We spent Saturday recounting stories of the past week and touring sites around the city of Huehuetenango with our Guatemalan hosts. Though it was only a little over a week since we arrived in Guatemala, it seemed as though we’d had a years worth of experiences. Perhaps this shifting of time in our minds comes from the depths of experiencing a place as missionaries rather than travelers.
Our first stop was the historical site of Zaculeu in the city of Huehuetenango. Our first step up into the mountains of Guatemala featured a stop at another historical site. What first might have been unknown or indecipherable, now was a little more recognizable. This process of discovery and beginning to know is the foundation of the missionary experience. Our time in Zaculeu helped us reflect on what we had learned since Iximche.
After Zaculeu, we climbed the mountain to an overlook which gave a grand view of the entire valley containing the city of Huehuetenango. It was a great moment for taking pictures to record our travels. Leslie Guzman, a Divine Mercy Schuyler parishioner who originally comes from Mixco, a suburb of Guatemala City, has a long history of travel in Guatemala and across the world, but this was her first time in this spot. Planting feet on new ground is another key aspect to the mission experience. Though these first steps make a slightly different impact when guided by a clear purpose.
Our evening wrapped up with a final set of reflections from our Huehuetenango team, our local hosts in La Libertad, and those from the Archdiocese of Omaha—all missionaries in their own way. Elizabeth Wellendorf, who has worked in Bethlehem in a home for people with disabilities, was one of the Omaha missionaries who shared a reflection on her experience in Huehuetenango.
Elizabeth talked about how she has been hesitant to call herself a missionary in her work in Palestine. What she has realized through her experience here is that she has always been a missionary. She learned that a missionary is one who leads with her faith, whether a nurse or a teacher or a preacher. She understands now that we can all be missionaries in our homes, jobs, and communities, as long as we choose to approach each moment and every task with God’s love in the lead. From this point forward, she will proudly call herself a missionary.
