It is now just an hour or so until we head to the airport.

Joan and I are about to jump on a plane and join 16 other people for a week in Guatemala.

Going from 25 degrees and snowing here in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA to 78 degrees and sunny in Panajachel, Solola, Guatemala will be a welcome change of climate.

But basking in warm air and sunshine is not the primary reason for this trip. We are going there to work with the amazing staff of a group known as Solomon’s Porch. The purpose of the trip is to help bring a little cheer and tangible help to the people of one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere.

 Half of our team will be working on building a new house for a Guatemalan family. The other half will be helping staff medical clinics in remote villages… in some cases seeing people who have never seen a doctor in their entire lives.

Me? I will be playing the guitar and trying to sing a few songs in Spanish for the children of the people visiting the medical clinics. 

This is either my eighth or ninth time to go there… I can’t remember. We were going every year for a while until the pandemic shut everything down. And if you would have pulled me aside before that first trip and asked, “Why are you going this, Russell?” I would have said something like, “I am going to try and be a blessing to people who don’t have nearly as many advantages as I do.”

And there is a bit of truth in that statement. A family who has been living in a rusted, corrugated metal lean-to with poor ventilation for the wood fire where they cook all their meals will absolutely be blessed to receive the new, sturdy cinder-block house we build for them. The woman who wheezes every time she breathes and has a deep, raspy cough will be blessed by the Albuterol inhaler she receives at the clinic and by the great follow-up care by the people of Solomon’s Porch.

No doubt at all. 

But the thing that was true the first time I went, the second time, and every single time after that is this: whenever I go to Guatemala, I am blessed to a FAR GREATER degree by the people we will serve than they are blessed by me. 

They bless me with their spirits. They bless me with their kindness. They bless me with their generosity. They bless me with their grit and determination in the face of incredible hardship. They bless me with their faith in a loving Creator who they know loves them unconditionally and who always comes through. 

They were the first ones to teach me that it is not my circumstance that is the issue. They helped me realize it is rather the RELATIONSHIP I take to my circumstance that makes all the difference. 

They taught me exactly the lesson the Apostle Paul was trying to teach the fledgling church in the city of Phillipi. While he sat languishing in a prison in Rome, Paul wrote: “… I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. (Philippians 4:12, NRSVU).

So often I get this lesson exactly backwards. I tend to reason that if I can ONLY render a change in my circumstances… if I can lose a little weight, make a little money, stop my hair from receding, drive a better car, get away for a weekend… if only one of THOSE things could happen, then I could truly be happy and content. 

So, I find I must regularly re-connect with Paul and the good people of Guatemala to help me turn my head and my heart around the right way. 

They bless me by reminding me that authentic joy has nothing to do with the stuff on the outside. 

They remind me it all begins and ends IN HERE!

Abundant blessings;