My Spiritual Pilgrimage to Guatemala

My initial plan was to travel to Guatemala for a Spiritual Pilgrimage with the goals of connecting with God, learning from others and hopefully being transformed with humility by the experience. Upon hearing about the work of Lemonade International, I was moved to take a more active role and turn my spiritual pilgrimage into a mini mission trip to help the Lemonade International team with the important work that they do in the La Lemonada ghetto. Although I may not have had the solitude or study that a traditional pilgrimage usually entails, I feel my goals were achieved.

The entire trip was unforgettable. However, these are the moments that stood out for me.

• I spoke to many families and came to the realization that most of them had lost at least one child. Although my life of a lost child does not parallel that of most of my peers here, it did parallel most of the women I met in Guatemala. There was an odd sense of comfort in that discovery.

• Watching children walk down to the ravine to dump their trash and other children rummage through the trash in the river after the rain. You see, garbage men do not even go into the ghetto. Therefore, the people of La Lemonada dump their trash into the ravine. Initially this seems awful but then you realize that they don’t have any other choice.

• Accompanying Tita and her team of International workers into the ghetto each morning was in itself an emotional experience. I almost felt like I was part of a scene in a dramatic movie. Children with gobs of enthusiasm advanced on us squealing “Mana Tita, Mana Tita” (short for Hermana Tita or Sister Tita). Hugs, kisses and “Buenos Diaz” were doled out to everyone in the crowd. A screen writer could not write a scene this heartwarming.

• One of my goals for this trip was to find a child to sponsor. We had decided that we would like to sponsor a young girl in Colleen’s honor. It was important to me that I felt moved by the child I met. On the last day of our trip, we went to the playground to play with the kids from the Limon school during their “field day”. Shortly after arriving, I spotted a little girl that caught my eye and she approached me and hugged me. I asked her name and she said “Helen”. I quickly found out that she was 8 and that her favorite thing in the world was Hannah Montana. She had a light in her eye that reminded me of Colleen. After I communicated my desire to sponsor her to our hosts, I was told that before my arrival, Helen had told one of the teachers that she really wanted a “Madrina” (Godmother or Sponsor) and asked how she could get one. The teacher told her that all she could do was pray to God. Twenty minutes later, I showed up on the field and spotted her knowing that she was the girl that I had to sponsor. I look forward to the day when I can visit Helen again after she has been told that I am her Madrina.
  

What a wonderful feeling to be able to help a child.

See all of my pictures from the trip at my Picasa site.

Read more...

Helping Other Families in Guatemala

I came to La Lemonada to see firsthand what it is like in one of the largest slums in Central America. I have been following Lemonade International and Tita’s work through their blogs and I felt that God wanted me to come here.

My first day was an emotional one. After parking the car, we walked on foot, approaching the ghetto. Although I had seen it in pictures, it was hard to not be struck by the horror of the poverty. I have to admit, I was curious to see how people live in these seemingly uninhabitable shacks of sheet metal built on the side of a ravine. Afraid to look too close but curious at the same time. Sort of the way you feel when driving past a terrible car crash.

As the day unraveled, we had several close encounters that stirred my emotions. God had a purpose for me here. God needed me to see that other people lose children every day. A mother and father lost a son yesterday in a violent stabbing. I went with Tita to the wake and was able to share my story of how their pain will ease. Another family lost a son today (he hanged himself). Tomorrow we will find them. I hope I will be able to comfort them.

The sights and smells of the poverty here are disturbing but God is helping me see past that. There is more for me to see, more for me to feel, more for me to do. Today I feel blessed that I am fortunate to have enough money to travel here to do this work. Many people in the world are trapped, trapped in their sheet metal homes in the side of ravines.

Read more...

Going to Guatemala

I am very sorry that it has been so long since I posted on my blog. I am going to try to get better about that.

1) I am leaving on Sunday to spend a week in Guatemala for what was initially planned to be a spiritual pilgrimage but is turning into a mission trip. My friend Karen Brown and I will be spending the week with people from Lemonade International in La Lemonade which is the ghetto of Guatemala City. We will be primarily working with children. I have never done anything like this. I am looking forward to moving out of my comfort zone, doing something different and releasing my mind of all things cancer related for the week. Shifting my focus to the severely impoverished will be good perspective for me to gain.
2) Striving for More had their June Board Meeting and we added a new board member. We were all feeling a gap without a member that had experience with fund raising so that was a focus of my prayers for most of May. Deborah Harrell Meehan was voted onto the board and was quickly assigned as the chair of the fundraising committee. Deborah is the leader of the Wild Wacky Wonderful Women of the World and served as the President of the Wake Women's Center for the last 5 years. Her background, experience, contacts and wealth of knowledge make her a wonderful addition to our team. I am really excited that she has joined us.

3) FWV Distilled has agreed to take on Striving for More as a pro bono client to design and develop a new website for us. This is very exciting because they will be doing some market research work to determine the best approach for designing the new site. This has been the missing piece since I don't have a creative bone in my body.

Please pray for Karen and I as we travel to Guatemala. Also, please pray for Vince and Mackenna as they will be alone this week. Since most of you know how spoiled I am, I have no doubt that Vince is perfectly capable of handling things on his own. However, I will not have a cell phone and will not be touching base at home and we have never had time apart where we have not at least spoken to each other. This will be different for us.

Read more...