BC Synod Trip to Guatemala, May 2008

“Well, Kath, I’d love to go on any one of these mission trips…just not with my granddaughter”. Deborah had heard Rev. Dr. Rick Fee’s invitation to the women of the WMS 2007 Council to take daughters and granddaughters on mission trips. She thought he was nuts. Rick’s goal is a good one. By traveling with younger people, WMS members could pass on the passion for mission and compassion for our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world. Deborah realised biological connection can have excess baggage. Mentoring mission might be more successful without the ‘granddaughter’ or any other label.

BC Synod Group with women at the Fraternity Office in Xayla.

The Synod of BC sponsored a trip to Guatemala in May 2008. The original intent focussed on young adults keen to listen for a call to overseas mission. It wasn’t supposed to be intergenerational, nor was it designed to be just for women but God’s Spirit blows where she will. Discerning a specific direction God wants you to go, particularly when it isn’t what you expect, can be a bit tricky so after some prayer and conversation, the vision shifted to test out Rick’s suggestion. When the dust had settled, we had 5 women who represented students, professionals and retirees. We had 53 years age difference from our oldest member to the youngest member. We had a theologian, a teacher, a CEO, an administrator, a comedian, a pastor, a caregiver, an historian, an adventurer, and a storyteller. Our first night we sat together at a fast food chicken place in Guatemala City and opened ourselves to the grace of community. As our community developed, each woman could fill a different role each day. The group simply opened its arms wider to allow room for the giftings of each woman.

Our task in Guatemala was quite simple, spend time with our partners in Guatemala begin to build some relationship with them, bring home the experience and see what God would do with our energies. Like every great adventure story our journey wasn’t all smooth sailing. Our vision was so clear to me, I didn’t anticipate it being challenged. We weren’t even in the country when we met a group from an organization called “Hope International” at the Dallas-Fort Worth international airport. The group was mostly medical professionals. They were going to set up a temporary hospital and offer medical assistance to the residents in the area. “What will you be doing in Guatemala?” the woman asked me. “We’re from the Presbyterian Church in Canada and we are spending time with our partner organizations so we can learn about them and start to build relationships with them.” I thought my answer was clear. “Yes,” she said “but what are you going to do there?” Apparently, for some people, mission isn’t mission unless you build something, fix something or otherwise ‘leave your mark’. Our group began to wonder what mission should look like in 2008.

Meagan Eccles and Qu'iche woman on mother's day

As the journey unfolded, we met people along the journey who embraced us and welcomed us into their communities. Their warmth, hospitality, and willingness to share their stories allowed us to discover commonalities and shared visions of hope for a better future for all God’s children.
Emerson was our guide and translator and quickly became a valuable member of our community. In a small city called Santiago Atitlan, we climbed up a large stone staircase to a beautiful Catholic church. Emerson directed us toward a smaller room off the courtyard where we sat and he shared the story of Father Stanley Rother. Father Stanley was an American Catholic Priest who was shot to death by government forces in July 1981. Father Stanley wasn’t a particularly political being. He went about the work of a priest in a small town church. He offered mass and preached the gospel. He helped start a medical clinic and worked on public health issues. The Catholic Church became the target of the Guatemalan military as it upheld the dignity and human rights of all peoples. His name was on a ‘death list’ and had returned to the USA for a brief time but the call to help his people was too strong and he ended up back in Guatemala. As Emerson shared the story, his eyes filled with tears (as did all of ours). Father Stanley was a hero to the indigenous people of the area.

Lucrecia shared her newfound sense of value as a person. She attends Bible Study at the Fraternity and lives in a society where women are treated as property more than persons. She has undergone quite a transformation from shy and afraid of almost everything to acknowledging her state as ‘beloved child of God’ and being freed to speak publicly and take on leadership roles within her community.

Alta Gracia’s stood on a busy street corner and shared part of her history. A number of years earlier, she’d lived in the city dump with her 3 children. As she searched for goods in the midst of the trash, she found quite an edible looking piece of meat in amongst the garbage and took it home for dinner. There are many dogs in Guatemala City and someone had laced the meat with rat poison in an effort to control the canine population. Three months later, the children came home from the hospital. Alta Gracia's spent another three months in intensive care before she could be released from the hospital. I stood with tears in my eyes on this crazy busy street corner across from the entrance to the dump in Guatemala City and I offered thanks to God for a happy conclusion to her story. Later in the day, Alta Gracia introduced us to the son she’d been pregnant with at the time of the poisoning.

Each story was powerful and inspiring and we were honoured they shared so vulnerably with us. It is not possible to be part of such a community and not experience transformation. The encounters leave indelible marks on your soul.

There are many challenges inherent in traveling to another culture and living outside your comfort zone for a while. As much as we tried to be sensitive to those differences, we got caught a few times. “We eat first, then we fight” Emerson translated as the Spanish women laughed. We had eaten dinner and sat around the table. “It is our custom,” he continued “to eat in silence and then have conversation after the table is clean.” Community allows the identification of cultural differences with grace and good humour.
Sometimes the grace of community will wrap itself around you and saturates your soul. In celebration of Mother’s Day, we received bouquets of flowers on two different occasions. Each time the flowers were wrapped in hand woven pieces of cloth and offered in love and celebration to the mothers in their midst. It felt overwhelmingly kind of the women to honour our roles as mothers in this way.

We learned to walk together sometimes slowly, always respectfully with each other and with our sisters and brothers from another culture. Somewhere along the journey, the age, language, and culture became insignificant. God’s Spirit gentled us into community and invited transformation into our hearts. The trip ended late one night at the Vancouver airport but the journey hasn’t finished yet. We arrived at the airport in Vancouver with mixed feelings. I was happy to be home but sad our community changing. There were no poignant goodbyes, just a few hugs and some ‘see you around’. There may be other intergenerational mission trips and holy communities formed. Our challenge will continue to be the vessels through which God’s Spirit can work to bear witness to God in all we do and all we say. May it be so.

Living Faith 4.2.2
The Holy Spirit accompanies us on our journey of faith.
We may not always be sure of this presence.
Yet God’s Spirit is with us, sometimes gently, sometimes powerfully, guiding us in the midst of life, our comfort and our help. Christian life is a pilgrimage: it begins, continues, and ends in God.