As many of you know, Jonah and I had the privilege of spending this past week with the Dinsmore family in Guatemala. Jim and Shelley Dinsmore are some of the most amazing people we have ever met. Ten years ago, they followed God’s calling and committed their lives to reaching lost souls in the Kekchi villages of Petén. While they would both admit that they have had their fair share of struggles, neither would ever dream of giving up the life God has blessed them with in Guatemala.
In March of 2016, Jonah and I were approaching the end of our college careers at Wichita State University and we were eagerly counting down the days until graduation. I remember being particularly stressed out during midterms and complaining to Jonah that I could not wait to finally be done with homework, studying and test taking. It was all so over-whelming and, needless to say, we were ready to be done. We decided to take our minds off of school for a little while and start planning a trip. A big trip. A post-graduation / gigantic celebration of life without school. We discussed many different places; all of which were out of the country. Truth be told, neither one of us really cared all that much about where we went as long as it included a lot of doing nothing.
Once midterms were over, we had spring break to look forward to and we both had that Monday off to enjoy. Jonah was so sweet and bought me a gift certificate to get a massage while he spent the afternoon relaxing. I was soaking my feet while trying to relax and ignore the fact that I still had two months of school left when I decided to start planning our trip again. I closed my eyes and imagined us on a beach somewhere soaking in the sun. My thoughts were interrupted when the masseur came in to begin my massage. It only took about 5 seconds for me to slip right back into the trance. Again I imagined a warm climate with palm trees and lots of soft, white sand.
As I thought, I realized how incredibly blessed Jonah and I were to get to plan a trip like that. Even though we were in a very busy and stressful time of our lives, we had so much to be thankful for and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought. I started thanking God for all of my blessings one by one. It was refreshing. Then I remembered the message I had heard in church just the day before. At the time, I was working in student ministry on the weekends at NewSpring Church and our Student Pastor was out on paternity leave so one of my coworkers was filling in. In his message, he talked about how important it is to be generous with the blessings God has given us. I started thinking about all my blessings again and asked God if there was anything that He had given me that he wanted me to share with others.
I cannot really explain this but I just felt God saying time. Of course I didn’t say this directly to God but He heard my thoughts as I laughed [almost audibly] and pondered: Time? I barely have enough time as it is – there’s no way I could give any away! But then God reminded me – in that still small voice. What about your trip? I thought for a moment. Our trip? How could we give that away?
For the rest of my 75-minute massage, I laid in silence. I tried to imagine what it would look like to give up the week that Jonah and I had been planning. Could we really do anything that would make a difference?
Jonah picked me up after the massage and I did not waste any time sharing with him all the thoughts that were rolling around in my head. He was a little confused at first and neither one of us really knew what next steps to take but I reminded Jonah of a mission trip I had taken in 2008 to visit a couple in Guatemala named Jim and Shelley Dinsmore. We were both a little hesitant but we decided to go ahead and reach out to the Dinsmores. After all, the trip we were planning was going to have to be between Christmas and New Year’s Day so it was possible that they already had other plans or that they didn’t need us. It wouldn’t hurt to ask.
So I messaged Shelley on Facebook. I shared with her our desire to spend some time in Guatemala with them doing whatever was needed during that week. It was only a short time later that Jim responded and let us know they would be happy to have us visit and that the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day would work just fine. We booked our flights and told our parents, all the while nervous beyond belief.
We told very few people about our trip. There were several reasons. First of all, anytime we did tell someone, they would ask what we were going to be doing down there and we didn’t have a clear answer. Second, we didn’t want to make the trip sound like we were the most spiritual people on the planet who spend their vacations hugging orphaned babies in foreign countries. Third, and this one is the most embarrassing, part of us still wished that we were taking an exotic trip for the sole purpose of rest and relaxation.
As the months passed and we grew closer and closer to our trip, the nerves only grew bigger. What are we even going to be doing on this trip? Is this really something God wanted or did we just guilt ourselves into it? What if we are just a burden on Jim and Shelley and they start counting down the days until we leave? The struggle was real. Looking back on it now, we know that Satan was doing everything he possibly could to take our focus off of God’s plan for us.
Toward the end of July, I was attending the wedding of one of my cousins. [What does this have to do with anything? Just wait.] He had asked my sister to take photos (which she has NEVER ONCE EVER said yes to doing when asked because of the pressure) and she agreed but with the help of a family friend. Who was that family friend? Get this – Jim Dinsmore’s mother, Melissa. She had also asked that Jonah help by filming the wedding with one of his cameras. Unfortunately, Jonah was going to be late to the wedding so I ended up taking one of his cameras and riding with my parents. When I arrived, I saw Melissa taking photos and I did my best to sneak over quietly and set up the video camera without her noticing. [If you remember correctly, I wasn’t a huge fan of talking about our trip to Guatemala and I figured there was no real way of avoiding it if I ran into Melissa.] The wedding started and ended and it was time for the thousands of family pictures. They told everyone to gather around and, while we were waiting for a few stragglers, Melissa found me. She was very friendly and began telling me how excited she was that Jonah and I were going to be spending a week with Jim and Shelley and the kids. But it didn’t take long for her to get to the question: So what are you going to be doing there? I hesitated for a moment. I still did not have a very clear idea but I wanted to come up with at least something. Holding Jonah’s camera in my hand, I said: Jonah is going to take his camera and try to get some photos and videos of the work Jim and Shelley are doing. She was ecstatic! Now, this wasn’t a lie or anything. Jonah and I had talked about him getting some footage from the trip but mostly for the purpose of building his portfolio. However, as I listened to Melissa, I realized that a video of the work Jim and Shelley were doing was something that they really did need and was a great way for us to help.
Jonah and I drove home from the wedding that night and discussed the idea of making a video of the Dinsmore’s work. We both got excited about the prospect and began to believe again that this trip was divinely orchestrated.
Then time passed.
A lot of time passed.
Next thing we know, it’s December and the worries began again. Satan knew exactly how to hit us where it would hurt the most and, once again, we doubted that our trip would make an impact. We thought we had a solid direction in mind for the video but we weren’t 100% sure of the story we would be telling as we only knew a surface-level amount of the ministry Jim and Shelley had. In the meantime, we went ahead and rented the equipment we would need to take with us. [Side note: the company we rented through was having a promotion that gave renters the entire week of Dec 25 – Jan 1 absolutely free. We only had to pay for equipment from Dec 22 – 24 and Jan 2. God. Is. Good.]
We were still nervous. So we prayed. And we worried. Then we prayed some more.
Finally, the day came for us to leave. We arrived at the airport around 4 a.m. on the day after Christmas. As can be expected, neither of us were in a particularly good mood and we spent a good portion of the morning quietly pondering what the next week might hold. We made it to Flores, Guatemala around 8 p.m. and Jim greeted us at the airport. We got into his truck, still a little nervous but, open to the possibilities. The drive back to Jim and Shelley’s home changed everything. Jim began describing some of the things that he and Shelley had been doing over the past 10 years since they arrived in Petén. Jonah and I were immediately intrigued and began asking tons of questions. We had no idea what kind of impact they were making in the Kekchi villages and it did not take long to realize why God wanted us to document the work He was doing through them. It is going to be much better in video format but, for those of you who can’t wait, here is a summary of what the Dinsmores are all about.
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Jim and Shelley founded a school called Kekchi Bible Institute (KBI). KBI is located on a piece of land that mimics what a real Kekchi village would look like including the homes, buildings and landscape. At KBI, Jim, Shelley, and several other teachers train Kekchi men and women who are called to be Pastors. They teach them how to study and interpret the Bible, how to minister to others and how to preach but they take it so much further than that. Jim and Shelley realized that the best way for them to be useful to the Kekchi community was to take all of the knowledge and skills they have and pass them on to young Kekchi men and women. Along with the biblical teachings, they also teach community development courses including business economics, art, nutrition and music. While enrolled, the students also have animal and crop projects that they work on around the institute to learn how to be self-sustaining in the villages they end up pastoring. It is truly incredible.
Each student gets to attend KBI for free but they must agree to work 8 hours per week maintaining the farm. The program is 3 years long and, after they graduate, Jim and Shelley help to move them to an unreached village in Kekchi so that they can start a church and begin reaching souls that Jim and Shelley would never be able to reach on their own. In addition, the pastors go out into the field prepared to be completely self-sustaining so that they do not have to take any sort of state side support.
So far, there have been two KBI graduates and Jim and Shelley have a goal of having 50 church plants over the next 5 years. Along with that goal, they are working to make KBI a self-sustaining entity both in capital and resources. While Jim and Shelley plan to live out the rest of their lives in Petén, they want to make sure that when they are gone, the Kekchi community that they are training will be able to keep KBI functioning with no outside support. In order to meet this goal, Jim and Shelley have been incredibly smart about investing the money they receive in KBI rather than spending it on one-time expenses. For example, it cost about $1,200 for a student to go through one year at KBI. However, it only cost about $1,000 to start a chicken project on the farm which will produce about $1,200 in revenue per year. So, when KBI receives a $1,000 gift, Jim uses it to start a chicken project and then one student’s tuition will be paid every year in perpetuity.
The thing I love most about Jim and Shelley (and the biggest reason I believe they have had so much success) is the joy they have in doing the work God has called them to do. They don’t consider themselves martyrs or a “blessing” to the Kekchi people that the entire country should appreciate; they honestly love what they do and would not be happy anywhere else.
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It is comical now to think back on all of the worries and fears we had instead of trusting God in what he had planted on our hearts. This trip was better than anything we could have ever planned on our own and we are so excited to share the footage that we captured along with an interview of Jim and Shelley. I thank God for the privilege of spending a week with their adorable family. I look forward to visiting again soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=N3ECsp_PZo4
lifewithamazinggrace 