Anticipation: Day Before | The dining room table is covered in "backpack" items like emergency snacks, bug spray wipes, passports, and phone chargers. The bed upstairs has clothes laid out and toiletries lined up. Everything is ready to be carefully packed into the limited space we have available. Though each of us will take one large checked suitcase, a carry-on suitcase, and a personal item, the large suitcase is reserved for the glasses, clinic kits, bibles, and other items needed to run our eyeglass clinic when we get to Guatemala. We take for granted in the U.S. that we can send and receive just about anything. But getting supplies to Guatemala requires carrying it in personally.
I believe we take a lot for granted in the U.S., and I suspect our worldview will be permanently altered after a week in Guatemala. The challenge, I think, will be to respect and value what we see and learn in Guatemala as different, not lesser. It's like the water - we cannot drink it there or we'll get sick, and we're at risk of viewing it as sub-par. But it's not undrinkable - just undrinkable by us.
Our call this coming week is to serve with humility, treating every person we encounter with dignity and respect...to remember that we are guests in a foreign country...to set aside our wants and daily comforts and be fully present, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
As I contemplate the week to come, it makes me think of the song "Only Jesus" by Casting Crowns. If you'd like to travel alongside us in spirit, I invite you to listen to the song and pray that we'll leave behind us only the impression of what a loving God we serve.
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