You know when beauty catches you by utter surprise? For some it might be finding the “one,” or opening a heart to the world again but for me the beauty that I find all around me is in the places and people that leave me feeling loved. Jes is one of those people. Her lionhearted personality and uncanny ability to make anyone feel cherished makes life golden. She is my dear friend. Throughout our friendship we have celebrated and shared in many different experiences. From watching mutual friends get married, becoming aunties together, running in races and throughout the lofty list, near or far, she has always been by my side. I feel so grateful to have a friend like Jes because, simply put, she —inspires— us all. She has a deep devotion to her family and friends that is fierce in love and honesty. She is ambitious in her goals and gets things done. She fills a room with laughter and serves others selflessly. She is brilliant in her ability to plan things out. She has planned weddings to birthdays, holiday parties to fundraisers of the sort, and now, I have the opportunity to plan a service trip to Guatemala with her, Annie and Jes’s family. Not only do I get to plan with Jes, Annie and her family but I also get to partake in a service trip to Guatemala!
Service is nothing new to me. In fact, I dedicated a year to service as an AmeriCorps member following my high school graduation. AmeriCorps is a federal service organization that allows Americans to serve domestically in different service initiatives. I served domestically as an environmental steward in the West, tutored children and built houses for tornado-devastated families in the South. My service terms sparked a fire within me to commit my life to service work. So as you can imagine, when we all met up to plan the Guatemala service trip, I thought I would have so much to offer and say.
As I walked into Jes’s house I prayed for this meeting and that God show me what he wanted me to do, to say. I sat at the dining room table listening, listening to Jes’s Grandmother talk about her people. I listened to Jes’s mother talk about the different activities we would lead in. I heard things like, “the people of Guatemala are kind and thankful people.” I heard about how the students there are “so happy to be near you and crave attention.” I heard about Alex and Elder, two successful graduates of the school. They come back to serve their villages and children there and that “it doesn’t matter how little they physically have, they pour out everything.” I heard stories about how Jes’s Grandmother continues to advocate for the students and families in the villages. I heard Jes and Annie express their love for the students there. I sat in complete awe of these incredible women and to my pleasant surprise I spoke only a few words.
It seems these days I am running from one place to the next with either school, work, volunteer and family responsibilities in mind. The undertone of life is filled with activities and even though these are good things, I have not given much time to think about Guatemala. That night taught me that even though I feel like a veteran when it comes to service and my heart yearns to serve others, I have to sit back and, just be. To just listen. Because when we hit the Guatemala soil we will be busy in service, busy in life and most importantly we will be running together as a team. This preparation time with Jes and the rest of the Guatemala team made me realize again the importance of having a team and walking side by side with one another. Because in this gradual and vulnerable walk with each other, we can learn from each other, lift each other up, listen to each other and do more with each other than alone. I am thankful to serve with these people in Guatemala, because, we were not meant to do life alone. We were not meant only to lean on our own strengths and good intentions or even good works, instead working cohesively with a team makes all the difference. Now, you can make a difference in the world and join our team.
We are going to visit 8 villages and try to feed 6 of those villages that we meet. Of those villages we plan to feed 250 families and within those families there is at minimum 200 students. We are going to distribute food buckets to accomplish this. Each food bucket feeds one family for about a month and contains; 10 pounds of beans, 5 pounds of spaghetti, 5 pounds of sugar, 4 pounds of rice, 4 pounds of oatmeal, 1 pound of salt and 1 bottle of oil. The cost for one food bucket is about 20 dollars. We are asking anyone willing to give money and not actual food donations. This is done for two main reasons, we want to give back to the economic system there and it is much cheaper for us to buy there then try to transport all the food there. So in order for us to actually feed these hungry families we need your help! Would you join our team and give?
