Andrew Pace

It is unbelievable that I have arrived here…my final week of work.  It went by so fast, and I can’t express how amazing this time has been for me.  I have grown so much in my faith and I have had the privilege to meet so many interesting people.  

This past weekend and week I spent time with 3 families from Wheaton that came down to serve the community.  They participated in prayer walks, building stoves, painting walls, laying concrete, and a vacation Bible school (among others).  It was such a blessing to spend time with them this week.  The 3 families included 6 adults and a large number of kids ranging from 4 years old to about 17 years old.   Among them was the Lindquist family.  Dan Lindquist is the president of the international board for Potter’s House.  It was great spending time with him over these past few days and getting to know him better as well as getting to know his family.  I was very encouraged by his family and their hard work, and I hope to continue to grow closer to them and spend time with them when I return to Chicago.

It is weird that I am returning to Chicago.  The time has arrived.  I will leave Guatemala and I am a bit nervous.  I am nervous for 2 reasons.  One, I am concerned about the reverse culture shock that will occur.  I have spent several months serving the poorest group of individuals in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.  I have grown accustomed to this way of life and now I will go back to a life and a world of plenty/excess.  It will be difficult.  I worry about how I will adjust, and how long it will take to feel “normalized” to my new environment.  Please pray for me that I may not experience too much difficulty in my move back to the U.S.

The second issue I have is leaving my dear friends in Guatemala and returning to my life in Chicago.  I want to continue to be a part of the lives of the families in the communities around the city dump in Zone 3 of Guatemala City.  I hope to continue to give my time/talent/treasure to Potter’s House and the communities, but I will not be serving in Chicago in the same way that I have been down here.  Though I may not be able to give all of my time, I hope to give some later on in the future.  It will be somewhat difficult having a “normal” job in Chicago, at least at first.  I am excited to return, but I know it will be difficult as well.  I pray that I adjust well to my change in my day to day activities, and that I can serve my firm and our clients while I am back in Chicago with the same heart and desire to do my best for them and show the love of Christ to them in all that I do as I tried to do down here with PHA.  

It has been such a blessing to come down here.  If anyone is considering to do something like this (taking a few months to serve a non-profit organization in Central America or another part of the world), please do it.  It is worth it.  You grow so much in the process and learn so much about the world, people, God, yourself, etc.  I am so blessed that I had the opportunity to do this in my life, and I pray that each of you have the chance to do it too if you haven’t yet already.

This may be my last post.  I may try to post one last time while back in Chicago to post about my adjusting to “normal” life, but if this is my last post, I thank you for reading these posts and my blog on my experiences through all of this.  I hope you all have enjoyed it and learned something.  Thanks again for reading them and I hope to see you all soon.  Peace and God bless.

Andrew

The last two weekends have been awesome!  I had the honor and privilege to spend time with the Board for Potter’s House International last weekend and it was unbelievable.  Also, this past weekend, I went to El Salvador to visit with a friend of mine from Chicago and some new friends and it was such a “surreal” weekend.

First, during last weekend, Potter’s House celebrated 25 years of God’s work in Zone 3 of Guatemala City.  During the weekend, we had an amazing dinner and presentation for the 25^th anniversary (along with a video that you all need to see).  The food was great and the presentations by the staff and friends of Potter’s House were heartfelt and tear jerking.  It was so cool to be a part of it.  Also, Gary Hoag, the speaker for the weekend and a friend of Potter’s House, spoke about God being our Provider, something that we don’t really allow Him to be as much as we should (or at least as much as I should). 

It is interesting, as we watched the video detailing the history of Potter’s House, how the organization all started with a favor from Gladys Guitz, the founder of Potter’s House.  She is such an inspiring woman.  She received her master’s in psychology and had many possibilities for a career/future.  She decided to do a favor for some friends to deliver blankets to the community around zone 3 and through this act she felt a calling by God to serve the community even more than that.  She chose to serve the people in the communities around the city dump.  She didn’t want to do it.  She was scared and she wanted to do something more exciting that paid more money, much like a lot of us, but she heard God’s calling and followed.  This was not easy, but Potter’s House started through her obedience, even though she didn’t want to obey at first, and now it has become a major help to many of the people in the community and given them hope and opportunities that they would not have otherwise had.  I learned a lot more about Potter’s House through this event and it inspires me to continue to support and serve them.

During this Board weekend, we built stoves in a few of the homes in the community, which was really fun.  We also spent time visiting families in the community, serving bags of food to the workers in the dump as well as praying for the people in the dump during our visit.   We served food to the kids for lunch and I continued to have English classes with the kids. 

We also reviewed through the 5 departments…Education, Microfinance, Community Support, Personal Development, and Health.  It is amazing how much Potter’s House is doing in the community.  It makes me realize how much of an impact an organization can have on a community.  As I get ready to go back to Chicago and start working at Performance Trust, I am encouraged to preach this message to some of the institutions with whom we work, so that they can feel encouraged to do all that they can to make an impact in their communities.  Organizations and institutions in the U.S. can have the same impact, if we just choose to follow God’s word in serving and loving others.

As for this past weekend, I had a great weekend visiting Melissa and other friends in El Salvador.  It was such an amazing experience for me.  I had not taken much time during these last 4 months to travel and vacation; so going there for the weekend was such a blessing and much needed.  We went out to dinner Friday night and celebrated Kara’s (a new friend I met through Melissa) new non-profit organization.  She is one of the most interesting people I have ever met.  Melissa, Kara, another friend Aaron, as well as a few others and I had dinner and enjoyed a beautiful, peaceful night in San Salvador.

The next day, Saturday, we went to the beach near the city and it was so fun.  We ate lunch at a seaside café/restaurant and afterwards went swimming in the ocean.  It was great to go to the beach…it had been years since the last time I went to the beach.  We sat on the black sand afterwards and talked for hours about life.  This was a surreal moment as I sat around talking about God and life with some fellow believers.  I think about how this is what heaven will be like.  Every now and then, I get short glimpses of what heaven would be like on Earth.  Not often, but every now and then.  This was one of those moments, and I am so thankful for it.  Later in the evening, we ate dinner and went swimming at the hotel.  It was a clear night and so peaceful, again, one of those God moments that you realize how blessed we are and how good God is.

On Sunday, Melissa and I had breakfast together while Kara went to church and Aaron went for a run in the fitness center.  Melissa and I talked about a lot, and it was so great to get to know her more.  I am just thankful that we had no other obligations distracting us.  We could really enjoy our time together as friends, and I appreciated the tranquility of the breakfast.  We met up with Aaron shortly after and met Kara and Oscar at a pupuseria for lunch and then went to the top of a volcano to a café that overlooked the city.  It was amazing.  Again, we chatted about life and enjoyed each other’s company.  Afterwards, we rushed down to the city so that I could catch my bus to go back to Guatemala. 

It is through weekends like these two (one in which I served the community and had the chance to learn more about the impact that Potter’s House has made in the communities in Zone 3 of Guatemala, and the other in which I experienced quality fellowship with some amazing friends relaxing at the beach and at night talking about life) that make life worth living.  Our lives are more fulfilling and satisfying when we focus on relationships and loving and serving others instead of simply focusing and ourselves.  I am so glad that I had these two weekends back-to-back, and now I have about two weeks to finish my time here well before I go back to the U.S.  Please pray for me that I will finish these weeks strong.

Andrew

Am I using well the resources God has given me? 

That is a question I asked myself after spending time this week with a special group of 30+ people from all over Guatemala as well as various parts of Central America and Columbia (in South America), staying here with me at my lodging.  This group is special in that they are here doing a workshop to equip many of them to translate the Bible into a native language that does not currently have a Bible translation.  In other words, there native people have no way of learning God’s word because it does not exist yet in their own language, and they are here to change that.  Thinking about this made me wonder…What if we didn’t have a Bible?  Or at least, what if there was no Bible in English to read?  How would we learn about God?  How would someone preach the word of God to us?  Would we be Christians today? 

Looking at various sources, there appears to be about 6500-7000 different languages in the world, and the Bible has been translated into about 2500-3000 of them.  Which means that there are still well over half of the existing languages that do not have a Bible.  While that does not necessarily mean that over half of the people on Earth do not have access to the Bible (as many of these languages without a Bible are spoken by only a few hundred people), this is still a startling number to me.

I can’t help but think how blessed I am to have the Bible in my native language.  But that’s not all.  I also have commentaries in some of my Bibles, as well as Bible study guides and booklets, Christian hymns, Christian books on various topics from Christian authors and ministers.  I also have access to recordings through iTunes and the Internet as well as television programs that discuss God’s word.  I have a wide variety of ways to grow in God’s word. But often times, I don’t take advantage of these ways, and I waste these good things that I have that could be tools to help me spiritually.

I am reminded of a great episode of Boy Meets World that hits at this topic a bit.  If you are unfamiliar with the show, it is a story about a boy growing up and experiencing the various things in life that we all experience.  It tells of his encounters, successes, and struggles in school, in dating, in socializing, in being a son and brother, as well as other things, and also tells of the loving support and encouragement he receives from his parents, his friends, and especially his teacher.  The boy’s name is Cory, and in one episode, he is in class with his teacher, Mr. Feeny, and they are talking about how unnecessary school is and how he doesn’t need to learn anything (that there is nothing wrong with being the way that he is now).  But Mr. Feeny argues passionately that he, and the younger generation, waste the tools and technology that are readily available to learn and grow as individuals, and choose to not use it, or misuse it, on useless information (view this short clip to better understand what I am saying… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIRuytyuzoY). 

It is amazing how we don’t appreciate the technology that we have.  We waste it.  There is information that we should know but don’t.  I would bet that the majority of people who read this could tell me the cast members or main characters of the show Friends, Jersey Shore, and/or The Office pretty easily (not that Friends or The Office are bad shows; however, Jersey Shore is pretty bad).  But, I feel like these I can name easily but I struggle who the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court are, the ones that make many major legal and social decisions in our country.  Or even with the President’s cabinet, or the original 12 Disciples.  I don’t say this to make anyone feel angry or embarrassed, but the fact is that the things we should know, we don’t, but the things that aren’t that important, we know well, even though we have the ability and technology to learn pretty much anything, and fairly quickly at that.

It is so amazing to see how this group of people from all over Guatemala and Central America thirst for the Word.  THIRST.  They have a deep desire to learn the Bible inside and out, ever little detail, so that they can better translate the Bible into their native language and communicate the stories as accurately as possible.  They are truly living out the great commission as written in the Gospels, seeking to make disciples of all the nations…or at least their native nations.  I wish that I had that kind of desire.  They have such a passion for God’s Word, and yet I at times struggle just to spend a little time in a devotional or in prayer some days.  We have all the resources in the world to grow spiritually, resources that these people would love to have but they don’t, and we (I) don’t use them. 

I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, I say this to wake me up and to remind myself, and you, of how blessed we are and that we have NO excuse to not spend time in God’s word everyday and grow in our relationship with Him.  Many people in the world literally have no way to read or know God’s word, but we have unlimited resources.  I must recognize how much of a gift it is to have God’s word at my fingertips, as well as various books and study guides to help me understand it better.  We can’t waste this amazing gift, and I hope that we enjoy His Word fully, as this group down here does everyday.  It is so cool to see what God is doing in these remote parts of Guatemala and Central America!  I hope I can continue to learn through this experience and learn to thirst for His Word as they do.

This weekend, I will be working all weekend as the Advisory Board comes in from the U.S. to discuss strategies and ideas as well as updates with Potter’s House.  I am excited to spend time with them and learn from them all that I can about how to make Potter’s House even more effective.  I can’t wait!

Andrew

It is amazing how each week brings something new for me.  These past two weeks, I have been blessed to spend time with a few church groups from a church in a small town in Ohio and it has been great.  I find that each group that comes to Potter’s House to serve for a week has something to teach me about life and faith, and these groups from Ohio did much in teaching me about both.

The last two weeks have been very interesting for me as I have had the opportunity to spend time with a construction group and a medical mission group, both from the same church in Ohio.  The people that came down here for the trip were laid back, fun-loving, small town folks that had a desire to serve Potter’s House and do so with a positive attitude.  I was very impressed by their attitude and joyful spirit during the weeks.  The first group had to build not just one house, but two, and they were able to knock out both of them a little earlier than expected…very impressive!  Each night, they had devotions, spending time in Isaiah and it was so great to participate with them in these devotions and get a week of quality Bible study and fellowship.

The second group was the medical team, and it was a pleasure to be around them for that second week.  All week, they had a full patient load of people from the dump in dire need of medical attention and they stepped up to do the best job possible treating the people of the community.  It was so cool to see them do this not only with amazing effort and care, but with such a loving attitude as well.  This group, much like others that have come through, taught me a lot about my attitude and focus in my life.

The main thing I learned during my time with these groups is the importance of simplicity in one’s life.  I remember in Chicago how easy it was at times for me to take on too much in my life.  I would not only work all week at Performance Trust, my firm in Chicago, but I would also workout or train for races, attend various classes (language, dance, etc.), go to small group fellowship/Bible studies, volunteer, travel on the weekends and try to attend every social function possible (a phenomenon known as FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out).  With my desire to take on multiple tasks as well as my desire to not miss out on the plethora of social events, I found that I was setting aside less time for God (and sleep), which caused bitterness in my life.

I find that with the people of the group, they too have a full schedule of work, families, social events, and other activities, but in talking with them, I also learned how many of them take quality time with God during the week and don’t let other things get in the way.  They make time with God a priority, something I talked about in my last post but something of which I must continue to remind myself.   There is nothing wrong with being involved in various activities at work, church, etc. But, when my schedule causes me to miss or limit my time in God’s word and my time in quality prayer with Him, then something must change.  Work, social functions, hobbies, etc. are all good things, but when these things occupy too much of our time and keep us from living out our true reason for existing (to glorify God and enjoy a relationship with Him), they can become idols and make our lives miserable.  It is weird to think of our schedules (being filled with good things like social events, fun classes, exercise, work, etc.) as problems in our lives, but they can be if they keep us from spending time with God.  Even here working for a Christian organization I find myself being too busy working at PHA, exercising, attending Spanish classes, and spending time via Skype with family and friends that I at times forget to spend quality time with God, or just blatantly limit my time with Him.  No matter where you are, the temptation of busyness is always there.  So, I am reminded that I must simplify my life with less activities and make sure that spending time with God is one of the priorities/main activities of the day.

This coming week we do not have a group (first time in 4 weeks), so I am excited for the change-up and a little down time before the Advisory Board meeting in early March. I will still be busy here at PHA, but I should have more downtime over the weekends.  Again, this is such a blessing being down here and God is showing me so much, I just hope I have an attentive, humble heart to listen to Him.

Andrew

The last couple of weeks have been very exciting and enlightening, as well as very difficult, with God teaching me a lot about life.  This week, along with my typical weekly responsibilities, I had the privilege to spend time with Bethany Youth Group from Statton Island in New York, who came down to build a house in one of the communities surrounding the garbage dump.  I am so thankful to God for their coming to Guatemala. 

            One thing I learned from this group is that New Yorkers aren’t all bad.  I have spent some time in New York and with friends from New York (mainly male athletes) and I guess I had this impression of people from New York as being abrasive and somewhat unpleasant, but this group was the opposite of that.  This group showed compassion, joy and enthusiasm during this week, working on the house and playing with the kids.  Through this past week, I learned to love New Yorkers (not that I hated them) and also learned a few extra things from the group that will help me to better serve Potter’s House in the next couple of months. 

Through this past week, I am reminded by God through this group from New York of how much a personal relationship with God and Christian fellowship matter to a believer in their ability to serve, honor, and love God fully.  Seeing the members of the group meeting each night for a Bible study as well as taking time to do quiet times and journaling alone each day was a helpful reminder to me of my need to make time with God, quality time with God, a major part of each day.  I can get so caught up in the busyness of life and neglect to take time to journal and spend time in God’s word, even here working with a Christian organization like Potter’s House.  I do read the Bible daily, and take time to journal, but at times it can be too short or not whole-heartedly focused.  I think to myself at times that I only have 10-15 minutes in the morning for a quiet time.  Yet, when I think about this, I say to myself, “10-15 minutes?  Is that all for which I can make time in my busy day for my Creator, Savior, and Purpose in life?”  I would hope not, but I still at times make this excuse, even here in Guatemala. 

I find myself shortening my personal time with God and having a deep sense of despair or worse, callousness, to the things I see and do in the community.  I am kidding myself if I think I can do anything remotely good or meaningful down here in this community without God’s spirit and love being fully present in my life.  I must say that this group taught me a lot this week about making sure to spend quality time with God.

For the majority of the time down here, I have been alone at the retreat site where I stay (Villas Magén).  I am usual okay with it, but I realize that isolating myself from other believers can cause difficulties and challenges for a believer.  The Bethany Youth Group was the first group from PHA to stay here with me at Villas Magén.  They were so gracious to allow me to take part in their group activities in the evenings, and getting to spend time with them at night was such a blessing to me.  We spent each night singing praise songs, playing games, and talking about life.  I have missed that and as one person from the group pointed out, not having fellowship with other believers has affected me.  I had become less joyful and more selfish with my time.  I hope that I take advantage of the other groups that are scheduled to stay here at Villas Magén with me, to hopefully be an encouragement to those groups as I know they will be to me.   I needed to experience Christian fellowship, as we all do in our lives, and having the chance to spend time this week with the group from Bethany Church helped me realize this truth.

Lastly, I am so blessed to have been with them this week just because of their positive energy and loving spirit.  So often, as I mentioned earlier, I as well as others with the organization, can become overwhelmed by the need in the community.  It gets hard at times, but when groups like Bethany come to spend a week here, they bring a love and joy that helps not only the residents of the community, but the members of Potter’s House as well.  Every member of the group worked so hard to get the house done, but also always made time to play with the kids and love them sincerely.  It is so encouraging to me and others at Potter’s House to see that, as it lifts our spirits to keep working, knowing that we are making a difference in the community and in God’s kingdom, one step at a time.  I am thankful to God for the group for the renewed sense of purpose, joy, and peace that I have from their coming down here for the week, and I hope that they know that. 

Now, we have another group that just arrived from Ohio.   I’m not sure if they will be as cool or fun as the group from Statton Island, but I know that they will have much to offer the community, Potter’s House and me personally…I just hope I can offer something to them.  It is such a blessing to be here and I thank God for this experience and specifically for the group from Bethany Church.