Life to the Full

I couldn't do it anymore.

This site takes too long to load.

The advertisements are obnoxious.

It's a pain to put pictures in posts.

One friend in particular keeps complaining about the lack of a subscription option.

So I'm making one last move:

www.annetteinguatemala.wordpress.com

I've been a little slow on getting up some thoughts/reactions from the work trip, so I figured now is as good a time as any. I spent a lot of time thinking about beauty on this trip. When walking into Zone 3, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the trash, the broken down homes, the smells, the dirty clothes and the dirty faces. But a deeper look reveals a heart wrenching, unique, and difficult beauty. A beauty that speaks of resiliance, redemption, and triumph in the midst of despair and brokenness. Our kids got to take a look at this beauty as they spent a week working alongside some pretty amazing Guatemalan friends.

Part of our group worked at Arbonoganico, a compost company that employs Young Life kids from Zone 3. The composting process itself moves from waste to fertilizer--an agent of beauty.  The physical process reflects the transformation occurring in the employees life; stable work provides money for their families, every employee receives an education, and hears about the love of Christ.

Isaiah, when speaking about Jesus, prepares the people for a time when beauty will come from ashes. Here's a chunk of Isaiah 61 from the Message:

The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me.

He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken,

Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners.

God sent me to announce the year of his grace—

a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies—

and to comfort all who mourn, to care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,

give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,

Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.

Rename them "Oaks of Righteousness" planted by God to display his glory.

They'll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage.

God is in the business of creating beauty out of apparent messes...Seth Thompson, a professional photographer, came along on our trip with the mission of capturing that beauty. Look at the pictures I posted in the "photo gallery." I think he did it.

The blogging took a hit when I was hit with an intestinal virus. One trip to the hospital,  a million trips to the bano, and some antibiotics and I'm back in business.

The group made it down and we dove right into work. One team is completely building a house out of block, two others are mixing/pouring concrete floors, and another is working at the local composting company with some YL guys. Work is going well and we're getting a lot done.

More stories and pictures to come, but I wanted to check in while I'm waiting for the group to show up at our apartment for dinner!

I did--

--Amongst other things in the past week in Guatemala. I've been hesitant to update because I know there is no way to accurately convey what's been happening. Frankly (and thankfully), we in the Midwest have ZERO context in which to situate earthquakes and volcanoes and tropical storms. The last thing I want to do is fuel the "Guatemala is so unsafe/might fall into the earth" fire. Now that CNN is doing that for us, I thought I'd comment.

1. Pacaya (you should definitely check out this picture)

The Volcano erupted last week Thursday. When I first heard this, I was in Antigua and totally uneffected and thought, "well, Pacaya is always erupting--it's an active volcano." Then the news started making it up the hill and I realized this was totally different.

What does the eruption mean for Guatemala? There was a lot of destruction in the communities surrounding the Volcano, so relief work is being done there; as for Guatemala city--we just get to clean up a bunch of ash. Obviously the trips up the Volcano to roast marshmallows on lava will be halted for a while. Other than that, we're waiting for the clouds to clear so we can see what the mountain looks like after the explosion!

My vote was to pull a Mt. St. Helens and market the ash--if you've ever been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Name it and it's made of ash and sells for a good price in the gift store.

If you google "Pacaya volcanic activity" you might be worried--after all, reports show that more activity is expected in the next weeks. Again, this is not unusual. Pacaya has been classified as active for the past 50 years. yes, it blew up last week, but activity is not abnormal.

2. Agatha

The Tropical Storm did bring a ton of rain which did initiate multiple landslides. Roads were closed, people were displaced, and there were casualties associated with the storm. (by the way, I love that the Spanish word for storm is "Tormenta." How appropriate).

What does this mean for Guatemala? We were thaknful for a few days of repreive from the rain so we could start picking up the pieces. There is a lot of clean up associated with the storm.

If you head to weather.com and type in Guatemala City you'll see that the forecase for the next week is for storms and rain. Did we have a tropical storm last week? Yes. Does a forecast for rain need to result in panic? Definitely not. It's rainy season here. The forecast every day for the next 6 months will call for storms and rains. So, we will keep an eye on the radar for more BIG storms, but rain in itself is not unusual.

Please do pray for the people displaced from Agatha--additional rain does not make it easy on them or on the already saturated earth!

3. Sink Hole (check out this link for some pics of Guate...sink hole ones are at the bottom)

I was praying these pictures wouldn't surface. But they did. Yes there was a sinkhole in Zone 2 of Guatemala City. Yes it looks like a scene from a movie about the Apocolypse. Yes it's the second sinkhole in the past three years.

What does this mean for Guatemala? Authorities think the sinkhole was caused by a plumbing problem under the area. They're not completely sure though. What we do know is that both sinkholes occurred in the same zone, and it's not a zone we travel to or through. Also, a TOTAL of 4 people died between both sink holes.

What am I learning through all this?

I'm learning what it looks like to balance the Holy Spirit's guidance with the wisdom he provides. I'm learning what it looks like to trust God even when things are literally falling apart around me. I'm learnng how very little control I actually have.

I'm also realizing that adapting to a culture means not trying to fit what's happening here into my at home paradigm. It just doesn't work.

I'm learning (again) that I have A LOT to learn!

I stumbled upon a language learning roadblock the other day--not to be confused with the roadblocks that protestors create blocking the Guatemalan highways. My roadblock is vocabulary. We were studying irregular verbs and every single verb was new. Every single one. 126 to be exact. It was a frustrating place to be in because while I was conceptually ready to move forward, I didn't have the words to put into new concepts.

So, bring on the flashcards.

For the past two days I've been swimming in flashcards, but I think I've managed to learn most to all of the words. Hopefully I'll be able to move forward tomorrow. Vamos a ver.

My other major roadblock? English. This one is a little more difficult to work through. Basically, name a grammatical rule in English and it's opposite in Spanish--sentence structure, word order, everything. For the first time ever, my English education is more of a hindrance than a help.

I'm anticipating this roadblock will result in some mixture of grammatical styles that makes sense neither in English or Spanish. Otra vez, vamos a ver.

Ahora, voy a regresar a las tarjetas!

Over the past few days of language school I've been feeling a little unsettled. I can't remember the last time where my life wasn't packed with people or events. Silence and down time is good, but I'm not wired for so much of it (maybe that's an excuse...I don't know).

It didn't take long for me to realize that I've been separating the principles that drive my WyldLife ministry from the principles that drive my life here in Antigua. What do YL/WL leaders do best? They show up. They practice the ministry of presence and foster a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit whom guides all interactions.

So yesterday I paid a little more attention.

And once again, God affirmed that people want to talk. People want to share their stories; they want someone to listen; they want to ask their "spiritual" questions and share their concept of God.

So I talked with a young family from a nearby village for a couple hours--they shared about their life and faith (22, married, and 2 kids...they thought I was crazy for being single!!!). I talked with a seminary grad turned lawyer who's intellectualism prohibits him from experiencing true relationship and freedom in Christ. I talked with two guys whose negative interractions with the church and Christians have sent them on a journey to find true faith (they think they're going to be the first people to write a book about real religion...so I recommended a few ).

It's amazing what happens when I pay attention and am present in the moment at hand.

Back to studying (or not, we'll see who sits down next to me.)

I like to compile "only in..." lists. They help me remember the quirks and endearing characteristics of the places I live. I have a decently long list of "only in GR" and "only in Hinsdale."

Here are a few that top my list of "only in Guatemala" this time around. Sorry they're repeats from twitter, but I couldn't resist.

Only in Guatemala is it totally acceptable to not only be within 10 feet of molten hot lava, but also to roast marshmallows over said lava.

Only in Guatemala (maybe not only, but it's super common here) is it normal to buy sweet puppies out of the trunk of a car. FYI: This offer is only available on the weekends.

More to come!

Some things are just hard to explain. Take my feeble attempt to explain camping to my language school teacher. Why would we choose to leave our nice homes to spend time in the dirty woods, cook over a fire, run the risk of animal encounters, and take cold (if any) showers.

Why? Of course because it's one of the most tranquilo vacations possible.

In my attempts to explain the greatness of camping to my teacher I'm pretty sure I only conveyed that we spend our time hiding food from very hungry bears. Oops.

If that was my run at explaining camping, imagine my attempt to explain Young Life. How do we explain the beauty of incarnational ministry, of showing up--as Jesus did--in the world of kids, walking beside them, and speaking truth into their broken lives? How do we explain the importance of community, of kingdom living, of experience grace? How do we explain the life transformation that occurs as we all come before the feet of Christ? How do we explain the signficance of the crazy, messy games, of the loud songs, of the hours spent talking over coffee?

Some things are just hard to explain. And those things are often better experienced anyway.

The tornado that was Spring landed me in Guatemala before I even knew what was happening. Within 24 hours I went from hanging out with WL kids and leaders around an end of the year bonfire to officially owning a car in Guatemala. Crazy.

I spent my first day and a half in Guatemala with Laura Garcia, one of the staff women here who, as of today, is officially back in the States. She talked me through her role in the ministry (much of which I'll be stepping into), and shared some ins and outs of life in Guate.

I do plan on devouring the resources she prepared over the past years...and devouring all the food from her recommended restaurants!

Talking with Laura further instilled in me confidence and excitement over what's to come. I get to be a part of muchos resource development, training and equipping staff and leaders here who don't necessarily have a broader vision and context for YL, learning from staff and leaders who can teach me how to translate ministry into this unique culture, and of course...I get to spend time with kids who need the truth and hope of Jesus Christ!

Last night I traveled up to Antigua where I'm taking a couple weeks of language school. After day one, I can tell you three things:

1. I have A LOT to learn.

2. I should have paid more attention in high school Spanish class.

3. I now can identify with students I taught English: I get the "what" but WHY? Oh, just because. Of course.

From culture to language I have a lot to learn because SO MUCH of assimilating into a new culture is figuring out and learning to appreciate the "just because's."

More to come!

Two years ago I was in Guatemala for Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday are marked by a unique tradition called procesiones. Processions have their critiques--they're ritual, they're penance, they're a tourist attraction. My experience was different. I engaged with a beautiful, poignant, act of worship that consequently altered my interaction with Holy Week.

Starting as early as 8:00pm on Maundy Thursday, individuals, families, friends, whomever, claim a stretch of road and begin crafting carpets. The idea? Laying down palms for Jesus to proceed over. It's a simple idea, but an immense sacrifice. There's financial sacrifice--people buy colored sand, flower petals, fruit, whatever it takes to create a carpet worthy of Christ passing over. There's physical sacrifice--people work all night and into the early morning before the processions start.

Sometime around 6 in the morning, the first "float" leaves from a Catholic Church and makes its way around the city (these pictures are in Antigua, but this is happening other places as well). Remember the hours of meticulous work? It's destroyed in the 60 seconds it takes for the 100 men to carry they 1 ton float over that stretch of road. The beauty of destruction in order to honor the suffering Christ is counted blessing by the carpet artists.

The floats tell the story of the passion--first the Roman guard on horses, then the stations of the cross, then Mary and the other women, then Jesus carrying the cross.

At night, the processions continue in a more despairing manner as we move, with Christ, into his death and time in the grave. The Grim Reaper leads the way on this one, followed by a 4 ton Leviathon float, weeping and mourning women, and finally Jesus in the tomb. On Saturday we wait, and on Sunday people reconvene for the Easter processions.

As I mentioned, this experience altered my interaction with Holy Week. Why? I was overwhelmed by the privilege people found in sacrificing for Christ. What do I really offer? When do I allow Christ's sacrifice to completely and fully capture my life, my heart, my actions, my offerings in a way that disrupts the pattern and flow of my daily life? In what areas of my life will true beauty come through destruction--if I lay them down before the Lord?

Guatemala is a country plagued by poverty, corruption, violence, darkness. Yet, these Semana Santa celebrations reveal the piercing truth that there is a deeply rooted trust and hope that the darkness of Friday will result in the joy of Sunday. The hardship and trial of daily life is redeemed by the loving sacrifice and restoration that is the cross and the truth that more and better is in store.

After all, it's Friday but Sunday is coming.