Four Churches in Four Days

Living Word Community Church of York Pennsylvania is an amazing little church with a big agenda. For years this church of only about 2,000 members sets aside 30% of its annual budget to support missions. On this particular trip my family would be lending a hand in planting 4 new churches in the Nebaj region under the leadership of longtime missionary Mike McCoomb. Mike heads up, ASELSI (The Equipping the Saints Association), a bible institute where he trains pastors. He has been in this area of Guatemala for over 20 years. In fact his wife, Terri is about to have a book published which tells about the horrors experienced in that area during the guerilla uprising in the 80’s. Now the graduates of ASELSI are getting a hand in building churches for their congregation. Every morning our group of nearly 20 would meet for breakfast and reflection before loading on a bus to our destination. The villages would include Chajul, Chiul, Salquil Grande, and VijolomII. The Mayan dialect of Ixil is spoke in these villages. Ixil is only one of the 21 dialects of the Mayans. The most widely spoken in Guatemala is Quichean. More people speak Quichean than even Spanish in the Guatemala region. The goal of the Pennsylvania team was to get these churches started and out of the ground. This would entail work we are very familiar with------digging footers through rock and clay, tying and setting steel, and the mixing, hauling and pouring of cement. At each new location we worked alongside the pastor and church members

When driving to the village of VijolomII we stopped at a church that overlooked a valley and another mountain. It was here in the mid-80s that God had protected over 270 church members that were fleeing the communist rebels. This was one of the bloodiest regions during the conflict. The communist had been slaughtering villages, especially targeting the Christians and those refusing to fight for their cause. It was in the darkness of night when the Pastor lead his parishioners down one side of the mountain and was heading up the other mountain range with the guerillas hot in pursuit. Dawn was breaking and the rebels were closing in for the kill. It just so happened that the Guatemalan army had just received 2 howitzer cannons and wanted to test fire them. They randomly aimed them across the mountain range and landed two mortar shells between the advancing rebels and the parishioners thus sending the rebels fleeing and thereby abandoning their pursuit.

Some villages suffered worse than others. In the village of Chiul the church members were all women. They had all lost their husbands. At this location a church was built but the floor was clay. When we arrived the women were inside the church using picks and mallets to break up the hard clay and compact it. They would spend hours hauling water on their heads to be added to the concrete mix.

With our four days up, it was time to say goodbye to our gracious host the McCoombs and the guys from Living Word Community Church. I had made the choice the night before that we would gamble on an 8 hour car ride through a mountainous region of Guatemala that suffers from mudslides versus the sure bet of a 14 hour ride bringing us through Guatemala City. We were up for a 7am farewell breakfast with the group and then off for an 8 hour car ride across some of the most beautiful real estate in the world. Nothing but lush mountains everywhere you looked and the Mayan people dressed in their bright colored native garb.

The return trip was not without its memories. On three occasions we were stopped or diverted around festivities by the Mayans showing the Spaniards conquest of them by the Conquistadors. We also suffered a delay from a flat tire being punctured by a razor sharp rock on a mountainous road. The last but not the least memorable part of the return trip was the viewing of the aftermath of a massive mudslide. A whole mountain face almost half a mile in width and a mile downward was gone. The road that was once there was still buried under a mudslide that took the lives of at least 37 people in January of this year. No one really knows how many may be buried in the mud. It was a sad feeling looking over the devastation but comforting knowing that our God is in control.

Back Breaking Work!

Back Breaking Work

The construction of the mission house on the Rio Dulce River is taking shape. From mid-March thru the latter part of April four teams have been helping with the project, each team spending anywhere from one to two weeks. Three teams were Canadian and one was from New York. By the time we had gotten on the job the support post had already been set. What a feat it was with out the use of modern equipment. A platform was constructed on top of the post and 120 sandbags weighing 100 lbs each were loaded on the platform. The workers would then also get up on the platform and start jumping until the post would settle. The sandbags would then be unloaded, a new column formed and poured, and a few days later the sandbags and laborers would be loaded on the platform and a new post would go down. With the four teams we have completely poured the first floor consisting of 5000 square feet. We sifted the sand and wheel barrowed it with rock and cement mix into the building. After running the electrical and plumbing we became manual cement mixers. The walls are now about head high. The teams have all been incredible and unique. Many suffered from heat exhaustion and diarrhea during the stay but all bounced back to finish what they had started. The New York team consisted mainly of young women and was surprisingly impressive. They faced large spiders and roaches, coral snakes, and a pesky frog that was so large you could only pick it up with two hands, which one of the girls did and pretended to kiss it to bring forth a prince. They worked through the heat alongside the men with smiles on their faces all day.

Each team would also make a three to four hour boat trip to visit one or two villages on the river. They carried badly needed school supplies and according to the reception by the kids also badly needed candy. We worked on the corn grinder, put a new handle on the well, and discussed the upcoming project of expanding the school. On the most recent trip, our long time doctor friend, Dr. Gene, and his wife Arlene, would host a medical clinic for both villages before heading with me and the kids to tend to the sick in the mountains. Gene and Arlene are truly amazing individuals. For the past 11 years they have been with us helping the sick. At age 75 with most of his colleagues on the golf course he has found a better use of his time helping the sick in third world countries.

We have been here six weeks now running back and forth from the river to the mountains. Every trip up the mountain my truck is loaded with needed concrete, nails, food, medicine, and other assorted needed items. David and Alfredo, the caretakers of the mission, have done an exceptional job in our absence. They have bagged thousands of new coffee plants, continued work on a house for Alfredo and his family, prepared and planted numerous plots around the mission with a variety of experimental vegetables, repaired the green house, just to mention a few of the projects.

Pastor Manalo always has a great message and the church attendance has been good. It is a shame he will be leaving us in June. There is a two fold problem, his family does not want to be this isolated and his wife is a large woman and could not walk in this terrain. Please say a few prayers that God provides a good replacement.

Mixed in with the work, fellowship, worship and praise, we’ve jumped off water falls, swam through under water rock formations, caught a couple coral snakes, even ate one of them, surfed a few days in Salvador, and had a couple visits from Zacapa’s death squad. The death squad is Zacapa’s method of ridding itself of individuals that live in areas that are isolated and where there is no law present. It is an efficient way of purging the undesirables. The number and severity of complaints dictates how often the squad is dispatched. Nino and his sons were surely on that list. They are the very worst of the thieves and have stolen many times from the mission. The six assassins had taken a position above the house at night and fired nearly 500 shots through the aluminum roofing. They also dropped a grenade into the house but in their excitement hadn’t fully pulled the pin. Nino’s fifteen year old son took a bullet in the stomach. He was sporting a very nasty crooked scar where the doctors in Zacapa had experimented with opening him up. It was two weeks later when he was up in the mountain having Dr. Gene look at the wound.

The kids and I will be escorting Chelsea and Travis, my sister Rocky’s kids, up to Nebaj next week. We will be helping start 4 churches in 4 days. The elevation at the villages will range between 8,000 and 10,000 ft. This high altitude area of Guatemala is absolutely beautiful. I was there a year earlier with a few farmers from Pinalito getting lessons on growing ponytail palms from a missionary buddy of mine and one of his pastors. I can’t wait to share this part of Guatemala with my kids.

It's Great to feel Good Again!!

it is great to feel good again

The first 8 days in Guatemala my body ran through a gambit of aches and pains. At first, I attributed it to a cold and sleeping on a hard floor for several nights after we arrived on the 4th. An aggravating sinus headache and stiffness could easily have been a cold but as the days progressed the symptoms changed to slight fever, alternating joints hurting, stomach cramps, my body hurting to the touch, and finally concluding with diarrhea. It was the morning of this final stage that I was to hike with one of the farmers to inspect the ponytail palms we had planted on a previous trip. I had put off the hike the day before and went into town to pick up our food, propane for the school, and fertilizer and fungicide for the farmers.

The morning was here and there were no more excuses. All I could think was ‘this is not going to be fun’. The trail to David’s farm is very steep and slippery and David is part mountain goat so there is no slowing him down. Even on my best days I’m panting to keep up with him. About three fourths of the way to the top I felt as if I would toss my cookies but I pushed on as David was now out of sight.

The nausea passed as I came to a reprieve in the climb and reached a more level stretch of trail. Once at the top, it was amazing to see how far the ponytail palms stretched up and down the ridges. Even more incredible was the thought of how anyone could have planted anything on this unfriendly terrain. David, making good use of the land, had even planted beans in between the palms. Unlike David, I was doing everything I could to keep from sliding down and taking out a row of trees. On the way back I stopped to see Gregorio and Rufino. Years before FIA had provided the villagers with coffee plants for them to earn an income. They were free to consume it or sell it to whomever they chose. I had Rufino roast 15 lbs for me.

A special thanks to Jack Norman Jr who spent countless days under assault by biting insects and the long sharp thorns of 5,000 citrus plants as he pruned them one by one. The citrus plants are all a deep luscious green and ready for grafting. Dwight, an American that moved here over 20 years ago with the peace corps and now has a fruit farm, called and is excited about helping me get some bud material to start the grafting. I want a different type of citrus to diversify the local market. Dwight feels he might be able to find Naval oranges and tangerines. Neither of these is available in this area. With 5,000 trees ready to be grafted this could really help bring an income to these people.

It was refreshing to come back to the mission and find things in not just good, but GREAT shape. David and Alfredo, the two new caretakers at the mission, are doing an outstanding job. They’ve trimmed the coffee, citrus, and banana plants, removed weeds, and mulched. Usually my worms for vermiculture are nearly all dead when I return. This was not the case this time. The worms are fat and happy. This is great news since I have a missionary couple from Honduras that will be picking up worms to take back in order to start vermiculture for their farmers. We are in the process of converting available space around the mission into vegetable gardens. We will continue to experiment with different vegetables with the most nutritional value.

Cassidy was very excited when I told her I was looking for a calf. David has a young bull. We will partner and raise calves for sale. In the meantime, they can keep the grass and weeds down around the mission as well as provide a source of fertilizer and pesticide. The manure can be added into the soil directly or fed to the worms and then added back to the soil. The urea is a great as a pesticide.

The clinic is busy as usual but with two less patients. Both Sophia and Tina had died while we were in the states. After placing Sophia in an elderly assisted living facility on our last trip, she was under the notion that the staff was fattening her up to eat her. Sophia ran away and came back up the mountain only to starve to death. Tina had come to me with headaches before we left for the states. I had given her medicine for her headaches but the underlying cause must have been more severe. She died a month before our return. When digging her grave the villagers uncovered the remains of 2 other deceased individuals. Tina’s body was simply placed in with the others and covered over.

We are seeing the usual ailments of colds, body aches, lice, and worms. The unusual problem was with Juana’s 2 month old girl that had puss coming from inside both her ears. We suctioned out her ears and flushed them with warm salt water followed by hydrogen peroxide and now she’s being treated with amoxicillin.

The church service was jam packed Sunday morning. Manalo started off with a message from Luke with Jesus instructing them to allow the little children to come to Him. He did this with in the front of church with Julio and his wife Juana as they presented their two month old daughter in a church dedication. Various members came up front to take the microphone and lead in worship songs for the next hour. This was concluded with Manalo again preaching, this time from Galatians 5:16-26 on the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Each fruit was represented by a drawing that Manalo would elaborate on. At the end of service, the bags of shoes we had drug in the night before were handed out to the villagers.

After church, I had several of the farmers follow me to the apartments. I have seeds that I wanted them to try out. One is a hardier tomato resistant to pests. The other is a mammoth sugar pea that I grew last year. The pods are 4 inches long. The peas were very sweet and nutritious and can be eaten right from the garden. Hopefully they will like them and we can incorporate them into their diet. We’ve started a list of other vegetables such as cauliflower and cabbage and I’ll pick up seeds for them later next week.

The first week here has been good. As I finish this my kids are having a water fight with the natives. They are all laughing and screaming and soaked to the bone. I’m choked up as I reminisce about how truly blessed we are that God would use us here in this village. God is GREAT!!!!!!

Thanks 'Bread of Life'

Bejilio

In the past we have pretty much given out clothes when we would arrive in the mountains. The founder of ‘The Bread of Life’, Mark Anthony, had inspired me to try a different approach with the clothes. I discussed with Pastor Manolo, with the help of Nathan, the possibility of a village meeting where the Pastor would explain the clothes hand out after he preached. Afterwards Nathan and I would brew of pots of fresh coffee. Dylan, Cassidy, and Austin would add the sugar and serve the brew. The plan was to meet at 7am the following morning. After a day’s work on the road everyone would return to the mission. Everyman that worked would receive 3 tickets and boys would receive 2. Each type of clothing had a ticket value. The jackets, sweaters, and shoes were each worth one ticket while two pair of pants or shirts could be gotten for a single ticket. The day produced over 30 hard working volunteers.

The next morning was spent separating clothes and matching shoes. Before the handout was to start I had a visit from my 102 year old neighbor, Bejilio. He and his wife are too old to work and have been left with several grandchildren to care for. These kids had been abandoned by there parents who left them to pursue relationships with other people. It was cold out and he was wearing no jacket. He and his elderly wife would be the first to receive clothing.

By afternoon the men had come in and were lining up outside the clinic with tickets in hand. The distribution went pretty well except for of course that one disgruntled individual who tries to leave with three times as many clothes as he is suppose to choose.

The next day we invited the women and children to each come in and pick three articles of clothing apiece. This was followed by a second distribution to the men who had worked on the road, followed again by women and children until we were picked clean.

Hopefully a seed was planted, a seed was watered, and a harvest was had. Many of these people do not attend church and almost all are illiterate. They are held in bondage by their ignorance of God and the demonic practices of their ancestors. The only way to force feed them the word of God was using the method similarly utilized by ‘Bread of Life’------offering them something they need for eternal life (The Word) for something they need for temporal life (clothes). Though some were not happy with having to listen to a sermon, I believe this will be the standard for all future clothing distributions.

Let's kill Mom

Sophia

In our society it is hard for us to imagine killing our Mother when she becomes old and can no longer contribute to the family. The situation is not the same with many of the families of these dysfunctional people. When a girl gets married the husband often refuses to take on any of her previous responsibilities. This includes any children from a previous man and her parents. Children from previous relationships are often given to the Grandparents to support. At this stage of their life the Grandparents are too old to work and may barely have enough food to support themselves. This sad story is told over and over again in these mountains. The names may change but the sad results are the same. This story has a name it is ‘Sophia’. I’ve written below about our interaction with her for the last two years.

We’ve added another daily responsibility. Her name is Sophia. When we arrived here we were told she had died. For the last two years Sophia was a daily presence at our doorstep. Her 4 daughters had refused to feed her saying she was now old and useless to them. Everyday we would prepare a meal and a care package for her. Now we had a young woman at our door asking us to come with her. Her mom was very sick and weak. Upon arriving at the hut we realized it was Sophia. She was not dead but she was a skeleton of what we had left in June. She was reduced to skin over her bones. The remnants of malnutrition had left her stomach bloated the size of a basketball and her feet swollen. Daily we have become a version of ‘meals on wheels’ we call ourselves ‘meals on foot’. Each day we bring her a warm vitamin drink called encaparina. Along with the drink she receives a couple bananas or oranges and oatmeal, tuna or PBJ sandwich. The trail is narrow and steep leading to the hut. Every trip puts me in awe at how this old lady for the last two years was able to walk to our apartments for her food.

It has been several weeks since we’ve started caring for Sophia, though her strength is better, a noticeable swelling is moving up her legs. Michael has been on the Rio Dulce preparing for teams coming in to help build a mission house there. He has finally made it back to Pinalito and is going with me to check on Sophia. A decision has been made that Nathan, Alli, and I will drive her to the hospital the following morning. When morning comes I grab a hammock to make a stretcher to carry Sophia to the road, but she is too proud and walks with the support of Nathan and myself. Trying to leave the mission is surrounded with drama as the eldest daughter comes running to the truck blatantly mad that her mother is being carried off to the hospital. Evidently having to start over trying to kill her was not in her plans.

Upon arriving at the hospital we all share a light chuckle as Sophia is asked her age by the doctor. We know what her response will be. Even though she is one of the oldest villagers, probably in her 90’s, here she still claims her age is 40. Again this was her stance, leaving a look of amazement on the doctor’s face. The doctor believes the swelling of both her stomach and legs will be cured with proper nutrition but will keep her for observation for several days.

God’s timing and planning is so cool to see in action. Though complaining for being stranded off the mountain top for weeks and for the numerous repairs required by our trucks God used this time to put certain key people in our path. We met Danny after a day spent working on the road before once again having to retreat down the mountain. That morning we had a tire repaired on the truck and remounted. We had just got to the section of the road where we could disengage the 4 wheel drive. We left a van appearing to be a taxi goes ahead of us with an unusual looking driver. He was obviously American. I thought how queer it was to have an American driving a shuttle bus in Guatemala. It wasn’t long before we passed him on the windy mountain road and I got another glance to confirm my theory. He was definitely American. By the time we arrived at the bottom of the mountain our truck was making a strange rattling noise so we pulled over to look for the problem. The tire had not been securely fastened and the nuts were working themselves loose. A few minutes later the van parks behind us and we meet Danny. He is a 27 year old from Michigan who is part of an outreach program that currently host 8 doctor teams a year. Their mission is a couple hours from ours and is complete with an orphanage. They also have two buildings in the Zacapa hospital complex with one of them a nutrition center. This is exactly where I will need to place Sophia after her three days in the hospital. God’s planning is Amazing Perfect!!!! It serves again as a reminder that all things work for the best and He is in control.

Her name is Joestina

Her name is Joestina

Her name is Joestina. Her mother died in childbirth before we left in June this year Nikoli, the father, has come by to talk. He will be away working in Esquipulas and will not be returning for 1½ months. He has 5 children with the oldest around 8 years old. . This 8 year old daughter will be left behind to take care of her 4 siblings who include this malnourished 5 month old baby weighing only 6 ½ lbs. We have stressed to Nikoli that his daughter cannot properly take care of the baby and she would most likely die if we didn’t help. He has agreed to allow us to care for her.

We are totally unprepared for caring for an infant. There are no diapers so we cut up bed sheets instead. Within 6 hours both Cassidy and Joestina have changed their clothes 3 times. This thin fabric is no match for the frontal attack this infant constantly engaged in. We’ve found plenty of diapers for grown-ups but none for kids. (This was a misunderstanding a well intentioned group had brought to us when we requested diapers). With a small scirrors the design team of Cassidy and me undertake the task of modification. One of these diapers is almost twice the size of Joestina. After several failed attempts we’ve come up with an ingenious design that yields three diapers for one. We only have one medium safety pin, so the means of holding the ends together relies on surgical tape that is probably 5 years old. The adhesiveness is questionable at best. A diaper may fall apart and its contents strewn with any mishandling of the baby. The utmost delicacy is the order of protocol since near tragic consequences have been around every corner.

It is now 2 weeks later and Joestina is weighing 7lbs 10 ounces. She is getting strong and can now hold her head up. She is smiling and constantly eating and pooping.

The Fifth Attempt

The Fifth Attempt

We’ve made it back up the mountain. I guess the fifth attempt is the magical one. All in God’s timing. A special thanks to all the prayer warriors who made this possible.

It wasn’t long before the mountain knew the missionaries were back. Julio is at our apartment door at 9pm with a stomach ache and in want of prayers. At 6am I’m sitting at my table reading. By 7am the dogs are barking and my first visitor from the neighboring village, Mantasano, is heading up the stairs of the apartments. Portfilio is suffering from back pain and has a constant squint on his face, not so much from the pain but from poor eyesight. He is in dire need of glasses. I will help him with the pain now and will search my resources in Guatemala to find when an eye doctor will be in the area. By 8:30am a string of woman with their children are lined up across the front of the apartments. We have children and parents with worms, fevers, diarrhea, colds, stomach aches, and back pains. There are families in need of shoes, soap, shampoo, vitamins, and toothpaste. The kids and I will spend into early afternoon in the clinic dispensing of needed items. After lunch Cassidy and I will now gather baby blankets and several change of clothes to welcome the two newborns of the village. By mid-afternoon Cassidy and I are on our last house call to visit the baby whose mother had died in childbirth several weeks before we returned home in June. Nikoli, the father, is no where to be found. His 8 year old daughter with his 5 year old son is with the baby. This 4 month old baby is so tiny. All three of these siblings are covered with dirt. The baby is sucking on a bottle that has small bugs floating in a milky liquid. As I suspected the nipple is crusted almost shut. It is no surprise that she has diarrhea. Cassidy gathers the baby and we all head back to the clinic in search of clothes for the three children and milk and a new bottle for the baby. From there it is off to the apartment to clean the bottle and use Dylan’s mastery of the Spanish language to iterate the importance of keeping the bottle clean. The children request sugar. This is a perfect chance for bribery. If the children bring Nikoli back I’ll give them the sugar. The plan is to talk Nikoli into allowing the baby to stay with us to get her healthy.
Everyone who reads this blog has an assignment of saying a few prayers that Nikoli will be in favor of us taking care of his baby.