By: Willi
My memory generally doesn’t serve me very well, but some things just stick.
I had agreed to help out Barb and Gerry document some of the stories they have heard from families over the years. During my first trip to Guatemala, we were wrapping up filming an interview at the home of a PILAS Student and Barb and Gerry were helping take some of my things back to the car. As I was packing up the last few items, the father and mother stopped me to say a few words. Their daughter, who has been in the PILAS program for the past few years and an aspiring English teacher, helped provide the translation. “Thank you for coming to see us, please don’t forget about us because we will never forget about you.” To hear that from a family whom I had just met a half hour earlier, who didn’t share the same cultural and socio-economic status that I’ve come from, has stretched my ideas of what it means to love our neighbor. My definition of neighbor needed to go beyond the people I interact with on the daily to include those who are forgotten and marginalized.
As much as Barb and Gerry’s ministry is about education and leadership, I see that their ministry is about people first. The work they do in building relationships with families and children is paramount in the work of reconciliation they’ve been called to. I have learned that even though it is important that we help, it is equally important in how we help.
One reflection I’ve had since my trips to Guatemala is that I’ve come to realize that I’m on missions whenever I choose the path of reconciliation. Whether it be reconciling disparity in wealth by giving a donation to a charitable organization, giving dignity to a homeless individual by serving them a meal at a soup kitchen in downtown Toronto, or even watching a documentary about a people group that are being oppressed that influences the way I make decisions. My trips to Guatemala made me realize that the work of reconciliation is hard and may open up dark realities in our own lives, but we are all called to it.