Inviting You In On An Outreach

                                           Inviting You In…On An Outreach

Theology in the Trenches

By Kathleen Kjolhaug

 

My final column of 2021 talked about an outreach trip to Guatemala and that by the time you read it, I’d be back. Well, I’m back, and for the next several weeks, you are invited on a journey. We’ll be traveling to Hogar de Vida, Homes of Life, a children’s home in the mountains of Guatemala.

This journey will not change the world…but it will change the perspective from which you see it. And in case you are wondering, we’ll be heading to the village of San Andres, Sajcabaja—high into the mountain regions approximately five hours from Guatemala City. This home was established and continues to be anchored by Tim and Dena Stromstad. Tim grew up in the Fertile-Beltrami area of northern Minnesota and many a team from around the area and beyond have served on short-term teams alongside them. I thank you ahead of time for entering in.

A few thoughts came to mind as I wondered which story you might like to hear.

 

·         Should I share that going up a mountain is a whole lot easier than coming down?

·         Should I share that sometimes obedience means GO and other times it means STOP…turn around…GO BACK!

·         Should I share we almost turned around in Fargo as we missed our connecting flight to Dallas? However, when someone said, “There’s a good chance we’d lose the fourteen fifty pound totes already checked through to Guatemala”—we suddenly became like “The Little Engine that Could” as we needed to get those goods to the children up the mountain even if it meant quickly dropping them off, turning around, and coming home?

·         Should I share that at that moment the trip became 100% about the children and zero percent about any expectations we had as a team?

·         Should I share about Oralia? The word for prayer in Spanish is ORAR. The word for cry in Spanish is LLORAR. Oralia was the overseer of the children’s home for a season. Often times our prayers are linked to tears and our tears to prayers. And there is so much more to Oralia’s story…so much more to share.

·         Should I share that when we went up into the mountain to Hogar de Vida one day we went even further up the mountain to wash, braid, and cut the hair upon 75 little heads?

·         Should I share that this was the school Oralia was doing extended outreach in when she found twin girls extremely malnourished in a home nearby?

·         Should I share she built relationships of trust and was able to get the little girls physically stronger and even able to get them to attend the school? And a Church? And make a connection to a living faith?

·         Should I share about Oralia and how she—while working at Hogar de Vida had not only the staff fast until noon each Friday but also the children in the home?

·         Should I share with you that what touched deepest was visualizing a little child’s fasting and prayer being poured out for me—for you—that we knew nothing of?

·         Should I share about a little boy and his sister who arrived about a month earlier than we had and how he spoke not Spanish, nor Quiche but a different dialect altogether that no one in the home spoke?

·         Should I share that we had one team member who was a carpenter and built a wall within a room that needed to be a secure area in which to place certain items so the children couldn’t get at them—and one night the little guy went missing? And as we spread out to find him, we found him under the shelving unit within that room, sleeping on the cement because that was his comfort zone from street life?

How do you tell a million stories in a few hundred words or less? The answer? You read between the lines. Between the lines is the fine print, and in the fine print are His footprints.

“As we make our plans, He orders our footsteps” and weaves the stories both the seen and the unseen (Prov. 16:9). And in the unseen are the miracles. Look for the miracles and therein lies a million more. They are His as it’s not about us—rather, it’s all about Him.

Perhaps Guatemala is not so different than where you sit at the moment as His handiwork is everywhere. Yet, I had the privilege of seeing with new eyes while serving at Hogar de Vida and I pray this glimpse given will help you view each story as sacred.

May God bless your presence here as now you, too, will forever see the world through the eyes of Hogar de Vida.  Amen.