Out of the Pit

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

January 14-February 17, 2021

     Pit life was great, don’t get me wrong. Every one of us would go back in a heartbeat if we could. New Generation, the mountaintop compound was our home. Climbing sketchy ladders up the outside wall and down into our 15’x15’ cinder block, ceiling-less rooms with dirt floors is a fond memory.

     The constant dust, cold bucket showers, and near freezing temperatures at night…not so much. 

     When I say dusty, I’m not talking about a “need to dust at least once a week” type situation. Nooo, this was a “leave the dishes out for an hour and they will be coated in a visible layer” level of dusty. The dust only got more challenging when we laid down wood planks for the upper level of the ministry building, which was directly above our rooms. When the floor was finished, we were blessed with the extra space to hang out up top, but that also meant every step across those planks showered down a new layer of dust over our belongings in the pits below. 

Everything was dusty. All. The. Time. 

     We adjusted to it and even found ways to minimize the constant dust. We bought tarps to lay on the dirt floor and cover our gear until we poured concrete, plastered the walls, and built doors for our rooms. Still, my pack will likely never be completely free from the Chichicastenango dust. Our joke is that all future World Race teams who work with New Generation will get a luxurious experience after all the work we put in. 

     It’s easy to recognize the difficult parts of our ministry time. We did a lot of hard work. It was physically challenging and exhausting. We missed what we once considered the simple comforts of home. Hot showers. Beds. Privacy. Feeling clean. Heat and A/C. All the little things we once took for granted. 

     It’s also easy to look back and see the beautiful growth aspects of our ministry… 

     Pastor Juan, our host, cried when we had our first church service in the upper room after laying the flooring. He told us it was a dream come true: to have a space where they could glorify God and serve their community. 

Woah! A dream come true just to have that space?! 

     It didn’t matter to him that it was a rough plank floor with windowless walls covered by a tin roof. Or that the wind, dust, and rain would blow in. Or that there was no heating or cooling (unless you count the daily change in temperamental mountain air from 80 to 40 degrees). He just wanted to love others well, no matter the physical circumstances.

     And we were complaining about the dusty pit life… Oof.

     Major heart check for me. 

     I realized how spoiled I’d become in America, how focused I was on my own comforts. Even my attempts for a more efficient life often kept me from loving and serving others as well as I could have been. I made myself a pit of comfort. Sure, it was pretty and decorated and easy. However, it was still a pit. Something I was stuck in. Something I was scared to leave. Something God had to send me to Guatemala to get out of. 

     Ironically, God used that dusty pit on top of a mountain in Chichicastenango to blow the dust off my heart and get me out of the pit of selfishness I had been living in. Praise the Lord for His grace in not leaving us in our own pits!   

Pastor Juan’s dream came true with something as simple as a space to serve.

What dream are you pursuing? 

What pit is holding you back from it?