Guatemala---Final Instalment

On any normal Sunday morning, we attend services at South Main Baptist Church in Houston, but on Sunday, April 22, we were far away from Houston. The girls at the Buckner Transitional Home like to go to Casa de Dios, so we went with them. Casa de Dios (House of God) is a Pentecostal church which began in the 90's with 12 members. Their current worship center seats about 3,500 (4,000 with the standing room filled up), and they fill it full four times every Sunday. Obviously, God is touching many hearts in Guatemala City! The worship style is very different from what we experience every week; folks may comment about how loud the organ is in our sanctuary, but in truth it doesn't begin to compare with how loud a rock band can be! We stood for almost an hour while everybody sang and clapped and danced with the music. Then the preaching began. Fortunately, headsets were available through which we could hear the English translation of the sermon. We all agreed that the sermon was very inspiring, even if the worship style was not within our comfort zone.




After church, we visited the nearby shopping mall and had lunch at the food court. This was our chance to try ordering on our own (the translators were at the ready in case of disaster), and Robyn went first, choosing Burger King. She got what she asked for---el numero uno con queso, plain, y un pepsi light sin ice---a number one with cheese, plain, and a pepsi light without ice. Yeah, I know, it sounded like "Spanglish," but seeing her success, I played copycat and ordered exactly the same thing! We had a few minutes after lunch to walk around the mall with a couple of the girls, then it was time to move on to our next adventure.

There is an orphanage in Antigua called "Manchen," and many of the girls that are in Buckner's homes now lived there previously. It's a state orphanage which is run by a group of nuns and houses about 90 girls ages 13-18, several of whom are mentally impaired. Many of the girls there are "social orphans" placed in state care temporarily. In the states we would consider them foster children in care of Children's Protective Services. We were dropped off on the sidewalk outside the main gate. A high wall surrounds the entire compound, so we could see nothing of it until the gate was opened. When we went in, we were surrounded by girls coming up to greet us with hugs and kisses. One young lady in particular hugged me so hard, I thought she might "squeeze the stuffin' out of me!" We spent our short time there doing a couple of crafts activities with the girls and taking their pictures to put in the photo frames that they created. We had taken some gifts for them and gave each girl a teeny beanie baby and a silver bracelet; we left several bags of small candies and gum for the nuns to give out later. It was tough to have to say goodbye so soon; these girls will continue to be in our prayers.



We returned then to the city and freshened up for our final dinner with the older girls. All of us, including the two little babies, went to a nice Italian restaurant, where we had a dinner of chicken alfredo and carrot cake or chocolate cake for dessert. The girls had all dressed in their favorite outfits and looked especially nice (though they are all naturally very beautiful anyway!), and we enjoyed visiting with them one last time before we had to go home. It was LATE when we finally returned to the hotel, and we were glad that we didn't have an early flight the next morning.



We had to have one group photo with Jose ("Chepe") Velasquez, who faithfully led us and helped us overcome our linguistic deficiencies!

Monday was our day to return home. Everything went fairly smoothly, aside from Susan somehow leaving behind a large, fragile souvenir which she had been very carefully hand-carrying everywhere. The flight was on time, and we got back home just in time to wolf down a couple of Subway sandwiches (with lettuce---and tomatoes---which we had not been allowed to eat in Guatemala!) before going to orchestra rehearsal. It's taken us a while to get our stateside equilibrium back, and many images and memories from our trip remain fresh in our minds. We have a much clearer picture now of the the need that exists outside of our borders and the ways in which Christ's disciples worldwide are striving to make a difference. We're grateful to have had the opportunity to go.