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.”