Mission Methods

A good number of visitors have passed through in these last couple of weeks, from friends of the pastor who came from Mexico, a team of dentists from Zacapa, Davis, a friend of Sarah’s from N. Carolina, some more N. Carolinians who came to help with the building of the dormitories down in Zacapa, and all these different visitors are teaching me a bit about how to approach a mission field, or at least the many different ways one can go about it…

Pastor Domingo’s friends originally hailed from both Guatemala and Mexico, and are now living in California. I believe they went to college together. They were in Guatemala for a short visit and took the opportunity to visit us to get an experience of our mission field, albeit for only a couple days. In that time got a very honest and true experience of mountain life and the life of Pinalitans. They first got an experience of what I like to call the ‘Zacapa time suck’, which is basically that when you’re down in Zacapa, all of your activities and errands take at least twice as long as they should, and you end up getting up the mountain at the end of the day, and if you’re lucky you might have a half hour of daylight left. They got the full flete experience (a flete is a pickup that you can hire to bring you and your cargo up the mountain), where we had about 15 people plus several hundred pounds of cargo crammed into this poor little truck that’s probably about 20 years old. The truck really suffered as it ground it’s way up the mountain towards Matasano, and as we’re in the rainy season, the road is never smooth. It was a rough ride for both the passengers and the truck, but the views made up for that. We got to Matasano fine, indeed, with only a ½ hour of daylight left, and Domingo’s friends then got the experience of hoofin’ it, just like all the locals do to get anywhere. I stayed with the Ortiz’s in Matasano to spend the night and help them out with some odd jobs the next day, but they got to hike the ‘mile down and mile up’ to Pinalito, in the dark no less. They got their exercise for that day. The next day they visited some of the local homes, had a service where they could share the message with the Pinalitans, and gave out school supplies and toys to the kids who went to school and church. When they left, they got a ride out of Pinalito to Guadalupe, and with that got a little bit more of an experience of the local life- if you can catch a ride on the back of a pick up, it’s your lucky day. They really enjoyed their visit, I think in part because it was genuine, and they now have an appreciation and understanding of the way of life up here.

The next visitors were a team of dentists from Zacapa and the States, who came up on the day Sarah and Melanie returned, just for the day. They had a gathering with the locals where they sang a couple songs and shared the gospel and their reason for coming, pulled a bunch of teeth and made a couple fillings, and in the mid afternoon sped off down the mountain before the oncoming rains (always a concern if you’ve got to get somewhere). They came with their own transportation and equipment and were a ‘short and sweet’ blessing. It was nice, because the focus was only on their ministry, with no other distractions or concerns of food, lodging, or the like.

Next up to visit was Davis, a friend of Sarah’s. He came in on the same day as the dentists, and stayed with us for 2 weeks. He works year round at a Christian summer camp in Ashville, N. Carolina, and took his ‘vacation’ in Pinalito, helping us out with whatever we wanted, willing to tackle anything and along for the ride of mission life. He, like the pastor’s friends, got a genuine experience out of the trip, which included an emergency night drive down to Zacapa to get Max’s sister, who was having labor problems, down to the hospital, witnessing the local struggles of the school building project, visits to various local homes, the water going out, and just being part of our daily life. He noted that he had been on some other mission trips before, but those were highly structured and organized, his visit with us was more along the lines of- ‘come live with us and experience the way we live up here.’

Our most recent visitors did not come up to Pinalito, but came to Zacapa to assist with the dormitory building project. Amazingly, the team from N. Carolina decided to come down to Guatemala on the turn of a dime, after Michael shared with them at their church. I believe there was about 3 days between their decision to come and the day they landed in Guatemala City. We laid block, installed plumbing and electrical systems, and got a good tan working under the hot Zacapa sun. After 5 days of hard solid work, the job site looked a whole lot different and had progressed a lot. All of the walls are now complete, and what’s left is a big job-the roof, but these dormitories are moving along. Some of the students currently studying in Zacapa came by to see the work, as they’ll be staying in the dorms when the first floor is complete, and to see the looks of amazement and awe on their faces made all the hard work worth it for the team members. It’s so cool to see the progress one can get out of a couple of days of focusing on a big construction project. Thanks so much guys!

Out of all these visitors we’ve had over the past couple of weeks, I start to see how complicated a mission field can be and how many different way God provides for us to minister to others, and how varied the work of the Kingdom of God is. The experiences and ministry approaches of our visitors is always slightly different. The friends of the pastor visited with the intention to interact with the locals, get to know the way of life up here, and to share their testimonies/message. I can safely say that they definitely got to know the way of local life up here. The dentists who visited came to share the message and use the talents God gave them, and only for a short, intensely focused time. Davis visited to get to know life up in Pinalito and what it’s all about, and to help out in whatever way he could, for whatever came up. The team that just visited from N. Carolina came to knock out a big chunk of the big project of the dorms down in Zacapa, pouring all they could into their work. These are just a couple approaches to ministry…you can also shift your focus to straight evangelism, or relationship building, health and living condition improvement, education, the list can go on and on.

With so many ways to work for God, I sometimes wonder “which is the best way, how am I supposed to approach the work of the Kingdom here in Pinalito?” Part of the answer is ‘all of the above’, because we (Faith in Action) are here for a longer time period than the visitors we are blessed with, and have the chance to shift our focus from time to time and to follow where God leads our hearts. Being a team made up of different members we each have our own way of going about the mission life, and each of us has a different calling and task in the work of the Kingdom of God, that matches (or develops) the talents God has given us.

Personally, I’d like my focus, my approach and angle of attack, to be local, building relationships with the locals, helping them, not giving handouts (the whole ‘teach a man to fish’ thing…), and also working with the locals…giving them the responsibility, letting them improve their own lives, rather than have ‘gringo’ written over all the projects we get involved in. With the visitors that come our way, I want them to have a similar experience, a genuine experience, where they can learn about the people they come to bless, their way of life, what they need, who they are… the mission here in Pinalito is here for the Pinalitans, and we need to be highly involved with them. In all, of course, we need to keep God as our central focus, the work of the Kingdom of God being the most important.

How do we know what’s best, how do we stick to the road of this glorious work that God has in store for each of us in our different lives? How should we pattern our lives and activities to be pleasing to God, effective in moving forward the Kingdom? Questions like this are best answered through scripture and prayer, and I found that 2 Peter 1: 5-7 serves as a great guideline for the work God gives us in his kingdom: