Central America Revisited – Day Seven

Why do bad things happen to good people? Today I was really challenged when my teacher began asking me my understanding of why God allows bad things to happen to good people and good things to bad people. This is a challenge to discuss in English, but in Spanish it became a monumental task. Out of a five hour class, we only spent about 15 minutes on the lesson plan and another 45 minutes on my reading a story and answering his questions, which led to the question of bad things happening to good people. The balance of our time was spent on this topic. I shared with my teacher that I believe our perspective is much too limited because we focus only on our time here on earth and God is focused on eternity. Our time in relation to eternity doesn’t really amount to much. God is calling us to connect with God’s vision and God’s presence every second of every day. Whether our time is difficult or easy, short or long, it really is just a blink of an eye in God’s sight. The example I shared was as follows: If I took my fist and smashed your hand on the desk, next week it would only be a faint memory (provided I didn’t break any bones). From the perspective of your entire lifetime, the pain you may have experienced in that brief moment really becomes meaningless outside of the moment it occurred. The struggles we experience in this life are the same. In light of eternity, they are meaningless. What is truly important is to cherish each moment and to recognize God’s presence in each moment. Class went by faster today than any class I have encountered during my trips here to Guatemala.

After class, I made a quick trip home for lunch and to grab my laundry and take it to the lavaderia. The group then traveled to la clinica medica methodista. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to see the work of the Methodist Church in Guatemala. The clinic provides medical, dental, and visual care (for those of you from Ramsey, does this sound familiar?). This particular clinic is open one day a week and sees approximately 100 people between the various services. We had an opportunity to see the examination rooms and storage rooms for the medicine. On the second floor of the building is the Volunteer in Mission Office and the meeting room for the Methodist Executive Committee. There are representatives from three different regions that serve on the executive committee, along with the President of the Church. The Methodist Church in Guatemala does not have a Bishop, but a President. In the VIM office, the Director of Construction also has an office. The VIM office is only involved in construction. Doris, the Director of VIM gave us the tour of the offices, the fellowship hall/kitchen where many groups eat and the newly constructed facility for groups to be housed. Right now they are constructing more rooms, so teams live on the site, eat on site and are working to provide more housing for other teams. They are also trying to develop a facility that is large enough to accommodate the annual meeting of all of the church representatives in Guatemala. There are approximately 80 Methodist Churches in Guatemala. La iglesia Peniel is the only Methodist church in Quetzaltenango. Most of the Methodist Churches are in the rural areas. There is one church in Chichicastenango. They are not sure why the church has only been able to grow in the rural areas, but they think it may be because of the cost of starting a church in the urban areas and the medical services have been a primary ministry of the Methodist Church in Guatemala. The rural areas have a greater need for these services.

The independence of team members is showing through and creating a few challenges for me along the way. It isn’t anything that cannot be resolved, but always a challenge. As always, I pray that everything will work itself out in due time and the experience will be a positive one for everybody. Tomorrow will be a new day with new challenges! For those that have chosen to be part of the team, I feel that there is a positive relationship growing among the members. I will certainly hate to see Janice and Anna head back to the States on Saturday, because they have provided a lot of energy to the team. This really has been a great team to work with and I appreciate everyone’s patience with me. Most of the group had dinner in La Taqueria Restaurant tonight. I joined the group but didn’t eat because I wanted to have dinner with my family since it would be the last night I would share dinner with them.

I had a great time with my family at dinner. Several jokes were shared. I asked if I could take pictures of the family and we had a good conversation. I really wish I had more time to get to know them. I am sure that Robert will know them very well when he leaves after 5 weeks.

Tomorrow I will be visiting the glass factory with my teacher and then in the afternoon we will be cooking for the school dinner in the evening. This is much too short, but it has been a great week. My closing thought for tonight is the passage that I shared with my teacher today in the midst of our discussion “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord”. Isn’t that the truth! Just a quick note – this may be the last post for this trip because I don’t know if I will have internet access in El Salvador.