Guatemala medical missions trip

​During my first college spring break, I decided to go with my church’s college team to San Juan, Guatemala on a medical missions trip. We partnered with a church down there called Mount Shamai, and served the men, women, and children of Guatemala through installing stove tops in village homes, building houses for those in need, playing with children, creating prescription glasses for those to aid in vision, giving pills for pain, prenatal vitamins, etc, & offering up stretches in the physical therapy unit to help with back, neck, and body pain. However, we were also there on a missions trip; to share the Gospel with the people of Guatemala, some hearing this truth for the very first time.

Exploring the villages of San Juan and playing with kids

Going into this trip, I did not know what to expect, so I simply didn’t. I know it is good to have good expectations and all, but I was coming off a rough week that consisted of reaching for high expectations only to be disappointed by family and loved ones. Therefore, I told myself I would just go into this trip with an open heart and open mind and see where God takes me in this journey outside the country.
Whenever people come back from mission trips, the typical response is “it was INCREDIBLE. best. time. of. my life. Amazing. Insane. Indescribable.
Now I’m not saying it wasn’t any of those things because I would be lying, so I come to you with complete and utter honesty. It was incredible…but it was also challenging, difficult in many ways. Growing-emotionally, spiritually, socially. It was beautiful, hard, eye-opening, and humbling. Different. It was very, very different, and out of my comfort zone. I enjoy being able to make healthy choices in what I eat, shower when I feel dirty, or go to sleep when I feel tired. This mission trip pushed me in ways my body didn’t want to push, took me to places my mind did not want to prioritize. But it was these challenges that grew me spiritually and rely on God whole heartedly and blindly. I had to trust that God had a plan for these people of Guatemala, and that I would be a vessel in carrying out that plan.

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These people of Guatemala live such simplistic yet difficult lives. These people of Guatemala experience such joy in so little. And here I am feeling pity and guilt as I sink in so much excess back at home. So much excess, yet sometimes not enough for satisfaction. Never enough.

I prayed to God. And I prayed for answers, clarity, words. But that’s the thing about faith. Faith requires not knowing everything and being okay with it. God wouldn’t be God if we were on the same pedestal as He; us being all-knowing would defy who God is because no one can be God but God. So I searched. I served this week with a big heart and chose kindness, patience, gratitude, and compassion towards all the people I encountered. Faith is very much objective, especially shown in the New Testament with the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But there is also the subjective; the experiences that connect us individuals to the Lord through these stories in a very unique way.

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I think God spoke to me this week through community. He showed me the power of community through the people I worked and served alongside with, as well as the joyful kids of Guatemala who embraced me with open arms and laughed with me. God pursues us to pursue lives of relationship because that is what life it all about. Life is about living in relationship with others; after all, we live for a God who is constantly pursuing a relationship with us, so why don’t we run to him? Why do we choose to turn God into a religion and check him of the list after our daily devotional? Why can’t we choose to live every single aspect of our lives for the glory of Him? We are only as close to God as we choose to be.
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To end, sometimes to get somewhere we have never been before, we have to do something we never done before. My faith was lukewarm; I used God when I needed him, and I neglected him when I didn’t. This mission trip opened my eyes to what’s truly important and what should be constantly founding my spiritual house-God. Then family, friends, loved ones, careers-those can build upon it. However, He is the only reliable, strong, and fulfilling foundation who can hold me up, and lift me up to lift others up.
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Thank you Mckinney for a life-giving, incredible, and humbling experience in San Juan, Guatemala.
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Picture Captured & Edited By Liv Shin