praying over someone’s heart and mind to the Lord and not worrying about the words we speak to the person allows for a deeper and more pure intercession.

As LIFT grows into the culture day by day, we have seen that the most important part about sharing the gospel is living in their culture. We have come to live in this place, to love and live out the importance of Jesus’ ministry in our lives and theirs. I hope they see Jesus in and around us as we become imitators of Christ. We want to thank everyone for your prayers and support as all of us as a team have this opportunity to expand the Kingdom.

Grace & Peace.

Jared Blizzard

Photos are being updated on the LIFT 36 Guatemala Mission Trip photo album on the LIFT Discipleship Program Facebook page.  Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/liftdiscipleshipprogram/

Holistic Ministry

Tyler, Rachel and I spent yesterday visiting each occupational ministry site that the LIFT students are serving at.  The purpose was to gain an overview of how the missionaries from Students International are demonstrating their love for the Guatemalan people.  Each ministry site looks for ways to help meet the people’s needs and through opening the door of building trust and relationships, to help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and grow in their faith.

Students International (SI) has national and North American missionaries working in social work, tutoring, special education, agribusiness, veterinary services, microfinance, creative arts, sports (soccer), and child sponsorship (similar to Compassion International).  The variety of these ministries reaches across all ages/generations and genders of the local population and many of these sites are integrated with each other.   The LIFT students (2 to 5 per site) are assigned to one site for their two weeks here to assist and learn about missions from their site director. 

The health care and appropriate technology sites are a great example of the intentionality and integration of these sites ministering to the breadth of people’s needs. Abby is a nurse serving in the health care site.  She works is currently working in two communities addressing the problem of malnutrition with screening tests, educating the people about diet and nutrition and holding classes on cooking.  Her husband, Noah runs the appropriate technology site which manufactures smokeless ovens and water filters from concrete forms.  Respiratory problems from cooking with open fires in the homes and water-borne diseases are a concern in the more rural communities such as Magdalena, Buena Vista, El Tablon, and San Miguel.  By providing means for safer cooking and clean water, the overall health care of the people will greatly improve.  The health care and appropriate technology sites partner with the leadership of the local churches in their outreaches to focus on the spiritual health of the people.  It is inspiring to see the ministries of this young married couple and the churches teaming together to address the various health problems of these communities.  Students International has been a catalyst in getting local churches united in purpose to more effectively reach the people.

In all the different sites, the LIFTers are seeing first-hand the benefits of ministries partnering together to develop lasting relationships with the people and addressing their needs.

Tim

Living on a Dollar?

“We are a long way from Speculator,” some of us kept saying, “and that was just a few hours ago.” In fact, all of us thirty LIFTers and our three teachers left CAMP-of-the-WOODS yesterday afternoon for JFK airport after having gathered for prayer with our local supporters.

Tim, our director, mentioned that over eight hundred people were supporting our mission trip in prayer! Later that night, while waiting at the airport, some of us were already pouring back those prayers into people’s lives. We arrived safely to our destination after about twenty hours of travelling. During the bus ride from Guatemala City to Magdalena, everybody was trying to catch the most out of the beautiful landscapes with one eye while trying to catch some sleep by closing the other one. Once there, we met our welcoming host families who warmly greeted us into their homes and then we took a sinuous bus ride through many winding streets to the mission center.

For dinner, they served us a traditional Pepián meal which was absolutely delicious - chicken in a rich red/brown sauce & rice. Then, we watched a documentary called “Living on One Dollar” (http://livingonone.org/livingonone/) which showed us the struggle of living in poverty in Guatemala. Filled with emotion, we were asked by our host Nivia, who works with Students International, “What do you think God is showing you about poverty?” We are excited to prayerfully experience what God will teach us all about poverty during this trip. What is God teaching you about poverty?

-Philippe Blais

Be sure to check out pictures that we will be posting frequently on our Facebook page called: LIFT Discipleship Program.  https://www.facebook.com/liftdiscipleshipprogram/

Please continue to pray for our time with the warm and humble people in the quaint mountain village of Magdalena.  Pray that we grow in our relationships with all we are with and in our understanding of culture.  Pray that we may more fully experience and demonstrate God's deep love for us and our "neighbors".  Pray that our passion for the work of His kingdom increase.

Muchas gracias!

Tim

Greeted by Pine Needles (Guatemala post 01)

Hi everybody,

Greeted by long pine needles covering the ground of the SI base this evening (pine needles covering the ground is a Guatemalan tradition to mark celebrations), we were welcomed into a fun, festive Guatemalan culture night. We enjoyed a wonderful festive meal, some cultural education, and fun Guatemalan games.

This is a quick blog entry to let you know we all arrived with no problems traveling or losing any luggage.  We are into our third day in "The Land of Eternal Spring" and the students have been out serving with the Students International (SI) missionaries at their different ministry sites.  The 30 LIFT students will be doing life with the 11 Global Bridge semester students that are here with SI - they are fast becoming friends - we had a great worship time starting off the morning together.  Things are going very well!

Everyone is loving their home stay experiences and diving into this beautiful culture.  More updates will be coming soon via this blog and pictures will be posted on the LIFT Discipleship Program Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/liftdiscipleshipprogram

Tim

Ecuador Reflections

“You are not in Ecuador to climb a mountain—you are here to serve God.” Tim’s words echoed in my head as our bus headed down the El Refugio driveway. Up until that moment, the majority of our trip had been missions oriented. Many blessings had come from our time serving in this beautiful country. God had provided so many wonderful opportunities to serve our Ecuadorian brothers and sisters, from the work projects in Chaco, to the precious time spent playing and teaching the amazing kids of Oyacachi.

As our time in Ecuador drew to a close however, anticipation and excitement for the traditional camping/hiking trip began to grow. This year, the plan was for LIFT 35 to take on Sincholagua  Mountain, an epic 8 hour hike/climb. All of our fitness training had led up to this moment—every group run, the meticulous practice in repelling technique, and of course, all the insane power hikes up and down Oak Mountain. Initially, Tim had made this declaration to establish proper perspective. Our mission in coming to Ecuador was to glorify God by loving and serving others—climbing the mountain was merely an added bonus. My gaze centered on where the driveway met the road, the same road that would have taken us to our base campsite, where we would have spent the night and proceeded with the climb the following morning.

That was before the earthquake hit. Now, the bus had a new course. Our destination: Portoviejo, an eight hour bus drive away from El Refugio. The night before, we had received word that the city had sustained serious damage, and by God’s sovereignty, an opportunity had emerged for both LIFT 35 and the El Refugio staff to offer aid. Tim’s words had been unintentionally prophetic: we would not be climbing a mountain on this trip. It mattered little though. Frankly, hiking a mountain was the last thing on anyone’s mind. Instead, the idea had been replaced by a simple, yet powerful prayer: from Isaiah chapter 6: “Here I am Lord, send me.” In a matter of hours, every single person in our group had focused their prayers on one single objective: to serve God through the administering of relief to the people of Portoviejo.  

 

As a fellow LIFTer, it was pretty incredible to see how this decision impacted the rest of my team. Before we knew for certain that we could go, all of us met in the El Refugio chapel to pray. Being a part of that process was incredibly intense and powerful. “We were all there, praying together for God’s will to be done,” exclaimed my roommate, Vanessa Gottreux, “and it really strengthened my faith to see God answer our prayer.”

 

In Portoviejo we split up into several groups, each headed up by either an El Refugio Staff member or a LIFT leader. A few groups worked on cleaning and reorganizing damaged areas of the local hospital, while other groups went out into the city to help clear debris and assist the various search and rescue teams.  It was long, hard work in some pretty intense, nerve rattling conditions, but every single person rose to the challenge. God proved Himself to be so faithful in the midst of it all, providing a valuable chance to work alongside the people.  When I asked my fellow LIFTer Peter to recall a memorable moment in Portoviejo, his mind went immediately to his work with the fire fighters. “I remembered sharing my chocolate bar with a fire fighter named Antonio during our break time,” he said, smiling. “He was so grateful.” He continued to say how much he appreciated sharing the moments of laughter with the team, appreciating the moments of friendship in the midst of the chaos. This was something that I could definitely relate to. My team also assisted the fire fighters, removing large chunks of rubble and debris from a local church that had collapsed. It was amazing how God allowed us to work together, even bridging the language barrier, to accomplish so much. During our break, I also had the chance to share some of my food with them. Before they left, one of the fireman approached me, handed me a water bottle, and gave me a firm handshake. That will probably be one of my best memories of being here in Ecuador.

 

As I was writing this blog entry last night, a young woman named Jessica approached my table in the dining hall. “Are you leaving in the morning?” she asked. When I replied that we were, she asked me to pass a message onto the rest of the LIFT 35 team. “My English is not very good,” she said apologetically, “But on behalf of all Ecuadorians, I want to thank you for what you and your team have done for us in Portoviejo.” She smiled broadly, “God called you here for such a time as this.” I was overwhelmed. All I could do was praise God as I gave her a hug. “Please, do not forget to pray for us,” her voice trembled slightly as she spoke the words. “We will never forget,” I assured her. God had allowed us to literally “walk in their shoes”, to experience a tiny taste of their victories and their sufferings. We will not forget. Not ever.

 

It’s hard to write conclusions to a trip like this. How in the world do you condense two weeks of non-stop adventure into a single summary paragraph?  In our time here in Ecuador, we have seen the mighty hand of God at work through His people and have been overwhelmed by their kindness and genuine love. “It’s amazing how generous they are, even though they have so little,” Lila Trezise remarked, reflecting back on her time with the Oyacachi children, “they have so much unconditional love to offer, even though they knew we would only be there for a short while. My time with them really has inspired me to show sacrificial love towards others, regardless of what happens. Being with them has also taught me the importance of having a thankful heart. Through thankfulness, we have the courage to love without fear.”

 

In addition to thankfulness, a lot has been learned about the concept of strength, and how God finds ways to manifest His strength through our weaknesses and areas of vulnerability. One of the biggest areas of weakness that our group encountered was language. “I came into our time in Ecuador thinking that I had a decent working knowledge of Spanish,” Brianna said, “Looking back on it now, I realized that it was a pride issue. It wasn’t long before I found myself struggling to communicate with the people. Once I surrendered it to God, things really began to change.” She went on to say that God actually used her vulnerability with language to help develop relationships with the people. “Even with the communication barrier, God provided me with the power to understand what they were saying, allowing me to establish friendships.”

 

As I write this, we are sitting in the Guayaquil airport, awaiting our final flight back to the states. For LIFT 35, there is still a lot to think on, pray about, and process through. Every aspect of this trip, both good and challenging, has the capacity to move our hearts, if we let it.  

 

“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.  If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:11


Alexis Barnett