The most important thing to pack

For those of you who have not missioned before, the answer will slightly surprise you. Of course, you can't come to Guatemala without a passport and its helpful to have clothes, toiletries, and other personal needs. Yet, the answer to the above statement is FLEXIBILITY.

When I learned about the mission experience during my previous three trips, the SOS leadership team always reminded us of the need to be flexible. There were countless times to practice this important skill as well - when a bus would break down, luggage would not arrive to our destination, lesson plans would be lost or power would go out.

Today, the need to pack our flexibility was due to changes at the Guatemala City airport. As this facility has been under construction for quite sometime, we did not anticipate the move to the new terminal and baggage handling facility. While, this would seem to be a minor thing to adjust to, it meant quite a rearrangement to our schedule.

Since the facility change occurred just a week ago, the banks / currency exchange offices were not open and there were no bathrooms to be easily found. Being that we try to move the team through the airport expeditiously to get to our luggage, we had to go in search of a bathroom somewhere outside of the airport. After quite a bit of traffic, an Exxon station seemed to be the right calling.

Yet, we were looking to be quite a bit out of luck for currency conversions as all of the banks were closed at 1PM on Saturday, which was problematic for us again due to traffic. Luckily at our rest stop, Katok, midway on the road to Santa Cruz del Quiche, we were able to ask the right people on where to find a bank. Of course, this meant finding the bank in a small town off of the main highway with little assurances that it may be open. Success! Except then we had to convince the bank to convert $1,400 from various team members without the needed Guatemalan documentation. Success again (with a phone calls to override the system)!

So flexibility meant we were close to 2 hours late in our schedule for dinner and Communion Service / reflection. Yet, the team still worked hard to get ready for the next day by being flexible with their sleep needs.

So in everything we do,we always pack our flexibility first.