Loving and being loved by the Achi

It seems like a week and a year since I last updated this blog. We have done so much, been to many different places and have seen so many different people. Our nights, if we are in San Miguel Chicaj, are usually spent at some little church within a twenty mile radius of San Miguel. I am now at the point where I am talking Spanglish. It takes discipline to not interject Spanish while I am typing. I almost typed any given night 'mis tres jovenes y jo' instead of 'my three young adults and I'. Anyways, usually the four of us pile into a microbus along with Tania plus about a half dozen Achi and we head to church to play games, do music and preach to youth in the area. Most of the songs that we do are in Spanish along with a couple of Achi songs, but tonight we were asked to do at least one song in English. That is our typical evening.

Our non-typical days have been even more interesting and blessed. Once, very, very early in the morning we piled into our microbus, the Achi, the gringos and one Mexicana. We were told to bring our bedrolls (blankets and sheets) because we would be staying overnight. Sleep was impossible in the microbus because of the curves and the climbing and the drop offs. And that was the good part of the road. Then we reached a small village and turned off the paved road and started climbing a tortuous dirt road. In the USA this road would be considered a serious four wheel drive road and we were climbing it in a microbus that was occasionally bottoming out on the oil pan. I kept glancing back to see if we were trailing oil. Finally we made it to the the top and to a little Rabinal Achi village named Santa Ines. A herd of smiling kids were there to greet us. After we dumped our sleeping bags in two small store rooms (later we found out these two rooms were our his and her dormitories, complete with indestructible cement floor to rest your tired back ... all night) we climbed up a short path to a top of a hill to find the church, the church kitchen and most the village waiting for us. The location for this simple little church was absolutely beautiful. The air was clear, the mountains were incredibly green and we could see for miles. We had not had breakfast so we were offered atol which is a not quite tasteless thick creamy soup made from corn. Some of us had it with sugar but I asked for chili and salt. They must have thought I was an atol aficionado ("¿tienes sal y chile?") because they brought me a huge bowl of atol. Brian was in awe when I finished it. While I was waiting for my salt and chile I could see some of the men of the village looking at me and waving hello, so I went over and pulled out my family pictures and practiced my Spanish. I learned some new names and made a lot of new friends and had a great time. After we were filled up on atol, we were told to return back to where we were dropped off because the pastors wife had breakfast waiting for us. What!? There must be some misunderstanding, we thought. But we quietly had that discussion. These people literally scratch a living out of the soil and we knew whatever is put in front of us, we must eat it all, because it is a such a sacrifice on their part. So with eager smiles on our faces, we let our belts out a notch and headed down the hill for pinole and chicken and, of course, tortillas. And we finished everything in front of us and complimented the chefs.

We let the pinole settle and the next event was soccer. The field was some distance away, so they got a pickup for the gringos. And after we piled in the gringos and the Achi, about another dozen little kids piled in. And when I say pickup, I am talking Nissan size, not GMC. It was hilarious. Everytime we hit a bump, I would say, "Lo siento (I am sorry)" as I crushed the little guy in front of me. And after I was done crushing him, he would look up at me with a big beaming smile. After a bit of a ride, we got to a flat spot of some size with goals at either end and that was our soccer field. Teams were waiting and we contributed a few of our Achi to the fray and the games began. One sideline was a ravine and the ball was only considered out of bounds when it disappeared into the ravine, usually accompanied by a few tumbling players disappearing over the edge and lots of laughter. The other sideline was dense thicket and jungle and the ball was only considered out if it somehow wedged into the thicket. The match was a crazy blend of kicking, running, laughter, occasionally interrupted by actual displays of skill. It was hard to determine a loser, I think everyone was winners.

After a wonderful lunch of pinole and chicken, we did some home visits and prayed for families. We split into two groups started our visits. The team I was on had five families to visit and they were all within a quarter mile of each other. When we got back to the church we waited for the other team to return, and we waited, and we waited some more. Finally, bedraggled, they returned. It seems all four of their families were about a mile apart each and on top of mountains. They were exhausted.

Then after the dinner and the home visits, we went back to church and it seems the church was having a musical talent show that night. An Achi talent show is an unforgettable event and so much fun. First of all, all the amps are cranked up as loud as possible. Then it seems that if you owned a keyboard, you get to be in the band that played behind each one of the contestants. The band had one drummer, two guys on guitars and four keyboards. I am sure that two of guys had been playing keyboard at least six months, but I am less sure about the other two. It was great though. Three hours of pounding noise, praise, laughing and applause and some occasional music. I am sure this sounds like a rather disparaging description, but it really was a joy to see how much fun everyone was having. At the end, the pastor had everyone clap for the contestants and the volume of the clapping determined the winners. Of course it was impossible to determine applause volume differences, so the pastor was just telling jokes and being really random about who was a winner and everyone went home happy. We went to our sleeping quarters which were the two small rooms, one for the girls and one for the guys, and we spread our blankets on cement floors and slept like Achi.

The next day we attended about four hours of Sunday church and after the youth service that our Achi team led, all of the youth honored us and then each one of them came up and gave us each a hug. Then we piled into the microbus, thankful that it had not rained, and headed back down the hill to San Miguel Chicaj.

In closing, I want to try to convey what a home visit is like. I think these are my favorite parts of our mission. Either local pastors or some of the Achi on our team determine what homes we will visit. The homes we visit usually have clear prayer needs, either health or a non-believer, or it is the home of someone who has been in service to us and wants to continue to love on us. The homes are usually two or three room adobe homes with wood burning cookstove inside the house. Each room has a door that opens to a covered area that is open to the outside. We approach the home and from a distance start saying, "buenos dias", or " buenas tardes", or "Maria". No matter what the occupants name is, it seems that Maria is a customary thing to say when you are announcing your presence. After a while, a lady of the house will peek out and Hector or a pastor will explain our presence and then we will be invited to the covered but open to the outside area. All the chairs in the two or three rooms will be brought out for us and this is usually two to four chairs, the rest of us stand or sit on the low wall. Conversation takes place, often in Achi, so until we get a summary translation, we just sit and watch. If the person that needs prayer is bedridden due to sickness, injury or stroke, we will be invited inside. After a while, the discussion turns to prayer needs and spiritual health of the family. And then all of us are made aware of the prayer requests, and a pastor or I as the eldest, will be called to lead prayer. After the prayer is started, everyone starts praying, simultaneously and loudly. It is a chorus and cacauphany of prayer. It is an aroma lifted to God. It is my favorite time of our mission. A pleading for God's provision, recognition of His promises, and acknowledgement of His glory, and confession of our sins. Sometimes Christ will be received by a new believer and then other times a heart will be hardened, sadly. These are some of the times I feel closest to the Lord when I witness such dependence.

Healthy, Exhausted and In Sin?? Huh?

When I was given the responsibility for planning the young adult mission and realizing that God will always put in front of us what He wants done, I was still worried that we would have days of idleness wishing there was something we could do. That has not been the case at all. Every day seems to be packed to the brim, often more than one church to visit, and now we all are looking forward to a rest day. Thursday, this week, we will be taking a day off and heading to the waterfalls on the way to Coban.

I thought after the medicos departed back to the USA, that I would be able to rest some. Hah! What was I thinking once again? Rodrigo and I had a meeting to attend with the Central American Faith Comes By Hearing representative, Abdiel Lopez, and two of the Guatemalan Campus Crusade representatives, Oto and Roberto in the capital. And we had to get the Gregory's to the airport. Before the Gregory's departed from San Miguel Chicaj, Rodrigo and Tania, our Mexicans, made chilaquiles for breakfast. They were absolutely delicious, but during the breakfast I received another language lesson. Rodrigo looked down the table at me and said, "¿Empacado?" He was asking me if I was packed and ready for our trip to the capital and using the past tense of the the verb 'empacadar', to pack. However, my "extensive" knowledge of Spanish did not include that verb, but I did know the words "¿En pecado?", which would mean "In sin?" For the life of me, I could not figure out why Rodrigo was asking me in front of about fifteen people (and we were at opposite ends of a long table), "Are you in sin?" Of course I was. We all are, that is why we need Christ, but was this good bye breakfast the time to confess in public. I was very confused. Rodrigo kept asking, "¿Empacado?", and I continued to hear "En pecado?". When both are said quickly, it is difficult to distinguish the difference. Rodrigo was finding it difficult understanding why I was confused about a simple question of packing and I was confused why we needed to have a discussion about my sin in front of fifteen of my friends. Tania, our translator, finally told me he wanted to know if I was packed. I said, "Oh, that is not a verb I know. I thought he wanted to know if I was in sin?", and we all had a big laugh at that.

Soon after, the Gregory's, Rodrigo and I headed for the capital. That evening, we had a very productive meeting with Abdiel Lopez (Central America Faith Comes By Hearing) and Oto and Robereto of Guatemala Campus Crusade. The next morning we got the Gregory's off to the airport and then, after breakfast, Rodrigo and I ran errands in the capital. During our time of running errands, Rodrigo asked if I would help him get his car back to San Miguel Chicaj. Of course I would help him, I needed to get back to San Miguel Chicaj also. What I found out was that he had another car in the repair shop and I would drive one car and he would drive the other. Oh boy, I get to follow Rodrigo in the capital city, a city maybe only slightly safer than Juarez, Mexico. I cannot begin to tell you how eager I was for this adventure ... NOT! I have to report that Rodrigo was on his best behavior and when he lost me on a round about (not a fun memory, "Dang, no one is letting me in and where is Rodrigo? I'm shutting my eyes and going for it!"), he pulled over a half block from where I saw him last disappear and waited for me. Once we got on the highway ("Thank you, Lord") he was even fairly conservative about passing. I think this was the first trip I did not have to pass on a blind curve to stay with the lead cars. Finally we were back in San Miguel Chicaj, with two intact cars and two intact drivers. And I was exhausted! When I arrived at where I was staying with my young adults, they all exuberantly told me how much they missed me and Sophia gave me a big, big hug and told me, "I missed you, grandpa."

Pastors y Medicos

Our days have been incredibly packed for the last week and more. The Barrera's and I packed light and headed up to the mountains above Salama on the way to Cobán Thursday last week. Our church, Desert Springs, was hosting a pastors conference at the Posada del Quetzal and we were arriving early to see that all was ready and prepared; and it was. It was an incredibly lush setting, green, ferns of many types, huge tree ferns, tall trees with mossy bark; a jungle paradise. That afternoon a van arrived delivering the first contingent from Desert Springs; Bart Faris, one of our team leaders who grew up in Latin America and is totally bilingual; Tim Ragsdale, one of our elders; Greg Schneeberger, our former youth pastor that will be leaving for a position in California and is also bilingual; and my three young adults, Sophia Edwards, Brian Whippo, and Rachel Breidenbach. It was really great seeing everybody and I think it was Sophie that just about immediately pinned me with my new Guatemalan name, Abuelito Loco. Also arriving in the van was Tania, a charming young Christian lady from Mexico that was going to be our interpreter, when necessary, for the young adult team for the next five weeks.

The following day, the Rabinal Achi pastors began to arrive and after lunch and time to get reacquainted with old friends and new friends, we started the conference. The Desert Springs contingent of three taught, and on Saturday we continued with testimonies and a session taught by Francisco Benefield of Guatemala City. The testimonies were powerful. A wife (names withheld for security) gave her testimony about their time in Morocco, ministering for twenty years until her husband was kicked out and forbidden to return. She is from El Salvador and her husband is a water engineer from Guatemala. They are now back in Guatemala, but their heart remains in the Middle East and they are now awaiting word as to whether they can go to live in Tunisia. Our own Sophia gave her testimony about how cancer has impacted her family and how they have come to see God more real in their lives. She also explained that the reason her hair was cut off was that there was a little girl that was bald due to chemotherapy and she donated all her hair for a wig for the little girl. Also often during the retreat, Brian would get up at the end of breaks and be joined by the other young adults, both North American and Achi and lead everyone in song, Achi and Spanish songs. After a few sessions, the pastors named the group Las Piedras Vivas (The Living Rocks, see Luke 19:40 and 1 Peter 2:5). This was the second pastors retreat I have been able to go to and once again I was blessed.

After the retreat ended Saturday afternoon so the pastors could be back in their churches on Sunday, we returned to San Miguel Chicaj and met up with the medical team that just arrived the day prior from New Mexico. With the addition of the medical team, we were now a team of about 20 gringos plus our Achi and locals made us a team of over thirty. I know we were over thirty, because one evening our regular bus broke down (not an unusual event in Guatemala) and they sent a bus that designed for twenty passengers and we crammed in 32 of us plus the medical supplies because it was raining and we could not put the supplies on the roof rack (no one brought a tarp).

Sunday morning we were bussed as close as we could get to the church we were attending. In order to get to the church, we hiked by fields and over a cable bridge and reached our church, a simple cinder block building with a dirt floor and plastic lawn chairs. This was a church that Pastor David Ixcopal planted and he did introductions and then Stevie gave a very well received testimony about her great-grandmother who was the first believer on the Jemez pueblo. Stevie was also wearing traditional pueblo clothes. And after Stevie, Brian once again led music and then Bart preached. Then on Monday through Friday we did four medical missions at three different locations; Tempisque, Buena Vista and Chichalom. We saw over 300 people and witnessed many blessings and some tragedies. We saw a lady with untreated and very advanced cancer on her jaw and all Dr. Jacobo could do was prescribe morphine for what terminal. And in another community we were made aware of a nearby family with two very, very ill young boys. Bart made a quick home visit and recognized that the two young boys about one year old and four years old were near death and rushed them back to the clinic. We found out they both had infantile diabetes and the family had no way to refrigerate the necessary insulin. Plus the grandfather did not want the boys stuck with needles any longer and believed that the money that had been spent on their health would have been better spent on property. So, despite our doctors insistence that these boys would die if they did not get to a hospital immediately, the mother absolutely would not allow them to go to the hospital. And she was smiling while she disagreed with the pleading advice. That was a tough one for all of us. That night at dinner, Dr. Jacobo's wife, with tears in her eyes was distraught with this situation because she knew that if we had stepped in, we would have been arrested by the police. But she also knew that in the USA this mother would have been arrested instead and she was distraught with the impotence of authorities in Guatemala.

On a brighter note, we have been doing both water/sanitation and medical missions in the village of Chichalom and there have been been a lot of improvements over the past few years in volume, purification, and distribution. And when we did the medical mission this year and saw nearly 150 patients, for the first time there were no cases of diarrhea or intestinal parasites, praise the Lord.

It has been a blessing to watch our team, many of them first timers, come alongside our Achi team and bless the villages. Some real friendships have developed and it has been wonderful and marvelous to see the prayer for the patients from everyone on the team, simultaneous prayers in Spanish, Achi and English. At this time, the medical team is now on their way back to the USA and I remain here with my young adults.