Mission Guatemala

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to participate with two of my sons on a mission trip to Guatemala through our church.  There were 18 of us who participated on the week-long trip, and I think we learned a lot, including about Guatemala specifically, other cultures in general, and about ourselves.  We were able to spend the week based out of SETECA, Seminary Theological of Central America, located in Guatemala City.  SETECA reaches out to hundreds of students in various formats, students from all over Central America and beyond.  

The core project that we did was painting at the seminary itself, but we also had the opportunity to travel around Guatemala City and other areas of the country.  These “visits” allowed us to see three distinct communities.  One was a daycare near SETECA that was begun as an outreach to guajeros, the name given to residents in the area of the City dump, who make their living sorting through trash.  This daycare was located a few blocks from SETECA’s campus, and we nightly smelled the odor from the dump.  This odor was particularly harsh the week we were there; we learned that a few people died while picking through the trash when a wall of garbage collapsed on them, and the smell of their decomposing, possibly burning, bodies was in the air.  You can begin learning what life is like living next to the dump here (http://climbforsight.org/blog/entry/guatemala-city-dump) and here (http://www.vice.com/read/the-basurero-is-burning-life-at-the-gates-of-hell-in-guatemala-city).  We had the opportunity to tour the graveyard mentioned in the second linked article as well, watching the vultures flying over the dump immediately adjacent. 

On another day, we had the opportunity to travel to a church in another community, Escuintla.  From there, we traveled by pickup bed into the rural mountains, among the sugar cane farms, to a group of Mayan families that had been settled by the government in the late 1990’s.  The church group was trying to build ties with this Mayan community of approximately 100 families, living in a remote area.  This small community was spread over the side of a mountain, had electricity, a source of water, and dirt/rock roads, and little else.  The context of how this community fits within the larger Guatemalan society is complex; for those wishing to understand how this group is treated by Guatemalan society, you can begin your background research at the following link:  http://www.minorityrights.org/2555/guatemala/maya.html  .  This group has a history of being treated as less than equal in Guatemala, and has suffered tremendous persecution throughout their history.  We saw this lived out in a community that has little access to the world beyond their local hills and survives primarily off of what they can raise in their gardens and through some day labor when it is available.

And finally, we had the opportunity to travel to a tourist area, Antigua Guatemala.  Antigua served as the capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala, and is filled with colonial architecture.  During this trip, we also were able to participate in the outreach ministry of a couple who have provided a dinner to children in a small community on the outskirts of Antigua, the community of San Juan del Obispo.  This couple has provided food to underprivileged children for 22 years, largely on their own.  We helped with the meal and game time, largely providing some back-up support (and a bit of a respite) to this couple’s ministry.

Our time visiting these various communities, and travelling around Guatemala in general, demonstrated stark differences with life in the United States.  There were significantly fewer conveniences.  There were armed guards at a majority of the stores.  Traffic was crazy.  Ditches were dug by hand.  We saw modern conveniences, but few people could afford the things that were present we often take for granted.  We had many takeaways that are too numerous for me to take time to mention, let alone that very many people would want to read about.

There were some highlights, though, that stood out that can be applied in our daily life here, though.  As we went about the activities arranged by our church as well as by the staff at SETECA that we worked with, the interactions that we were involved with continued to come back to the philosophy espoused by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert in their book When Helping Hurts.  The authors, who are associated with the Chalmers Center (www.chalmers.org), continually stressed to recognize the brokenness of all of our lives, and the need to work together as community.  SETECA has relationships with several organizations that are performing outreach efforts throughout Guatemala as a result of their role as a seminary.  They are careful, though, to try to balance the need of being supportive in these relationships, but not doing so much that the various outreach efforts become dependent on SETECA’s resources.  SETECA also structured the work performed by our Mission team in a way that was designed not to get any agency dependent on the assistance we provided, but was rather complementary to the efforts they were taking.  This is a difficult task; too often, we as individuals (or groups) see a problem and want to fix it, rather than partnering with others in a way that helps them address and overcome any problems that are there.  Something else that was pointed out in this process was that just because we see something as a problem that needs addressed, does not mean that the other person sees something as a problem.  As we come in and try to fix something that someone doesn’t want fixed, we too easily put ourselves in a position of authority/superiority over the one we are trying to help, and destroy any possible foundation for relationship.

Relationships were the final issue that I wanted to address from this trip.  We spent a significant amount of time building relationships, within our team, with staff at SETECA, and with other individuals that we came in contact with throughout the week.  Getting to know each other, share in each other’s struggles and successes, built a level of community that is an essential platform for trust.  When Helping Hurts put a significant amount of emphasis into the need for trust, and treating each other as equals.  Without a recognition that each of us is a broken individual in need of assistance and restored relationships, we cannot have a platform of mutual respect where we can work together for long-term, positive change.