Donna Partow

My 19 year old daughter, Leah, has just returned from Guatemala where she served as a Leader in Training.  She traveled with a team of approximately 600 people—mostly high school and college students. 

The work included painting schools, cleaning up at orphanages, and performing a powerful drama about God’s love.  Here are her reflections:

As the anticipated team list arrived, I looked it over calmly. It was just a list of empty names at the time. I knew that soon I would be getting to know those names as people, but as I always do, I under-estimated the depth to which that would be true. Over these past couple of weeks in Guatemala, I have stood in amazement as God took each empty black name printed on a cold piece of white paper and turned it into a beautiful face; each face into an unparalleled personality; each personality into a beating heart with hopes and dreams and fears and a history; and then finally I watched as God turned each beating heart into an undeniable soul.

I’m a pretty experienced missionary for my age. I have traveled in 14 countries on 4 continents and been on several mission trips ranging in length from 10 days to 2 months. This is by no means the first team I have ever been on. On most of my other trips I was painfully shy towards my team mates, but uncontrollably outgoing and excited with the children we were serving. On this trip, I felt God compelling me to be the opposite. As a Leader in Training (LIT) I spent a lot of time with the high school students assigned to my team. I understood that talking to them and getting to know them was central to my ministry.

Out on the field, I did whatever work I needed to do, and then became a silent but prayerful observer. I watched in renewed amazement as I saw unfamiliar hearts break through language barriers and cultural differences. I watched through misty eyes as young people from ALL walks of life, for just a moment, forgot THEIR pain, and let their hearts be broken by the things that break GOD’s heart. I watched them surrender. And one by one I watched as many of them allowed God to heal their hearts through the unselfish act of serving.

There is something inexplicably beautiful about the bonds woven between a group of people who have traveled and served together. You often come to trust them more than people you’ve known for years. I think it’s because of the nature of the journey. How would you forget someone who was there for you when your life began to change? Even more marvelous is the way a large group of people, who inwardly are filled with turmoil and chaos, can come together so harmoniously. That in itself is miraculous.

I truly believe that God specifically designed each of these teams exactly the way He wanted them to be. As people we often believe that we need to somewhat “match” the people in our lives in order to create strong friendships. But God is far beyond a convenient human opinion. He specifically crafted each team full of people who don’t match, and supernaturally caused them to mesh. What an awesome God. I’m sure it has not always been easy. I’m sure that there have been clashes. But as inconvenient as it may have been at times, sometimes God really does put people in our lives to grow us and stretch us and make us better people.

I have been honored and blessed by the people on this trip. I will not forget them.

When I travel, every country and every face leaves its very own and totally unique engraving on my heart. Each trip leaves me with a new lesson learned and another portion of my heart forever altered. I hope and pray and know and believe that I will never be the same again.