Soul Care

As many of you will know by now, I am heading to Guatemala August 2nd to begin a year of service through Virginia Mennonite Mission's program, tranSend. I will again be in Guatemala City working at CASAS, a language school connected with the Anabaptist seminary on the same campus. My job description from Guatemala says I will be working with individuals and groups applying to come to CASAS to study Spanish and learn about the culture. It also has lines suggesting I will be setting up activities for these people in Guatemala City, and potentially translating for them when they arrive. I call myself conversationally fluent, when asked if I can speak Spanish. I anticipate lots of learning with Spanish, social justice issues of Guatemala, further cultural exploration, seeking a sense of connectedness with God as I am in unfamiliar church settings and forced flexibility as I learn what I will actually be doing at CASAS. I also hope to reconnect with the school where I helped teach English last summer, this time with a more defined role. The director of this school had not responded to my email earlier this summer, so I hope to visit in my first days in Guatemala City!

 Training started today, Thursday. Going into "training" through VMM I knew I was looking forward to being with Jess, Kaitlyn and Kristi, all EMU grads who were in the same program as I was. I also knew I was skeptical of what "training" would hold. Looking at the list of sessions that were going to be held over 6 days, I wasn't convinced that my needs were going to be met, or my questions were going to be answered. This morning we started off with introductions, and then jumped right into what they're calling "Soul Care" which is lead by a man from EMU's seminary. We dove into the scripture about Jesus being baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The heaven's open up and God calls Jesus His beloved. Beloved. That's not a word I'm used to using, or hearing. We talked about how it's hard for some of us to be called God's beloved. I am a beloved child of God.... do I really believe that? Am I so special that God is paying attention to me? To my joys, my pains, my need to be loved by him and to be shown that he loves me no matter what? We also discussed significant thresh holds that we have crossed, and how we have or haven't felt God's presence throughout those crossings. I found myself reflecting on my experience moving from Ontario, which brought up some pain that I still haven't completely dealt with. I can already tell that this time of diving into scriptures and reflecting as a group will be my favorite part of the day, and the most needed part of the day. For that I am thankful.

 One last note before I call it a night. On Sunday I had a fundraiser meal and commissioning service at church. I knew the fundraiser meal would be amazing, as it was cooked by a dear friend of mine, Loly. She made a Guatemalan breakfast type meal and it was delicious. Platanos, huevos rancheros, chirmol, frijoles... mmmmm. My commissioning was done in the church service and as a part of that I received a prayer shawl from the Mennonite Women's group. It will be an item that I will take with me, and I see it being of great comfort to me through times of transition that lie ahead. I had so many people around me on Sunday who were encouraging me, affirming my call to Guatemala, offering their prayers, and helping to make everything run smoothly. I thank each person for their time and support on Sunday. It meant a great deal to me... I am blessed to have so many people around who are excited for me to go and who send me with their hearts and their blessings as my church community.