Mission to Guatemala
from Lisa Haack

A team of students, faculty and partners from Belmont University’s School of Occupational Therapy and School of Physical Therapy are ministering in Guatemala during Belmont’s spring break, the seventh year a team has traveled there.

All three flights came into Guatemala without problems Saturday.  Much to our surprise everyone “passed” immigration and no pat-downs were required.  Guatemala welcomed us with weather that reminded us of home…45 degrees and windy!  Burr!!!  In contrast, the reception was warm and we all settled into our rooms.  We were grateful for the amenities including flushable toilets and a warm shower.  It was a restful sleep with an occasional celebratory fireworks launched from near-by. 😉

Morning brought us many new adventures.  After a great breakfast (Thank you the ladies who prepared our food!) we were welcomed by Elim Church.  Pastor Hector Nufio welcomed us with a prayer in his office.  Church members kindly served us the most delicious coffee and Guatemalan sweet bread before the morning service.  During the service, Pastor Hector Nufio publically welcomed our group in front of the church and had the congregation come up and pray for our team.  The worship service was very jubilant and moving.  Even without fully understanding all the words we could feel the Holy Spirit moving through his people. (A big “thank you” to the translators for their diligence in translating during the service!)  Pastor Hector Nufio reminded us that we are all have a purpose that God has called us to and it is our responsibility to act on it.  The word spoken today gave us inspiration for our new team name…”Catalyst”.  We are the catalyst brining God’s love to the least of these.  At the end of the service Pastor Hector Nufio invited our team to come up and pray for the members of the congregation who needed prayer.  Many tears were shed and hugs of comfort were shared.  All were grateful for our team coming to bless those in Guatemala.  In the midst of this we were blessed many times over, many of us realizing our purpose of being here!

To say the least Las Conchas is “off the beaten path”, eventually the paved road ended and we were surprised by how well our van drivers held the rocky, sandy, cliff bound roads. (Many thanks to our van drivers!) Following this exhilarating ride, we spent time visiting with community members and playing with children.  We were welcomed into many homes and asked what their needs were.  Many asked for prayers for the health of their family, provisions for food and education, and healing from deep wounds.  Team members volunteered to lead prayer for all families who invited us into their homes.  One particular home we visited was particularly memorable, the home of Carlos and his mother Martha.  A steep cement ramp was recently constructed outside of Carlos’ home to aide with his transport into the community.  Before this his mother would carry him up a very steep, rocky hill.  His family invited us in to look at his living quarters.  It was determined that some more modifications would be needed to improve the quality of his life.  We will pass this information along to the next team.  All families visited were grateful to the Shalom Clinic and our team for the provisions, love and prayer given to them.  We ended our community outing playing soccer with the children of the community.  Wow, do they have some amazing talent here!

Well, that’s Day 1 from Guatemala City. Stay tuned…there’s more to come.