A Ride Down Memory Lane...

Late this afternoon, I spent some time helping a friend of mine who is the caretaker of "heaven". He is battling cancer and has been experiencing extreme pain in his back. The docs say it is a cracked vertebrae... it is so excruciating that he is behind in his work at the farm. I offered to help and he took me up on the offer. So, I bush hogged some tall grass in the food plots he has planted for wild game. While doing that, I saw 14 deer, 6 gobblers, and one hen turkey with little ones. It was fun! The only challenge is that the tractor is a Massey Ferguson... which is red and not green!

Recap of Yesterday's Message...

The two questions: How strong is your faith in God? AND, Will it sustain you even when the going gets tough?

Looking at the response of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendego to King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:17 and 18 when faced with being thrown into a fiery finance that was 7 times hotter than normal... they said, "If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, o king that we will not serve your gods and we will not bow to the golden statue that you have set up."

Knowing the outcome of this story... we often miss the courage in this statement!

Courageous Faith says I won't abandon God even if he doesn't rescue me! Courageous Faith says I will go wherever God calls me regardless of the risk, cost, or outcome because I trust God to know best, to see the big picture and to provide the strength to endure whatever comes my way!

God did not promise an easy life... BUT he did promise to journey with us in whatever fiery furnace we face! Courageous Faith says I won't abandon God even if he doesn't rescue me!

Great Day Today...

Actually this weekend was GREAT! I turned 43 on Sat. and enjoyed a full day of working around the house, catching up on things that I didn't get done while in Guatemala. Then some dear friends from our second church in PA came to visit... We went to supper at Brew River and for the first time all week, I actually tasted the food! Then to top it all off, Sharon and the girls had gotten a Smith Island 10 layer straberry cake... and was it delicious!

Then this morning in worship, we had a baptism with 4 people being baptized at church! Baptisms are always EXCITING!

Enjoyed lunch with our friends and then a graduation party for one that I baptized along time ago and she and Caroline were such good friends then and enjoyed seeing each other today!

Yeah! I feel almost human today!

Today is the first day that I feel almost human! YEAH!

While I have had diverticulitis before (not knowing it), the pain was managed with a couple advil and life went on. This time the pain was so intense that advil wasn't touching it and I had to use percocet which took the edge off... in addition to the pain meds, the doc prescribed... flagyl and cippro. The Flagyl is some medicine... EVERYTHING tastes like tin and I had NO energy or desire to do anything. I usually can make myself go, but this time I had trouble. In addition to that, it had a way of making me feel kind of yucky!

I am sure glad I feel better today and can't wait to be able to taste things again... tin doesn't taste good!

Guatemala Day 13 - May 20

We are leaving San Lucas today @ 7 a.m. on a Mission bus that is taking some people to the Airport in Guatemala City. We will be spending part of three days in Antigua and plan to meet Dad's friend Oscar there.

Our trip here was very fast... 2 hours from San Lucas... we expected more. One thing for sure... traveling in a private car is faster than a chicken bus.... though it is not a way that most people there can travel!

We were amazed at the beauty of our hotel. It costs a little more than $17 a night! Once we got checked in, Becky, Aaron, Dad and I went to a very nice internet cafe to upload some pics to my blog and to burn a cd of pics for Antonio (he has a laptop that the government has required teachers to have) and we thought the pics would be a nice present for him, since he has no way to take them.

Dad and I met Oscar at 1 p.m. and took a Tuk Tuk to the church of San Hernando Pedro where he is buried and toured it. Then we walked MILES to tour other ruins and churches. Most of these churches were started int he mid 1500's and were ruined by earth quakes. There are some real beautiful places here in Antigua... which makes it kind of a tourist trap. It is so UNLIKE any place else we have been on this trip. NO trash, nicer cars -- definitely more wealth here. I took HUNDREDS of photos here as the architectual features of the ruins and buildings fascinated me.

Oscar left at 5 for a meeting in Guatemala City and will return tomorrow @ 8 a.m.

Oscar is a wonderful tour guide! It was funny, when I greeted him this morning, I said, "Oscar, Mi Amigo" and he was astounded that I had learned Spanish while there. We communicated very well all afternnon. A fun day! Definitely what we needed to lessen the shock of going back home!

Guatemala - Coffee Production and the Mission

Today, I want to write a little bit about coffee production and about the mission at San Lucas. Both are fascinating to me!

The Mission at San Lucas has made such a HUGE impact on that community, it is hard to know where to start. In large part it is because of God using Father Greg, an american preist who came there 44 years ago. Father Greg has been the driving force behind helping the communitie's poor find a new way of life. He has established medical clinics, affordable housing, farming projects like the coffee coop, rabbit project, chicken/duck project, and the re-forrestation project. All of these projects inclusing the parochia have put local people to work improving the community and thus improving their lives. The Mission has sister church relationships with Catholic Churches in Minnesota and regularly has groups of Docs and others coming down for a week or two at a time to work. On our way out of town, we shared a ride with a college student who has come to San Lucas with his parents every year since he was a baby... and now is bringing his college fraternity brothers along!

The Coffee Co-op is a major part of this improvement that Father Greg has brought. The members are paid a fair price regardless of the market price which is usually lower than what they are paid. Coffee grows on a bush like plant on the hill sides... most of what we saw was shade grown coffee. It is picked when the green fruit turns red and then is processed at the Mission....it takes 500 lbs of fruit to get 60 lbs of roasted coffee!

Enjoy the pics! First you have coffee growing on a bush... then the place where the fruit is dried after de-pulping it, then the orange bags are this years unroasted harvest. The next machine takes the outer shell off the bean and the green beans are the product from that process. The barrel is one of two that holds about 150 lbs of coffee to be roasted over the coals in the roaster. They roast about 300 lbs a day at San Lucas.

Guatemala Day 12 - May 19

Slept well last night in a soft bed!

After breakfast at the mission of oatmeal and bananas and coffee, Becky, Dad and I went to the clinic which is operated by the mission to be checked for amoebas. We traveled there and back by Tuk Tuk... a little three wheeled motorcycle with a bench seat for three.

Then we walked through the mission coffee processing area and saw the process and the place where the coffee we have been getting through Doug and Sally comes from. I will blog about the process in a separate entry.

Then we stopped by the Tree nursery and reforestation project that the mission is operating. This is where Becky and Aaron got their seeds and help for their nursery in Union Victoria. The man in charge, Turibio, told us his story of his work for 27 years ... this nursery and work is his love and life! He and Dad very much enjoyed talking to one another. It was fascinating to see what they are doing and how it is linked to the schools and the long term future of Guatemala!

They are experimenting with shade grown coffee in the shade of Macadamia nut trees. I think this is an awesome combination to spread risk... hope it works. Turibio showed us a project that he started to teach kids to value trees for more than fire wood... they were making and selling wooden utensils. We bought some -- one from ebony and another from coffee wood. This was so encouraging because in so many places in Guatemala, the deforestation is devastating and will soon bring disaster upon the people.

We walked back to the cafeteria for lunch of tortillas and taco meat with greenbeans in the meat and fresh pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe. After lunch we visited with a couple we had met on the street the day before... they happened to stick their heads in the door and recognized us so they came over to talk. Turns our they are from Israel and have spent the last three months biking in Mexico, and 1/2 a month so far in Guatemala and headed for a couple months biking in Columbia before meeting his parents in Ecuador in September. What a way to see the country!

In the afternoon after a short rest which we enjoyed at our hotel "Casa Blanca" we walked up to the rabbit project that the mission has going. Here they raise rabbits to produce organic fertilizer for the coffee. This allowed Becky and Aaron the opportunity to ask some questions about the rabbits they have from the project. We also saw the mission chicken project.

This afternoon, Becky and I received the news that we were being hosts to 2 different amoebas. We went to a pharmacy to purchase our medications.... 3 pills for $12. The medicine had to work... cuz it sure made me feel awful!

After supper, we payed our bills and made arrangements to leave the mission for Antigua on a Mission shuttle that happened to be going to the airport in Guatemala City. We would leave at 7 a.m.

Guatemala Day 11- May 18

Awoke this morning around 4:30 a.m. -- the roosters started crowing around 2. Maria and Antonio were already up and busily getting read to catch the 5:30 a.m. truck to Pochuta.

Jose got up as well... and carried Dad's bags up the hill to the truck. It was raining as we loaded the truck and rode down the mountain with 18 people in the back. I wanted a pic, but didn't want to take one that was obvious, so as the truck pulled away with a few people still on it, I snapped the pic. Once we got to Pochuta, about a 45 minute drive down the mountain, we put a large blue tarp over the back and that meant that we had to duck down... which for me made riding very uncomfortable.

Once in Potelul, another 30 minutes, we got on a chicken bus and rode to San Lucas, arriving in time for breakfast at the mission. The bus was real crowded... 3 people to each seat!

Breakfast at the mission was pancakes and fried eggs with re fried beans and REAL GOOD coffee. The scene at the mission was odd for us as most of the 100 or so people there were USAmericans from a sister church in Minnesota that had come to work a week or so at the mission.

Met a couple of Becky and Aaron's friends and then went to the house where they would stay. They showered and we talked about lots of ideas for the community and called our family, visited the market and basically had a sabbath day! It was good to talk to both Sharon and Emma!

Dad and I got a room in a beautiful hotel not far from the mission for about $13 a night. It was a nice room with comfortable beds and a hot shower! Boy did that feel good! It was near the lake and from the roof top we could look out over the lake and the mission. It also had a beautiful garden. For lunch today, we had pizza! and ice cream!

While it has been a hard trip with living conditions unlike any I have ever experienced and poverty and struggle like none I've seen... at least on the grand scale!, I've been glad to be here and am anxious to see the lasting impact of this trip. There are so many ways that our lifestyle in USAmerica is so unjust compared to the rest of the world!

The next few days should be a slow transition from the harshness we've experienced and seen to our home. As we will stay 2 nights and parts of 3 days here in San Lucas and 2 nights in Antigua.

We ate supper last night in a fancy restaurant with Becky and Aaron... I had chicken and french fries, tortillas and water all for $4.

Some of my favorite pics from U.V.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Union Victoria.

Guatemala Day 10 - May 17

Awoke @ 5:30 a.m. LOTS of chickens and roosters crowing and chopping wood abounds.

Had breakfast of a vegetable soup of sorts with tortillas.

Jose asked us to go with him to his computer class at the school... various students came to work on computers and typewriters. We watched him a while and talked with the teacher a while then left to meet Becky and Aaron. After gathering up an extra machete, we went with Aaron to do some deforestation (not sure it was a good idea, but it is what the rest of the men of the community were doing that Saturday morning). The upper pasture had become overgrown with trees again and it was time to cut them down so that grass would grow. We spent three hours cutting trees -- some as big as 5 inches in diameter-- with machetes... it was HARD work. 19 men and boys from the community and the three of us joined in this task. This made a BIG impression on Antonio as an act of solidarity with them.

Lunch was beans and tortillas.

Spent some time in the afternoon with Becky and Aaron looking at the tree nursery they started with the help of the kids in the school. They have lots of native trees growing that will supply wood, shade, and windbreaks. As well as some vegetables and bean plants that will increase the soil's nitrogen levels.

They have also started a rabbit farm. 2 females and 1 mail and 8 babies. The plan is to use the manure as fertilizer.. it is a great fertilizer to use because it can be used right away and does not need to be composted. It was fun to see and brought back memories of when Caroline and I used to raise rabbits when she was growing up and when I used to raise them as a kid. In fact the water bottles they are using are from our supply.

We then went back to Antonio and Maria's and saw Maria starting a weaving that will become a shoulder bag (see weaving post). Dad also bought a weaving from her... which is over her shoulder in the picture of the family. The money will help send their oldest son to High School. Spent the rest of the afternoon talking to Becky and Aaron about their dreams/learnings/ hopes for the community and some of the ways this experience has transformed them. A man stopped by to meet us and tell us his story and to THANK us for coming to visit!

We all ate supper at Maria and Antonio's... we had Aaron's favorite dish... re fried black beans with sauteed onions and a hard boiled egg. I think they skimped on portions so that we could all eat there.

After some family photos, we listened to Antonio and Maria share some of their experience. Telling stories seems to be an important part of the healing process. And to thing they are willing to tell us as we are USAmericans from the very country that has caused much of their pain!

We expressed our thanks and appreciation as did they and then we all went to bed as we planned to get up around 4:30 to leave on the 5:30 a.m. truck to Pochuta.