Well, my first 4 days in Honduras were
difficult, to say the least. But I guess any new beginning comes with its
challenges! Luckily, God is so good, and constantly reminded me of His
presence. One day, when I was feeling particularly lost and lonely, I prayed
that God would give me a word to remind me that He is with me, and I randomly
opened the Bible to Deuteronomy, chapter 31, and read: “The Lord will go over
before you…be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread…for it is
the Lord your God who goes with you; He will not fail you or forsake you…” I
really needed this! Just another reminder that God is there, He truly cares
about even our smallest needs, and He wants us to trust in His Love.
So, after 4 days in Honduras, I took a
13 hour bus trip through the incredibly beautiful mountains of Honduras (my
stomach didn’t necessarily think the crazy mountain roads were so beautiful…),
and ended up in Antigua, Guatemala. This city used to be the capital of the
Spanish Empire in Central America, and today it is a beautiful little city,
nestled in a valley between 3 massive volcanoes, and is famous for its Spanish
language schools.
Upon my arrival, I got to meet Jamie
Berns, a fellow missionary who will be serving with me in Honduras with the
Missioners of Christ. We are the 2 “new ones” coming down to serve. We stayed
in the house of a lovely woman named Hilda (or Gilda in español), who lives on
her own. She made us 3 amazing meals every day, and helped us with our Spanish
(since she doesn’t speak a word of English).
I took 4 weeks of Spanish classes, one
on one with the same professor for the whole month. Not a word of English was
spoken...it was a bit intense, but really good! Our schedule was the same each
day: class from 8-12, back to Hilda´s for lunch until 130, and class again from
130 to 4. We lived really close to a beautiful old church called San Francisco.
It was built around 1570, and was partially destroyed during 2 earthquakes in
the 1700s, so it looks really crazy, half standing and half in ruins. The only
saint in all of Central America, Santo Hermano Pedro, is buried there. He came
from the Spanish Canary Islands to serve the people of Guatemala, especially
the sick and poor. Pope John Paul II came to Antigua in 2002 to canonize him.
So each day after class, we would go to Mass there at 5, and then pray at the
tomb of this Saint. I felt a connection to him, since he also came from a
foreign land to serve the poor. So I loved to ask for his help and guidance for
my mission.
After
this, we would return to Hilda´s for dinner, and then go to adoration – there
was a chapel very near our house that had adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
24-7. So each day I would go to pray to Jesus in the Eucharist and to spend
time with Him. Receiving peace and strength in these times of Mass and
adoration each day is the only thing that kept my brain from exploding from
Spanish overload!!
The classes were just great. The school
is situated in a big garden next to the ruins of a huge church, with little
private cabanas dispersed throughout, which are the classrooms. My Spanish
professor´s name was Paola, and she was amazing! We had 6 hours each day
together, and much of this time was spent laughing J The universal language! We also talked about many really
interesting topics…everything from saints, the Hunger Games, politics…you name
it! She was so kind as to allow me to skip class in order to take me to a
parade that her son was in and to her mom´s house for lunch, and she even
bought me LOADS of typical Guatemalan sweets!!
Coming from the mission in Honduras,
where I was shocked to find that it is too dangerous to go out of our house, I
could tangibly feel the FREEDOM that I had in Antigua. I never thought I could
be filled with such JOY just by being able to walk around outside!!! I lived
this freedom so intensely, not taking it for granted for even an instant. One
of my first evenings, I went out after dinner and bought a banana split. I
could not even believe how much I enjoyed it! I savored every ATOM of
flavor…literally. Its amazing…at home I would have gulped it down without
thinking. But when we take the time to really enjoy something, to recognize
that it is a gift that God has given us to make us happy and to show us His
Love, we can truly enjoy it so much more! It´s so easy to take things for
granted…but I definitely think that I am learning here to accept everything
(especially the smallest pleasures like ice cream or walking around) as a gift.
Guatemala received its independence from
Spain in 1821, and their “4th of July” is on September 15, so I was there for
the celebration! During a parade on the 14th, one of the volcanoes
next to Antigua named Fuego (fire) erupted in a BIG way! Throughout the day,
they had to evacuate 33,000 people from their homes in the surrounding
villages. I was literally just walking down the street when I looked up to see
a huge cloud of smoke in the sky…so crazy! So, that night, I did the only
rational thing a person could do…I climbed the volcano! I went with friends
from my school, and we took a huge truck and began our journey up toward the
peak. The “roads,” (or lack thereof) where CRAZY…we had to go about 3 miles per
hour, and many times we were sure the truck was going to flip. We were all in
the back of the truck, so we were planning how to best jump out and survive.
Eventually, after crashing through the jungle-like terrain for half an hour, we
made it to our stopping point. The volcano was spewing out lava and rocks with
such force, hundreds of feet in to the air, for hours and hours on end. It was
such a sight to see. Really a witness to the mystery and power of creation, and
even more so to its Creator. I was just in awe.
The Independence Day festivities were so
beautiful. The people of Guatemala are very proud of their culture and their
heritage, and it really shows in their celebrations. Even today, 40% of the
population is indigenous or native, and the people still wear their native,
extremely colorful clothing. In the parades for Independence Day, kids and high
school bands marched around in various types of native clothing or costumes,
playing really fun and upbeat music. It was really very simple, but so deep and
so meaningful. They raised their flag and sang songs to Jesus. It´s still such
a Catholic culture there, and the people express their faith outwardly in
public constantly. EVERY store, shop, even bank, is named after Jesus, Mary,
the Holy Spirit, a saint…its really quite incredible!
And the faith of the people is just
incredible too. Many of them don’t have very much, but they trust so much in
God and have a sense of joy about them. One day, I was exploring the city, and
I found a really beautiful church just outside the city. I entered, and went
toward the front to pray. There were only 2 other people in the whole church---
a mother was sitting on the floor in the very front, holding her handicapped
son, who was probably about 30, and staring up at the Tabernacle repeating over
and over again: “Gracias, Jèsus…Gracias.” I was hit so hard by this. We live in
a world where many would say that the old, weak, and suffering have no quality
of life, and should just be euthanized. And here is a woman, holding her son,
who doesn´t live up to many of our standards of having a good “quality of
life”…and yet she´s just thanking God for him, over and over again.
Each day when I went to adoration, I
would meet a man and woman who stood outside the whole day. I would always just
stop to talk to them a bit, and eventually we became friends. The woman, Maria,
tries to earn money by selling things that she knits, and the man, Romero,
offers to wash the cars of people who park near there. They´re there every day,
9am to 9pm, basically just standing around. I learned that they are brother and
sister, have never been married, and haven no one else in the world but each
other.
One
evening, I came out of adoration, and began to talk to Maria. She told me that
her face hurt, and I asked her why. She told me that Romero, her brother, had
hit her in the face really hard. She went on to tell me that he does this very
often, for no apparent reason. She said she is so sick of this awful life, and
really just wants to kill herself…….What could I do? I just stayed with her,
and she cried and cried. She has an amazingly deep faith in Jesus, and I just
reminded her how precious she is in His eyes, how much her life means to Him. It
was so devastating to see the depth of her pain. We prayed together to God and
asked for His help. As I left, I just felt sick, and burst in to tears. What
could I do?! Nothing. This is a woman who is poor, has to stand outside hungry
all day, and is abused by the only person she has in this world. It´s such a
horrendous feeling to see this suffering and injustice, and be absolutely helpless
to do anything about it. I can offer her love, remind her that although things
are just awful, there is something better that awaits her. But sometimes I wish
I could do more! I think that a lot of the problems in the world, we must
accept that we´re not going to be able to fix them by ourselves. We just have
to be there for people, and love them as much as we can. This in itself,
although not much, is actually a bigger help than I think we could ever
imagine.
I made a bunch of new friends, learned a
lot of Spanish, and had some incredible experiences…it was hard to leave! But I
didn´t come down to Central America to be on vacation; I came to be on mission.
So I was really excited to get back to Honduras and start my mission!
This is getting excessively long (I
warned you last time!!), so I will stop for now. Please keep my new friends
Maria and Romero in your prayers, as well as friends and family members of my
Spanish professor (Ottoniel and Rony) who recently passed away.
Thanks for the continued prayers! I can
seriously feel them every day, and I will need them more and more as my true
mission begins!
Peace and all good things!
Erick
