Recently sophomore Jill Stein returned from her 10 day trip to Guatemala, and was kind enough to blog about her experience for us!
People often hear about third-world countries and the devastation that is taking place, but because we are blessed enough to live in a place where we can go to the sink and get a glass full of clean, cold water or flush our toilet paper down after we’re done (sick, I know!), we often don’t take the time to think of the millions or even trillions of people around the world that don’t (and will probably never) experience these simple things. The past two weeks I have had the opportunity to go on a mission trip in Guatemala through an organization called ‘Champions in Action’. The mission of this organization is to connect “the disadvantaged youth of Guatemala to mentors through premier sports camps”. This means that for a week a group of 100 boys, ages 12-18, came to a premier soccer camp about two and a half hours outside the capital city.
During this time, myself, along with 30 other Americans from the Bowling Green area had the opportunity to teach these boys the fundamentals of the game they love so much. (Just as a side note, I once heard a story that two gangs of boys that were fighting, stopped the fight for a two-hour period just to play soccer. Unfortunately, after the game they continued fighting. But this gives you an idea as to how much these boys love their futbol!) Our typical day while at the camp looked something like this:
-Wake up at 6:15 for a warm-up at 6:30
-Warm-up 6:30-7:30
-Short group time 7:30-8
-Breakfast 8-9
-Devotional time 9-9:45
-Morning session/stations 9:45-12:30
- Swim time 12:30-1:30
- Lunch 1:30 -2:30
- Afternoon session/games 2:30-5:30
- Showers 5:30-6:30
-Dinner 6:30-8
-Down time 8-8:30
-Chapel service 8:30-10:30
-Lights out 10:30
So as you can see, we were working with a very tight schedule.
As important as the soccer was to the boys, our true mission there was to show them love and serve them like they have never experienced before. Most of these boys were from different ‘red zones’ throughout the city. A red zone is an especially dangerous area normally ran by gangs and drug lords. Unfortunately, most of these boys have lost their fathers to gang violence or prison and their mothers to drug addiction. Therefore, these boys have found a false sense of love from a gang leader or drug lord since they don’t receive any love from their families at home. This is another area in my life that I came home especially thankful for. Family is definitely something that many people take for granted (I know I have before), but after seeing 12 year old boys on the streets without a mother or father, you look at your life much differently. We are truly blessed.
So our main job throughout the week was to break down the walls of anger and rejection that the boys have built up their entire lives because they had no other way to cope with their situation. Instead, we replaced that anger and rejection with love, hope, and joy. When the boys would ask, “Why are you here? Why do you love us like this?” We would always reply, “We are just showing you the love the God has shown us” (1 John 4:19). For the first couple days it was hard for the boys to comprehend that they have always had and will always have a heavenly Father that will never leave them like their earthly fathers may have.
There was an extreme shift in all 100 of the boys from the time they arrived at camp on Sunday until the time we left on Friday. It warms my hearth to think of the glow in their eyes when I had to say goodbye knowing that they now know that gangs and drugs are not the only way to live. There is a much better way of life and they can achieve that with Christ by their side (Phil 4:13).
The past two weeks has been one of the best times of my life by far. I not only got to love on boys that needed it more than I could have imagined, but I also grew a lot myself. The Lord showed me all the ways I am truly blessed and that I don’t need all the material things in the world today to be happy. I’ve learned it is much more rewarding to share my God-given gifts, like love and joy, with others than to buy the next generation iPhone for my own personal enjoyment.
So I hope this little excerpt of my trip (I could write another 10 pages!) is encouraging and makes you think about all the blessings in your life you experience every day without even thinking about. I also challenge you to think of the ways you can show love to others around you. It doesn’t mean that you have to go to Guatemala on a mission trip or anything. You can show love to someone by just opening the door for them as you walk into the store or picking up papers that someone has dropped all over the floor. Little things like this may make someone’s day, and you might not even know it. I promise it will change your perspective on things, just as it has changed mine. God Bless!!!! J
Love,
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