Where's My Pillow!!!!

December 9th

It rained most of the night last evening and sometime during that time the village lost its water supply. The water supply starts up at the rainforest with a reservoir. When there is a good rain, debris washes in and clogs the pipe. There would be no showers before church. The toilets would be flushed on a need be basis by utilizing water from the pila. The saying is ‘yellow let it mellow/brown flush it down’. Church would be out by 1:00 but we wouldn’t be able to enlist the help of the natives until close to 7 pm. That would mean hiking to the rainforest with flashlights, shovels, pvc pipe and glue in the black of night. It is a 1 ½ hour walk up steep slippery paths to get to the reservoir.

In the meantime Dylan has yelled for me from out in banana trees. There is something he is very excited about and wants me there quickly. It is an El Scorpio stuck in a huge spider web. The last and only time we had seen one of these was earlier this year in March; we had just got to the mountain and again it was Dylan who discovered him. On that occasion I had picked up what I thought to be a very large bright green lizard with a nasty disposition. I would toss it at the native kids and pretend to kiss it. The kids would scream and run and call me “Loco”. I did not realize that I had been playing with one of the most deadly reptiles in Guatemala. It spits poison in your eyes and its bite is deadly. This time I beat the El Scorpio with a bamboo stick and Dylan chopped in two with his machete.

We’ve finished supper and it is time to get ready to deal with the water issue.
Two of the natives, David and Julio, would accompany Koos, Scott (just in from Kentucky), Nathan, and myself up the mountain. While gathering the shovels a drizzle turned into a shower. “Just great, this was going to be one miserable night”, I chuckled to myself. We went back to gather our rain gear and met back at the church. David decided to recruit one more villager so we stopped at Goyo’s house. While David was trying to convince Goyo to come, someone was approaching holding a torch of pine lighter not. It was one of the young village women. She was sobbing and accompanied by several other villagers. Her husband, Alfonso, had been attacked with a machete by two men. . He was bleeding badly from his head, neck and arm. He had lost a lot of blood. The plan would be to have the men carry him to the clinic while the gringos prepared the clinic to stabilize him. Over and hour had gone by and the gringos look like expectant parents pacing in and out of the clinic, checking and rechecking what we’ve laid out for our patient. The gauze, the tape, homemade butterfly bandages, peroxide, pain relief patches, it seemed as if it was all there. The only thing missing was a blindfold for Alfonso. I’m sure it would have scared him to death to see Nathan, Scott, Dylan. Koss, and I suited up with surgical latex gloves waiting for his arrival. We finally see a group coming with two of the men carrying a body in a blood stained blanket lashed onto a pole. A pair of small boots protrudes from one end of the makeshift stretcher. As we lower him onto a dental chair, which will serve as our examination table, he’s moaning and his head and upper body are soaked in blood. A good chunk of his scalp, the size of a softball, is missing. He has a couple of machete wounds to his neck and a few more defensive chops to his arm. After bandaging him and applying a pain relief patch to his arm the blanket is reattached to the pole. The roads are much too slippery and dangerous to try to get him down by vehicle to the hospital He must be carried down. This trip will take 2 hours and the group of volunteers is diminishing. It is now 10pm which will make it close to 2pm before our return. The rain soaked clay with loose rock strewn here and there would make carrying a makeshift stretcher a challenge. The rainy season has now cut ruts in the road from 2 to 5 feet deep which run its length down the mountain. There are fallen trees across the road. The stream will have to be crossed twice. There are washouts that have left narrow paths with the mountain on one side and steep drop offs on the other. No one knows the hardship of this trip better than these villagers and some decide against making the hike. The group thins but we have 8 of us and that will have to do. We were left with 4 native men and Nathan, Scott, Koos, and me. Nathan and Scott will start the hike. They place the pole on their shoulders and start the hike with several of us lighting the way with our flashlights. Each man will carry as long as he can until he is winded and his shoulders, legs, and back are ready to collapse. All of us will trade on and off carrying Alfonso several times during the next two hours. It is a little after midnight before we’ve arrived at the rendezvous point with the ambulance. Nathan and I go another couple hundred yards so we’ll be able to open the gate for the bomberos. We can see headlights in a distance but with these roads it’ll be sometime before they get here. It feels great to sit down even if we are sitting in a cow pasture between mounds of fresh manure. The stars are out and it is an incredible sight. By 2pm I find myself back at the mission house sponging off with cold water. Exhausted I crawl into bed. I believe I'm asleep before my head ever hits the pillow.

Losing track of time

It is December 7th, I’ve just remembered today is my brother Randy’s birthday and my brother Rick’s birthday was on the 4th. Happy Birthday Bro’s!!! Without a calendar and having seldom contact with anyone off this mountain, time means little.

The last I had blogged the North Carolina team was being sent off. Another trip to the city would be forthcoming as the Emory’s from Gainesville, Florida would be arriving on the same day as both Patty from Tampa, Florida, and Sarah Ruzic’s brother and sister-in -law from Kentucky. Sarah loaded up her family and headed up the mountain while the rest of the families headed to the Rio Dulce River.

The rainy season is supposed to be behind us but Mother Nature seems to be confused. We’ve had to pull over to find large trash bags to put the suitcases in. They all seem to fit except for two oversized bags that Patty has brought. She had spent the last couple of weeks gathering warm clothes and shoes from her church and her boy’s school. She had already spent an extra $100 to have American Airlines transport them so we were determined to keep them dry. It was dark when we arrived at the river.

The next morning we loaded up the boat with the Beene family, the Emory family, the Moro family, Anthony (from New York), Nathan (from Alabama), and Patty (from Florida). We made a stop at an open air market along the river to pick up beans, chips, water, pineapples, tangerines, avocados and boots. Everyone settled in for the long scenic boat ride to the village. Upon arriving we were greeted by the villagers that helped carry the medical supplies and a hand cistern to the village. The medicines were lined up and sorted on benches by Cassidy and Kayla while Chelsea entertained the kids playing a game of duck-duck–goose. Rocky and Patty would spend the day assisting Dr. Michelle Emory tending to the medical needs The three ladies worked as a well oiled machine as Dr. Michelle diagnosed the patients ailments while Patty and Rocky then administered the medicines as per Michelle’s instructions. In the meantime we guys worked on installing a new hand cistern. The old cistern had not worked for close to 6 months and the women had to walk close to a mile crossing a muddy swamp to get to the river for water. We had just experienced first hand the treachery of that trek. Peter Emory had fallen twice on his face and his front showed the proof. Boots and flip flops had to be pried free from the sticky black mud as the occupants teetered on the brink of becoming casualties themselves. Those trying to cross on the logs appeared to be tight rope artist as they tried to shuffle across with each new log sinking underwater as they stepped upon it. The woman of the village earned a lot of respect from all the gringos that day. With the cistern fixed the ladies of the village had one other problem for us to look at, their corn mill had not worked for over 13 years. The last 13 years these ladies had ground the corn by hand to make their tortillas. The problem was a simple matter of installing a new set screw on a gear and replacing a worn belt. Life would now be so much easier for the ladies of the Rio Dulce.

The next morning, Paul, Mike, and I would survey the property purchased by FIA on the Rio Dulce. We would discuss the best layout of the property for use as a mission house for expansion of FIA’s ministry on the river. It’s close to mid-day and time to head back up the mountain to celebrate Thanksgiving. There will be over 40 missionaries giving thanks.

The next several day’s families line up outside our apartment as Patty ushers them in one at a time and sets them on the couch waiting their turn for clothing. Patty and Cassidy have separated the clothes, from the two large suitcases, into piles and are now bringing out specific items to fit the families. Shoes and warm clothes seem to be the items in most demand.

It’s time for Patty to return to Florida and we’ll be taking the Pastor, Domingo, his wife, Carolina and their dog, Daisy down the mountain with us. The back of the truck is loaded to the hilt so everyone will be riding inside. I’m concerned about leaving Dylan, after having been up early with him vomiting. I’ve left instructions with Sarah to call if he’s not better. The trip to Guatemala City is uneventful with the exception of unexplained bug bites suddenly appearing on Patty’s legs. The reason became obvious the next day as I jumped in the shower and noticed that I had over 100 red bites on myself. Fleas had made my truck their new home and I became their favorite meal since both Daisy and Patty were no longer aboard.

The flea bites from the pastor’s dog Daisy have served as a constant reminder of loosing another Pastor. It seems it is much easier for donations to be given to build a church, a school, homes, a mission house, or some sort of tangible project than it is to support a good pastor. For some reason it has been a struggle to find the support to do what missionary work is all about--“THE SPREADING OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST”. We seem capable of showing the people we care now the second part of the equation is to show them what we know in spreading the gospel. It takes money to support these pastors. Even if we raise up a pastor from within the village he still lives hand to mouth and needs support for him and his family. The recurring situation of loosing pastors certainly puts a damper on things.

We're Back

It’s now November 19th. We arrived again in Guatemala on the 29th of October and although the airport seemed modern with the new construction the service was still of the third world mentality. Over two hours had passed and a dozen families from Spirit flight 143 stared in blank confusion at the luggage conveyer, myself and my three kids were among them. Everyone may have retrieved a part of their belongings but the remainder was somewhere in the abyss. The Moro family was missing two boxes which contained the drum set we were bringing to the church in Pinalito. When reps finally showed up, two hours later, the news was the same for all-------When a flight is fully booked sometimes there is not enough room for the luggage so it is sent on a later flight. Spirit’s standard policy was a news shock to me. I had never heard of such a routine matter of fact practice. We of course would be expected to come and pick up the luggage when it arrived. All I could think was ‘Welcome to Guatemala’. Rocky and Michael were waiting for us in Zacapa. After spending the night there they would escort us up the backside of the mountain. The usual route had been destroyed with the summer rains and was impassible. Two days would pass before the luggage was able to be picked up. Adjust, readjust, and readjust again was standard practice in this area of the world.

I had made a serious error when loading up our belongings and ourselves in the two taxis. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind until the taxi I had put Dylan and Cassidy in was out of sight and our surroundings seemed unfamiliar. There was a tinge of nauseousnous in the pit of my stomach. The story of Jesus being left behind in Jerusalem by his parents entered my mind. Why hadn’t I put the luggage in one taxi and kept the kids with me? The ten minutes which seemed like an eternity passed before we pulled up behind Dylan’s taxi in front of the apartment. A quick prayer of gratitude and a self inflicted kick in my butt were in order.

As fortune would have it we found fellow missionary Jaime Ortiz and his son Jamison stranded in Guatemala City. Their truck was at a repair shop and probably wouldn’t be ready until the following week. It was a blessing to have Jaime not only guides us through the maize of getting out of the city but also the back way up the mountain in the darkness of night especially when that route includes several hundred yards of using a flowing river bed as a road.

The first order of business here in the mountains is ensuring the water is flowing unhindered in the mountain apartment. This requires taking apart all the faucets, toilet intake assemblies, and a propane hot water heater. We then flush water through them and remove sticks, rocks, sand, and other sentiment that has made it’s way into the water line. The mission had run out of Teflon tape a necessity when working on the propane water heater----so the water heater could not be used. I was the only one that took a shower that night. I had never got a brain freeze from taking a shower before. This was a first.

It is morning and there is a quick exchange of greetings with a team from Kentucky that has spent time working on the internet, the church tile job, evangelizing, and visiting villagers.

Several days later we are now settled in. There is a string of kids sitting on our bunk beds listening to Dylan play the drums, each waiting to take their turn. Cassidy is outside with my laptop with kids huddled around her as she shows them pictures of themselves and her own summer activities back home. Michael, Rocky, and their kids are in Zacapa with a team from Pennsylvania working on the dormitory. I’ve dropped Austin off at the dormitory job site in Zacapa. He was running through ½ mile of ditches freshly put in for the sewer lines with his cousin Travis as I head back up the mountain with a team of 7 volunteers from Brevard, N.C. and my two nieces, Tiffany and Chelsea. The truck is packed to the gills with cement, luggage, and missionaries. We’ve bottomed out a half dozen times with the load but we are here. In the morning one group will head to the church with me to finish the tile job, another will start making cabinets for apartment 4, and the two visiting P.A’s will work organizing the clinic and seeing villagers.

It is Saturday, Sarah and Melanie have done an outstanding job preparing to put on a carnival for the kids. There are close to 70 kids attending plus the parents and teenagers.
There is face painting, fishing for prizes, basketball toss, a play, chocolate covered frozen bananas and more. It will be the dark before everyone goes home.

The next days will include our work coupled with long hard walks to remote adobe huts visiting families evangelizing and handing out clothes and stuffed animals. We had our fill of tortillas as each family we visited prepared them fresh.

A week has passed and it is now time to take our new friends from Brevard, North Carolina down the mountain. It is not too late as they still have one more adventure while departing Pinalito. The majority of the team will take a 4 hour walk down one side of the mountain. (Sorry just had a water line break that was flooding the school that needed fixing-----my typing may get a little sloppy here with the glue on my fingers) They will be entertained by Dylan riding a cow and also come to the rescue of Austin who did not wear socks. He now has blisters on his feet and will be carried down by Gordon, Koss, and Dylan. The rest of the crew will be riding with both Sarah and me. We’ll bring the luggage down with our trucks. The problem will be the light constant rain that we’ve had for the last 4 hours It wouldn’t be long before we were sliding in the mud dodging fallen trees and rocks. Cassidy and Chelsea are clinging to the tailgate of my truck screaming with each slide. The mud chains would have to be installed. Bart, Allen, and I would wrestle with installing the chains on both trucks. Sarah’s chain will break after hitting the first rock but she manages to control the slides and continues to drive it down like a pro. We’ve made it to the bottom of the mountain and it is time to retrieve the rest to the group from the other side before heading to Antigua for a couple of days of r&r.

Final Test

We were to leave Guatemala on June 20th. The rainy season had already started and the road leading up the mountain to the villages was impassible. Jaime Ortiz, a fellow missionary living in the mission house in Matasano, was trying to get up to his wife, Cindy, and his kids with the groceries he had bought in Zacapa. The past week, the Ortiz family had survived only on rice and beans. On the second day, after working on the road and getting a reprieve from the rain, we were able to deliver Jaime and the groceries to his family. It was now getting late and we would have to try to make the trip to Pinalito the following day. After waiting till late morning to allow the morning sun to dry the roads, my son, Dylan, his friend Gustavo (his friend from the states), and I ventured further up the mountain.
After two hours of driving, the ruts became too wide and deep to continue any further so we abandoned the truck. We would cross the stream and hike another 30 minutes on foot. Time was not on our side. The afternoon rains would be starting and we still needed to hydrate, pack our things and get off the mountain quickly. Ten minutes had not passed and we were still trying to catch our breath from the steep climb in the heat of the day, when a distressed young girl comes to our door with fear written all over her face. Gustavo and Dylan translated that a young girl is dying and we needed to come. Everything is dropped as we start the run through the mission to the mountain road and up the steep dirt path to the house of Gregorio. I heard crying and I recognized the voice of the pastor’s wife, Carolina, as she rebuked the devil and pleaded with Dios (God) to spare this child. Gregorio was holding his 5 year old daughter, Esmeralda, as she shook violently. Her eyes were blank and staring nowhere. Her breathing was labored and shutting down fast and she was convulsing and froth was dripping from the edge of her mouth. Rugina, Esmeralda’s mom, was weeping and kept repeating “liar!!! Liar!!!”, in Spanish. I had no idea if is she was accusing God or the Devil of the act.
One night two years earlier, she had lost her daughter, Milagro, to seizures. Esmeralda was her only daughter with five brothers. Most families would lose at least two children before they became adults. Dylan and Gustavo translated a series of questions as I tried to determine what had caused this, but I’m no doctor!!! She had eaten a fresh water crab and some fruit for lunch a few hours earlier. Was it food poisoning? Was she having an allergic reaction or was it something else? All the medical supplies were in the clinic but I didn’t have those keys and we were up here alone. I would have to get in Sarah and Melanie’s apartment and find their set of keys but they were in Guatemala City. Sarah is extremely organized and on the verge of being anal. Normally I would have to tease her, but today I would certainly thank God for that trait! She is quite unique and amazing to say the least. The keys are color coded but I don’t know which keys go with which colors. I dialed Sarah, knowing that I wouldn't get through... but there is a “Hey Ron” coming through the receiver! After briefly filling her in on the dilemma she asked me where I am and I explained "I’m in your apartment looking at your key board!” “But, that’s impossible, there is no phone reception in my apartment”, she said. My response was simply, “I guess God says there is”. Upon locating the keys, it was a mad dash to the clinic to find the epinephrine and syringes. We frantically tore apart the drawers in the dispensary with no luck. I decided to try to call Michael. After filling him in on the situation he directed me to a drawer in the dental room. “Where are you now?" he asked. “I’m in the clinic going through the drawers in the dental room.” Again the familiar response, “that’s impossible, there is no reception in the clinic”. My answer seemed all too familiar. “I guess God says there is.
By now the ordeal was well underway, but my testing was about to begin. You see, I have a very special pair of sunglasses that everyone thinks are sooo cool. While running with my hands full of vials of epi, a syringe, a pack of needles and a respirator, one of my lenses fell out of my glasses. The dilemma is.... do I stop and bend down and pick up a piece of my favorite sunglasses or do I continue to run to help a girl I don’t even know? I continued the run.
Well, okay, that was only $80.
Approaching the home, I could hear Carolina rebuking the devil, as well as the cries of her parents. Family members wait outside the house. After numerous injections of the epinephrine and the use of the respirator Esmeralda seemed to calm, but we must get off this mountain and to the hospital NOW, before the rains hit.
The villagers of Pinalito are reluctant to go to the hospital. Too many of them have died from neglect at the hands of prejudiced hospital personnel. Rugina has now made a sling and has Esmeralda in it. They started the descent from their home, down the narrow steep path and across a barbwire fence to the road that will lead to the truck. I desperately tried once more, to reach Dr Tosha Knight, or my sister in law Katie. I wanted to see if there is anything that I may have missed, before leaving the supplies in the clinic. There is no answer on either phone.
As I ran down the mountain to catch the others I realized that I hadn’t locked up my apartment. I had left our 4 laptops worth close to $8,000 strewn around the apartment. The materialistic side of me urged me to go back and secure my possessions. The compassionate side urged me to hurry down the mountain and help carry Esmeralda.
How these people hike up and down these roads is amazing. Some of the inclines are 45 degrees. We were now running down hill. The footing was terrible, with loose clay and rock underfoot. The washouts were everywhere, forming ruts across the road that must be jumped and avoided. I finally caught up and I’m sweating and breathing heavily but so is everyone. Carolina signaled for Rugina to put the sling over my shoulders. First, we sat Esmeralda down and used the respirator. Her breathing was once again much labored. I was not sure that we will get her down the mountain alive. My heart was pounding and my legs were on fire! Gregorio will have to finish the run.
Gustavo was in the front seat to interpret while the family was in the back. Dylan was hanging on for dear life in the back of the truck, while we bounced over ruts and come dangerously close to sliding over the side of the mountain. He would have to jump out and open gates on the descent than run to catch the truck as we continued our descent. The two hour drive was made in 20 minutes.
The materialistic demon was still on my shoulder telling me to slow down so I didn’t ruin my suspension. Michael and I had discussed this many times... how this mountain could tear apart a truck with all its rocks and ruts with Baja driving. I continued driving but shortly noticed that a red engine light had come on. I had just bought this truck-----the last thing I could afford was to blow the engine. The prayer became, “Please Lord just let me get Esmeralda to the hospital before the engine blows." We made it
. The next day, two prayer warriors, Sarah and Melanie, and I visited the family. It was such a blessing to see little Esmeralda being held in her mother’s arms. It looked as if Rugina would never turn loose. Sarah took Esmeralda and bought her a new dress, hair ties, and had her hair trimmed and shampooed.
Today Esmeralda is back on top the mountain doing fine and under the careful watch of her mother Rugina.
I had come away with not one, but two valuable lessons from my J.C. 101 class. The first came from my sister Rocky. When she heard of my reckless descent down the mountain, she felt compelled to tell me of a similar story about herself with a near tragic ending. She thought as I did, that everything depended on her, in saving a life. She was racing down the mountain to save a life with a carload of people when she had taken a curve too wide and had gone over the side of the mountain. Expecting to have the vehicle tumble end over end with all its passengers she prayed and asked God for forgiveness for killing everyone aboard. Just as fast as the road had vanished it now reappears under her tires. Excitedly she told her husband, Michael, the story. He was not at all amused, and was quite angry at her reckless behavior. Michael explained that she is NOT the one in control; it is God who is in control. Her job was to pray and act responsible.
It was a point well taken.
The second lesson had to deal with my selfish and materialistic life. The lesson started with my favorite sunglasses being lost and continued to escalate in value as the day progressed. From sunglasses, to computers, to my truck and ended the following day with me emptying my pockets to pay for Esmeralda’s hospital bills. In hindsight I realized I had received the best lesson/gift of all: I had finally realized that material possessions are not important. It is the relationships that really add value to one’s life. Of course, I’m certainly not in control of anything------God’s in control!!!!

We’ll be heading back in October. I’m not sure how long we’ll stay this time but the idea is until the first of next year. Please keep us in your prayers.

God Bless,
Ron and Kids

Guess Who Is In Control

GUESS WHO IS IN CONTROL?

Our trip was coming to a conclusion now near the end of June. We had finished working alongside the Indians on the Rio Dulce River building benches for the church and extracting teeth and doing other dental work in a makeshift facility on the outskirts of the village. It was time to head to Zacapa to meet up with a team of block masons from North Carolina. The dorms for the mountain children were ready to have the initial blocks laid. These men from the mountains of North Carolina, full of country twang and bear hunting exploits, were here for the mountain children of Pinalito and Mantasana. To be at this juncture in the building process was a story in its own right. Twice I had seen what could only be God intervening in the construction process. Only days before the footers are to be dug a long time missionary, Paul Emory who for years headed up construction building throughout the world for Missionary Ventures, called Michael to let him know he was flying a small plane into Zacapa-----Could Michael pick him up? Arriving at the job site Paul quickly noticed the building was laid out incorrectly. He spent that evening redrawing the plans to add more bathrooms and provide a better utilization of the space. The next day the building was re-laid to the new set of plans. After Paul had left, Andrew Weiver calls from New York saying that he’s coming in. Andrew is a college student studying construction and engineering. I had met him a couple months earlier when he came in for a week with a group of volunteers from New York Times Church. The timing was perfect, with his expertise in structural steel and concrete strength the pads and footers were formed, poured, and ready just in time for the masons. With the masons came another surprise Dan Schieffelin. He happened to be a warranty and service provider for Gentrac Catepillar generators. That particular generator was the main generator for the mission and had been out of service for with no one able to get it running. Dan had it purring by the following day. As help were needed God continually provided and expert in that field. It was quite amazing to experience.

Davids Fall

David’s fall

It has been several weeks since the revival. David had just been saved. He was now clearing brush and tall grass off his property on the side of the mountain. He uses a sharp machete to cut the brush than stacks it in burn piles. While working on the lower part of the mountain he notices some kids lighting the brush at the top. Rushing to the top trying to put out the fire David loses his footing. The fall is off the steepest part of the mountain. David describes the fall as falling out of a tall pine tree. He would fall and bounce like a rag doll. His descent would continue in that same manner until finally he comes to rest nearly 100 feet lower. David looks as if he has been drug through briars and then severely beaten with a baseball bat. His face is badly swollen and his body is cut and bruised. His clothes are tattered. He is lucky to be alive. I thought this event would certainly put an end to his walk with God. Ever since his commitment, trouble has fallen on him and his family. With David being a leader among the men of the village he would certainly be a great catch for the devil to put back in his fold. What was truly amazing, instead of cursing God, he gives thanks to God for catching him as he was falling (this is not the first time I’ve heard of God catching His people on this mountain and I’m sure it won’t be the last).

The Revival

04/07
The Revival



The revival is in its second night. The music is great. It has a Latino beat, mixed with a Caribbean steel drum flavor and a little polka thrown in. The music is very unique to say the least. The music has stopped and the preaching about the rapture has continued from the previous night. I’m sitting next to Michael so he can interpret the message. He reemphasizes that Christ has come and opened the door for us to go to heaven by dying on the cross and removing our sins. We must believe and accept this free gift in order to go to heaven. It would change our lives. We would no longer lie, steal, fight, or kill. There would come a day when the villagers would knock on their pastor’s door and the pastor and his family would be gone. Michael, Rocky, and their family, as well as the missionaries would be gone. Some of their families and neighbors would be gone. God would have taken them all to heaven. The only ones left behind were those who had heard the word of God but refused to listen and believe. The sermon was very powerful. The sound system, which had worked flawlessly, has now failed. The lights, powered by the generator would suddenly fail. The old witch doctor stood in the back of the church waving his hands while chanting and casting spells on all who attended. I t seemed like an epic battle of good versus evil. Rocky and several others now head to the back of church to confront the witch doctor and pray over him. Within minutes the sound system and lights are back on, the whole time the preacher has not missed a beat. The ministers and elders now pass through the pews laying their hands on the people while praying with them. It is now time for an alterThe alter call brought David to the front kneeling on the hard unfinished concrete floor crying with his face in his hands. This man will have an incredible testimony. It is because of his savage attack on a man from another village, where David had sought revenge on a man for raping his uncle’s wife, that this nearby village considers Pinalito savages. In the incident David and Rejulleo chopped the offender into little pieces and spread his remains between the 2 villages. Several weeks ago, some kids had broken into the missionary house and stolen food and money. Stealing is a way of life out here. The parents usually congratulate their kids for there being able to outwit whomever they have stolen from. They only become angry if the kids are caught, this would show that their kids were not smart. Some of the villagers had put the blame on two of David’s children. Supposedly the oldest daughter had helped her brother through the windows. We discussed among the missionaries how we would handle the problem when we found the guilty party. Some of us, including myself, thought we should confront them and administer some form of punishment. Others thought we should bless them with a sack of rice and beans, kind of if they ask for your shirt give them your jacket too. I realized that my attitude was all wrong and as it turned out our missing items would be a lesson for me and a blessing. We had a meeting with all the missionaries and Michael and Rocky explained that is why we are here. If these people were already Christians there would be no need for us being among the Mayans. We needed to show the New Testament Christian way of handling these sorts of issues. I was pretty ashamed of my Old Testament ‘A Tooth For A Tooth’ attitude. As it turned out we are leaving the church service and David’s oldest daughter, the one who was suspected of having pushed her younger brother through the window to steel our things, had her hand cut with a machete and David is now bringing her to the clinic to have Michael suture her hand. Michael and Rocky shared their joy in their friend David’s decision and so glad that they would now be able to see him in heaven. David said he knew it was the devil trying to get at him with his daughter getting her hand cut directly from departing the service but he would push his chest out and stay strong in his new found faith.
Keep David and his family in your prayers. I’m sure there will be plenty of attacks on them in the coming weeks.

Fire on the Mountain

04/12/07.

It seemed like today was going to be a pretty uneventful day with me continuing to work on plumbing issues around the mission. We had a problem with a pesky dog that has constantly gotten into the garbage meant for the worms, this time he had uncovered Jackson. The boys, Dylan, Austin, and Josiah had a mission to get rid of him once and for all. They had gone so far as throwing knives at him.

We had just all showered and eaten supper and were preparing to crank up the generator
to watch a movie with Greg and Ben. Ben was commenting on how orange the sky was.
It was almost 7pm so the sun had already been down for 30 minutes. We went to the side
of the property to see several ridges engulfed in fire. The fire was separating us from our
other mission in Mantasano. Sarah and Melanie were returning from Zacapa and would
have to pass through there. They were already 2 hours late. We called the mission in
Mantasano and were told the girls had made it that far and would spend the night there.
Armed with shovels and hoes Dylan, Austin, Ben, Greg, William, and I took off down
the mountain road. We could see villagers silhouettes against a fiery backdrop as the
yelled back and forth to each other and used there machetes and garden hoes to make a fire break. We had to climb a steep ridge to get above the fire and prevent it from crossing to the other side. We grabbed at briars and weeds to help us up and literally had to use our hands to almost crawl up the steep embankment. We all would find ourselves sliding unintentionally down the mountain and into already burnt underbrush before the night would be over. At the top of the ridge was a man and what appeared to be his sons using machetes and sticks to cut the tall grass and swat at the burning fire. I stumbled on a mound of dirt and noticed crosses and assorted relics on top of mounds and realized we were in their family burial ground. We joined in chopping away underbrush and removing pine needles from the top of the ridge trail to keep the fire from jumping down the other side. Once that seemed contained, Ben and I would move further down the ridge where the men were hooting and hollering as the flames quickly approached the ridge they were trying to hold. Dylan and Josiah’s job would be to make sure nothing flared back up where we had already been. The wind shifted and we now had a breach were the fire had crossed the fire break and was heading toward the Pinalito mission. We needed to get down in the valley to prevent the fire from heading up the other side of the mountain. While perched above the fire we would take shovels full of dirt and throw it on the fire below while attempting to maintain our balance. Sometimes that didn’t work out very well and you would see one of us slide down toward the fire before we regained footing or had someone grab us. It was now about 4 hours into the fight and Koos had arrived from Mantasano with shovel in hand. You have to understand Koos. He is Dutch but has lived in the US most of his life and is 23 years old. He is an avid runner and is very intelligent, but can be a bit annoying and a know it all. He was now lecturing Josiah on not leaving his shovel behind and the technique of using the point of the shovel to lower you down the mountain. At this time Ben and I were sitting in the soot trying to catch our breath and chuckling over the one-sided reprimand. There was a blaze about 100 yards below and to the right of us. Ben and I had decided to go up to the ridge, cut across and search for a better descent route. Koos on the other hand decided to head straight down and cut across at the bottom using the technique he had just explained to Josiah. Koos walked to the ledge with shovel in hand and a head light on bright. He took one more step as Ben and I watched in amazement as he tumbled out of sight. He appeared to be caught in the spin cycle of a wash machine, but being spun vertically with his headlight constantly appearing than disappearing as he continued into the abyss. When he stopped he had covered nearly 100 feet in a matter of seconds. The natives, as well as us are laughing hysterically. Five minutes had passed when a bright light now appears climbing over the ledge. It was Koos coming back to find the shovel he had lost with his first misstep. When I questioned him about his short cut, his response in a high squeaky voice was FAST!!!! The last hotspot was only accessible by us sliding on our rears. This was a two tear process, sliding down about 30 feet before landing on a short 2 foot ledge than another slide of the last 30 foot with a four foot vertical drop to a hard clay road to finish the descent. Josiah and Dylan were the first down sliding on there backs before hitting the 4 foot drop and abruptly landing with a thud on the road. They were followed by Austin, who found the angle too steep and did a front flip and was caught by his older brother, Dylan, who suffered a black eye in the ordeal. Ben had taken his shovel across his lap and stood perched on the 2 foot ledge facing downhill as I began my slide with my shovel across my lap. I couldn’t find any traction and definitely had too much speed as I slid between Ben’s legs and nearly took him down the remaining slope in Jamaican bobsled form. This constant game of chess trying to outmaneuver the flames and smoke went on for close to 5 hours. Beat, exhausted, covered with soot and smelling of smoke we were never so happy to feel warm water and hold a bar of soap in our hands as we were tonight. I was complaining about an uneventful day and not getting in a hike-----I don’t think I’ll complain about that for awhile!!!!! I guess the boys won’t complain either, I’m finishing this up the next morning and it is now 11:30am and they are all still fast asleep. I’m proud of them—they did well. They are some tired puppies and I think I’ll let them sleep as long as they want this morning.

More Heartache

04/08/07

It is almost 7am Easter Sunday morning; I’ve gone to the kitchen table to study Spanish. I look outside and see Jackson, the kid’s dog, lying in an unusual position. I can’t see him breathing. I’m feeling nauseas as I call out his name with no response. As I walk up to him I find him cold and stiff. He was a great dog!!! I have no idea how I’ll tell the kids. Just last night, Cassidy, the team and I were stuffing candy into plastic Easter eggs for the village kids for a fun day after church. Now it wouldn’t be such a fun day for my kids especially thinking one of the locals—that we are here helping could have poisoned our dogs. I had just buried Beano, another great dog on Thursday. This morning it was our dog.

Casualties of the Mountain

04/05/07



The last couple of days have been pretty sad. On Tuesday morning, my sister, Rocky had gone over to cut the chord of a newborn baby boy with her husband, Mike and two missionary ladies (Sarah Ruzic and Melanie Golden). The 14 year old mother had just squatted and delivered her first baby, dropping him head first into the mud in her hut. Rocky had arrived in time to clean up the boy and try to get him to nurse with no luck. This was the same mother I had brought back up the mountain a few days prior from having a sonogram. The baby at that time was 3 weeks premature from being able to have a safe delivery date He died later that night never able to really breathe or eat.

I buried Beano, Kayla’s dog this afternoon. It had been whining the last 2 nights. His back legs were paralyzed. The native kids had informed us that he had eaten a poisonous snake.

I did get to try out my loctite glue on someone else beside myself. I couldn’t find any superglue so loctite would have to do. I was the first patient last Saturday morning. I was waiting to drive to Chiquimula with Sarah and pick up mattresses and decided to ride the street surfer---hit a rock and kissed the concrete with my head. The next patient was Andrew, a construction major from New York) who was hit in the nose with a machete. A local kid was waving his machete (all the males of all ages carry them). Andrew happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and took a slice across the bridge of his nose. I think our modeling aspirations have been crushed---HAHA

We're Here!!!!!

We arrived March 3rd in Guatemala City, myself, my three kids (Dylan, Cassidy, and Austin), and of course our dog, Jackson. The last month leading up to the trip had the devil at his very best trying to persuade us not to go. Money seemed to bleed profusely from every financial pore I possessed, projects that were to be completed before we left would not be finished. Bids that were to materialize before departure and help pay for monthly expenses were postponed by companies for a later undetermined date. Dylan had just broken the growth plate on his wrist in two places just one week before our flight was to leave. It had been set once in North Carolina and had to be reset in Orlando a week later, of course his snowboarding accident was not covered by our health insurance so the money was directly out of my pocket. We could not find anyone to take our two cats. It sure seemed the sensible thing to do would be to blow the whole thing off, but at 5:00 the morning of March 3rd we headed for the airport facing our last obstacle before boarding. We had just pulled up to the cargo department of American Airlines to pick up a pet container. The air carrier had failed to tell me that their cargo department is closed on Saturday mornings. We were advised to go a Super Walmart and buy one there---there just wasn’t enough time. Finally we did find a shipping department on the other side of the terminal with pet containers. We arrived in Guatemala City an hour late and spent the next couple of hours trying to claim our pet.
The following morning was Sunday and we spent it in a very lively and enthusiastic worship service. The question again arose if I had made the correct decision for my family as I carried Cassidy in my arms out of church. She had fainted and was feeling sick. The love and concern of the Guatemalan parishioners helped calm me. I knew we were doing the right thing.

When we arrived, the first line of business, for me, was to take an inventory of the condition of the citrus trees and the worm beds. The trees would require some time to get them healthy and ready for grafting. The worms, needed to make the organic fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide, were in disarray. We had to find an ample supply of cow manure, garbage, and an illusive rock called azomite. This combination fed to the worms would help produce a grade an organic fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide. We could use this for not only the citrus trees but also the coffee plants, macadamia trees, banana trees, and all other plants we would be growing.

While the worms were doing there thing, we were freed up to help with the ongoing construction projects around the mission. This phase included a lot of tile and plumbing work with some sporadic electrical, carpentry, and masonry work thrown in. The church, the main house, and the apartment housing for the missionaries all got our attention. This work reminds me of an old baseball movie with Kevin Costner where he and his family build a baseball diamond with bleachers. The movie, “Field of Dreams”, had an underlining message of “build it and they will come”. I feel we are doing the same thing in the mountains among God’s impoverished people. Just as the famous ballplayers from years ago came to Costner’s ball field to play baseball so to be missionaries coming to the mountains of Pinalito and Mantasana to serve. There have been medical teams, teachers, farmers, construction workers, mechanics and many more sharing God’s love with these people by their selfless deeds. Through the stories and experiences of these missionaries coupled with living among the Mayan Indians in a third world country where carrying a machete or having a 9mm pistol and several clips of ammo strapped to your side, my three children and I were about to swept up in a series of life changing events. I’m writing most of this after our return to the states, June 20th, so I’ll try my best to get the events in chronological order. I apologize in advance for my lack of writing skills, I was a math and microbiology major and writing was a despised class

Matt 20:28 “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”