Day 8 Heading home… Final thoughts, reflections, and opportunities for action

1/26/2013

From Karin:

There are not words to summarize the amazing experience we had. I know we experienced God. He was showing us His word in so many ways. We read it, we saw it, we heard it, we smelled it and we felt it. Our challenge now and always is to live it, every day. When God is as obvious as He was this week, when we are “unplugged”, when we are surrounded by positive role models and encouragement and when we have no distractions, it is much easier to be who and how God wants us to be. Now what? The distractions are back, we are plugged in, the phone, texts and e-mails are rolling in. We need to focus. We need to remember that the most important relationship in our lives is our relationship with Jesus Christ. Without Him, we will not be capable of agape love. Even with His Holy Spirit, our human nature will take over. As we return to our daily lives, how appropriate it is that we read from 2 Samuel 6:14-23. David, “a man after God’s own heart” messed up… more than once, yet he always ran back to God for forgiveness and for a pure heart to be restored. In these verses, David is rejoicing. We had lots of opportunities to rejoice and we did but we know upon our reentry we will mess up. Our prayer is that God will keep our hearts focused on Him and His children around the world.

The final verse that Heather shared with us was Philipians 1:3-6. “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray for joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”. God has begun a good work in Guatemala and at CPCC and it was such a privilage to be a part of this from the beginning. We will pray with joy for our friends in Guatemala and look forward to the amazing things that God is going to do there and here in Brownsburg.

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From Jeff:

It is hard to believe our trip is concluding. We ate breakfast and prayed with the kitchen / cleaning staff who took care of us so well during our stay. We shared our final devotion time together. We finished our time at The Lodge as we began it: by reading Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” We took a few minutes to be still.

Before departing, Heather shared with us ways that The Church can advocate for our friends in Guatemala and throughout the world. She read from Proverbs 31:8, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” Some of the specific ways we can all serve as advocates include:
* Pray
* Sponsor a child
* School supplies drive. School supplies are more expensive in Guatemala than in the US. Consider end of school year drive, as kids clean out lockers. Used supplies are still valued.
* Change drive (collect change to donate)
* One-time gifts.
For more ideas of advocacy, see www.visiontrust.org/advocacy

Our team has experienced and learned so much during this trip, much of which is yet to be processed. We have spent time with a community that is poor in resources, but rich in faith. We have witnessed joy, generosity, and unrestrained worship. We pray for God’s blessings on the children, the community, and the teachers, who seek to better the community spiritually, educationally, and physically. For ourselves, we pray that we will return with joy, boldness, changed hearts, and a deeper relationship with God.

After our week with the VisionTrust Guatemala team and community of Los Verdes, our team is even more excited about CPCC’s partnership. VisionTrust Guatemala’s team is a group of talented and dedicated servants of Christ. There are and will be many ways for the people of our church to get involved in this ministry. We believe that God will do great things through this partnership!

Our team is grateful for all of your prayers and support for this trip.