Sunday
We arrived in the wee hours of the morning (5:30 am) in Guatemala City, where our Habitat liaison, Ed Luce, met us at the airport. Tired but excited to be in a new country, we made our way through customs and into the waiting car for our 5-8 hour trip to Huehuetenango. We made a brief stop at the Guatemala city cemetary, where you can look out over the city dump, a place where many make a living picking possibly reusable materials out of the waste to resell in the city. On the way out of town, we were also able to see bags of ash from Pacaya's eruption in May. The roads were mostly passable, with a few areas of severe flooding, remnants of tropical storm Agatha. En route, we stopped for our first Guatemalan meal: eggs, meat, coffee, beans, and cheese. That afternoon, we arrived at our hotel, changed, and met the family we would be working with over the coming week—a man named Lester, his wife, his two children, and many of their extended family members. (He had been living with 16 people and his mother for the past three years! Yup, they needed a place of their own....) Finally, we got back to the hotel, did a little wandering around Huehue, and closed with 1 Peter 1:13-2:3.

Monday
Our first day of work started bright and early at 6:45 am. After having breakfast as a group, we went to the worksite, where the intrepid Ed, with the help of several of the masons, took time to show us around. We started by moving a stack of 100+ concrete bricks from the road, in to where the house was being built. Talk about starting out running! Concrete mixing took up the rest of our day, with a brief break for devotions (1 Peter 2:4-12) and some time to walk to the local store for Guatemalan cheetos, which most of our group swore tasted better than the American variety. At the end of the day, we came home to shower, watch World Cup recaps, and eat dinner, after which we spent some time searching the city for ice cream and hearing the sounds of Huehue at night. Finally, we met as a group to talk through some of the experiences we were having. Common themes included foreign food, our joy at meeting the family and the masons, and our own tiredness at labor we were not used to doing!

Tuesday
Once again, we were up early in the morning (this time, with fewer waking up before Lisa's "good morning!"), and off to the worksite. The second day was somewhat easier (despite aching bodies), because of our familiarity with the people and place. It's amazing how the "foreign" can become "familiar" in a very short period of time! On day two, the masons trusted us enough to show us how to twist the rebar into the correct shapes to reinforce the concrete (frequent earthquakes mean homes are built low to the ground, and are *very* sturdy). We also did a ton more concrete, read through 1 Peter 2:13-25, and challenged a group of local children to soccer during our lunch break. They won handily, 28-9 (with some variance in score depending on who you ask!). Once we got back in the evening, we had some time to wander the city, track down a cake for Zak P's birthday, and generally clean ourselves up. Then dinner, a trip to Paiz (the local supermarket), and time to debrief. We talked about what it means to be a Christian and to confront poverty disparity, about differences in approaching authority in different cultures, and about ways in which we were comfortable (great food and friends) and uncomfortable (lots of strange glances on the streets...we were definitely the only white people in a large radius).

Wednesday
We sadly bid good-bye to Ed, who had to leave to renew his visa, and arrived for a half day of work on Wednesday. We learned how to fill in mortar between the concrete blocks, and how to pour tons and tons of concrete; we also had another soccer match with the neighborhood kids (who brought out some older friends to help beat us!). In the afternoon, we took some time to explore 1 Peter 3:1-7, and departed to say hello to Gladys, the recipient of one of the houses built by the First Pres team the last time we went to Guatemala! We were warmly welcomed by the entire extended family, a few neighbors, and several pets, and had some time to catch up and see a completed home. Then we went back to the hotel for a quick dinner and change before heading out to a protestant worship service. We were warmly welcomed, sang loudly, and heard a sermon about the call on the lives of Christians to be diligent in reading scripture, joyful in service, and wary of the devil (in part taken from 1 Peter!). Serious fire and brimstone—even when the lights went out, the pastor continued without a beat! Many of our group were wary of the two-hour sermon, but the time flew by, and soon we were drinking hot coffee and eating buns outside with the congregation.

Thursday
On our second-to-last day at the worksite, we jumped in with enthusiasm, despite aching backs and blistered fingers. We managed to get three rows of brick laid, and to level out much of the floor space, though the transport of dirt unearthed several large bugs. (The gentlemen had a flirtation with machetes when asked to chop down a small tree, doing so with a large amount of glee.) Once more, we took breaks to read scripture (1 Peter 3:8-22) and to play soccer. All through the trip, soccer was a huge point of contact, and many of us learned quite a few soccer terms in Spanish. That evening we went together to the local marketplace, where we had time to take photos, buy machetes (sorry, parents!), and talk to an amazingly friendly woman at a fruit stand. We returned home to dinner, and had some time to talk about the worship service and our time in Guatemala so far. One of the main themes of discussion that started to appear was joy—as at the Global Church Conference, our group noticed how joyful and generous the family was that we were working with, and how close they were to God.

Friday
Our last day working! We woke, perhaps a bit slower than usual, but vowed to give it our all on the worksite that day. We worked almost straight through to lunch, stopping only to read 1 Peter 4:1-11. Before heading back to the hotel to change and say goodbye to our friends at the worksite (each team has a closing ceremony together), we had a chance to visit the store where Lester, the homeowner we were working for, worked. Finally, we went home, and met up with everyone who had worked with us at the worksite to swap stories, see pictures, and eat a refaccion (snack). After many photos and goodbyes, we returned to our hotel rooms to pack, write thank-you letters to our sponsors, eat dinner, and debrief. On our last day in Huehue, several of our group again noticed the theme of joy throughout our week. We also talked about calling, and how to follow our own passions on this trip in order to continue to experience and be an agent of change in the world.

Saturday
At 5 am on Saturday, we woke up, sort-of ate breakfast, and collapsed in the car to head over to Antigua, Guatemala. On our way, we saw more signs of flooding, and stopped to look out over Lake Aititlan. We also stopped at the ruins found at Tikal (the original capital of Guatemala, according to our bus driver). On the bus ride up, we also spent a little time with 1 Peter 4:12-19. After a quick lunch stop, and some time to cheer on the American team (and grieve their loss), we were in Antigua. We dropped our things at the hotel and went to check out the local sites (including a trip to grab some cake for Ray P's birthday!!). Some of us also found a local market that was huge: perhaps a mile or more of shops and food choices (including lizard). It was crazy to go from the artisan marketplace, where many people spoke at least some English and there were clearly many tourists, to the local market, where we were once again the only tourists. It made a few of our group question whether it was possible to see the "real Guatemala" if you only hit the tourist spots. Over dinner, we had a chance to debrief our whole trip, from being stopped and searched, to living in amazing hotels with internet, to the reality that very few of us had done manual labor before in our lives. Finally, it was time to pack for an early flight the next morning!

Sunday
We spent most of our day at the airport. The driver who took us from Huehue to Antigua joined us at 5 am for the hour-long trip to the Guatemala City airport, sharing stories about his children, and about an evangelical group that had come bringing Bibles. Perhaps one of the most interesting moments was watching foreigners go through customs, and be subject to far stricter security than American citizens. After we arrived in LAX, we had five hours to spend together. We closed our reading of 1 Peter, and spent some time talking about what it would be like to return to our homes in the US. Finally, late in the evening, we were greeted by smiling friends and family at SFO.

There's my summary...but I know that all of our group would be happy to tell you more about the trip and their personal experiences, so please ask them on Sunday morning!

Peace,
Lisa Valenti-Jordan

Guatemala Mission Trip

Retreat Booklet

On Friday, we arrived at the lodge at 10:30 PM after a bus trip and a stop at In-N-Out. Our group settled in, had a snack, and opened our retreat with an evening devotion focused on Psalm 139:7 as we prepared to "dive in" to Jonah. 

On Saturday, we began the day with Jonah 1 and talked about where Tarshish was, what prophets generally did, and how Jonah ran away from that burden. During each session we also listened to some songs that underscored our discussion topic; all the lyrics are in the booklet. We also took some time to go sledding at a local hill before looking at Jonah 2 and Jonah's own repentance (or lack thereof?) and long discussion with God. Our groups were asked to think about what their own faith statement would look like (as Jonah gives a brief one in Jonah 1:9 and expands on it in his monologue in Jonah 2). Finally, we spent our last session of the day on Jonah 3 and the repentance of Nineveh. Once again, we ended the day in devotions.

Sunday was our ski day! 11 of us hit the slopes while 7 remained behind at the lodge to play, watch a movie or two, and hang out with each other. The word from Rush is that the snowball fight was epic. We did have one ski accident, but luckily we returned with only a few stitches (to explain the shot of bloody snow in the photos). Back at the lodge, we read Jonah 4 and talked about Jonah's rebellion and final redemption, trying to look at God's final question to Jonah as a final question to us as readers. We talked about why God might care for everyone, and what that meant for our day-to-day faith.

Finally, on Monday, we read through Madeline L'Engle's dramatization of the Jonah story to close our time together. Then we boarded the bus and headed home!

It was great for me, as a leader, to see the youth interacting with each other in the small group setting. There were a few arguments over what it meant to follow God, as well as some solid, honest discussions about the problem of evil and about what it means to repent. One of the things that I really love about the Old Testament is that it gives us real, gritty, and very applicable stories of very human people who followed (or didn't follow) God—which can bring the message of God's grace home in a wonderful way.

Peace,
Lisa

78 Winter Retreat

Retreat Booklet