The G Team 2006
Peoria team & Guatemala’s Medical Missions Ministries, 8/11/06 to 8/18/06
The members of the 2006 G Team are Clay (journalist), Dale (evangelist and support crew), Dave (leader), Judy (overcomer of obstacles), Karla (worship team), Katie (not afraid to wear pig tails on an airplane), Liz (worship leader), Perry (photographer & worship team), Roger (accountant), Shannon (comedienne), and Shantel (provider of red polo shirts, staff gift preparer, and maker of fashionable travel pillows). We’d taken time to get to know each other and build the team before we went. Of the 11 in this year’s team, 6 were new to the trip. They’ll never be the same. The “G” in G Team stands for God and Guatemala, but it also stands for Gumby. We’re flexible, and that’s a very important quality on a mission trip!
Medical Missions Ministries (MMM) has been tending to medical and spiritual needs of Guatemalans for 20 years. Dr. Hermann Alb leads the team of four doctors, one pharmacist, and a children’s director. They host an annual pastors’ conference and arrange the dates for the MMM team to visit each of the participating Guatemalan churches to conduct clinics. The churches know the clinic dates well in advance, so they’re praying, fasting, building those relationships, and planting & watering the seeds of the Gospel in preparation for the visit. By the time the team gets there, many of those who don’t know Him yet are about ready to make a decision. On clinic day, the patients see a doctor first. While waiting for their prescriptions to be filled (even if it’s just vitamins), they have an opportunity to speak with one or two visitors with an interpreter and hear about the Good News. As far as we know, no one’s ever declined to join the visitors at a counseling station. We also pray for those who already know Him, and sometimes they even pray for us! Kids also have their own outreach outside the church (singing, story time, etc.). Visiting team members rotate between counseling stations, children’s ministry, pharmacy, and praying. Local churches then follow up with the new believers.
During the week that our team served this year, 546 patients were seen. Of the 93 appeared to be seekers, 71 stepped across the line of faith.
Here are the memories of our team journalist, Clay. As Hermann observed shortly after we arrived, Clay was “there to be molded.”
Friday, August 11th
Thankfully, I’d set (2) alarm clocks to get up in time for our 6:15 a.m. flight. Only my back-up alarm worked. Fueled with coffee, I got to the airport on time. Ann Wiegand greeted G Team members and pointed me to the Delta Airlines counter. We stood in line for 45 minutes while security checked every bag. A terrorist plot in London’s Heathrow airport had just heightened the alert at every airport in the world the day before (including no liquids or even toothpaste carried onto the plane). Steve Wiegand was still in England and trying to make his way home. I didn’t mind the security. As far as I was concerned, they could check everybody twice. That just lends more comfort.
Dewayne Householter, Sam Mogler, and David Davis also showed up to give the G Team a send off. Some of them brought donuts, milk, and other goodies. I liked that, because I had not eaten breakfast. The G Team sat together on the plane from Peoria to Atlanta, and we just had a short wait at Atlanta before going on to Guatemala City.
In Guatemala City, we shopped for food and ate dinner at Subway. Perry, Shannon, and Clay played with Perry’s CD burner. (Thanks to everyone’s digital contributions, he would end up with about 2,000 photos for the trip.) Fatique and perhaps altitude effected some. In the afternoon, some catnapped on the couches as others unpacked, joked, and talked. Liz, Shantel, Shannon, and Katie worked out plans for an a cappella song for the next morning. Most people went to bed around 9:30 or 10 p.m. to get their rest.
Saturday, August 12th
Several awoke early. Coffee was a blessing. Later, Shannon referred to our host as “Dr. Somebody” and broke us all into laughter. Hermann led the two-hour worship by praying “Thank you Lord for Your new mercies everyday.” He also talked about how the clay pots had to be shaped and go through the fire to bring out their colors. I reflected how I have had to go through the fires of the past years. Before this trip, Liz had quoted Hermann’s saying that we are in Guatemala to be on a date with Jesus. That was my task on this day. What are you saying to me, Jesus? The Lord told me that the grief of the past must leave. I felt the Holy Spirit take away my grief. My heart had been prepared. I did not try to hold onto the grief. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wondered if I should be self-conscious, but was not. This was business between God and me. Dave Myers gave a devotion from Joshua chapter 1 about Joshua filling Moses’ shoes. It would have been easy for Joshua to be filled with fear.
Hermann told us to depend on the skills that God has given to us. Just like learning surgery, we have learned what God has uniquely given to us. Just use it for His glory. Don’t worry about what we don’t know. God will fill in the blanks. Faith comes by hearing and then action. It is too easy to weekly attend church and avoid the responsibility to act. We avoid acting, because we forget that it is God who is in control. “God says to use the power that I have given to you. Let God use you in Guatemala, so that you can be used when you get back to your home. Know servanthood. No rights or expectations. Just give your testimony of your God experience to people this week. As you walk with God, our God, He will give you even more to talk about.”
We drove to El Morino, Santa Rosa. We expected to serve 80 patients, but we served 180. It was a very long and hot day. Many tracts were passed out that day. About 60% to 70% of the people at my counseling station confessed Jesus as the Christ and their Savior. I have never witnessed that many coming to Christ. I have to wonder what it is that I am really witnessing. I am astounded, because I have felt so inadequate to the situation. And yet, God brought them in spite of my inadequacies. We returned to Guatemala City and ate at a McDonald’s ( America’s unofficial embassy to the world due to controlled quality and sanitation practices), because it was too late to try to prepare dinner at the base house.
Sunday, August 13th
Most of the Medical Missions staff spent Sunday with their families and home churches where many of them serve. Therefore, we had to help drive. Correction. WE did not drive. ROGER was the only American pressed into driving service. He did it last year, and his safety record is untarnished at delivering us to church and orphanage.
We went to Hermann’s church, and Hermann was preaching that day. The message was to forgive or have your communication with God suffer. If not, we are on a different channel than God. We suffer. As per the message, I named the one that I needed to forgive. Then I gave my offering. This date with Jesus is a wide open experience. The implied question is, ‘Are you in all the way, or are you out?’ I told God that I received His message for me today. I am in. Yesterday, I let go of the grief. Today, I forgive.
We ate lunch at the mall. As we finished lunch, I had a memory of the one that I had forgiven. Goodbye. God, how much will you touch me this trip? Am I here for them or for me, Lord? His answer came. “Neither, Clay. You are here for Me.”
We drove to the orphanage to minister to the children with play, unconditional love, and a soccer ball. I have never seen so many children receive so much from a group of people such as the G Team. Incredible. At one point in time, I sat in a rocking chair with two little girls on my lap. They sang “Jesus Loves Me” time and again in English and in Español. They only wanted to press their cheeks next to mine and be comforted. When it was time to leave, it was extremely difficult. As much as I gave, I received more in return. Down to the core. Clay, it was hard to forgive today, but God made sure that you were restored with unconditional love.
We talked with Mike, the founder of the orphanage. I have never heard such a story of so much faith in action. Never. His narration of how the orphanage began is a book unto itself. I will save that for a topic discussion for new G Team members at any G Team meeting throughout the year. This orphanage’s web site is http://www.casaontherock.org/, and the ministry is most worthy of being supported by Christians in the USA.
Monday, August 14th
Karla cooked pancakes for everybody today, and of course, coffee. Guatemalan coffee. Guatemalan, yahoo coffee! Thanks, Karla, for breakfast as well as your example of servanthood.
At our morning worship, Shannon gave her devotion on 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. “We are not just on vacation!” Afterwards, Hermann’s message was that routine worship is a bore. However, if we hear the voice of God moment-by-moment, then life is exciting! The kingdom of God is about power! He reminded us that we will give medical help to people that do not see bacteria, so they do not believe in some of the dangers of poor hygiene. And aren’t we the same about God? We often refuse to see God’s power because our lack of faith denies what we can’t see. Because of that, “We seem to want God to join us instead of us joining God.” When we prayed as a group at the end of our worship, I saw a consistency in our Guatemalan team members Hermann, Hector, and Geovani. They were all weeping. This following Jesus business requires giving one’s heart away daily.
I watched the Americans prepare to leave for the field. My mind recalled similar scenes in the past. In my life, I have seen soldiers prepare for deployment. They check their weapons, their survival gear, and their rations. I watched the G Team and noted the similarities. They packed their packs with Bibles to distribute, EvangeCubes (http://www.evangecube.org) to evangelize, hand sanitizer, and water bottles. Soldiers are often silent when they have prepared themselves and await the battle. In relative silence, we loaded into the Suburbans for our journey to the mountain village ahead.
We arrived at Ixhuatan, Santa Rosa, in great spirits. Besides the regular joking, we have a habit of listening to praise and worship songs as we drive the long and narrow roads. I believe that we all are somewhat mesmerized at how the Guatemalan hosts play tag-team driving in order to navigate through the unstructured Guatemalan traffic. Frequently, somebody will breakout into sing-along and the rest of the troop joins in. It’s great to capture the moment and realize that this is the stuff that life is composed of. I am glad to be in Guatemala.
We parked the Suburbans next to a ‘chicken-bus’ depot. The public transportation buses come and go on this sliver of main street and we stand alongside the road waiting for our hike to the church. We are somewhat in awe that these buses squeeze through the passages! When our church hosts retrieve us, we hike a 200 foot vertical path to the church carved into the mountainside. WE ALL MADE IT!! HOORAY!! This is a grueling climb in an altitude much greater than Peoria’s 800 feet. I estimate that we were at 6,500 feet altitude, higher than Denver! We unpacked the boxes, setup the pharmacy, and learned of details of our assignments for the day from Dave, our American leader, and from our experienced Guatemalan team. The children’s ministry portion of the team setup in the half constructed classroom down the path from the outhouse. Rustic by American standards. We Americans, at least this one, began to appreciate the perseverance of the Central Americans and the riches of the North Americans.
This day was tough. It was hot and busy. We also had some patients that were diagnosed as terminal. Except for prayer, their resources beyond the medical team are in God’s providence alone. We laid hands on these patients, prayed frevently for them, and wept in a sense of powerlessness. Are you there God? From whence comes our help? Yes, comes the answer. We witnessed the transformations from pain to peace.
The sun sets late on these summer days, and yet we always drive home in dusk and darkness. Such long days. I do not wear a watch because no importa. It just doesn’t matter. We work while the harvest is plentiful. However, dear one, don’t yawn! It’s contagious!!
Another late dinner at the American McEmbassy. By now, we are accustomed to the McDonald’s staff carrying our food to the tables, running to get our catsup, and the doors being opened by armed guards. Not to worry. It just is as it is, and this G Team continues to melt into abandoned servanthood.
Tuesday, August 15th
Shannon, Karla, and Katie prepared breakfast and some of the guys replaced the 5 gallon water bottles and washed dishes. Yeah, that’s right. Washed dishes. I had heard that I would see miracles on this trip!
Perry, Karla, and Liz led the music this morning’s worship. I note in my diary, “I have to be frank. I thought that I would see fake conversions or forced evangelism as poor people are somehow ‘held-hostage’ in that they feel compelled to confess Christ in bartered return for medicines. There. I said it. Instead, I see a local village church congregation spend previous weeks walking the streets of their village. Praying as they walk, that their neighbors would come to know Christ. Attracted by medicine? Certainly. But impacted by the Holy Spirit.” The G Team and Medical Missions staff are only instruments.
Liz had the devotional this morning. Acts and Isaiah. ‘Whom shall I send?’ “Genuine worship is seeing God for who He is.” In Hermann’s message, he urged us to not worry about convincing others. Just allow God to use us to reach them. “You do not know how important you Americans are in impacting these villagers. They know that you left your riches and comfort to minister to them.” Dave told about how he and Christina led a woman to Christ, but that woman spoke of how her heart had been prepared in previous weeks. Hermann said that in some respects we are ‘selling’ Christ, but we cannot do that unless we personally know the product!!
We drove to El Ingenio, Jalapa, four and a half hours away and set up in a church that was the size of a one stall garage. The road was narrow and switchbacked. Ask Perry about the ‘mountain cows’! J We actually met horsemen as the local traffic as well as women carrying basket loads on their heads. The main street of the village was overgrown with weeds and resembled a narrow unpaved alley more than anything else. The people were patiently waiting in the tree shade when we arrived and set up clinic. I think that, for them, it is like watching the circus come to town and set up! How many clowns exit a Volkswagon? How many G Team members fallout of a Suburban? We had a great lunch today served by the women of the church congregation. Rice, tortillas, and a stew/soup. What did you have Liz? The extreme part of the chicken!!! Ask her!!
Ask the G Team about the baño etiquette. It’s a skill not to be trifled with. Hey, Perry! I caught you in a photo (nothing scandalous)! Also, how much livestock travels on that road? Pigs, horses, and watch that step!!
Ruth is the children’s ministry leader and Karla, Shannon, and Katie have expertise in presenting the EvangeCube. Everytime they set the EvangeCube down, children want to pick it up and see more of it. Judy has found a home, along with Katie, in working the pharmacy. Dale, Roger, Dave, Perry, and Clay are now refining their evangelism methodology. Our very capable evangelistic translators Julio, Geovani, Christina, Heidi, etc., are so smooth that we team fluently with them.
At the end of the day, we drive to a nearby village which has a larger church where we set up cots, sleeping bags, and very little personal space. We take turns holding flashlights for one another on the other side of the adobe hut where some privacy for clothes changing may be accomplished. At one point during the slow of the evening, a group of us were standing outside and watching one of the greatest shows of the universe. At about 7,500 feet, without any influence of city lights, we watched the stars, Milkyway, etc., with such clarity that it sears a memory of significance, much like a snapshot on a negative. Awesome view of God’s glory.
Sleep came after a lot of laughter. I mean a lot of exhaustive laughter that evening… and a lot of snoring. It seemed like it was in shifts. But that did not matter. The coyote yapping right outside our adobe and sheetmetal church residence was my concern. I waited for the yapping to go to a yonder distance before making any midnight strolls to the outhouse!!
Wednesday, August 16th
Morning call came with the sunrise. We packed our cots, agreed to avert eyes while people dressed under sleeping bags, and loaded up the Suburbans. Devotions were led by Geovani, who reminded us that God does not send His injured into the battle. God provides a balm for healing and cares for His people before giving them their next assignments. We are urged to give our best skills boldly. The worship was so intense. Every head and hand was lifted and every eye wept. I do not care how your machisimo is maintained. When our Guatemalan team gave their testimonies, it just became too much to try to be reserved.
We squeezed the Suburbans down the road as we made our way to the last village, Hierba Buena, Jalapa. Again, another garaged-sized church and a host of people awaiting medical care and Jesus. In every village, the people came dressed in their very best clothes. We made our way to a two-room adobe house with five foot doors. Perry and Roger, both taller than six feet, violently ‘examined’ the door frames with the top of their heads! Duck!! Oh-oh. Good thing we are traveling with doctors with bandages!! We watched the congregational women cook tortillas for our breakfast for a while but left to set up the clinic until we were called to eat. We ate in shifts. The sun was bright and the children were dressed in brilliant colors. The church floor was as hard as concrete, but then it occurred to me that this was not concrete. It was true hard-packed earth, but very leveled. A work of care and skill. The benches, like in other churches, were rough-hewn planks. We worked again at our counseling stations. The children’s ministers were conducting their classes on the mountainside amongst the vegetation, as there was no clear flat spot. Children were being led to Christ.
I met a woman dressed in brilliant local indigenous dress. She had lost her husband this year. I shared some of my losses. I learned that she’d had 16 children, but only her 6 daughters still live. I realized that Guatemala suffered 36 years of civil war. I did not ask any more probing questions, but told her that there is one who knows the pain of giving up His son’s life for others. She accepted Christ as her Savior. We held hands and prayed. I realized that she and I spoke to one another in separate languages, but all the while looking each other in the eye. We only heard our interpreter. The Holy Spirit orchestrated. As she walked away, she assured me that she would also be praying for me. I know that she meant it. I drank in that moment reflectively and spanned my attention over other G Team groups talking to other villagers and reflected on how often scenes and decisions such as this were going on and had happened over this past week. How many over the last year with other short-term missionaries and Medical Misssions staff? This is the second time that I described something with the word “awesome.”
Thursday, August 17th
This was our free day. We went to La Antiqua to shop for souvenirs and gifts for our loved ones/supporters. We also got a tour of a jade factory and store. But first, we stopped for lunch at the nicest McDonald’s we’d ever seen. It had a McInternet section, fountains inside and out, statues, and a landscaped courtyard with a view of a volcano (and a bench with Ronald in the middle). Such a photo op. That night, we joined the Medical Missions staff and their families for dinner at El Campero and celebrated Ruth’s (Tuti’s) birthday. She’s in charge of the children’s ministry and had shared her testimony of God’s faithfulness to her and her family on our last clinic morning. We’re going to miss these folks.
Friday, August 18 th (and slightly into the 19 th)
We had our last devotion time with the Medical Missions staff, and then Dietrich surprised us with a very special gift. He’d made a DVD music video for us with still shots and video clips from the week we’d just experienced. “Thank You For Giving To The Lord” was the song, and Dietrich told us to think of it as a ‘thank you’ from the people of Guatemala that we’d just served. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. We had to say our goodbyes at the house, because new airport security rules wouldn’t allow the staffers to enter the airport with us.
After circling around Peoria for a while during a storm, our flight was detoured to Chicago’s Midway airport. We refueled and got into Peoria after midnight. We learned that there had been quite a crowd waiting for us earlier, and some of them were still there when we finally arrived a bit bleary-eyed.
What’s next
Many “good ripples” have happened since the trip, but you’ll have to come visit us at a G Team meeting to hear some of them. The 2007 G Team meets at least monthly (twice per month as the trip gets closer).