Guatemala 08 - who needs luggage anyway?

An excerpt from a letter I wrote after returning from Guatemala in November 2008:
-------------------------------------
Dear friends,
Where do I begin? I’ve been home from Guatemala for a month now and I’ve struggled daily, yes daily, to write this letter. Not because I don’t want to but because it is impossible to convey everything I want to convey. I honestly wish I had an hour or two with each one of you to share in person what God did in Guatemala the week we were there. It was life changing!

I should start by telling you that I didn’t get my luggage when we arrived in Guatemala City that first night. Keep in mind this is my first trip out of the country EVER, I don’t speak the language, and I’m completely out of my comfort zone. If you know me well, you know I’m a planner and controller by nature. My close friend who was with me admitted that she said to herself “This isn’t good…I don’t think Holly will handle this well”. She was right Holly wouldn’t have handled it well BUT when I realized I had no luggage, God told me immediately, “Your luggage and everything in it belongs to Me. I will handle where it is and where it goes. This is not for you to worry about”. I was immediately released from all anxiety in that moment and for the rest of the week (I didn’t get my luggage until 3 weeks after I returned home). So the next morning, I’m wearing borrowed clothes from one girl and borrowed shoes from another and I realized that I’m wearing better clothes than anything that I packed in my own suitcase. That morning was when God reminded me of this verse, Matthew 6:28:

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

So that was the first of many lessons that week in trusting God and knowing that He would provide everything we needed.