A letter from Leslie Vogel serving in Guatemala
Fall 2014 - One Week Can Change You
Dear friends, colleagues, and companions in God’s mission,
The tremendous gift, for me, about working with CEDEPCA is the focus throughout all of its four programs on Education that Transforms. (Romans 12:2—Be not transformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.)
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Leslie, Heidy & Emerson during Interpreting workshop.
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Participating in exercise during Intrepreting workshop.
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Emerson interpreting for Disaster Ministry psychologist Ana Paxtor.
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Leslie interpreting for group from Canada learning about environmental issues.
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Emerson carrying Eco-Filters distributed by CEDEPCA's Disaster Ministry.
“One week is not enough time to change Guatemala, but a week is enough time for Guatemala to change you.” This phrase has become the slogan for CEDEPCA’s Intercultural Encounters (IE) program, with which I work in my primary assignment as a facilitator with visiting groups. People of all ages and backgrounds come with good hearts, lots of good will, and a desire to “help” in some way; they want to fix something, paint something, dig up or plant something, share Christ with someone. They want to leave Guatemala better, in some way, than when they arrived.
From the beginning of our communications with a visiting group we challenge them that what they experience might be different than previous experiences or what they may have imagined a “short-term mission trip” to be. After all, group participants come with their own set of expectations. Many times, after seeing the challenges that Guatemala faces, our participants may go away wishing that they could have “done” more. What we, at CEDEPCA, try to emphasize is that the more important focus in this context is on being, on cultivating relationships, on getting to know, and on learning to trust someone.
Sometimes after a group leaves I wonder if I have adequately facilitated their learning process. Has the itinerary stretched them past their comfort zones and enabled them to get to know, talk with, listen to, and share with a person living in Guatemala? I wonder if they had the opportunity to truly open themselves to learning, to receiving, and to being?
I also take time to reflect on how the people of Guatemala might feel about these visits, about what they think, and how they benefit. Guatemalan hosts often take significant amounts of time away from their below-minimum-wage jobs to receive our groups with a hospitality seldom witnessed in the U.S. They share, generously, of the little food, living space, and other resources they have with people who were, a few hours earlier, complete strangers.
Emerson Morales, my Guatemalan colleague at CEDEPCA who has coordinated the Intercultural Encounters program for over seven years now, says that he believes Guatemalans do benefit from receiving these U.S. and Canadian visitors; he says they receive hope. Since most Guatemalans feel that the government and other public institutions really don’t care about their needs and their suffering, Emerson says, “It is a huge gift to know they have some friends in other countries who think about them, care about them, and who pray for them.”
Still, I often ask myself if CEDEPCA and I have facilitated this group to bring about the most change. Have we been able to challenge them in their learning? Have they taken anything back with them that will truly make a difference in how they live their lives and in how they see the world once they are back “home” in their comforts, their studies, their jobs, their families, and even in their churches?
I believe that, while it may be true, as Emerson says, that our IE participants bring hope, it is even more likely that our visitors encounter hope here in Guatemala. They spend a week to 10 days in a place where life cannot be taken for granted, where many people depend, literally, on God for their daily bread or daily tortilla in order to survive and to feed their families; being in this context, one experiences God in very real ways. God is palpably present everywhere: in the prayers of the poor as they wake up to face another day, thanking God for the gift of life and a new day, and as they give thanks over every meal, no matter how humble. God is present in the faith of people who face seemingly insurmountable obstacles, dangers and threats with the strong conviction that God is walking with them every step of the way. “Be not afraid, for I am with you” is a frequently repeated message throughout the Bible and is very alive in the hearts of Guatemalan Christians.
Many visitors meet God in the face of each person with whom they come into contact. We North Americans come from a culture where money and technology provide the “solutions” to almost everything. Therefore visitors often come to Guatemala with an emptiness or a longing in their spirits for something more. I believe that more than a few of our immersion group participants begin to catch a glimpse of that “something.” When they have opportunities to interact with people, there is almost always a human-heart connection. Through these interactions visitors of all ages and backgrounds experience God’s presence, faith in God, even hope in God, in ways that can be truly transformative in their lives.
“One week is not enough time to change Guatemala, but a week is enough time for Guatemala to change you.” Emerson’s words paraphrase a statement borrowed from Good News in Exile: Three Pastors Offer a Hopeful Vision for the Church, by Copenhaver, Robinson, & Willimon, p. 100,quoted in Barbara Battin’s When God’s People Travel Together, Vol. II: Reflecting and Acting on Mission Trip Experiences, p. 6. This excellent book is one of a three-volume set and is available through the Presbyterian Church Store, Item # 2435807014. Call 1-800-524-2612 or visit http://store.pcusa.org/Communications?search=Reflecting+and+Acting+on+Mission+Trip+Experiences. I strongly and highly recommend it and the companion volumes to every group leader of a mission or immersion trip.
Thank you for being part of my support community! I am deeply grateful because your prayers, words of encouragement, interested questions, and financial support make it possible for me to live into hope and to daily participate in God’s presence here in Guatemala. I invite you to make a gift, if you have not already done so, which will be matched by a World Mission donor if received before Dec. 31. I also invite you to accompany me with your prayers, communications and financial support as I accompany visiting groups into another year of adventure and faith during 2015.
May the grace and peace of Jesus the Christ be with each and every one of you.
Leslie
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 39
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 70
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