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by Scott Collins
Bob Lemley stood with one foot propped on scaffolding and the
other foot on a nearby table. Above him was a 300-gallon water
tank with pipes snaking from its sides to a water heater and from
there, through a wall and into showerhead on the other side.
Outside in the courtyard of Fundación Salvación, an orphanage
in Huehuetenango, a city in the northwest part of Guatemala, Sydney
McCarthy held two children on her lap while a third orphan climbed
up and over her back.
Across town, the line waiting to see doctors Pat Pryor and Sean
McCarthy grew faster than the two physicians could see patients.
Pre-med students from Baylor University and volunteer nurses triaged
waiting patients and dispensed free medicine.
The activity in this city of 130,000 was the result of a weeklong
missions trip to Huehuetenango sponsored by Buckner Orphan Care
International. The team was led by members of First Baptist Church,
Waco and included more than a dozen students from Baylor University
and George W. Truett Theological Seminary.
Team members divided into three groups, with a crew from the church
providing physical improvements to the orphanage. A second group
led Vacation Bible School for the orphans and a third group operated
a medical clinic.
“It’s almost beyond words what it means to me,” said Lemley, who
runs a computer programming office in Waco. “My spiritual gift
is the gift of helping. I was fortunate that God gifted me with
the ability to do things. And coming down here and doing things
for people, that’s getting to use the gift that I’ve been given.”
Lemley, who was nicknamed “Bob the Builder” by his fellow team
members, worked on the construction crew. He said the team changed
assignments once they saw the desperate needs of the orphanage.
During their week, the team constructed and installed the water
tank to provide hot water to the boys’ shower, built and installed
a Formica kitchen counter, braced bunk beds that were dangerously
loose, purchased 40 new bunk beds and new chairs, and bought and
installed a new kitchen stove, oven and griddle.
Meanwhile, other team members led the VBS, providing much-needed
attention to the 40 orphans.
Travis Taylor, a Baylor student who helped with the VBS, said
he made the trip because “I just really felt the need for God’s
work to be spread throughout the nations. It’s been amazing.”
Taylor said he hopes the mission volunteers have shown the orphans
“that they are loved and to know that they always have someone
or something to turn to. And to never lose faith.”
Robert Cole, a student at Truett Seminary, said the trip allowed
him to share “the one thing I have the most abundance of and that’s
love. That’s what they need here. They just want people to come
down here and love on these kids. These kids are desperate for
somebody to love them.
“I came down here thinking I was going to be such a blessing to
these kids, that I was going to love on them and we were going
to bring them all this great stuff like toys and clothes and medicine
and we were going to be such a blessing,” added Cole, who is a
graduate of Howard Payne University. “But after five minutes,
your view changes because you get so much from these kids. They
just want to be loved and they want somebody to love. They are
so excited about that.”
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At the medical clinic, Gail Pryor, whose husband Pat was one of
the volunteer doctors, said the experience in Guatemala allowed
church members to physically demonstrate God’s love.
“We just feel like we need to be loving other people in God’s
name,” she said. “God tells us to love each other and Christ modeled
helping people and we are just trying to follow that.”
Along with seeing dozens of patients, team members provided free
medicines. And after each patient visited a doctor, Baylor students
shared their faith in Christ and prayed for and with each person.
Orphanage director Sandra Temaj said the work of the mission team
“has been a great blessing for us. I just want to thank them because
we are so grateful for all they gave to our children, especially
the time they spent with our children. They have totally changed
the attitude of our orphanage.”
Temaj, who started the orphanage in 1997 with her husband Cesar,
said the team’s work helps accomplish the purpose of the foundation,
which is to “reach these children for God. We present the gospel
to them and we want them to receive Jesus in their hearts.”
Temaj said the Buckner team’s work “gives us the strength to go
on. Not because of the money that you spent, but because now we
know we are not alone. Now we know for sure there are people with
us spiritually and you will be helping us and supporting us with
your prayers most of all.”
Scott Walker, pastor of First Church in Waco, said he views the
mission work in Guatemala as part of the church’s worship.
“We come to God’s sanctuary to prepare to go into the world and
worship him by the way we live,” Walker said. “The true worship
of God is the way we live our lives. It’s not what happens in
the sanctuary. The way you praise God is the way you love his
children and we are trying to do that here. This is a service
of worship. What we have been doing this week is worshipping God.”
The church’s work in Guatemala is part of a comprehensive partnership
with Buckner, which includes Buckner providing ministries in Waco
through programs targeting at-risk children and families surrounding
the church.
Walker said partnering with Buckner enables the church to accomplish
things it could not have done alone.
“There’s no way we could have done this without going through
the auspices of Buckner because basically they did the difficult
work. When we landed, there were places to stay and vehicles available.
There was a structure to help us glue onto so we could do what
we needed to do.”
Walker said the church intends to continue working through Buckner
to help the orphanage with future needs. |
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