Guatemala – Who Does Jesus Say I Am?
Identity is a theme Westbound has intentionally been exploring together this year. Who does Christ say I am? How has He made me different to the next person? What is my purpose? As the Father has slowly and steadily been inviting us to glimpse His design for each of our lives, we’ve been diving into such questions and journeying with Him in the mysteries. However, it wasn’t until Guatemala that He began to abundantly pour out the answers.
In this humid and green land, we were hosted by an inspiring missionary couple who have dedicated their lives to serving God in radical ways that very few are willing to do. Our adventure into discovering our identity began in the car ride from the airport, where the husband picked us up and began to share his stories of a life lived glorifying Christ through the messy, the painful, the testing and trying, and the inexplicable joys of going on adventures with Him. From the start, there was something different about this family that told a story of identity and walking in God’s full design. Good thing God organised for us to stay with them because they were speaking to the right crowd. We were hungry for just that.
Over the next two weeks, our team dived into the topic of identity. We listened to podcasts, did daily devotionals on hearing God’s voice, and worshipped constantly. We dived into the Word and prayed as attacks from the Enemy came too, often waking us up in the nights.
We spent our days volunteering at a pre-school and a nursing home. There, we served, cleaned, cooked, taught and listened. The boys would often go out and do carpentry and other such hands-on work with the men there. The girls of our team often found themselves helping make tortillas – a true art form that is often at the centre of a marriage proposal in the Guatemalan culture as we soon found out! Some of the team members even got to paint murals and help make the art therapy centre come alive at the old age nursing home.
On the weekends, we’d go for hikes in the beautiful hills, swim in waterfalls, go for morning runs, ride quad-bikes around town, get ice cream, and have meals with the locals. We were blessed with many of the families working at the old age home wanting to cook for us traditional dinners. God poured out his heart for fun, laughter, admiring the beauty of His creation, serving others, and receiving blessings too. It was a time of being filled up in every way. We even got to ride horses up a volcano at one stage – a truly unforgettable experience!
One day towards the end of our time there, our host did an exercise with us where he said, “I want you to go and ask God what lies you’ve been believing about your identity. Then I want you to give those lies to him, renounce that identity, and ask Him what he thinks of you. Ask him for the names he calls you.” What followed next was beautiful.
Our group came back together and shared the specific names that we felt God call us. Yes, we all carry the same identity as ‘son/daughter of God’ or ‘child of the King’ and so forth. But God is much more personal than that. Those names are promises he gives us in His Word. But what makes Jana different to Mieke or Stiaan? What identity do each of them carry that no one else can? These were the answers we were searching.
As we shared in a group the different names we felt God call us, we glimpsed a deeper side of God’s fatherly heart. We saw how He designed us uniquely and we were able to celebrate those qualities in one another. Here are some testimonies from the group:
Georgia: “I heard God call me ‘Overcomer’ and that not only have I overcome many things in my own life, but I will help others do the same.”
Sarah: “I felt God say that I am ‘Hope to the Hopeless’ and this is what I will bring to others throughout my life.”
James: “God said that I am a ‘Leader of the Lost’”
Emily: “I heard Jesus say that I am a ‘Healer of Nations’”
Mieke: “Jesus calls me ‘Ground-Breaker’ because I will be used by Him to go into new spaces and break open the ground for Him.”
Jana: “God told me that I am a ‘Gracious Seeker’”.
The names poured forth and we marvelled at the Father’s design for one another. The beauty in this is that we now get to see each other more clearly through God’s eyes, and we can support each other to step more boldly into our roles in his Kingdom.
As we served and loved others throughout those two weeks, we found that it was easier to do so when we did it out of our identities. At one stage, Mieke and Emily found themselves sitting next to a girl during dinner and sharing the love of Christ with her. It turned into a few hours of her opening up to them about things she had never shared with anyone before and she experienced a deep measure of healing in that. When they later reflected on it, this kind of event was not a surprise because of course that is what would happen when God chooses to use Mieke and Emily, because together they are ‘ground-breaker’ and ‘healer of nations’. This is just one small example of what happens when we know our identity and partner with others who do too – shockwaves for the Kingdom happen!
We left Guatemala feeling stirred and refreshed in new ways. Not only were we leaving being filled up with spiritual and physical rest, but we were leaving knowing ourselves better. As we prepared for Honduras, we couldn’t help but feel like something big was coming and that we were being prepared for the fire of the Spirit to move in new and powerful ways.
