Endurance

So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!  Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.   - Hebrews 10:35-36 NLT

I have a bad habit. It may even lead to a little sleep deprivation at times.  Before I go to bed I like to read.  Most of the time I read something I already own. Sometimes something will come into my mind, and I will look it up on the internet, and suddenly it's four in the morning!

So, the other night the thought came to me, "You like testimonies don't you?"  I responded back, "Why, yes I do."  The thought continued, "What about the testimonies of atheists who were once Christians?"

I'd never read those. I'd never even thought of reading those.

A quick internet search of 'Christians turned atheists' led to a treasure trove of stories.  Some interesting, some boring, some very sad.

Most of the stories, but not all, started, "I believed... was part of the church... example, example, example....  Then _______ happened." Typically ________ was some kind of tragedy. The death of a close family member seemed to be the most common, or a bad illness or something someone prayed for that didn't happen.  They usually continued by saying, "I lost faith, and then I started reading different atheist authors and websites.  I found comfort in those things and am now free of believing in a myth / fairytale / superstitions / religion."

It was amazing to me how the stories were so similar, including many from ex-pastors turned atheists. They seem to be kind of rock stars in the atheist world, often turning to full time speaking about how they were 'delivered from religion,' and making good money doing it.

All these stories got me thinking about my own story.

I gave my life to God at eleven, and was saved at thirteen.  I served in my church, often going to services every-night during busy times.  Then, tragedy happened. My mom got cancer. After three years. and an especially horrible last six months, she was gone.  I lost faith.   

Sounds familiar, right? But, now for the difference.

I was not going to let God off the hook.  That is what switching to atheism is, in my view.  "God these bad things happened, so I am not going to believe in you anymore. That will teach you!" 

Not good enough.  I wanted answers. Why did prayer not work? Why did this happen to mom, who was such a faithful person? So, I dived into the Word. I read the Bible.  I read literature from the church I was going to.  I watched YouTube videos of pastors. I read websites of different  ministries - both ones I knew, and new ones. I wasn't doing this passively. I was looking for answers.

Then, on September 3, 2010, the Lord answered me.  It was such a personal and private experience that I cannot really describe it, but it was life changing.

Even after the encounter I still had things I struggled with.  I went through severe depression, had a lot of fear, and took a long time healing.  Jesus brought me through each hard thing, though He definitely did not cause them.  Most of them were caused by my own anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness toward other people.  As the Lord led me through the challenges (sometime with me pulling back) I became more and more free.  Then He could start using me. And, He has, in ways that I couldn't even imagine four years ago.

Let's go back to the beginning, with me reading late at night. When people go through a challenging time, they must choose whether they're going to push deeper into knowing the Creator of the Universe, or believe a lie that brings temporary comfort, but not eternal comfort.  A lie that makes life about us, instead of about Him.  A lie that will be of no help the next time a challenge happens.

In the Hospice room with my mom and aunt, my mom gave me a present that I think about weekly.  In the middle of her pain, and close to death, came this song from her lips:

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."

Know Your Joe!

While all of our friends back home were shivering in the near-zero temperatures, our family spent some of the very first days of January, 2015, touring the Dalton Coffee Plantation just outside the town of Antigua, Guatemala.  It was SPECTACULAR (even though, to be honest, we did get a little hot in the blazing sunshine), and I learned a LOT about coffee.

It was so sunny that Mark needed sunglasses. Check out the reflection in their lenses!

So, if you're not too mad at me for rubbing in our excellent climate here, please read on to learn a whole lot more about that humble beverage so many of us take for granted. (Sorry, I know it's long. But, it's very interesting information!)

This was our awesome tour vehicle, which picked us up in Antigua and took us to the plantation.

Cutie pies on the left side of the truck.

Cutie pies on the right side of the truck.

First off, you should know that coffee originated in Africa. The reason that coffee plants contain caffeine is to act as a natural repellent. In essence, we are the only critters who actively seek out this bitter plant. Most others avoid it like the plague. There are actually only a couple of animals who can and will eat coffee (outside of some nasty insects, of course.)

The first is a type of civet cat whose digestive system allows it to partake of whole, ripe coffee beans. If you're a real coffee connoisseur (or just ridiculously rich, given how expensive it is) you might have tried a cup of this special, Indonesian coffee. The process is pricey, but somewhat inelegant. After the cat eats the bean, it goes through its entire digestive system, and is <ahem> collected at the end of the process. Only then is the bean cleaned (one would hope), roasted, and sold.  

The other type of animal which eats coffee beans is the goat, of course. Legend says that this wild plant was a favorite of goats in Ethiopia. One day the shepherds noted how hyper it made the animals, so they took the red beans home and made their own infusion with hot water. Though it tasted terrible, it did help keep them awake. Eventually they sold the beans to a monastery, because the monks needed focus and energy for their work of copying scripture. Eventually, through trade, it made its way to Arabia, which is why the best quality coffee today is called Arabica.

There are four types of coffee plants. The two most common, which make up 80% or more of what we drink, are Arabica and Robust. Robust coffee is the only kind which makes a tree, rather than a bush. It is (as its name implies)  much heartier, and a much more prolific producer, but it's also a much lower quality of fruit and has 50% more caffeine than Arabica. When you get cheaper coffee, you're most likely drinking Robust coffee beans. (Unless, of course, you're drinking instant coffee, which we found out was really not made of much coffee at all, and was mostly chemicals and fillers like chickpeas or chicory.)

Welcome to the Dalton Coffee Plantation!

Anyway - back to the Dalton Plantation. Guatemala is one of the main producers of coffee in the Western Hemisphere. Even though it is a very small nation, its mix of mountainous terrain, temperate weather, and lots of sunshine make it nearly ideal for growing coffee. It should be noted that, aside from flavorings which can be added during the roasting process, the natural flavor of coffees comes from the conditions in which it was grown. The same plant, grown in two different places, would produce two different flavors. There are approximately eight "coffee zones" in Guatemala, though Antigua is considered one of only a handful of 'balanced' locations in the world. The coffee from there really is pretty spectacular and sought after.

Anyway - growing conditions in Antigua (and the rest of Guatemala) are *nearly* perfect. Nearly, I say, because it has one major drawback - volcanic soil. While this type of fertile soil is good for growing almost everything else, it has a tendency to promote nematodes. Nematodes and coffee don't mix.

At least, nematodes and the best types of coffee don't mix, unless you're willing to get creative. So, in order to maintain both high yields and excellent quality, producers in Guatemala have used an innovative grafting technique which pairs the roots of Robust coffee plants (which are immune to nematodes) and the stems and leaves of Arabica coffee plants (which produce better quality coffee) for the perfect combination! The process isn't easy, since it involves making a V shaped slit in the root plant, and a corresponding cut in the top plant, in order for the cores to fit snugly together. Then, a special tape is used to wrap the "new" plant. This process is done when the stems of both plants are about as a big around as the lead in a number 2 pencil!

If you look closely, you can see the graft on this little plant.

At the Dalton Plantation, they have a nursery where they start both types of plants, and do their grafting on-site. 100% of their plant grafters are women. It was discovered, after a process of trial and error, that when men grafted, they had a 50% survival rate. When women did the work, they had a 92% survival rate. Eventually they figured out that the difference was due in small part to the delicate hands and patience of the women workers, but mostly it was because of the difference in Ph between women's sweat and men's.

Every year the plantation has a contest to see who can successfully graft the most plants in 20 minutes. The winner, for the past 3 years straight, has been a woman who's worked on the grafting floor for over 35 years. In just 1/3 of an hour, using only her hands, a razor blade, and the wrapping tape, she grafted 84 plants, with a 94% survival rating. Wow!

Anyway - after the plants are grafted, they're left in the nursery for around a year, after which they're only about one foot tall. (Arabica coffee plants grow very slowly.) Then, they're moved to a production row, but won't being putting on the delicate, white flowers (called false jasmine) that turn into coffee beans until they're three years old. At four-years old, the plantation begins picking the ripe beans, though they're still not fully mature until they're five to seven years old, at which point they're approximately three feet tall.

Coffee plants typically survive here around 35-40 years, though they only produce for 25 or so of those years. After plants have reached around 12 years of age, their quality starts to decrease, so the plantation prunes them down to their original graft point, and then has to wait another four years for them to produce well again. In total, the plants are pruned three times during their lifetime.

This is the coffee nursery. The tiniest plants are newly-pruned. The taller ones around just under a year old. 

The annual cycle of the coffee plant is even more interesting than the lifetime cycle! Each year the plants start to flower in October. The fruits develop rapidly, and begin being ripe in November. (Incidentally, this is why the Guatemalan school year runs from January through November - so kids could be off to help with the harvest, just like the U.S. schedule!) The peak time for harvest is December and January, though it can last all the way until March.

Once the plant has flowered, it begins producing berries, which start off as green, then turn yellow, and are considered ripe when they are shiny and dark red, like a cherry. A mature (seven or so year old plant) will produce nine pounds of ripe beans, which will translate into only one pound of roasted, processed coffee! It takes 30-40 red berries to make each cup of coffee.

Because of the delicate nature of the plant and the fact that not all of its berries ripen at the same time, all of the coffee here is harvested by hand. The Dalton plantation has just under 400 acres in coffee plants, which must be grown in the gentle shade of other plants. The trees planted with the coffee  on this plantation are fast-growing and frequently pruned, yielding lumber as another cash crop.

This is our tour guide, Diego, holding up a ripe coffee bean. Behind him you can see an adult plant with red berries, ready to be harvested.

Each year the Dalton Coffee Plantation employs 200 to 300 pickers from the surrounding communities for its coffee harvest. It is stable, sought-after employment, and there are people who are 3rd generation pickers. In fact, coffee picking is a family affair. While the children are not officially hired, or expected to help with the harvest, families typically come together, including little ones on mothers' backs, toddlers in tow, and even the family dog!

Blue sky. Mountains. Coffee plants. Trees. Cut timber. Workers heading back from the harvest.

<sigh> There were some really little kiddos there.

It was conflicting to see children at a work site, but I had to keep in mind that this type of arrangement ensures jobs for the adults, safety for the kids (since they don't have to be left alone at home), and money to put food on the table. Plus, most likely, many of the little kids I saw along the road, walking to the coffee fields, are being taught by their parents how to harvest these delicate beans, which means they'll be more prepared to do well on the job when it's their turn to take over.

Each worker harvests 35-50 pounds of ripe coffee beans per day, and deposits their full bags on trucks like these, which are then taken to the on-site processing plant. 

While on the tour, we had the chance to pick our own ripe coffee bean. (It's a twist-and-pull process, just so you know.). Diego, our guide, explained to us that there are actually four layers around each coffee bean. The first is the red hull, which you can easily remove by just squeezing the bean. This layer actually has 40% of the bean's caffeine, and (when fresh) tastes and smells almost exactly like a red, bell pepper. The gift shop at the plantation actually sells coffee hull jelly, which we are excited to try!

The hull and whole bean.

Coffee cherry jelly!

The second layer is called the sugar, or mucilage, layer. It's kind of slimy. If you put a raw, hulled bean in your mouth it's quite sweet. Poor kids (especially those along for harvest) often chew on them as a kind of candy treat. We'll get to the other two layers in a moment.

While we removed the first and second layer by hand (or mouth) on the berry we picked, that's not the typical process! Usually the beans are sorted and taken for processing within an hour or so of being picked. The first process is a soaking, which causes the bad (light) berries (usually those that have been drilled into and eaten by bug larvae) to rise to the top. These are flushed into a waiting wagon, and will be used for very-low quality coffee or for compost.

Behind that back wall is the holding tank for the water and berries. The green tube going to the right takes the bad (light) berries outside.  The bigger, center tube takes the good berries to the wet mill and pulper, which removes the top layer of the picked bean. 

They had fancy machines, but most of them were old, since the process hasn't changed for decades!

After the first layer has been removed, the beans are transferred to holding tanks where they're submerged in water for 30 hours. This, apparently, is the exact amount of time necessary to allow some of the sugar layer to permeate the beans, giving them a hint of sweetness, and to have just a bit of fermentation begin. After 30 hours, the beans are drained, put into a centrifuge to remove any remaining mucilage layer, and then the drying process begins.

Here you can see the newly-drained beans after 30 hours of soaking. They're under burlap bags.

Drying here (like most other parts of the process) is both precise and scientific, and traditional and natural. Other (cheaper) coffees are dried mechanically. In this plantation, every bit of the coffee is dried in the Guatemalan sunshine, on huge drying patios made from terra cotta tile, which help absorb the extra water. Drying masters monitor the beans to get the moisture content down to 11-12%, which takes approximately 8 to 10 days. At night, they're covered to prevent dew falling on them. During the day, they're shuffled and moved every 45 minutes to ensure even drying.

The picturesque drying patios are a great place for a photo op. :) 

Our tour guide, Diego, standing next to the tool used to move the beans during the drying process.

Vast. Impressive. Beautiful.

Once the optimal dryness has been achieved, the beans still have two layers left. While they can be stored in this condition for up to eight months, they usually remove these layers almost immediately. The harder one is called the parchment layer, and is removed by friction in a dry mill. The last layer is called silver skin. Most also comes off in the dry mill, and the rest is burned off in the roasting process. In between, the coffee goes through a winnower which blows away powdered silverskin and any broken bits of beans.

A handful of newly-dried beans.

The parchment layer with the silverskin underneath.

Gold bean, bean with silverskin, bean with parchment.

 (Whew! It's been a lot of steps so far between ripe beans and cup of coffee. But wait, we're not done!) After the beans are dried and milled, they're sorted by size on an agitating table. The biggest beans are usually the most bitter. The smallest are the most acidic. For this reason, the medium-sized beans are the best. Often, people think that the best coffee only comes in whole-bean. However, blend master often combine just the right flavors of beans to create a sublime mix. Because these beans are different sizes, they are ground before packaging. So, if you're a 'whole bean only' person, you might want to reconsider!

These Oliver brand agitating tables sort the beans by size. 

After the beans have been dry milled, and sorted, they're called "gold beans." The plantation sells 75% of their coffee in this stage, because then buyers can choose to roast and flavor it however they want. Their biggest buyers are in Japan and South Korea.

The remaining 25% is roasted in-house.  The roaster can hold up to 200 pounds of gold beans at a time, and has three cylinders. The middle one is where aromatics can be added to change the flavor. The middle one holds the coffee, and spins constantly to avoid burning. The outer one is where the heat comes in, usually around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The whole process takes approximately 25 minutes, and master roasters rely on their sense of hearing to know when the beans are roasted, since the separation of the two parts of the bean makes a crackling sound, not unlike the popping of popcorn.  After roasting is complete, the beans are put into a sieve-bottomed cylinder and stirred constantly for an hour or so until it cools to room temperature and is taken for grinding or packaging.

The actual roaster here is the green cylinder in the lower right hand corner. The round, silver thing is the cooling rack.

 Incidentally, the roasting process also affects the caffeine content. The longer you roast coffee, the less caffeine it has, since much of it evaporates in the heat. So, if you like a really strong cup of coffee, you sould choose light colored beans/grind, like an Italian roast. Medium roasts will have a medium amount of caffeine, such as French of City roasts. The darkest roast, Turkish roast, actually has the last amount of caffeine, though it does have a very strong flavor. We had the chance to try their city-roast. It was delicious!

Free hair nets!

Sarah actually really loves coffee!

Rebecca does not like coffee! Rachel does, though. Incidentally, we learned that you don't actually get any of the flavor of coffee in your first sip, only its intensity. It's not until the 2nd or 3rd sip that you actually taste the real flavor of the coffee!

After it has been tested by master tasters, graded (by number of stars), and blended (sometimes), coffee grown at the Dalton Coffee Plantation is sold through their online store.  Their finest-quality coffee is 5 star, 100% Arabica, Antigua-grown, and sun-dried, whole bean coffee. It's probably some of the best Java on the planet, and you can buy it and have it delivered directly to your door! I highly recommend them. :)

I got to try this amazing coffee after our tour,and can vouch for the fact that it's truly delicious!

Hope you enjoyed this plantation tour as much as we did, and learned a lot! Next time you're ready to take a sip of your first cup of the morning, you might stop to consider just how much goes into making a perfect cuppa joe!

Christmas in Xela

In case you haven't picked up this information from our previous posts, or this is your first time visiting our blog, allow me to state the obvious - our new life here in Xela is very different from our old life in Iowa. Everything is different. Little things. Big things. Daily things. And, especially, holiday things.

This is our first Christmas in Guatemala, and we have really been struck by what a big change it's been! For example:

In Iowa we would sometimes have poinsettias on the table as a festive centerpiece. Here, poinsettia bushes grow in people's yards and can be up to 10 feet tall.

Yep - that's a poinsettia bush blooming behind my lovely daughters!

In Iowa it is usually very cold, and we would often have snow for Christmas. The kids could go outside and build a snowman. Here, we went to an outdoor Christmas party one evening. We did have a snowman, though. Granted, it was a pinata, but a snowman nonetheless. Apparently, in Xela, children destroy snowmen instead of building them.

(image found on pinterest)

In Iowa, almost every school-aged kid cuts out paper snowflakes at some point during December. At my school, I suggested to my students that they should make some for my room, but none of them had ever made them before! In fact, many of them had never seen actual snow before, either. We were all fascinated by the craft-inspired cultural exchange.
 

(image from crafthubs.com)

In Iowa, people enjoy going caroling (though usually inside, like in hospitals and retirement homes) to spread cheer and joy. Here, people have Posadas, where groups of friends gather and walk through the streets carrying lighted candles, blowing whistles and banging on drums, and knocking on doors to find room at the inn for Mary and Joseph. One similarity here, however, is that both caroling and posadas end with hot chocolate and cookies. Those things might be nearly universal!

In Iowa, one of our family's traditions for many, many years was to put together gift boxes for Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child. This year, we didn't. And, though we heard about local people doing distributions of these goody-filled shoe boxes from this GREAT organization, we had the opportunity to do something little more personal. Some friends of ours who help out at a shelter for abused women and children invited us to come along as they distributed gifts, gave out a delicious tamale supper, and shared a simple gospel message.  These activities had the same purpose, but different methods and locations.  I must admit, getting to hug teen moms, tease (and be teased by) kids, and hold babies was pretty awesome!

 In Iowa, we always had a two-to-four-hour drive (depending on where we lived and where we were going) to get to where we celebrated Christmas. In Xela, we will always have a two-to-four-hour drive (depending on road conditions, how many protests there are, and how often we get lost) to get to the Mexican border to get our passports stamped.

This is a section of the curvy, mountainous road on our trip.

In Iowa, we always loved it when Papa (my dad) made a roaring, crackling fire in the fireplace. In Xela we also have roaring and crackling, but here they're from fireworks. It's a tradition in Guatemala to set off fireworks at midnight on Christmas Eve.  (To be honest, they set off fireworks for a LOT of things!) I have literally never seen so many fireworks at once, and I'm a certified pyrotechnician in the States! It is a breathtaking spectacle to behold, and I'm excited to see the repeat performance on New Year's Eve. (I told you they really like fireworks.)

In Iowa, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In Xela, it's... oh, yeah! It's the same thing! Though Christmas in the U.S. has too much focus on Santa and commercialization, and Christmas in Guatemala has too much focus on "Santa Maria" and religious traditions, the heart of this holiday is still about the fact that the creator of everything loved fallen, broken humanity enough to come and dwell with them on Earth.

(Image from pinterest)

No matter the language, the traditions, the climate, or the location - it's still the best story ever told, and cause for celebration! So, Merry Christmas from the Farriers of Faith in Xela, Guatemala. May you be truly blessed in the year to come!

 

Recap

Sheesh! Feels like it's been forever since we've posted. Sorry 'bout that. Life got really busy, really fast the last few weeks. I guess we haven't had time for much self-reflection, let alone writing! So, here's a brief recap of what we've been up to:

• Our semester is over at school. Wow. Half a year is under our belts. The girls have settled in to the school routine well, though it's still a big adjustment. Their grades on their final report cards were very good. But, even better, they are really feeling like they're starting to fit into the groove of things there. I, also, no longer feel like I'm scrambling to keep one day ahead, and have really gotten to know my students and their needs well. I was also able to sign my contract for next year. So, I'm officially going to continue to be the High School English teacher, and we'll officially be here for the 2015-2016 school year. 

• The Bible college where Mark works follows a Guatemalan school calendar, so they have been on break since the end of October, and will start back again right after New Year's Day. Even though there haven't been students, there has been a lot of work to do. They've been working on tiling the floors of the classrooms, painting, doing some work on the roof, and keeping up on general maintenance needs. Once school starts again, Mark is planning on trying his hand at teaching a course or two. It's a very exciting step, and I can't wait to see if he'll get bitten by the teaching bug!

• We had the privilege this past week of going with our friends to the women's shelter to help hand out gifts and provide a supper. There are about 35 people living there, more than half of whom are young children. It is hard to think about what they must have come from to end up there. We already help support the shelter financially each month, but are hoping to be able to do more in the future. It was hard to see so many people hurting, but good to know that they are safe (for now) and to get to be a part of bringing some Christmas joy.

• Spanish lessons are going well. Mark has been doing two hours per day, five days per week. I do one hour lessons, twice a week. We've been working on squeezing in some time for Rachel, as well. Our Spanish tutor is a wonderful Christian man, and we are grateful for both his excellent skill and the ability to bless his family financially by paying for his services. Over Christmas break we're planning on doing around 30 hours of lessons, mostly for me and the three girls. It's not exactly the way we'd planned on spending our time off, but we desire to do so much more here, and language has been a limiting factor. So, more lessons it is!

• One of the requirements of our travel status is that we leave the country every three months, whether we want to or not. So, I'm writing this blog from a hotel room in Tapachula, Mexico. In a way, we have a forced vacation (of sorts) every 90 days. Though we technically have other options, Tapachula is the closest, easiest, fastest, cheapest choice, so here we are. And, we'll be here again in March. This was our first 'solo' trip, and all went fairly well, aside from getting lost twice on the way. (Oops!) The border was very chaotic because of people heading to Mexico to do Christmas shopping, but we still managed to go the right places and get the right things done. At least our first trip alone is under our belts!

We know that there will be many more things that God will enable (and ask) us to do in the months ahead. For now, however, we're awfully grateful to have three weeks together to rest, relax, eat some good food, and just "be." Though we're missing our families and friends terribly right now (especially because of the holidays), we know that we know that we know that we're right where God wants us to be, and that He's big enough to keep hearts connected even across thousands of miles. 

Extremes

Life here is surreal. I have come to think of Guatemala as a land of extremes. It is home to the highest mountain peak in all of Central America, but also contains over 200 miles of sea-level coastline. There is a city with a metropolitan population of 2.5 million people, as well as hundreds of tiny, dusty, remote hamlets scattered throughout the rural countryside. We've got cutting-edge technology, and subsistence farmers who dry their hand-planted, hand-irrigated, hand-picked corn on the tin roofs of their houses. Remember - all of this is in a nation roughly the size of Tennessee.

These facts and figures about the landscape and the population, though, aren't the most surreal part. The most surreal part comes in our daily lives and interactions, where we keep finding ourselves face-to-face with the truly startling juxtapositions of Guatemala.

I'll give you some examples.

A few nights ago we had a friend over to our house for supper. As you'd expect, our conversation was varied and interesting. We discussed chili recipes, favorite books, places we'd visited in the U.S. And, then, without even a pause, we turned to other local matters - like how she'd seen the youngest shoe shine boy in the park (ten years old) getting arrested for sleeping in the park instead of going to "the dorms," which the government provides for these homeless kids. Despite his pleas to be left alone, and explanation that he can't go to the dorms or he'll get raped by the bigger boys, he was still taken to jail. Or, there was the 16 year old prostitute who delivered her baby on a park bench and then abandoned it at the hospital so she could go back to getting high on glue and making money selling her body. After all, she had to eat.

These things really happened.  Recently. A few blocks from my house. In the same park where wealthy tourists and the rich locals celebrate with too much booze and giant suppers every Friday night.

But, they're not isolated incidents, either. We see these types of things all the time.

The view of the mountains here is truly breathtaking, but so is the smell from the street dogs, trash, diesel smoke, and people urinating in the streets. 

Amidst the dazzling array and amount of food for sale in the market (everything from fresh shrimp and fish, to exotic fruits and veggies), there are also people who are literally starving.

We've never yet gone to grab a bite to eat at a fast-food place without having our meal interrupted by a street kid trying to sell us gum or candy for 1Q in order to get enough money to buy some tortillas to fill their bellies. The irony of seeing food go to waste right in front of hungry kids is painful. (We always buy the candy, by the way.)

One of the hardest juxtapositions is when we see fancy cars or big, expensive trucks narrowly miss the homeless (often drunk) people who pass out/sleep on the sidewalks and end up with an arm or leg in the street. Unfortunately, the swerve often comes too late, and there are frequent fatalities and serious injuries around town from such situations.

One extreme we were pleasantly surprised to find was just how nice almost everyone here has been. Yes, we've had some unpleasant experiences with people harassing us a bit, and one or two vendors in the market who refused to wait on us. But, mostly what we experience is a level of warmth, openness, and love that we were unaccustomed to in the states. People here greet everyone with a kiss on the cheek. (This takes some getting used to. Trust me!) They genuinely are excited to talk with you, and ALWAYS take the time to really connect with those around them. We have felt so very, very welcomed here!

On the other hand, there are the deep spiritual challenges. The superstitions, the mix of religious practices, and the fervent and  faithful processions - many times carried out by people who believe that is the way to salvation, and unaware that Jesus is the ONLY name by which man may be saved (Acts 4:12), and then by grace and not by works (Eph. 2:8).

The latter is even harder to be surrounded by than hungry kids or desperately poor adults. And, it is what we primarily came here for. Physical poverty and starvation are nothing compared to spiritual poverty and starvation, after all. Though, with the help of God and all of our faithful supporters, we are endeavoring to be an answer for as many of these problems in as many people's lives as we can.

When it comes down to it, Guatemala really is a nation of extremes. Some of them are discouraging. Some are astonishing. Some are downright heart breaking. But, there's nothing so extreme as the unending, unparalleled, limitless love of God, and His ability to change lives and eternities through Christ. That's the extreme I'm going to embrace to the fullest, because I know it's the only one that really matters. It's the only one that lasts. 

No Place Like It

When  I came to Guatemala two years ago for the first time I remember remarking to someone on the trip that I had never been any place like it. His response was I felt that way because I wasn't having to go to work. (I think he was making a joke.)

On Sunday, when I climbed up the stairs to check on the laundry and looked out over the city, I was filled with the same thought - there's no place like this. God has put this place on my heart. I don't know for how long.  I cannot see myself anywhere else right now. Yes, Iowa is my home, and I shed a tear when we crossed the border and I realized I would not be returning for awhile.  The rows of corn. The beautiful sunsets. The hot summers and the cold winters.  The way the evenings cool off just enough in the summer to enjoy going for  a walk.

I have been blessed with the chance to go many places and see many things.  The dryness and vastness of the Arizona desert.  The scope of the Grand Canyon.  The beauty of St. Louis (one of my favorite cities).  The laid-back atmosphere of Jamaica.   The energy of New York. (Oh, I hope to get to go there again!)  The beauty of the Appalachian Mountains in the Carolinas.  The BBQ of Kansas City.  The awe-inspiring cliffs of the Ozarks in Missouri.  The friendly people of Alabama.  And, of course, the ocean, and all the oceans and coasts I have gotten to be on! Some of my best prayer times have been on a beach or standing in the waves.  So many wonderful places.

But, there really is no place like Xela, Guatemala.  God has planted me here.  I love the mountains. The volcano. The wonderful people who still believe that relationships are the most important things.  There may be challenges, but there is nowhere I'd rather be.

How to Get Sick (and Recover) in Guatemala

WARNING: This blog post contains medical information, including humorous descriptions of symptoms from a real medical disorder. Reader discretion is advised. The post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent illness. Although, if it does - awesome! 

So, we all had a new experience this last week - amoebic dysentery. (Ok, it wasn't quite to the point of technically being dysentery, but it was close.) And, while it doesn't rate high on my list of things I'd recommend that you experience when you visit Guatemala, I think it will at least be one of the more memorable 'firsts' that we've encountered. So, in case you'd like to repeat the experience (or, maybe in case you DON'T want to repeat it), I've decided to include a step-by-step set of instructions. Without further ado, I present:

Amoebas 101

1.) Eat something. Or, drink something. Or, don't, and just touch stuff that someone else has touched. Really, there are no guarantees on this step of the process. Ameobas are very, very, very common here - both in the food and water, and on people's hands. The life cycle of amoebas makes them very easy to transmit from person-to-person. Even with the best of preventative measures (cooking things thoroughly, being careful what you drink, washing hands often) you might still end up with amoebas. Think of it as a little surprise gift from Xela to you! (How thoughtful, right?)

2.) Start feeling symptoms. Or, think you're starting to feel symptoms, but you're not sure. Or, don't, and just harbor these little suckers in your gut with you apparent side effects. Any of these are possibilities. In our case, it's likely a mix of all three. We've all struggled with <ahem> loose stools since our arrival. It's likely that we picked up amoebas sometime in the past month or two, had only a few symptoms, and managed to pass the first life cycle fairly easily. (When I speak of life cycles, by the way, let's just say it's possible to diagnose how long the amoebas have been in your gut by the presence or absence of their various manifestations. The word 'cysts' might have been thrown around in the lab report.)

Once the amoebas do start to cause symptoms, they are not pleasant ones. Severe diarrhea (up to 10 times per day), stomach cramping and aching, gas, high fever, and terrible headaches are all common... and that's just if the amoebas don't penetrate the lining the of your intestines, get into your bloodstream, and colonize in your liver. (Or BRAIN! Ewwwwwwwwww....)

3.)  Go to the doctor to get a diagnosis. This is an especially challenging thing if you don't know where to go, or what to say, since you don't speak the language. ("Un examen de heces, por favor," by the way - in case you're wondering.) This is where I am, once again, grateful to be in the embrace of a wonderful group of people who are very kind and take very good care of us. I was driven to the private hospital here in town, where I had the distinct privilege of paying 30Q (approx. $4) to give a stool sample in a urine specimen cup! I'll let the realities of that challenge remain unwritten and up to your imagination. Later the same day two other people from our family got to repeat the process. (I'm thinking this is a skill we should all include on our resumes.)

4.) Pray. (This really helped with the duration and severity of our cases!) Get medication. Again - this can be a challenge if you don't know what to say or where to go. Because lab results get emailed to you (in Spanish, of course), and there are no actual paper prescriptions, you'll once again either have to rely on the kindness of those around you, or dumb luck. (I would highly recommend the former!) Medication, though over-the-counter, is still not cheap. You should expect to pay between $50 and $75 per person for a full course of treatment. Thankfully, this is not a case where the cure is worse than the disease. The pills themselves aren't terrible, and only have to be taken three times per day for ten days. I've been told that (like most medications) it is of the utmost importance to complete a full treatment. It's bad enough to think about amoebas living in your intestines. I can't imagine having mutated amoebas to boot!

5.) Like the instructions given on shampoo bottles - lather, rinse, repeat. (Although, if you think about it, that means that we'd all be stuck in the shower forever if we followed those instructions.) Anyway - after fully recovering, you're back to step number one all over again. And, though you'll continue to do your best to wash foods carefully, watch out for what you eat and drink, and wash your hands frequently, there will still be no guarantees that you won't pick up a new batch of free-loading little amoebas who will, once again, try to colonize your intestinal tract and anything else they get access to.

The good news is that the second time around at least you'll be familiar with the process, know how to say all the necessary words in Spanish, and already be skilled at giving a sample.  ;)