The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Five Waitsburg teens returned home last week following a two-week mission trip to Guatemala. The youth are pleased with the work they accomplished there, but all five agree that they were receivers as well as givers. While those they served lacked material possessions, the teens learned the Guatemalans are rich in ways many Americans aren't.

Chad (18), Nick (18) and Chloe Pearson (14) and Kavin (18) and Kassidy (17) Kuykendall, along with 13 other Walla Walla area teens, formed the 2014 College Place Presbyterian Church's Guatemala Mission Team. Nick and Chad are veterans, having traveled with the 2013 team, but the adventure was a new experience for Chloe, Kavin and Kassidy. The team flew out of Boise on June 16 and landed in Guatemala City where they worked with missionaries Mark and Kim Agrellas.

Mark, Kim and their three children moved from Walla Walla to Guatemala in 2005 where they devote themselves to ministering to the impoverished and abused as well as to other missionaries. Mark serves as principal of the Christian Academy of Guatemala, a school for missionary children, and Kim teaches there.

In 2008 the couple opened El Refugio, a shelter for abused women and their children. Domestic violence is an overwhelming problem in Guatemala, where police protection is limited and the culture expects women to stay with their husbands regardless of how badly they are abused. El Refugio strives to not only offer protection to the women and children, but also to provide legal assistance, medical care, education, counseling and skills training.

The team spent their first week working and living at El Refugio. They painted the house inside and out, rebuilt a sandbox and repaired and decorated a dilapidated playhouse. The shelter, which has a very strict process for accepting new boarders, was at an all-time low capacity during the team's visit, housing only two women and their eight children. Sur- prisingly, that turned out to be a blessing to the team.

Because numbers were so low, the team was able to spend a great deal of time talking with and working alongside the women and children. All the teens commented that the relationships they forged there were a highlight of the trip.

"The women shared their stories with us at one point - about how they were abused -- and it was neat for me to see firsthand people who had experienced that and lived through it," said Kassidy. "We usually only hear stories about that kind of stuff."

"The coolest thing about that was meeting the women and seeing how happy they were to see us each time . . . it kind of breaks your heart. You would never imagine someone being so happy after knowing what they had been through and survived," Nick said.

The team also spent one day their first week singing, making crafts and presenting skits at Villa Nueva, a squatter's village in Linda Vista. During Guatemala's civil war, which began in 1960 and didn't end until 1996, many people fled the mountainous regions where the war was being fought to live in the city, which was safer. Since there was no place for them to go, they began building camps in deep ravines and steep hillsides, hoping the government would ignore them, which it did. Hundreds of thousands of people - often considered the poorest of the poor -- now squat on that land.

Chloe was especially touched by her experience in Villa Neuva and shared the following in a blog post following the visit:

"I had a pretty good idea in my head of what this town and these people were going to be like. But I was wrong. Way wrong. We got to this town, and it completely opened my eyes to a whole new thought. These people living here in this squatter's village have so much less then we can imagine. But in reality, they have more than every single one of us. They make the best of what they have with so little. This might not be everybody, but it is me. I have so many distractions at home, that I don't realize what I have aside from all of my distractions. I definitely do not take enough time each day to sit down and talk to God, or even think about him. No, not all of these people do that, but they have better relationships with just their neighbors, than I have with my best friends."

The team also spent a day visiting the Eagle's Nest orphanage above Panajachel. "Even though they may not have parents, they're in a very secure home and get three meals a day and lots of hugs. They are very loved and cared for," said Nick. "Then you look at the kids in the squatter's village and they don't have much or even get fed all the time, but they also seem pretty happy with their families and make the best of their situation."

The team spent their second week traveling daily from San Lucas Toliman to a remote mountain village where the population is 90-95% Highland Maya. There, they built two, 16'x16' cinder block houses for a widow and a woman who was raising her sister's children. Kassidy said that seeing 'Gringos' was even more rare for them than in the squatter's village and communicating was a challenge since most of them spoke Kaqchikel rather than Spanish.

Chad was struck, throughout the trip, by all the children that were so persistent in wanting to learn English. "I think they link English and America with success and they want to bring that into their lives," said Kavin.

"Sadly, I think what is taught to them as they grow up is that if you can make it to America, you will have a lot of money and be happier. What happens is that a lot of the men, when they come of age, will leave and go to America and will often not come back," said Nick.

All the teens said they would return again and expressed interest in further missions work. Each returned home with new insights on the importance of relationships and contentment as well as a desire to make a positive difference in the world. "I just don't want people to think of Guatemala and imagine all the sad people there because their life is so bad. They're happy with what they have. They don't know the American lifestyle and they're living to the best of their abilities and are happy with that. In a lot of ways they're happier than a lot of people here are because they have what they need and that's enough for them," said Kavin.