People come to serve the Parroquia San Lucas for many reasons. Some have time between school sessions or between school and work and want to use that time serving others. Some have a desire to help others in need and make the time to do so. Some want to travel but want alternatives to traditional tourist scenes. Some want to experience a culture different from their own. There are groups of students working through a church or school mission office. There are groups of adults from churches or service organizations. There are individuals who have connected with the parish through word of mouth.

     Visitors, whether individually or in groups, usually stay for one to three weeks. Longer-term volunteers usually commit to at least one month and commonly stay three, six, nine, or twelve months – or longer.

     "I want to help the poor." People often arrive with this approach to their work and to their being here. The first desire is to find work, to find a project to fit into. "I want to make a difference." This is their driving force. Short-term visitors and long-term volunteers alike arrive eager to get their hands dirty. Newcomers are ready to do, to actively improve the life of a needy person or group of people.

     The prevailing thought, of course, is that the people need help. In the newcomers’ minds, "That is why the Parroquia is here. That is why we came here ourselves. We have time and money and skills and knowledge that these people don’t have, and we’re here to make their lives better. Besides, look how much we have in the United States (or whatever country one is from). It’s a sin to not use what we have to better the lives of those who weren’t born so lucky."

     Serving from this model, however, a certain amount of frustration often sets in. There is a feeling of not doing enough, of not being able to do nearly enough. The eager hands spend hours filling bags with dirt at the reforestation project or laying concrete blocks at a construction site or digging a trench for a water pipe or sorting beans at the coffee co-op…. In spite of all this work, short-term visitors don’t see many long-term changes and long-term volunteers see the same people living in their same poverty and dealing with their same situations.

     "I am not making a difference!"

     It is easy at this point to give up, or to at least want to blame someone for the apparent lack of progress. People blame themselves for not working hard enough. They blame the volunteer program for not providing "more meaningful" opportunities. They blame the locals for doing some things "wrong" or for not accepting assistance in the way they would like them to. They blame the community for allowing themselves to "develop" so slowly. They blame local and international governments for not doing their part to help. They blame the greedy rich for creating the poverty in the first place.

     It is precisely at this point that volunteers need to deliberately change their approach. The earlier they do this, the less frustrated and less likely to give up they become. The longer it takes, or if it does not happen at all, the more negative they are. With truth comes peace.

     There is a phrase that has developed among some volunteers: "I am not needed here." As negative as it sounds, it is exactly the realization at which we all must arrive. I am not vital to the community of San Lucas. The people here do not need me to fill bags with dirt or to plant seeds or to assist in the classrooms or to pick coffee. I am an outsider; the people here, the people of this land who will live their lives with or without me, can do this work far better than I can. Things will certainly not fall apart if I leave. And, eventually, I will leave.

     The obvious question, then, is this: Why should I be here? The answer to that is deceptively simple: I am to be here. Not to do things for the people, but to be here with them.

     The poverty in which the people live is not a product of, nor should it be defined by, their lack of money, skill, or education. It is a product of and must be defined by their having been invaded and oppressed by local and international governments and organizations. What they do not have is the result of who they have not been allowed to be: a free people, respected and honored as dignified sons and daughters of God.

     Such a proper perspective keeps the real needs in focus.

     In this context, the eager I want to help will not find its fulfillment. The broader social structures, which reach from the local to the international community, are not going to be immediately changed by laying a brick or weeding a garden. This is why it is crucial to realize that presence, not productivity, is the cornerstone of a successful volunteer or visitor experience.

     Presence does not mean simply wandering the streets, coming to meals, and wasting time. Presence means building relationships. Presence means affirming the people of the community through purposeful, positive interaction.

     These relationships are the key to effective service. From child to adult, from the streets to the parish’s project sites, people can be and must be affirmed, encouraged, and celebrated. Hope for the future is thus built in hearts and minds that have lost or forgotten about hope, especially after a past and within a present of being treaded on by the economically and politically powerful.

     The work, the construction and painting and agriculture and all, must still be done. But the work is not the end of the service. It is the instrument for it, the excuse to build relationships with fellow workers, with individuals and families, with the community as a whole. By serving with a local resident, instead of for him or her, a trust and appreciation is communicated and shared that allows both persons to break the personal effects of the process of poverty.

     Service is relationship-based, not product-based. This properly focused presence allows a deep and meaningful friendship to be built across the lines of culture, language, nationality, and past experience. In the end, it is this friendship that does, indeed, make a difference. It makes a difference not only in the lives of the people of San Lucas Tolimán, but also in the lives of those who come to be with them.