What question is your life an answer to?

The Women's Club

Will and I started back up again with our spanish lessons. According to our teacher we didn't lose much after 3 weeks back in the U.S. es un milagro (it's a miracle). I had Josefina (Pedro's wife), Samuel (new baby), Piedad (her sister and our new House Mother) and Michelle (her daughter) over for some "women time"! It was great. Oh, Piedad wanted to learn how to use my sewing machine and the rest showed up. So I gave her a lesson on winding and threading the machine and then helped her to sew her new 'falda' (Mayan skirt), which is just a wrap around skirt with a belt. They were in awe (no kidding). I gave them some needles to help them with beading and I gave Piedad a simple thimble which was a new and strange thing for them. Everything I own is new and strange for them and it's a kick in the pants for me to explain it all. The ladies will be making things for me to bring back to sell to some of you. They are excited about that and so am I. I'm grateful to share my life with them!

Time for Fiesta!

Beautiful day on Sunday. The sun was out, the lake sparkled, there were big billowy clouds...heaven sent. Marina celebrated her 13th birthday. She is Pedro's daughter, our guardian of the property. The family joined as well as 7 of her friends from school. The ages ranged from 9 to 15 yrs. old. Very different in our culture where normally the kids are the same age and siblings may be excluded. We had a blast! I wish I could have video taped the kids racing to dress in gringo clothes as one of their games. We all laughed so hard! I'm certain it was the first americanized birthday party for them all. We did have the traditional pinata. This thing was big, it took alot of candy. But when it busted (I made the final death blow) the kids descended like locusts on a green field. I love the family-oriented culture here. They enjoy being with one another. And there isn't this mentality of separation. I remember Pedro working to level the ground where we are finishing up a work shop. He had a large piece of wood and his kids were riding on the wood while he raked it across the ground. They work and play together and sometimes have fun doing it. We feel a part of their family now and this was brought home to us when Saturday night they made lots of tamales and brought it over for dinner to celebrate Marina's birthday. They told us that they were bringing tamales, which they had done in the past but we did not know that we would be included in their own family celebration. We are learning. We have a lot to learn. But we are trying to go slowly and thoughtfully. The party helped me to develop an idea of having a kid's club here at Opal House. I spent a good deal of time teaching Sunday School and VBS back home and I enjoyed it so much. And here, well my mind is jumping with ideas. I've never had so much space and possibilities with a ranch. I would have help with Marina and Michelle here and also their aunt Piedad (Mercy in English). As Will would say "the possibilities are endless". I felt so much joy yesterday with the children here, laughing and playing games that I thought wouldn't it be neat to have this once a week here? And who knows where it might take us?.......

Summer Break :)

Back in the states and it's truly summertime! Sweltering heat, yesterday triple digits. I was ready to return to Guatemala and the wet season. And I know I'm talking like someone from Seattle. We finished our 2 months of immersing in Spanish. It was tough at times, and my test scores proved it. I have to believe that people in midlife have the capacity to become fluent if they just stick with it. And we are committed to becoming fluent. We really enjoyed our teacher Diego. He corrected us from the get-go and we are grateful for that. The last thing we want to do is to continue mis-pronouncing words and not getting the annunciation correct. We will continue our lessons and hopefully learn as many of the tenses as we can.
Glen came down with his huge truck of donations....we love you Glen :) and proceeded to get things going for a big workshop to store equipment and machinery. Pedro and his boys enjoyed unloading the truck and seeing what Glen brought down. We had an opportunity to use the ATV with the kids and boy did they have fun! I enjoyed the sense of freedom myself. It is a powerful ATV and will be useful on the property. We enjoyed Glen's cooking and hope that many of you can experience it also when you come down. We are going to collect Opal House recipes and create a cookbook in the future.
Other friends that joined us were Wayland and Courtney from Bothell, WA....just around the block from our house. They were such a help to us, helping us finish up all the painting in the homes and picking up trash that people would throw onto the property from a lookout point near the house. They were very hard workers and we enjoyed the conversations around the table at the end of the day.
After Glen, Wayland and Courtney left, we had our friends Wes and Sue down for about 9 days. We so enjoyed their fellowship. Sue is a spiritual director and Wes teaches at Seattle University. We spent alot of time in conversation around the Word and what it means to be in solidarity with the poor. Hard questions were asked and even now I mull over them and allow them to challenge Will and I. We are like babes in the woods with all of this. We are learning so much about how we think as North Americans. How we want to be in control, to dominate, and what kind of "power" the poor have. They have watched the land go from the hands of a rich Guatemalan to the rich Gringos. Not much difference there. And so we find ourselves in this dilemma, for example, of knowing that they need wood to cook their food and heat up their little shacks when it's cold. But if they take cut the wood, we are looking at landslides. We need to reforest large chunks of the property and we know it will be at the expense of the Mayan farmers who are renting our property for their corn. We are preparing to leave certain portions of the land alone to create pea patch farms for the women and children around the community who don't have husbands (or wish they didn't have husbands.....)in order that they may have food for their households. San Lucas Toliman, a mission that is about 20 minutes from our home will be helping us to screen women who may come to live at Opal House. We thank God for their help. They will also be sending up men to help us figure out what to do about reforestation and how to cultivate the coffee. Who knows if sometime in the future we have our own brand to offer folks back home? We truly want to be 'fair trade' and Father Greg from San Lucas can tell you what is fair trade after speaking to the local Mayan coffee farmers. You may be surprised to find our that some of those rich coffee producers aren't as fair as you think.......

"Fall in Summer...."

It's different having the seasons reversed here. We wait so long for spring and summer to approach in Seattle and then find ourselves here during the rainy season. Not quite like Seattle rain, though. Monsoon is a better description. The other day, I expected to find Noah's ark resting next to the house. And we find ourselves being aware of the sides of the mountains as we drive back from the local towns. This land is familiar with landslides. We heard recently a towns closeby is experiencing a sink hole/landslide. That would block one of the ways we get to Panajachel, but what they are looking at is a river being created that will rush down the mountain and into other towns. I read this Scripture about a week ago and thought "how true"...
"When you walked at the head of your people, O God, and lived with them on their journey, the earth shook at Your Presence, and the skies poured forth their rain, alleluia. Psalm 67:8-9,20."
Will and I experienced them both, earthquake and heavy rains all in one day. The tremors have felt somewhat mild, but one 'caught my attention' at the dinner table. It rattled the windows and doors and we could see things move. But I remember the words: When you walked at the head of Your People, O God.....Alleluia.

We are settling in with our spanish class....how many ways can you slaughter a language, let me count the ways. We are now fluent in Spanglish. I find myself moving in and out of both languages in my thoughts, but sometimes my brain says "Enough". And that is that. But I love it when I can actually put together a figure of speech or put certain words together to make our teacher laugh. Then, it's all worth it. I read this morning" that our actions have a tongue of their own; they have an eloquence of their own, even when the tongue is silent. For deeds prove the lover more than words". This brings me peace when I am anxious that I will only be able to have a somewhat fluent conversation with a 4 year old the rest of my days. But
I won't give up. And ofcourse, my actions can definitely overcome my babbling.

And so we preservere :) We are developing friendships with those around us poco a poco. We find our biggest challenge at the moment besides learning spanish is dealing with issues that have to do with renting the land to locals. We felt led to give a free year to those leasing the land for growing corn. But we find people cutting wood, clearing land that they have not been given permission to clear, and doing what has probably been the norm for a longer period of time than since we've been here. So I remind myself, the Lord reminds me and others remind me that it's not about the trees or the land but about the people. How will we respond to misunderstanding or simply others taking advantage of us? Isn't that the place where transformation takes place?And that is one of the reasons that we are here. To be changed. And God willing, for the better. The land and trees will remain long after we're gone from this earth and I don't want my life to be about stuff, but my relationship with God through others. May it be so.......

Transition....

Wow-God is Great and continues to shepherd all of us on this journey. We have stepped out of the boat and continue to look straight ahead for God's provision. Diane and I thank you for your fellowship and love. First, the driving journey. Three long days of driving the 2700 miles to the South Texas border in the completely overloaded Subaru Forrester went well and felt like a Lenten journey to me :-) I picked up Glen at the local airport and then the next morning we were angelically spirited through the Mexican border without even an inspection, all in less than 45 minutes-this is in comparison to the grueling 6 hours that Jose and I had last spring. We had three long days of uneventful driving in Mexico(Will only had to pay off Two Mexican police officers on the way) and we arrived at the Guatemalan border and then the spiritual warfare began. The border agency man we hired turned out to be a crack cocaine addict and he promptly abandoned us once he got his hands on our $100 crossing fee. I had to illegally cross the river back into Mexico to physically recover all of my papers including Passport, car title and import paperwork. I had to find the flophouse room where this addict had left my documentation with a landlady and grab it from her. Glen remained to protect the car and valuables from robbery. I then re-entered Guatemala and found the border closed with a border strike and computer failure..WeI pushed through by obtaining a toursit visa, then paying only $40 for the import tax on all of the contents of the car(bikes, motorcycle, chainsaws, etc) and it was clear that We were the ONLY non guatemalan car to enter the country through the border that day. We still managed to make it to Opal House by nightfall and fell on our faces. We picked up Diane the next morning in the Capital on time. Joel Van Dyke kindly walked us through the process of obtaining our permanent resident visas, a process that actually took him three years to figure out, we did in only two steps with him. We also visited Tita in the La Limonada slum and reunited with Merci, our first temporary orphan and met her new baby Blancita. Tita has openend a new school in the other gang neighborhood and we will be helping her out for sure as one of our key partners. Now Diane, Glen and I undertook many projects at Opal House. Without any blueprints or septic plans, we had to unearth whatever septic systems existed for both houses before greatly expanding the guest usage capacity of water/waste and encountering an odiferous backup problem. Happily, after two days of digging, two high quality French designed two stage systems were discovered in excellent condition. We then had all of the 30 year old concrete failing pipes torn out and replaced with new PVC so were good for the next 50 years! We are now ready for many people and the children's home had a new wood door installed with a bible inscribed on it-it's a work of art!. Glen and I retrieved our professional survey used for titling purposes and began some key farm project planning. Glen has some great ideas for development and animal husbandry. Even though it was the peak of the dry season, our fresh water spring was full to the top and two new springs had appeared since last year and we now know extra water exists for irrigation of the farm and future projects. We also got the water tested and all appears good-God is multiplying the harvest on the land!! After Glen departed, Diane and I had two very fruitful meetings. First the local mission in San Lucas was warmly receptive to our volunteer and partnering medical efforts-(After they heard Diane's passionate story, they all just about cried)-they have a hospital, operating room and little or no surgical equipment and they have been praying for a permanent local partner to offer expanded services to the 25,000 local population, like orthopedics/podiatry. They need diabetic extremity services, casting, surgery, etc and we will slowly integrate our services through this 40 year old mission, built on the loving and courageous back of Father Gregorio. We also may plan to develop visiting surgical mission trips there with Healing the Children. Father is a hero the all of the locals and was the one who has promised to educate our children who come to live at Opal house. He is also the only non Guatemalan to ever receive the country's highest honor(the order of the Quitzale) and is the only priest to ever receive it also. Glen was also moved with Father Greg's obvious passion and zeal for the people, when he met him before he departed. Finally, Diane and I had extensive time and talks with experts on the newly created government system of children's home and adoption services(we also spent one night at a new home for babies)-a true nightmare of guinea pig oversight. The rules are constantly changing, no one knows the future, the costs were staggering just to take care of abandoned children and not one home is fully licensed in the country as of this time-you might imagine that Diane and I took a big step back and breathed deeply for prayer and discernment about locking ourselves into a paperwork prison with the government. Even the nearest courtroom was 90 minutes away for constant judge visits. We clearly have heard from God that we will partner with Joel's and Tita's inner city ministries, local rural ministries with our neighbors and even our sponsored child Leivi. None of these can occur if we lock into the government system because no unlicensed person is allowed exposure to children in a government run new orphanage...So for now, it looks we will start out as a dynamic, flexible adaptive home for mothers and children, homeless persons, vacation bible schools, people in crisis-whatever "Opal" God brings us..... Diane and I also spent much time with Samuel Antonio, the newest baby addition to Opal House and he is healthy and thriving, although keeping the whole family up at night. We had so much fun playing soccer on the new soccer net we set up at the children's home and they are truly family to us. I will teach the oldest boy Leonso to drive when we return in May. Pedro loved the walkie talkie I brought for communciation on the farm-He's a real Jefe(boss) now as Guardian-pistol and walkie talkie!

"His ways are not our ways...."

We're back from our 8th trip to Guatemala! This trip is one that will not soon be forgotten! We had our friend Chris and Don back to finish up some tiling projects. They are hard workers and I will find Opal House a little empty without them in the future. They have been an inspiration to me as they don't allow their little knowledge of Spanish to keep them from meeting new friends each time they return. I can be a little shy when it comes to getting to know people and so I need a little nudge to get out their and meet the local community. But Don and Chris have made a 'path' for Will and I and we intend to nuture those new relationships that have been made because of them. Thanks guys :) We love you.....Well, this trip was truly an example of watching God take circumstances that would have otherwise been incredibly bad and turn them out for our good. The guys spent the week shopping and installing the tile for the different casitas; getting them ready for our first family. I was busy one day sweeping the main house for the umpteenth time (dust bunnies procreate at an alarming rate up there...), when suddenly I heard Will shouting for the guys to come and help him because Pedro had been in an accident. Pedro is our caretaker. He and his family live on the property. To make a long story short, Pedro was taking the Honda Passport to the local mechanic. Will was following in our van. Pedro was supposed to make a right turn onto the main road. Instead, he gunned the engine, made the turn too wide and ended up going over a ravine on the other side of the road!!! The Honda turned multiple times and all the while Will is watching this in horror! He saw the Honda in its last few flips before it came to rest about 300 feet below him. He saw no movement and so he ran back to the house to get help....praying all the way. We all took off and followed behind him (I said a loud prayer myself, not knowing exactly what was going on!) Will started attempting to scale down the ravine and was about halfway down when he saw Pedro climbing past him! Will thought it was an apparation! But it was Pedro, and miraculously he was not killed or seriously injured! We couldn't believe it. If you had seen the car yourself, you would wonder how could he have made it out without serious injuries. He ended up with a separated shoulder and some bruised ribs. Will ended up taking him to a hospital in Solola while Chris and I took their kids out to dinner. Needless to say, the whole family was pretty shaken up. But as I mentioned earlier, God took what could have been a tragedy and turned it out for our good. The local community came out to see the commotion and they were saying "Glory to God", because they could see that it was a miracle he came out as he did. They also asked if we needed anything. The children of this local neighborhood had carried the whole back spare tire up the ravine, along with other parts of the car that had broken off, to present them to us and to keep thieves from stealing them. One of the children had the rearview mirror which had hung a rosary. This was presented to Don. It's now displayed in our living room at Opal House as a reminder of God's protection! It was a strange way to be introduced into our new community and neighborhood, but we are so grateful that it happened!