Paths Don't Have Signs

Here is an account of my last several days in Guatemala. We are at Malacatan tonight and will be holding a medical/dental clinic in two villages in the region. I will try and update you more about this week but right now I can can't keep the sweat from my eyes enough to type.

I love you and appreciate your prayers and concerns. To God be the glory!

Lewis

April 12-14, Paths don’t have signs

The tickle in my throat the past few days has now become a concern to me. I can feel a tightness in my chest and in general don’t feel too great. I tried to write it off as just being tired from the long road trip.

Ely, Edson and I spent most of the afternoon going down roads and paths that jarred every bone in your body, but thus is our mission field. The weather is hot and humid and you are thankful for a breeze of any kind. Makes you wish you were here I know.

After unloading the supplies at Piedra Partida, we drove to La Montania to make sure we were all on the same page concerning the clinics. The road there was very rough and we knew now that our van couldn’t travel it next week. We would have to make other plans to transport the team.

I have never seen so much dirt and dust. It is the dry season and is very dry this time of year. April is to Guatemala like our July in the states.

After leaving there we spent about an hour or so trying to find a piece of property in an area that I have not been before and cannot remember it’s name. A new church has started there and the believers have out grown the home where they are meeting. Someone has loaned them a piece of property and they will build a make shift wood and old tin building to meet in. We were delivering wood and tin that used to house the church at Catarina.

Did you know that paths don’t have names or signs? Was it the sixth or seventh path on the right.......I think we took them all before reaching the dedicated spot.

Church members were waiting there for us to help unload the supplies. They seem excited to have a building even if it was to be of old tin and wood on borrowed property.

Land in the area to build a church building will cost $4000 and the building another $10K, just in case you are interested.

Speaking of Catarina! I wish I could show you the pictures of it now! It is finished except for the floor, stucco, windows and doors. For those of you who worked on it you will not believe how well it turned out.

Well, it’s late in the day and we have missed lunch somehow......must be the heat.

I went straight to bed, with a slight fever after supper and didn’t wake for 12 hours. I stayed in bed most of the day on Monday, I know we men are wimps when it comes to being sick. My energy is sapped and there is an infection in my chest so I broke into my emergency Z Pack, antibiotics, I always carry. I really hate being sick especially 2400 miles away from home. I felt like I was in an old Bogart movie, it was hot and the small fan sitting on the window seal is blowing gently. Oh well, maybe I was hallucinating.
Tuesday morning, I felt better, we loaded the truck and headed for Guatemala City. I tried to sleep in the back seat of the truck but the Pan American Highway can bounce you around like a ball with too much air. It is very rough and there are always sudden unexpected stops due to the way they drive down here. There simply are no rules.
By evening we were at Ely’s home,and I can tell the prayers and antibiotics are working. Thanks so much once again.

Wednesday morning, It’s a new day! Getting my feet back under me now and the congestion in my chest is breaking up. I have been trying to get an internet connection all morning but the culprit is Ely’s internet server. It seems his service works only about half of the time. No competition leads to bad service here in GUA. If and when it comes on I will email and update the web http://whenwillwecry.blogspot.com with some pictures.

Thursday, Ely, Eduardo and I ran out to buy some tarpaulins and rope. Afterwards, we swung by the bus place where we are renting a bus to transport the team. We felt this is better and safer than renting another van.
I am always amazed how it takes all day to do a few errands here in the city. Four million people, not enough roads, and city buses blowing black smoke daring you to get in their way, but this is a way of life in Guatemala City.

Friday, I actually may survive to live another week or so. Feeling much better, I walked down to the pint size gym at the bottom of the hill. I have been there a couple of times in the past and it’s always good to see these Guatemalan muscle heads again. The place has some improvements and they had purchased two more 45 pound plates, now there are six!. Some of you just won’t understand.

Who can complain anyway. It cost a whole 10Q, a buck thirty for me to work out there. The old make shift equipment did the job and an hour later I hoofed it back home. Still kind of strange having to go through locked gates and armed security just to get back into the subdivision but such is life in Guatemala City.

I got back just in time to go and buy sandwich supplies for the team. So back out in the traffic madness we go. Have you ever seen four lanes become eight or ten? You gotta come to Guatemala! It happens all the time here.
Three stops and 4 hours later we had enough sandwich supplies to last only two days for the team. Wheat bread just hasn’t caught on down here yet. Feeding 40 people three meals a day is going to test us a bit but God is in control so everything will be fine.....I hope. (Big gulp.)

Tomorrow, we pack the suppiles, load the trailer, meet up with the nine interperters and head to the airport. Oh yeah, we need to buy some rope. This could turn into a crisis. The bus we rented is suppose to meet us at the airport at high noon. The team arrives at 11:30, hopefully, and maybe we can be on the road by 12:30. I will fill you in tomorrow.

Thanks again for your prayers,

Lewis