Guata' Trip!

Can you see the people?

So I just returned from an Amazing trip to Guatemala, where I was privileged to serve the beautiful people who live in the dump of Guatemala City. One of the best parts, and there are many best parts, was getting to share the experience with my baby sister Ashley.

Overlooking a portion of the dump

My eyes were opened to intense poverty and crazy meager living circumstances. My heart was opened to the power of love that can take down barriers of all kinds and bring hope and restoration to those who are desperately in need.

Yep...they sent girls!

I worked with sister and an amazing team to give eye glasses to those in need so they could work with their hands or read if they knew how. Their gratitude was overwhelming at such a simple thing. After receiving their glasses we prayed with them if they wanted and my heart was touched by their simple desires to just want to stay alive, or go to school, to have their husbands come home, to stay out of the gangsand for their family members to be healthy.

We got to build a “house” of basically 4x4ish (kinda) posts and corrugated steel, which was basically tin foil on crack. Blessedly, this community within the last month had had concrete poured for sidewalks and in their homes. It did make it tricky to dig holes thru though, but we got it done.  In the process of digging those holes we built something even better…a relationship with the macho Guatemalan builder man who basically looked at us and said, “you brought me women?! Are the men coming back?” It was a Great day in so many ways and I love my new builder friend.

Our handsome Guatemalan boys

Some of our group taught English camps, we handed out food, put on a women’s conference, played soccer on the concrete playground with the kids, took 65 kids whose parents are gang members to an amusement park and more. Our goal was to let these sweet people know they are loved and to give them some dignity, even if only for a day and pray they could feel it deep enough to carry it forward with them and take it into their families and community.

One of my special moments was sitting in the women’s conference with my sister. We had just come from a former gang members house and heard his humbling and touching story and were excited to now be with these women, many of who prostitute themselves out to the dump truck drivers so they can get the best picks of the garbage from the trucks.

Women's Conference

We stood in the back of the room and listened as they praised and worshipped through song with our new friends Jerry and Freddy. Not knowing Spanish, I couldn’t understand a thing they were saying, yet I felt it to my core and quickly found my eyes and nose watering and had to literally control myself from full on sobbing.  I leaned over and asked our wonderful  interpreter Gabby what they were singing. As she spoke… I knew what I was feeling.  In song I felt the words “You are strong,” “You are Powerful,”  “You are Invincible,” “There’s No one like You!”  “I raise my hands even when I don’t have strength, even when I have many problems.  I raise my hands when I feel You come into my life; I start to feel Your fire inside me.  All problems go away and You give me new strength. Everything is possible when I raise my hands to You!”  Holy Cow…no wonder I felt such power and conviction to my core!  These women have near to nothing and yet they have everything and they sang it in a way I will never forget.

Tita

I think one of the most profound things I heard while I was gone was a statement from an amazing lady named Tita. Her life’s experiences would make most of us take cover and hide in fear, yet she has risen from them and does wonderful things to bring hope, love and opportunity to the people in La Limonada who are in the gangs. While speaking to us one night she said this, “It’s not the poverty that is the problem, it’s the persecution.” Whoa! I was struck by those words and the truth they rang in my ears.

As I am home and now sitting down for the 10^th time to write this blog, I am constantly reflecting on my trip and how it touched and changed my life. I am also pondering how to bring it back home and I think it looks something like this.

We may not live in little tin houses, make our living from the dumps or have to do desperate things in order to just survive or wonder where our next meal is coming from or if we can feed our kids. Yes, we all have tough moments where these thoughts may come to mind, I acknowledge this, but hopefully not like I saw.  However, we still have our “stuff” that makes us feel different, unwanted, unloved, unworthy and disconnected.

For some people this may be being overweight and unhealthy, some may experience this through the color of their skin or gender preference, some may feel it through the amount of money they make or don’t make, others through a disability (different ability), it may come from a family line or action of a family member, divorce, making a mistake and so so much more.

The question to ask is, “Am I persecuting or helping to prosper?”  Are you assisting to help restore dignity to yourself and others and improve self-love?  Do you love yourself enough to really assist another or are you helping/persecuting others in order to make myself look and feel better?

You don’t have to go to another country to find people who could use assistance, although I would recommend it. Look inside your homes, families, neighborhoods and church groups.  Look inside yourself!  We need each other right here, right now. So many are looking for acceptance and love…just the way they are. Just the way you are.  Stop persecuting others…and yourself.  Be kind to others…and yourself.

So, whether you are poor, rich, overweight, unhealthy, live in a tin house or a mansion, white or colored, gay or straight, full ability or different ability, got all your marbles or not playin with a full deck, or whatever your “thing” is…know you are Not alone. You may feel like you are flying solo but you are never alone. You are cared for and loved.  There are places and tools to assist you in regaining self-love and feeling connection. Personally, I believe God made you and me and He don’t make no junk!

Sharing our left over food! 

Now, how to wrap up as there is so much to say?  I guess by saying thank you God and thank you Guatemala for the reminder that people are beautiful no matter their situation or circumstances and that we have the same stuff right here at home just in a different shell. Be Kind! Prosper! Be understanding! Know you are loved! You Are Not Your Stuff! Remember we don’t have all the answers! Most of all…Love…it breaks down walls, inside and outside of us!

Oh, and thanks Ashley for sharing this amazing journey with me!

Until Next Time…Go BE Great!

Jennifer Saunders

B.S., Ace Certified Personal Trainer,

Reiki Energy, Life coach, ButtinGear

Lover of Life!