Lord of Love Lutheran Church ELCA – Omaha, NE

Much of my time in February and March was spent preparing for our campus ministry’s spring break trip to Guatemala.  A group of 11 students, Pastor Rebecca, her sister Amy, and myself traveled to the region around Guatemala City and Antigua from March 5-15.  Because Washington University and St. Louis University have the same spring break, our trip provided the perfect opportunity for students from the two different campuses to get to know each other better.  We spent Sunday worshipping with the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala (The Augustinian Lutheran Church of Guatemala, a companion synod with the ELCA), then headed to Mixco Vieja, a site with Mayan ruins, before meeting our host families in Antigua. 

Monday through Friday, we were divided into three work groups to build three houses with families living in San Mateo Milpas Altas, a small village about 15 minutes from Antigua.  Our host organization, ConstruCasa, partnered with a grassroots organization called Semillas de Esperanza y Amor (Seeds of Hope and Love) to find families in need of a home with suitable plumbing, concrete instead of dirt flooring, and a more fuel-efficient, cleaner stove for the kitchen.  Building those houses was some of the hardest work I have ever done!  We were mixing concrete by hand with shovels, digging trenches and pouring foundation, chipping concrete blocks, and wheelbarrowing rocks, dirt, and pretty much any heavy building material you could think of!  On Friday afternoon, the families threw us a fiesta with homemade tamales to celebrate the completion of the homes.  There was hardly a dry eye in the place by the end of the evening.  We were all touched deeply by the community’s generosity and sense of hope in the midst of poverty and other struggles.

In the evenings, we had the opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Antigua, which is small enough to get around without a car.  We enjoyed shopping and admiring beautiful weavings, carvings, and other Mayan artisan work.  We explored ruins and old cathedrals.  And as if we weren’t already getting enough exercise during the week, we woke up early on Saturday morning to climb Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s four active volcanoes.  The trip took five hours and was more difficult than we anticipated, but we did get to see actual liquid magma and take some lava rocks home!  All too soon, we were on the plane back to the United States. 

Throughout the trip, we read the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke.  Many of us were surprised to realize that at times, we felt like we were the person on the side of the road in need of care and help, rather than the good Samaritan.  At times, I felt that I was actually slowing the building of the house down by my lack of construction knowledge but also, admittedly, by my lack of muscles!  The students were blown away by the love and acceptance they found in the families they worked with, and through that acceptance and love, they were able to share more of themselves.  We came back knowing that together we had built more than houses, but that we had built deeper relationships, with the people of San Mateo, with Jesus, and with each other.  As a leader of the trip, I couldn’t ask for more than that.  God has truly blessed us richly.