the Dave and Shawn show: The Tale of Two Retreats

We began our duo of retreat weekends with weary souls. We were tired of being alone. Tired of having so few friends and feeling discouraged with our yet-again delayed residency.

Friday of the first weekend we took the public lancha across the lake and arrived in Panajachel with time to spare before we could check in at the hotel where the first retreat was being hosted. We walked up to a Christian-owned coffee shop and chatted with the owner, Mike. More obviously-missionary type folk arrived and we struck up conversation. They were excited about what we are pioneering at the lake and as we talked with them we could almost visibly see our spirits rising.

Before check-in we had lunch with another family who are missionaries in another area of Guatemala. They live in a rural area, working with a Mayan people group, and also like us, moved last July. We don’t see them often, but when we do it is always a time of deep refreshment and mutual enjoyment. This time was more of the same. They even had a birthday gift for me—coloring pages and a new table cloth!

By the time we were allowed to settle into the hotel we felt that the weekend had already fulfilled everything we’d hoped it would. Our room was beautiful, the view overlooking the lake and the pool. We had a hot shower, catered meals, and what Z considered the best part of all... missionary kid camp! Z spent all his time, except meals and sleeping, with his playmates at camp. They learned songs, made crafts, played outside, watched skits, ate snacks, and had a special movie night on Saturday. He loved it and told me, “Yeah, and Mom, they even speak English!”

For Dave the highlight was the tightly-packed schedule of missions workshops and key-note speaker who came from the States. I enjoyed a more relaxed scene with many of the other moms, hanging out by the pool and talking home school. The highlight for me arrived as a surprise when I dropped Z off for kid’s camp on Saturday morning. I look over at the man dropping off his daughter beside me and think, “He looks a lot like my leader from my Cambodia team” (I spent two months with a team of 15 in Cambodia through Teen Missions International in 2005). I glanced at the guy’s nametag and suddenly realized... it WAS my leader!

We were so excited to reconnect, especially under new circumstances as I wasn’t the best behaved 11 years ago when he was my leader. He and his family had arrived as missionaries in Guatemala last year and we were able to eat a couple meals together with them and hear about their experience of transition to a new ministry. It felt incredibly redemptive to have another chance to show him respect and friendship, two things I failed miserably at in Cambodia. God really is the God of second chances!

The second weekend was a Prayer Retreat hosted in our home. Two couples from the States were the participants in this special time, and we spent a great deal of time in prayer both collectively and as couples. Our theme was “Married in the Ministry” and one of the mornings we spent time in girls/guys groups praying for our spouses and asking the Lord for words to sow into their lives, like yeast in bread. When we all came back together to pray over each other all the wives were in tears at the beautiful words our husbands had to give us. It was a beautiful weekend of encouragement, for us and for the couples. They are a group who have started a mercy ministry in an area called Esquintla, near the coast. There were some large future-changing decisions that needed to be made and so these couples had requested that we host the retreat to give them a time away as a leadership team.

Z’s favorite part of the retreat was putting together puzzles with our friend Chris who came to watch him on Saturday morning, and also playing “Beanboozled”—a game of taking chances on eating jelly beans, some which taste fine, and some which have flavors like “canned dog food” or “skunk spray”. Many laughs were shared over the antics of poorly-chosen jelly bean victims.

We began these two weeks with a sense of weariness. We have come out the other side with a sense of refreshment. We know that God has called us here and that He is confirming the vision He gave us. We have a feeling that He is about to do a new thing through us and for us, and we are excited to see what it is... and we are thankful to a God who allows His workers a break when it’s needed.

Thank you to each of you who’s generosity allowed us to participate and be blessed by these retreats. We are utterly grateful for your obedience to God’s call.