The Mountain Top: Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Today was a mountain top day.  That is not to say there was not a guatever moment.  That moment occurred this morning when we realized that 3 out of 12 of us were under the weather with unrelated issues and in need of rest.  We are all well this evening and explains one missing face yesterday in the photos and two more today.  All is right with the world this evening; however, they were missed.

Proof of Life

The two hour ride to Buena Vista was truly extraordinary.  A range of active and inactive volcanoes lined the route; it was beyond majestic.  As we traveled this morning toward the Pacific, the altitude dropped and the temperature rose.  The heat in Buena Vista is an essential ingredient in this experience.  How can you appreciate the lives of the people you meet if you don't experience the heat that is the tropics?

Wednesday in Buena Vista is a National Geographic day.  Cut out of a sugar cane field, Buena Vista has no electricity, no running water, no conveniences of any kind... just natural beauty and humble, subsisting folks. In addition,  some of us were able to visit homes and the community of Xawa (Mayan and sounds like Shyaw) just beyond Buena Vista.

Holy cow!  Today turned out to be another chapter in the National Geographic experience.  Seriously, we walked among cows, chickens, horses, dogs, cats, cacoa (chocolate) trees, plantains, bananas, wash day at the river (people and clothes), horses, a cattle drive, and of course the people.  While in Xawa, one group of us visited a woman who had injured her head 40 days earlier and over time had worsened to the point she was lying on the floor of her home in what felt like 100+ degrees dying.  The Guatemalan and American missionaries prayed at her side.  In another home, a mother climbed up into a cacoa tree to retrieve pods of cacoa seeds and proceeded to break one open and show us the raw cacoa seeds and explain how they are chewed and roasted... after inviting us in to pray for her family and the well-being of her children.  And again, HOT does not capture it.  Bruce's mantra was "drink or die" and we drank.

It was a unique experience to take in so much cultural information all the while staying spiritually in the moment.  It was a lifetime blessing to experience it.

The Children's Lesson

Kevin and Bebe

After what was possibly the worst sunflower butter and jelly sandwich on gluten free bread (my fault for bringing that bread for Sarah and me), we again taught our lessons.  Since Sarah was not with us today, Ben and I taught our teen lesson again with Guatemalan missionary and translator, Cesar.  Our topic was abstinence based in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 and Proverbs 4: 23, in particular, which reminds us to guard our hearts.  Guatemala has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Latin America and the girls with whom we work are generally pregnant at 10-14 and the father of children split.  In this way the cycle of poverty is perpetuated generation after generation.  Girls in extreme poverty don't even realize they can say no to a boy nor do the boys know they can be turned down.  Since dads in these families are either drunk, high, or dead, boys have a lot of power over fatherless girls.  We talked about personal goals for the future and what might prevent teens from reaching their goals.  Actually, it was like an eighth grade Trinity, coed health class in the middle of the rain forest...health box and all.  And it was another mountain top experience.  If it had not been for our friends not feeling well back at the mission house, it would have been perfection.

Bruce and Buena Vista Elder

Thank you again for your continued support and prayers.  Have I mentioned how grateful we are?  I know that we all have people in our lives with whom we wish we could share a particular experience this week.  I met a 16 month old boy named Wilbur, swinging on a homemade baby swing, in a cacoa tree, pulled and pushed by his extremely young mother.  All I could think about was my own daughter doing the same thing with her children at George George Park in Mount Clemens.  God's world is frequently indeed very, very small.

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Blessings and goodnight,
All of us