We're not there yet...

Okay, so we’re not in Guatemala yet. For now we’re still living in GA where I’m serving on staff at Bright Star United Methodist Church and Kara is finishing up her master’s degree in marriage & family therapy. But we are going to Guatemala to be missionaries at the Children’s Home. The plans are that we will be here in GA until June, then spend some time with Kara’s family and then with my family while finishing up our fundraising and head down to Guatemala in early August.

Kara and I are both really excited about all of this. Of course there are a few things we’re intimidated about in moving to another country, but overall we’re just really thankful to have the chance to go. I have to admit some of our motivation is a little bit selfish in that a large part of our desire to go comes from the fact that we expect that we’ll be changed and that we’ll know the Lord better in two years than we do now by learning to live differently on the mission field.

This was something we had to wrestle with for a while. The lure of what for us would be a more comfortable, less challenging way of serving God is pretty tempting. I could easily see us living out the next couple of decades just doing things that we want to do- living close to family, getting some jobs making decent money, get a nice house somewhere and stay involved in ministry. All of those are good things and we’d probably be fairly happy going that route.

But what if God wants more for us? If I went that comfortable, happy route, do I really see myself being consumed by God’s love 5, 10, 25, or 50 years from now? Maybe- who knows? I can’t predict much that far down the road. But what I can do is to have a pretty good idea of how to seek to know and serve God today. And today, for us, the decision to make that will allow us to know and serve the Lord best is to be challenged and have our lives changed in a lot of ways by going to Guatemala.

The other big part of our motivation to go is how incredible of a place that the children’s home is. Its name is very appropriate to the ministry they do, because they literally give those children- who come from unimaginable backgrounds- a whole new life. It’s holistic- both physical and spiritual- putting the kids in a situation where they have shelter (both as in a place to live and as in protection from abuse), medical care, and receive an education- but also receive the love and examples of faith that they need just as desperately.

I’ve been several places on short-term mission trips and seen poverty and hardship. That wasn’t any different in Guatemala. What was different was that in those other places, I was usually left with an overwhelmingly helpless feeling, like there was nothing I could really do to change the situation I saw people to be in.

But this children’s home is changing the situations. It takes these wonderful kids from hopeless surroundings and gives them the opportunity to experience real, full life. So, bottom line, we're just thankful to have a chance to be a part of God's work there.

One of the things I'm most excited about is that I'll have the opportunity to work in discipling the older kids at the home. About 45 kids live there, ranging from ages from about 4 through mid-20's, and one of my responsibilities will be with the discipleship of the kids ages 12 and up. What a privilege to get to play a part in helping these kids know Christ.

Kara will have a lot to do too. We're still trying to find out whether or not she's going to be able to fulfill any of her supervised counseling hours down there- which could be either with Guatemalans or with other missionary families. If that doesn't work out, there will be plenty to be done at the home... we're hoping she'll be able to work with all of the churches and groups that bring short-term teams down- she would do a great job and be very helpful to them.