Lessons Learned on a Mission Trip

I apologize for not blogging from Guatemala. We had really unreliable Wi-Fi while in the country. But I had a WONDERFUL time meeting and getting to love on 76 kiddoes last week. There are so many heartbreaking stories that these children have to tell. Our prayer is for them to grow up and achieve their dreams and also lead successful lives but more importantly to come to know Jesus as their Savior. For only He can heal their hearts.


Many lessons learned that I will share but first let me share some of my somewhat funny lessons learned from this trip:

• Under no circumstances eat any veggies or drink the water while in Guatemala (2 of our translators got REALLY sick after eating salad. And they are FROM Guatemala)
• Do NOT flush toilet paper in the toilet while in Central America. (SO hard to get used to that one)
• You might need earplugs if you don't want to wake up at 4 AM. Local birds start singing REALLY loudly about that time even before the roosters.
  
• Lice abounds on these little heads, but they don't like tea tree oil. Hugs and love is better and overcomes the fear of lice.
  
• If you have stickers {or candy :-) } children will swarm you and NOT leave you alone.
  
• Lack of sleep equals horrible visual judgment (yes I have the bruises to prove it).
• Under NO circumstances smile at the street vendor unless you are prepared to have them follow you.
• However, smiling when you don't understand the language goes a long way to gain sympathy and help.
• Be careful to brush up on your language dictionary to make sure you have the sayings "stand up" and "sit down" correct. Yes I was telling children to stand up the entire first day when I was really needing them to sit down. And I kept wondering why they were giving me puzzled looks and not doing what I was asking. Insert huge laugh at myself here _______. Unfortunately LOTS of stories like this one..kept mixing up phrases.
  
• If you get the accent right and you start mimicking the translators phrases...people may think you speak Spanish and start rattling off information and questions...funny shopping moment on my own one day.

Last but not least, but not funny is if you go and work with children for an entire week for almost 9 hrs a day you can guarantee you will lose your heart to if not one MANY of them.
Here are just a few of them.