Guatemala - Part 1

Yes, we are in Guatemala for about 10 days taking a ride with Joel Van Dyke, CRWM of Guatemala, as he carries out a Vision Trip with students from Kuyper College. We were asked to observe and learn how he runs this trip and we jumped at the opportunity to see more of tag along on one of Joel's well-known trips and to hear more of his day to day work.

Guatemala is pretty amazing...we joined the group at Lake Atitlan, said to be the most beautiful lake in Central America and is located in the middle of three volcanoes. While there in the village of Panajachel we visited a catholic church and heard the story of an American Priest who humbly served and witnessed to the Mayan people there during the midst of the war. He was murdered one night inside his own office by two masked men, the empty bullet shells and blood stained wall still found in his quarters are a testament to this. The man who took his spot asked his friend (and renowned author/speaker) Henri Nouwen to join him...this was at the time that Nouwen was living in Toronto. We encourage you to research this and read his book Love in a Fearful Land: A Guatemalan Story. (google it...it is an inspiring story of a man serving as we are all called to do.)

We then we went to visit a place where some of the Mayan people still worship and burn incense to the carved god maximon. This idol changes homes once per year and it is voted upon which home it will go to next. Everyday of the year the home which has maximon will have people praying and burning incense to it. This experience shook many of us up to the realities of idols and we reflected on what kind of "maximons" are prevalent in our culture and lives.

Yesterday, in the morning, the group visited a forensics lab where anthropologists work to identify the bones of thousands of people who died in the massacre of the 35 year civil war. It was sad and yet it was really cool how these people give of themselves to bring dignity and justice back to the families who had lost loved ones. Once these bodies are legally identified the lab assists in giving the families a proper burial of their loved ones. This work has been going on for almost 20 years and the lab has identified over 5000 bodies. This is a amazing feat but dwarfed by the number of people who were killed or kidnapped during the war, almost 200,000.

Later in the afternoon, they went to the International Justice Mission which is a human rights agency which advocates for the rights of those who are exploited, and victims of violence and/or sexual abuse. (It is also located in Nicaragua.) http://www.ijm.org/.

Therehas been a lot of rain here so some activities haven't turned out as hoped, but we are enjoying the welcome climate change that Guatemala offers. We have been wearing jeans and long sleeves pretty much all the time! Today we spent the day in Antigua seeing more of the ruins and hearing more of the history of the culture. (Antigua was the first capital for all of central america when it was considered one country by the Spaniards and is also a World Heritage site - named by the United Nations.)

So many events in the history of Guatemala overlaps with events in the history of Nicaragua, so it has been an extremely informative and heart/mind moving experience so far. We are so thankful for this time here as we are really starting to understand the history of Central America and this in turn helps us understand some of the reasons and events that have mapped out Nicaragua's history not only as a country but as a civilization and culture. As Joel often says - "unless you map out and see the pain of a city (where it is bleeding), the hope for a city, and God's heart for a city" ...we will never be able to serve the way God has called us to serve - "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you..."