"What Has Been the Highlight So Far?"

While I was talking to Rebecca this evening, she asked a very simple question. "What has been the highlight of the trip so far?" Rarely do I think I make sense while talking about the trip while I am still in Guatemala, especially when I am on the phone with a thousand things on my mind. Fortunately, she is used to my babbling and knows that there is just no way that I can make sense of it all myself right now, let alone pull it together for a phone conversation. But her question hasn't left my mind since. I could not answer it then, but now when I know I should be sleeping, my mind is busy and the answer has become very clear.

What has been the highlight of this trip so far?

Witnessing the answer to prayers play out before my eyes while I stand in awe. Who would have known that money for more food baskets would come at the last minute and from the most unexpected places? Who knew that a guy would decide 5 days before the trip to travel with us, adding a much needed third pair of hands that are much stronger than mine and Carolyn's? Who knew that prayer after prayer would be answered, often at the last minute throughout each day so far and undoubtedly tomorrow? Who knew the answer to all of those questions and so many more? We serve an awesome God!

What has been the highlight?

Standing before women with tears in their eyes because they have just been told that they will be receiving food for their families.

Highlight - Sliding a pair of new socks and shoes onto feet that have been so dirty and cracked because their old shoes basically have no soles.

-Fighting back tears while praising God that the teenage boy in front of me no longer has to worry about the physical pain of being burned with cigarettes and beaten and praying that while the scars will always remain on his skin, that his heart is healed more every day.

-Standing in a crowd of children that will do anything to learn more about Jesus.

-Remembering names and faces in Pueblo Nuevo and being remembered.

-Being strongly convicted and knowing that I have to do something for children that beg and sell on the streets in Antigua and not being sure what to do. So many are abused and must feel so alone and unloved. I took extra Jesus story books out of the box before our distribution of them in Pueblo Nuevo. After 2 days, those copies are floating around Antigua in the hands of children that I pray will learn that they are not alone and they are loved. Squatting down beside a four year old child that is holding her hand out on the street, placing a few Qs and The Jesus Story in it and looking in her eyes while telling her that God loves her...still can't really talk about that particular child without crying.

-Being blessed by those He is blessing.

- Everything.

This trip is proving to be one of those trips that is changing things...changing opinions, changing ideas, changing hearts, changing me.

Our last day in Pueblo Nuevo is tomorrow. I am dreading the good-byes and am having a hard time with the fact that we will not return until April. Four months away from these precious children and families seems like a lifetime to me and I said to Rebecca tonight during my babbling, I am not supposed to do this. I am not supposed to keep leaving this place. And I am not supposed to keep leaving my family in the U.S. to do this. This is always the case, but this trip, more than the other two this year, has confirmed what I have believed all along. We may have been born in the United States and love the U.S. with our entire hearts and we may have to leave a lot behind, but Guatemala is where we belong...this is our home away from Home, at least until He calls us somewhere else. 2010 is going to consist of a few week long mission trips, but it is also going to consist of a lot of listening, a lot of following and resisting the fear and doubts that tend to come when you start giving up more than you are comfortable with. 2010 may just be the year that we learn the answer to the questions...how and when? How do we do this...how do we get there...and when do we move?

Actual trip details and a few pictures coming soon.