March 26, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

Photo by LYNDA STRINGER

Professional photographer Sam Guzman is surrounded by his collection of vintage cameras in his studio in downtown Mount Pleasant. 

The owner of Sam Guzman Photography in Mount Pleasant is preparing for his fifth mission trip to Guatemala this summer with a small team who will work through the organization Believe Guatemala.

Guzman recently held a unique event to raise funds for the trip — a gallery auction of his work on canvas that featured live music, refreshments and wine.

“People said they felt like they were at an art show in Dallas,” said Guzman, who was pleased with the turnout and the response to his photography collection that he shot at scenic sites around the country and images from his previous mission trip.

The event was held at Jo’s Downtown on March 18 and raised $1,900 that will cover his travel and personal expenses while he’s there in July. He is working on raising about $2,000 to fund the projects he’ll undertake while there.

He hasn’t nailed down those projects yet and says his experience there in 2015 has given him a new sense of God’s hand in the planning.

When he landed in Guatemala last summer he planned to buy mattresses for an orphanage. Frustratingly, that plan fell through because the orphanage had changed ownership and the new owners would not accept his help.

Guzman was in a cluster of communities that grew up around a massive trash dump and the living conditions are dire. He admits he was looking for a project elsewhere because finding something that would make that lasting difference, he felt at the time, was too overwhelming.

“I asked the team there, ‘What do you need?’ and it’s not just one thing. It’s a thousand things, so I put The Dump to the side. It seemed too impossible. I couldn’t even imagine making a change there,” he said.

Guzman shared that his idea of making a lifelong change in people’s lives on his one-week trip came out of an article he read that convicted him of his reason for going in the first place. He had been on medical mission trips before with his wife, Stephanie Guzman, a registered nurse, where he served as a translator, admitting that he only went because she wanted him to go.

“But, I was really heartbroken for these people and I wanted to do more. When you go on a mission trip it changes you,” he said.

The article chastised people who go on mission trips for their own personal reasons, to see firsthand the living conditions of the poorest of the poor. It questioned how much difference a week can actually make and criticized Christians for imposing their beliefs on people.

“I used to be a box checker. Go to church, check, go on a mission trip, check that off and never go again. What that article did for me was ‘Game on, challenge accepted,” said Guzman, who is a member of Center Church and claims no denominational ties. “I’m just someone who has felt called to do this and show God’s love and if they want to know why and that opens a door to the conversation about whether they know Jesus Christ, then that’s OK.”

Sharing his faith, however, seemed farthest from his mind when he was faced with doors closing on ministry projects. It took a pastor’s wife and congregation of Guatemalans praising God for him to realize his true purpose in the poverty-ravaged landscape so far from the beauty in the images at his auction. Digging deep to expose his inner demons during a conversation in his small studio, Guzman shared the shortcomings that haunt him.

“I’m a procrastinator, I didn’t finish my degree. It makes me feel irresponsible and less qualified. I’m right with God, but I feel intimidated to be the head of this and to organize a team,” he said.

Those feelings of inadequacy brewed into a storm of frustration, and he found himself mad at God as he walked into that Sunday service with just two days left to accomplish what he promised his donors he would.

With emotion welling up in sharing the intimate story, Guzman said he knelt down in the sanctuary of the dark church with familiar Hillsong worship songs surrounding him and spilled his guts out to God.

“I started complaining and telling God, ‘You need to get someone else, someone more qualified, someone smarter, someone that manages their time better. I don’t want to be here. I want to be home with my family, my kids. I don’t even know if they’re safe.’ I’m saying all of that and the pastor’s wife put her arms over me and she says, ‘God is telling me to tell you something right now,’” he said.

He felt uncomfortable with the gesture, but he listened to her soft voice anyway.

“She says, ‘God told me to tell you to stop being scared. Your family is safe and there’s no one else. Stop worrying whether you’re qualified or smart. God can do all things. He doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called,” he said.

Her words stunned him.

“I’m losing it because I’ve never experienced anything like that before. You hear about God listening to your prayers, but having them answered right in that moment?” he said.

So, in that moment, he heard God’s answer and he went back to the team working with The Dump and in his last two days there provided desks for an after-school community center, bought backpacks and school supplies, painted walls and bought cubby holes to make the building more like a school setting.

“We started checking those boxes off,” he said laughing. “I had a newfound faith after that.”

He already knows some of the needs there for this trip, including bunk beds, raincoats, concrete floors and water filters, but he is trusting a higher power to work it all out.

“Yes, I am in a hurry to know what I am going to do this summer, but in the end, I know God is going to do it,” he said.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant, TX-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.