Wellshire SHY Guatemala Mission Trip Post 1: Cushy Digs in Guatemala City

Today I met 49 smiling high school youth (and 10 adults) at the Denver airport at 5:00am. We boarded planes for Guatemala to start a 8 day-long mission trip. We will be building houses with Habitat for Humanity and working with Healing Waters International.

Some bleary-eyed parents seeing us off at the airport

Waiting in DIA for our flight with our day-glow yellow shirts, easy to spot in the airport!
Sometimes a 5am start can make us a little bit loopy!

Our fearless co-leader, Brian Daoust and his lovely bride. Look behind them on the airplane and you will see that half of all of the seats on the aircraft are occupied by our youth!

We flew Denver-Houston and had a really tight connection in Houston. We boarded our plane in Houston for Guatemala and once I did a head count on the Houston-Guatemala City flight, I let out a huge sigh of relief and settled in for the three hour flight.

Our group landed in the Guatemala City airport at about 1:30pm. After clearing immigration and customs (which is pretty complicated with 60 people), we met up with our Habitat for Humanity contacts here in Guatemala.

The youth group walking through the Guatemala City Airport

Our Habitat contacts got us loaded on to buses and took us to our hotel. Now when I think of mission trips, I tend to think of "roughing it" in rustic accomodations (like in tents when we went to do hurricane relief work after Katrina, or on the cement floor of a giant warehouse when we built houses in Juarez with Casas por Cristo a few years ago.)

We are spending just one night in Guatemala City before we head out to Salama, which is a rural area about 4 hours outside of the city. Habitat Guatemala has a contract with the "Biltmore Express" hotel where they get a screaming deal on rooms in a pretty nice hotel.

So our first night here in Guatemala was pretty comfortable. Not that I am complaining! After a long day of travel it was nice to be able to settle in and sleep comfortably.

The room in the Biltmore Express. Brian is even watching his Phillies on ESPN, a little taste of home in Guatemala City!

I am doing an orientation of our group in the lobby of the hotel. You can see the pretty nice accomodations.

Once we got settled into the hotel and checked in, they let us use one of their "Salon de Fiestas" to worship together. The space was beautiful and it was a unique privilege to worship in Guatemala city with 49 H.S. youth and 11 adults.

Worshiping in the "Party Salon" at the hotel

Vespers Band leading us in worship
A beautiful space, a joyful noise made to the Lord, what more can you ask for!

After our worship service we broke out into our small groups and did our first bible study. It was a time to get to know our small groups (who are also going to be our work teams for the week.) The theme of the week is LOVE, how God loves us and how we, in turn, are supposed to love one another. Our time down here with the Guatemalan people and with our group is a manifestation of Christian love and our response to the love that Christ showed to us by making the ultimate sacrifice.

After we finished small groups we were ready for dinner! We split up into two groups for dinner, one group went to a taco restaurant and the other group went to "Pollo Campero" which is the Guatemalan version of Chick-fil-a.

The kids were surprised by how modern Guatemala City is, and how many "american" businesses they saw here on our ride from the airport to the hotel. It will be a different story tomorrow when we depart for Salama!

Pollo Campero, a successful Guatemalan fast-food chain. Started by a family here, there are hundreds all over the country and they have even opened some franchises in the United States in communiteis with large Guatemalan populations like Los Angeles and Chicago.


Our youth enjoying their meal at Pollo Campero!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and turned in early after a long day of travel. Only God knows what the week holds in store for us, but the youth and adults are excited and ready to work here in Guatemala.

One of the other adult leaders on the trip is also blogging about it. You can read Jenni's Blog here: http://travelerforgood.blogspot.com/

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-That our team has open minds and hearts

-That we have safe travels from Guatemala City to Salama

-Prayers of thanksgiving for getting the group here safely yesterday

Tears of sadness and joy

God Bless you Claro. You are an inspiration

and you will be missed.

Me, Brock, Kerrie, Claro and

Mario (Healing Waters Guatemala Director)

Brock, Kerrie and Claro



Graham Johnson, one of the members of the
Wellshire team that went to Guatemala

Standing with Claro in front of his new house

I wrote about an incredible missionary family that I had the privilege of spending time with in Guatemala when I was there with the group from Wellshire in March. You can read that post here: http://blogadegregorio.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-ministry-in-guatemala.html

I was checking in with that family today, reading their blog and sending them an e-mail when I stumbled on this blog post written by Brock, the husband and father of the missionary family in Guatemala:
Claro

Claro died today.I have only known Claro for a few months, but I loved him. God
connected us, which always builds a friendship bond at a faster pace than
otherwise.

We met after his nephew came to us and asked if we would come visit his home. He had heard our ministry built houses in the community, and said his uncle Claro was in great need.He was right. Claro’s house was more like an old tool shed. Made of cornstalk, there were gaps everywhere, allowing space for the cold, rain, and wind to make life miserable. The inside was barely big enough for a twin-size makeshift bed, and a fire. The floors were dirt. His only belongings were a few dirty pieces of clothing, a some filthy dishes caked in soot, and a machete. He cooked over an open fire about 2 feet from his bed, giving him a constant inhale of smoke and dirt. No
electricity, no water, no plumbing… his house was cold and dark.

But Claro was a joy.

He smiled and talked. And talked, and talked... He told us how cold and dusty his house is, and how it always makes him sick. At 65 years old or so, he is difficult to understand (even for the locals), because he blurs and joins his words in a unique mutter. But he said “thank you God and thanks to you” no less than 20 times every time we talked.

When we finished his home, roughly the equivalent of a concrete block 2-car garage, he stood inside and cried. “Never in all my life did I think I would have a home like this.” That statement froze me. I wondered what kind of home I could envision myself standing in that would warrant the very same comment from me.

The house only has two small rooms. Instead of basking in the glory of his new space, he immediately moved his son, daughter in law, and granddaughter into the adjacent room.

2 weeks ago, with some friends that were visiting, we delivered Claro a new bed. When we moved out his old one, made of stiff hay, he said “don’t throw that away, I can sell that and make a little money!” We all laughed. He sat on his bed. We could tell he was amazed at how soft it was.

A few days later, some other friends had decided to bless Claro with a new chicken coup they had built. We went to his house to surprise him. After yelling for him and getting no answer, my friends waited at the street and I went up to see if he was home.I peeked in the front door and saw Claro lying in his bed. He was on top of his blanket, which made me smile as I realized he wasn’t cold. I felt bad waking him up, so I stood there and just looked at him for while. He looked comfortable.I called out his name and he popped up…said he was just taking a quick nap. We gave him the
chicken coup. He was very grateful. He told us he could manage the baby chicks
without a problem, and he was excited about the new micro business
opportunity.

That was a week ago. Today, I ran into Claro’s son on the street. Sobbing, he gave me the news that Claro has passed away suddenly in his sleep. Unexpected. Just like that, Claro was gone.

I just got home from the viewing in Claro’s house. He was lying in an open coffin, in the exact place that he had served us his famous fried chicken just over a month
earlier at his home dedication. As I stood over his coffin, looking at his face,
I could hear his scratchy voice: “Gracias a Dios, Gracias Ustedes.”

I am so humbled, so honored, to have had the opportunity to show the love of Jesus to Claro in the last couple months of his time on earth. After a long, difficult life living in extreme poverty, Claro spent his last couple months in comfort. I wish it could have been longer, but I believe he went out with a sense of dignity, an appreciation for God’s blessing, and the ability to leave behind a safe, warm home to his son.

Peace Claro. See you again soon. I’ll be looking forward to feasting together at the
Lord’s table – and having another round of that fried chicken.

I cried as I read this post. I cried tears of joy that Claro could see the love of Christ through the act of building a simple house and that he lived his last few months in comfort. I cried tears of sadness because I had the privilege of meeting Claro when I was in Guatemala in March, and he had touched me and other members of my group in a deeply profound way. Despite his humble surroundings, his love for God was unwaivering. This man was truly an inspiration and his departure from this earth, while glorious because he is now dwelling in heaven, was sad because he will be missed by those who had the privilege of knowing him.

Claro reminded me a lot of my grandma, who died two summers ago, just shy of her 100th birthday. My grandma was in incredible inspiration, with a quiet but profound faith. I miss her too and reading this story of Claro brought back some of those feelings. I will post the eulogy I wrote for my grandma in my next posting along with some photos.

Great ministry in Guatemala

This is a photo of me, Mario (Healing Waters

Regional Director for Guatemala and Mexico)

Brock and Kerrie of Deepstream Guatemala

ministries and Claro, a Guatemalan who is having

a house built for him by Brock and Kerrie's ministry.

When I was in Guatemala back in October I met a family that had just moved there to work as missionaries. They have an amazing story and I have mentioned them in my blog before. You can read a little bit about them here:

The Johnson's are Brock, Kerrie, Madi (11), Brooke (10), and Jake (7). God called us to Guatemala to help those whose needs are far greater than our own.

Our eyes have been opened to true poverty, suffering children, and desperate need - which has changed us to the core.

Living in Guatemala has been a wild faith journey thus far. Arriving here without a "ministry plan", we have simply been zeroed in on following the voice of Jesus.

You can read a brief summary about our calling to Guatemala, or a series of blog postings where we have shared our last year or so.

When I returned to Guatemala in March with a group from Wellshire Presbyterian church, I visited the family again, this time with my whole group, and saw some of the projects they are working on. I continue to be impressed with their ministry, not a typical "missionary" model, really trying to get in to the community where they work and meet the most basic needs of the people, letting the love of Christ shine through their actions.

This is a photo of the group from Wellshire church

praying with Brock and his family in the community

of Buena Vista where they work building houses and

changing lives.

They have put together a short video that highlights their work and I want to share it with you: