the girl with the crappy colon

i'm in the process of going through my guatemala journal so i can post it to share with everyone. it's been emotionally draining to re-read what i wrote and experience those feelings all over again. it's taking me awhile to get through it. i want to share an email that one of my teammates, andrew, sent out today. if i've never mentioned it before, my teammates are amazing people.

One of the more awkward items we had to try and figure out how to pack for Guatemala was a circular saw.

I was thinking about my life compared to those of my friends. And looking back now, I seem to find myself at least 5 years or so out of the game. What I mean by that is, it seems as though all those cooler people are all pretty much happily married and off running with their new family. Lots of them have kids now. Hanging out with them, I might as well being hanging out with aliens. I’m not really complaining, I’m just pointing out how far and differently my life has diverged. In fact, instead of complaining, I thought it’d be fun to try and do a little comparison.

The adventures of my life this last year, compared to the adventures of my friends:

They: decided one happy day to get married
I: decided to go hang out with people in a garbage dump

They: sent out invitations to all their friends and family asking them to partake in their joyous occasion – and send money/bring expensive gifts
I: sent out support letters to a few friends and family members – asking to send money and for prayer support

They: stood up in front of a bunch of people in some church, and said a lot of things that no one will remember and there may have been a prayer by a minister
I: was with my team up in front of a bunch of people in our chapel. And lots of people prayed for us – something we took with us and have never forgotten

This is where it gets good:

They: got on a plane and flew to some tropical paradise for their honeymoon for a week
I: got on a plane and flew to a garbage dump so I could be covered in dirt and grime every day and work my butt off

They: got to pack items like clothes and swimsuits
I: got to pack items like work gloves, goggles, and a circular saw

They: relaxed under the sun in bathing suits on a gorgeous white sand beach
I: struggled with the humanity of my surroundings under a burning sun in ragged filthy clothes in the slum neighborhoods next to a garbage dump

They: slept every night in a fancy hotel – with sweet smelling shampoos and warm showers
I: slept in a room with 3 other guys that smelled more funky when we first walked in than when we left – though maybe we just got used to it

They: got to spend a week with the one person that most deserves their love
I: got to spend a week with the people of our world that no one thinks are worth anything

They: got to build a new romantic relationship
I: got to build a new house that wasn’t even as big as my apartment

They: got to be the answer to question of who they would marry
I: got to be part of the answer to a family’s life long prayers

They: got to talk about their love for each other
I: got to talk about the breaking of our hearts as we assessed the things around us

They: got to make their world (between the 2 of them) smaller
I: got to make the whole world a bit smaller, by seeing it as so much bigger

They: got to put on a light back-pack and go hiking up some pristine trails
I: got to carry a kid on my back through garbage ridden street

They: got to take pictures of fun times, and nice scenery
I: had to be careful to not take a picture of the people passed out on the streets

They: got to love each other
I: got to love the least of these

They: got to come back with fun, cute little gifts
I: got to come back with a fun parasite

They: get to talk about the little restaurant they went to one day
I: get to talk about the mother we visited, whose husband had been killed, her children were in horrible health, she was broke, living off the dump, and had no way to feed her starving children.


The contrast is obvious.

But the question is: should they be that different?


I’d love nothing more than to go with a new bride to hang out at Potter’s House. What a better way to start your lives of serving together than to start your first week as a married couple serving awesomely together.


If anyone is still following my logic at this point:
This might sound strange, but I think when packing for your honeymoon a circular saw should ALWAYS be on the list.