By Kailee Weyenberg & Michael Spielvogel, MNSU Seinors Sometimes, God goes to extreme circumstances to help us understand who He truly is and who He desires us to be; Guatemala was no exception. Michael and I signed up for the trip on a whim, with no idea how we were going to afford the cost, no idea if it would work into our schedules, and no idea what the trip even entailed. But with trust in Him, everything fell into place and we found ourselves driving to the airport at 1:00 am, exhausted and not sure what was coming next. As we set eyes on the stunning Guatemala mountains below the airplane, a piece of my heart knew God had something beautiful in store for us there. Little did we know that God was to reveal the Body of Christ in a new way to us and give us a new mission to bring home. We began our stay with a children’s mass that surpassed what we knew to be a warm welcome from the San Lucas community. As we ventured through our week of prayer and service, we began to understand what poverty truly means. But it’s not the kind of poverty we imagined. We were given a glimpse of the material poverty that exists in Guatemala, but more importantly, the spiritual poverty that exists in our own hearts and in our day-to-day lives. We realized how burdened and distracted we were by our own possessions, and how they prevented us from being who we were meant to be. This realization demonstrated something more profound about the Body of Christ and how we are to function as members of that Body. We came to understand that the Body of Christ desperately needs each part to truly be the Body of Christ. Unfortunately, many travelers, including ourselves, from first world countries enter mission with the understanding that we are going to help others, when in reality, we were brought together with those from miles away to give each other a part of our Savior we needed. 10
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