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."