I'm going to Guatemala!

Yes, I'm going to Guatemala! I'll be updating this blog over the next several months-- both while I'm preparing for the trip and also while I'm in Guatemala (hopefully!). So check back if you're curious about what I'm up to while I'm gone.

For now, here are some basic details . . .

Who's going? There are 5 adults on my team (and the couple who is leading the trip is bringing their baby as well :) so that makes 6)

Where? Xela (a.k.a. Quetzaltenango) , Guatemala! (and San Francisco for training and debrief) . . . click here for a map (look for Quetzaltenango-- west of Guatemala City)

When? June 10th-August 1st

With what organization? Innerchange-- an organization that sends missionaries to live among and serve the poor in a number of locations here in the U.S. and also overseas (for more info, check out www.innerchange.org). The summer opportunity with InnerChange allows people to spend a summer working alongside long-term missionaries, supporting or helping to start relationships and ministries at those sites.

To do what? My team’s main focus will be building relationships with and serving street children—children who have either chosen to leave home because of abuse and neglect or who have been abandoned by parents or relatives. We will spend time volunteering at a school for street kids (http://www.streetschool.net/edelac.htm), playing soccer with them, doing art projects with them, listening to their stories—hopefully all the while sharing the love of God with them through our words and actions.

What can you do? PRAY for me and my team and/or support me financially

Why am I going?
short answer-- I'm going in obedience to God.

more complete answer-- Last spring, as I was praying, God laid the country of Guatemala on my heart. At the time, I knew very little about the country and thought I knew no one from there, but then all of a sudden, I started “randomly” meeting or talking with person after person who was from Guatemala, who had been to Guatemala at one point, or had family members from Guatemala. I would also “randomly” come across articles about Guatemala and even received a newsletter from International Justice Mission focusing solely on their new work in Guatemala City. This continued for several months, but I still did not feel called to actually go—just to learn and be open to where all this might lead me.

Then, at the end of July, as I was praying one night, I felt led to Isaiah 6. I read through it to verse 8 where Isaiah says “Here am I. Send me!” and immediately after I read that, I felt God remind me of Guatemala. At that point I knew that I was to go. I prayed for more direction and felt that I was to go in June—almost a year away! At that time, I had no idea how it would happen as I still didn’t have any actual connections to missionaries or organizations in Guatemala. A few months later, I talked with a couple from my church who said there was a chance they might be leading a mission trip to Guatemala over the summer. But at the time we spoke it was still very uncertain so I didn’t think much of it. Then the week after I got back from India (at the end of January), they emailed me to tell me that they were in fact leading a trip to Guatemala this summer from June 10th to August 1st and that I should apply. Wow! I couldn't really turn it down after it seemed God had so clearly prepared me for this trip. Had he not spoken clearly to me about it, there's no way I would have agreed to go away for 2 months this summer! But here I am, preparing to go!

Want more info? Have questions for me? Feel free to email me michelle.scarberry@gmail.com