Guatemala has been absolutely incredible so far. If I were going to move to any country, it would be this one. (It’s not that I am going to Mom; just if I had to or the Lord called me.) We are currently working with a ministry called One Way, and it has been great. They instantly welcomed us honestly into their family. There is a tight-knit community that they have, and we are now a part of it. We go to two villages weekly, Polema and San Lorenzo, with different needs and problems.
Polema is poorer than San Lorenzo. We are working on building a house for a family and doing house visits. We also help lead soccer practice for kids and love them.
San Lorenzo has more money in the community, but not by much. It varies depending on which house we visit. Here, we also do house visits and more intense soccer training/ tutoring for kids.
House visits look way different than in Lesotho. In Lesotho, it felt like we were reading a script and moving on to the next house. But here, we probably spend an hour at each house. We hear their stories and pray for specific needs. This is truly refreshing. It allows us to build relationships and create an environment where we are not the weird white people with an agenda.
One way’s philosophy is to nurture the kids through soccer training and bible studies. And to foster relationships with their parents by doing house visits, getting to know them, and truly caring.
We went to one house, and a girl named Lydia opened the door. She turns 18 on April 11, and she is really sad because her mom isn’t going to be there for her birthday. Her mom is currently in Honduras, burying her older brother, and she hasn’t been home for over a month. Lydia’s father is having Kidney problems. Lydia feels like all of her family’s problems are her responsibility, not to mention she is the only one who can take care of her younger sibling. She feels like she has no friends and that she has the world on her shoulders. We walked in and just started asking her questions, and within 5 minutes, she was crying. We prayed, shared some of our stories, and encouraged her to come to soccer practice to find a community and simply have fun. And about three hours later, she showed up and participated in practice and the bible study.
Family plays a crucial role in Latin culture. This is ironic because it is so culturally important, yet it gets destroyed often, especially in poverty. A father has probably been at four houses in the last three weeks, and we probably go to 20 houses a week. Now I would say that in about 40% of these scenarios, the Dad is working his butt off in the fields to make six bucks a day for his family. This is not the problem. This is incredibly admirable.
But the other 60% is the problem. There have been countless stories of husbands cheating on their wives or just leaving altogether. The amount is staggering. And kids are just being left to be raised by their aunts, grandmothers, and mothers. And I don’t have the solution, but there seems to be a tie between poverty and unfaithfulness in men. When I worked in Londsdale in Knoxville, it was the same. But I believe it is one of the biggest factors in the cycle of poverty and all the other problems we see. Again, I don’t have the answers. I think the root is sin, and the answer is Jesus, but it is more nuanced than that.
Love you all,
Drew McKinney
