The Opportunity in Opposition
I’ve spent nearly my entire life living in Utah, USA, where the winters are cold, so when I stepped off the plane on February 19, 1998, in Guatemala City, the warmth immediately told me I wasn’t in Utah anymore.
I was almost a head taller than everyone around me, and they were speaking a language that was supposed to be Spanish. I didn’t understand a word, even though I studied Spanish for five years prior to getting off that plane.
I arrived at the house where we would stayed that first night. There were two seasoned volunteers that shepherded the newcomers. They told us story after story of some of the terrible things they had experienced.
I lay awake late into the night wondering what I had done. A large spider web in the corner of my room held, I was sure, some creature that would descend in the night and suck me dry.
Funny thing, though. I didn’t get sucked dry that night. The sun came up like it always did, and I spent the next nearly two years serving and teaching the people in Guatemala.
While I was there, Hurricane Mitch swept across Central America. Guatemala wasn’t devastated like some other countries, but because large communities were built from little more than sticks, tarps, and corrugated material, thousands of structures were destroyed, leaving those who were already…
