Leap of Faith

The Cliff

The trip up the mountain

Making the jump

All of our mission trips seem to end up with a name. We don't start with one, we just wait and a name always comes up. It's similar to the way people who go with us are chosen. We just pray and leave it to God. Whenever we decide to do a trip, we put it up and say "God, we don't know who is going to go with us, but you just bring the people who were meant to go with us and we will take it from there."

Our mission trips have had names like the "Guatemala seven," and the "Guatemalan wedding crashers." Each name came up while we were in country and without much thought, it just happened. With the Guatemala Seven, that was just a play on the magnificent seven, that one of the men in our group just started calling us. As for the wedding crashers, during our free time we visited several churches. The country is filled with beautiful 500 year old churches. As we visited the churches, many times we walked in during a wedding. Of course we were in Guatemala, not the U.S., so it wasn't a big deal to have people milling around during the service. My family was invited to a wedding a couple of years ago, and most American brides would have flipped. A child walked up on the alter and strolled between the priest and the couple. Another kid did a cartwheel down the middle of the aisle, and one of the bridesmaids showed up 45 minutes into the service. None of it was a big deal and the ceremony just went on without interuption.

Maude making the jump

This year the trip became the leap of faith. This was both a literal and figurative name. On our last day of the trip we went cliff jumping. We went off a 30 foot cliff into Lake Atitlan. If was a major rush, and I would do it again. I would get all chest puffed about this, being 42 and doing crazy stuff, but two moms, both of whom are older than me went, and my sister in law Angela, who is afraid of heights and water went. In the face of that type of competition, its hard to be a tough guy. It was still and incredible thrill.

Whatever you do, Don't look down

The leap of faith goes deeper. When you go on a mission trip with us, many times it is not what you think it will be. A lot of people thought that they would go and spend a week doing hard labor. Trust me the people who go get the opportunity to do the jobs that an everyday Guatemalan gets to do, but it is also a spiritual journey, and an opportunity to face the unknown and even a few fears.

Some of the kids making the jump

Many people who go do not come back the same. Once they have had the opportunity to meet some of the people in Guatemala, they find that they have such a personal relationship with God and know more about faith than we can even imagine, it is hard to come back the same.

Yeah that's me

The trip truly is a LEAP OF FAITH.

This is the famous scene where Michelle broke her ankle. She was walking off of the mountain after we went cliff jumping. Michelle opted out of jumping. She stepped wrong on a rock, and slipped breaking her fibula in two spots. She is the toughest person I know. She walked off of the mountain, and then another two days with her foot just wrapped. The mission has a hospital, and the doctor checked it. They didn't have an x-ray tech until late in the afternoon, and we were scheduled to go to Guatemala City that morning. She decided to leave and if it got too bad she would go to the hospital at the nutritional center. It was interesting in the hospital room, because the doctor only spoke a Mayan dialect, so he had someone interprete to Spainish and then a person who interpreted from Spainish to English (I can only speak basic Spainish, anything complicated and I need help).

The scene of the crime