My Hope, My Refuge

It’s amazing the things you find to do when you have papers to write and finals to study for. Like cleaning your room, alphabetizing your book shelf, or even writing a blog. This time in the semester is extremely stressful for students, and I find myself and my friends unable to even grab a cup of coffee, let alone go hiking. Yet in the midst of all this stress and chaos I find joy in the time I get to spend with our missions team. To see my teammates working hard at jobs, school, life in general, and still making time to raise money for missions and meet with the team is really inspiring.

This past Sunday we went and visited Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Metro Atlanta (PIBHDMA for short) The service was entirely in Spanish, songs, sermons, prayers, everything. We were offered headphones to be able to hear the translation of the service and some of the team used them, the rest of us got a taste of what I imagine Guatemala will be like. And even though my Spanish is not what it should be, I was able to understand the general idea of the sermon. I was jotting down words from the verse (Psalm 91:2 Spanish) (Psalm 91:2 English)they put on the screen and then roughly translating them using my Bible. Garrick was sitting next to me and noticed that I had written “Esperanza” to mean “refuge”, he wrote me a note explaining that “Refugio” means “refuge” and that “Esperanza” means hope. I started thinking about hope and refuge, and how these two words relate. In every English, French, Hebrew, and Swedish translation I can find, the word in that verse is translated “refuge”. Of the six Spanish translations I found half of them use “Refugio” and  half of them use “Esperanza”. So why in Spanish are these two words used for the same verse? I don’t know if there is really a linguistic explanation for this, but I feel there may be a cultural one. What if the concepts of refuge and hope were linked? Your hope is found in your refuge. You find refuge in your hope. It would matter greatly then where you find refuge, and what is the source of your hope. Our team is going to a country that in desperate need of refuge. They are still rebuilding from a civil war that ended in 1997, and much of the population is widows and orphans. Pray for our team that we would bring esperanza, hope, to the people of Guatemala. That we would not be afraid to give reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15), that we would be able to tell them of the true refugio, refuge, that will never fail them. That we would be able to gain their trust so that they would trust the hope and refuge we tell them of. Pray also that God would rend our eyes wider. That we would have a new vision of hope. That as we raise funding for the trip we would not get discouraged but would be filled with hope and joy.

The Zacapa team (minus Juandi & Meridee) with Pastor Alemán.

Monday night the girls on the team got together to paint pottery. We had a really great time getting to know each other better and coming closer as a team.  I feel so blessed to be going on this trip with such beautiful, talented, and Christ loving women.

Shalom

-Leah Cim