A Week in Guatemala

Those are the words written over the door of the house that a team of 17 people from Village Church built in Guatemala last week. While there, they worked with an organization called Hope of Life at their compound in Los Limones, a village in the south of Guatemala in the Zacapa region. Building a house was one of the projects they worked on. When it was finished, it was dedicated to the Garcia Mendez family. They are a family of about twelve in all, including parents, children, and extended family who live with them.

The father of the family worked alongside the team to build the house. Gary Nickel, one of the team leaders, says, “The family was just so grateful. The father is a very hard working guy just trying to provide for his family in very difficult circumstances.”

While some of the crew was building the house, a few members of the team unexpectedly set up a medical clinic using a suitcase full of medical supplies that had been donated to Hope of Life. Two of the members on the team happened to be a doctor and a nurse. With the supplies they had, they were able to help 70 people from the village with various medical needs.

Later they found out that before they arrived one of the leaders in the village had recently made a point of praying for medical help. TJ Miller, a team member says, “It was crazy to realize we were being used in that way. God knew what they needed before they even asked and he had it all planned out.”

On Tuesday night, they found out there were three small children from different villages around that area that needed serious medical attention. The next morning, three people from the team, including Gary, headed out with a crew from Hope of Life to pick up the kids. They drove for three and a half hours, about 40 kilometres into the jungle to get the children. They picked up two babies and a five-year-old. The babies both had pneumonia and other health issues.

The 5-year-old girl weighed about 21lbs and had some severe developmental issues, as well as seizures. Gary says, “We didn’t have much room left in the ambulance so I held her in my arms for the ride back to the compound, and she seized for about 35 of the 45 minutes. We got her in there to the hospital and they are stabilizing her and they’re trying to find a medication that works for her on a regular basis. That was quite an emotional day for the team, but we were just grateful that we could actually do something.”

The team also spent time each night in devotions, sharing with each other, singing, and encouraging one another. TJ says, “God handpicked every single person on the team. For instance, Carlos, one of the other team members, speaks Spanish. One day we all sat down and he got up and preached the gospel in Spanish to the kids.”

When Carlos finished speaking to the kids, the team decided to sing “Amazing Grace”. “Normally the kids were going nuts, but they sat still just listening to us sing,” says TJ. “It was like we were singing over the kids, that they would be able to understand God’s grace.”

TJ says one of the biggest things he took out of the week is that “we just need to love people because that’s what we’re called to do,” he says.

Both TJ and Gary have a hard time putting the trip into words. Gary says, “We can show pictures and tell people about it, but until you go and experience it, it’s just hard to explain, but it was fantastic and absolutely overwhelming.”

This February, there will be another team from Village Church heading down to Guatemala. It will be a one week trip again, from February 13 to 21, and the deadline to sign up is December 11. Click here for more information about the next trip, and other short-term global mission trips in 2016.

For information about Hope of Life, click here.

The following video was created by one of the team members on the trip, Melissa.