In November, 2009, the Lord provided for me, through the generosity of family and friends, to go with a team from my church to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. The team from our church, along with people from Maryland, New York, Wisconsin and Oregon, worked together for one week to help the poor and spread the Gospel of Christ. We took over 1,000 pairs of shoes for the Mayans living in and around the Lake. We did VBS in the mornings and then gave out shoes in the afternoon. We washed their feet with baby wipes, and then fitted them with a new pair of socks and shoes. I had never been face to face with such poverty and it grieved me. On the first day of ministry, I went to the bus to eat my sack lunch and cried. To think of how much we have in this country when there are people, mostly children, who do not even own a decent pair of shoes. I went with the anticipation that I would be helping them but it was my heart the Lord changed. It changed my thought process drastically. When going shopping, I always asked myself – ‘Do I really need this?’ or is this just more stuff? Essentials that we take for granted every day such as: soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes are a luxury item there. Just having enough food for their children are what most people are striving for in Guatemala. The Lord gave me a love for these people that could only have come from Him. By the end of the trip, I felt the Lord calling me into full time missions. He overwhelmingly confirmed the call to missions several times in the next few months. I didn’t know the time or what I would do when I went but I told the Lord that I trusted Him to give me those particulars in His time and not mine. I began to prepare my heart for the journey that was about to begin.
I spent a lot of time in prayer asking the Lord what He would have me to do when I went to Guatemala full time. I began to plan for my second mission trip there. While I was preparing for the trip in November, 2010, I felt the Lord leading me to Guatemala City instead of the Lake Atitlan area. With a team of Christ followers from Georgia and Illinois, we spent a week doing VBS and home visits in Guatemala City and Lantana. We also went to the Tabitha House located in the City dump of Guatemala, the largest land fill in Central America. Tabitha House is a daycare for small children whose parents work in the dump.
In order to make a living for their families, the men and women living in the community around the dump sort through trash to find anything they can sell. They sell items such as: copper, aluminum, old mattresses, doll parts, etc. These precious people work 12 – 14 hours a day and make approximately $2-$4. I remember looking out the van window and seeing a group of men sorting through trash, I thought to myself: “Lord, help me to NEVER complain about my job again”. I don’t have to sort through trash to make a living and I make more than $2-$4 a day.
On Friday night, the team planned a women’s ministry get-together with the women from the church. We ordered pizza and doughnuts. I sat with a group of ladies at their table and with the help of the translator, they asked me a question. They wanted me to prayerfully consider bringing a group of women to do a workshop where we would teach them how to make things to sell in order to make a living. I knew this was my ANSWER! The Lord had just shown me through a group of ladies that did not know me that I would use the talents He had given me for His glory. Teaching women a life skill such as sewing in order for them to make a living - What an awesome God we serve!
I came home and began to pray about coming back to Guatemala to teach sewing. This was the birth of my journey with sewing to the women of Latin America, to Guatemala.
Please check back to see what incredible things the Lord did on the trip to Guatemala in July of 2011!
