by: Marlana Smith | Guatemala Communications Director
The World Orphans Guatemala team started our first devotional of 2024 discussing pruning/simplicity and what John meant when he wrote about abiding in Christ as our vine in John 15:5. We actually spent time imagining which vines are more relevant to Guatemalan culture, since grapevines and pumpkins aren’t the first things that come to mind there. The most meaningful image was one of a popular flower vine, bougainvillea, that grows everywhere—in rural countryside gardens and in city rooftop pots. We talked about what it means to stay connected to our vine, remaining and abiding in him as his branches.
A week after we reflected on abiding in Christ during our team meeting, one of our churches lost a youth to gang violence, and we continue to walk alongside the church and the family as they grieve the loss of their son. Crying and praying together brings hope and healing even in the midst of profound sorrow which can only be found when we are deeply rooted in our Savior’s love. Because the families we serve are coming from hard places, we are learning what it means to celebrate and grieve together with the churches whom we are equipping to serve the families.
Reading and meditating on his word, along with praying alone and together, are spiritual practices that we all agreed we desire to prioritize in our lives. We frequently talk about the importance of ”being” before “doing,” and what it means to serve with God, not for God. Creating space for God in our daily lives to connect with him personally in prayer and in his Word is necessary in order to bear fruit, otherwise we are working for God, apart from him in self-reliant ways. Lectio 365 is a free app available in Spanish and English that our team has used as a tool in helping us draw near to God in a slowing-down-kind-of-way, morning and evening, using Scripture and stories with themes around prayer, creativity, justice, hospitality, mission, and learning.
Woven into the World Orphans culture (starting with our organization’s leadership team) is a high value of spending daily time with God. We also encourage spending time in personal solitude retreats scheduled on our team calendar every three months. Our prayer is that we will pause and silence the other voices surrounding us and create spaces for our souls to connect with our Savior so we can hear his voice above all others. Our hope is that our abiding in Christ is not a self-reliant action but rather a deepening trust in our good Father who is producing the fruit in us because he dwells in us. We truly believe the only way we can feed his sheep and invite others into his sheepfold is to be fed by our Good Shepherd first.
We’ve also been studying Emotionally Healthy Leader by Pete Scazzero together as a team and with the pastors. It talks about the importance of focusing on our inner life with God as leaders before serving outwardly. When making decisions as a team and as individuals, we are learning how to slow down to hear our Good Shepherd’s voice among all of the other voices around us, praying together and alone including the following:
We ask God continually of how to best equip our twelve Guatemalan church partnerships to help preserve the 150 vulnerable families in their communities, caring for over 400 children wholistically in these families.
We are now praising God after seven years of praying for the legalization of World Orphans in Guatemala, we were granted approval in early February to become a Guatemalan nonprofit ministry.
We ask God to show us how to develop our economic empowerment strategies, equipping the churches to train and provide job opportunities for the families. In 2024, we are praying especially for young men who need to learn the trade of woodworking while being discipled under the leadership of Pastor Antonio. We praise God for this new woodwork shop initiative started in January by his provisions through generous donors.
As we desire to bear fruit that will last, with God’s presence in us, we know it is not something that we just sit back and let happen. We struggle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces, which means we are leaning and depending more and more on God’s power within us to bring his light and hope into dark places. Sometimes the darkness of gang violence, broken families, corrupt government, difficult relationships, abuse of all forms, and even disagreements among our own team can threaten to burn out his light within us. Abiding in him is continually turning to him in our joys and struggles, remembering that we are not fighting alone, and releasing the outcomes into his hands.
We are abiding together with his Spirit in us, which is a promise we can trust especially when we feel weakened by the darkness around us. It is not about our performance in “abiding” in him but about his presence already abiding in us, empowering us to produce fruit with him, instead of for him, blooming bougainvilleas in Guatemala in more ways than one! What a powerful promise!
This article was originally published in the World Orphans Spring Insight Magazine 2024.