God's purpose....our reality

How do you reconcile God's purposes with our reality?  Only by the grace of God...His unmerited favor to us, and last week I witnessed His grace in action.  I went to the states last week for a selfish reason.  I needed to see some of my very best friends who had experienced a tragedy.  I needed to see how they were.  I needed that.  I couldn't stay in Guatemala not knowing, not seeing for myself.

In a lot of ways their lives will never be the same.  That's reality.  In a lot of ways their lives will go on as before.  That's also reality, but it is also grace.  When we suffer loss and tragedy and are unable to face the reality that life can return to some semblance of normalcy, we stifle God's grace and do not accept it.  This family has been covered with the prayers of God's people and God has answered.  Do they still have moments and days of sorrow and grief?  Sure they do, but in ways that probably they don't even realize, God's grace brings them relief.  

I'm back in Guatemala now and can rest in the fact that God's grace is at work, not that I ever doubted it, but I am grateful that He let me see His grace in action.  

We can try to guess and speculate as to God's purpose for what happened, but the truth is, we don't know and probably will not know in this life.  Only God knows the purpose, and that is also reality.

A Time to tear down...a time to build

One of the hardest things for me to do here in Guatemala is to discern who to help, when to help, and how to help. I have decided that the Guatemalan branch of the Feed the Sheep Shop was not such a good idea after all. My list of families had grown to 25 and there were people coming for food who I knew were capable of buying their own, but I found it very difficult to turn them away. Compared to J. Paul Getty, I am as poor as Job's turkey. But compared to most of the people here, I am rich.

In my attempt to save the world, I rushed off to Russia a little over 10 years ago to convert the whole country. People had been trying to do that for centuries, but I was convinced they were just waiting on me. I'm not really sure when the revelation hit me that "each one reach one" is a much better concept, but somewhere along the way, it did.

Right now, most of my efforts, aside from cleaning the mission house, are concentrated on the needs of particular individuals, such as Berto and his family. They have had to move twice in the last few months due to the fact that he cannot work and they could not pay for the property where their house was, nor pay the rent for the one they moved to. They are living in a very small house now with no water and no electricity. There are eight people in the family and the Q300 rent and money for food is just not there. Please pray that an affordable lot will become available that interested persons can purchase and on which a team could perhaps build them a house.

Luisa

Los Gozosos

Taking three hours to make a one hour trip is not my idea of a fun afternoon. Last week, Maureen Casey, director of Los Gozosos, a children's home in Chimaltenango, and I went to the city to buy some supplies for the children. Traffic in the city was at a standstill because of a demonstration by the teachers. They were blocking the main road and no one was going anywhere. Whether or not they accomplished their purpose remains to be seen. At one point, Maureen wanted to give up and turn around and go back. However, turning around was not an option as we were blocked in. All's well that ends well and we finally made it to Price Smart, made our purchases and returned home...a one hour trip this time.

Los Gozosos (The Joys) has about a dozen children and all of them are physically and/or mentally handicapped. These children attend the same church that I do and I marvel at their behavior. They are so well behaved, they love to clap their hands with the music and one little girl was doing the twist to "God is Good" last Sunday. They are always dressed to the nines and well groomed. One boy in particular, Daniel, has caught my attention. He is always smiling and Maureen said before Christmas when there were no gifts under the tree that he knew that God was going to fill their tree with gifts, and He did. Maureen has my utmost admiration for the job she is doing. Last year, a team wanted to go there to take pizza for the kids, so we did. One little girl scared the wits out of me eating so fast that she started choking. A worker came over and helped her and she went right back to stuffing in the pizza. I vowed not ever to do that again.

The season for teams is about to start. A team from Canada arrived yesterday. I really think the reason they are here is to get out of the cold and snow. Whatever their reason, it should be fun having a group from Canada here, ay.

And Time Marches..no..Races On

Just a little over ten years ago, we were told that we would probably be living as folks did back a hundred years ago. All our money would be gone, water supplies and other utilities would be shut down, and all computers would crash. And now we are to believe that global warming is a threat. Tell that to the people in Arkansas and the Great Lakes area, Al.

Three teams in as many weeks does not leave much time for blogging. But they have been good weeks...many houses have been built, food and clothes have been handed out, medical needs have been seen to and the gospel has been presented to many.


I was privileged to have in my home a missionary couple, Mario and Amuy Munroy, and their two children, Kathrina and Josiah, for almost two weeks. They had sold practically everything they had except the clothes on their backs to go to the mission field in Spain. They were here at the request of a couple of the teams to work with them in the villages. It was very hard to see them go knowing that I will probably not see them again in this life.


It was also my privilege to work one day with the medical team last week as "Dr.'s assistant". That consisted of writing down the prescription for the medicine needed to treat a person. Each person was seen by a doctor, given a prescription, then had to go listen to the pastor for a few minutes before they received their medicine. We saw 307 people that day and out of that number, twelve made a profession of faith.

They say it is approaching springtime here, but I really don't know how they can tell, except it has been close to 80 degrees during the day instead of 70 to 75. Maybe it's because it is time to plant the corn again so it must be spring.

There is a tad of envy in me toward those who get to preach the Word. One of the teams asked me to give my testimony and bring the devotional one morning and it blessed me tremendously. I don't know how they perceived it, but my spirit was refreshed. Is there an opening for a preacher at FFBC?

Luisa

Christmas in Guatemala

Christmas is a very big deal in Guatemala. In some ways that is good and in some ways not so good. It is good in that no one objects to being wished a Merry Christmas, the term Christmas, or Navidad, is still used in all the shops, and the reason for Christmas is celebrated without fear of repercussions. On the other hand, traffic from now until after Christmas will be a perpetual snarl. I can joyfully say that I will not be sorry to miss that. I leave for my homeland two weeks from Thursday.

The poinsettia in this picture grows on the hillside just behind my apartment. It is not as tall as some that grow here, but it is by far the most beautiful.

November has been a very busy month here in the mission house, with three teams in as many weeks. The last team left this week, some on Monday and the remainder Wednesday. Tomorrow will be spent with my neighbors, who are gringos, celebrating Thanksgiving.

This has been a good year for groups coming to the mission house. Many houses have been built, much food has been handed out, many people have received medical attention, and the gospel has been presented with good results. Only eternity will reveal all the fruit of the laborers. In 2009 there were 22 teams that came and spent a week at the mission house and as of right now 2010 promises even more with 27 teams scheduled. HELP!!!!!!!!!

The word "Thanksgiving" takes on new meaning here when people tearfully express gratitude for a house not even as big as my dining room made from a few posts and some sheets of tin. It goes without saying that my outlook on "things" has drastically changed over the last four years. Happy Thankgiving to all.

Memorial Day Guatemala...Sort of

This is just one end of a block long market where vendors are selling flowers for November 1st, a holiday known as Day of the Dead. The people do pretty much the same as we do in the states except they carry it a little farther. They not only decorate the graves of departed loved ones, they go to the cemetery and have picnics and spend the whole day there. It is also the day of the national kite festival.

Can you believe it has been a month since I have posted to my blog and I thought it had only been a few days. October and November are beginning to shape up a lot like this past summer, with one team after another.

The last team that was here, one from Wilmington, N. C., built 15 houses in a village about an hour and a half drive from the mission house. Sometimes I wonder how these people ever found these places to build a village. I went to the village to help with the food distribution, always an humbling experience. Can you imagine lining up outside a little church with 150 other families with a little ticket in your hand that entitles you to go through a line to receive a small bag of rice, sugar, salt, pasta, oatmeal, and a few other things? I can't. But they do it and are grateful for everything they get. I am grateful God has allowed me to be a small part of this.

As I write this, it is about 4:00 on Halloween day and it really looks spooky outside with dark clouds, lightning, and thunder. I expect Freddy or Jason or some other creepy crawler to appear any minute.

I decided to go to town today, and should have known better. The day before a holiday is always chaos traffic wise. The traffic cops try hard to direct traffic, but even they give up eventually and just let the people fight it out amongst themselves.

Maybe it won't be a month between posts this time...and maybe it will with three teams coming in November.

The Spirit of Fear

I've done a lot of praying for courage over the past few weeks. A couple of years ago, there was an occurrence on the road to el Tejar that scared the bejeebers out of me and I had not been back down that road since....until about two weeks ago. The city is putting stone down on the other road to Chimal and it is blocked. Since staying on the mountain for three months without going to town was not an option, I prayed for courage, got in my Patrol, started out. The road is in such bad shape that my mind was too occupied with missing the holes to be afraid. God does answer pray in strange ways sometimes.

FTSS Guatemala branch is going good. Last week I bought enough food for ten families and by the end of the day only had four bags left. Those were gone very shortly. This week, I bought enough for fifteen families.

Max Lara is doing much better. I went by to see him on my way back from Antigua yesterday and he and Teresa had gone to Chimal. His daughter said he is doing fine.

Due to some family difficulties, Berto and his family have moved from Santo Domingo. Laurie King and I found their new home last week, in Chimal, and paid them a visit. He is about the same and in good spirits as usual.

The fall is rapidly becoming as busy as the summer. We have six teams scheduled for October and November.