Guatemala Experience, Part 1
by Gary L. Cox
We have returned from our trip to Guatemala feeling overwhelmed and privileged to have gone. Evangelistic outreach has always been the church's first mission. Sally's and my ministry has largely centered on biblical foundations for family here in America. However, just this year, God has taken us to foreign soils and allowed us to see His work on a larger scale around the world and to have an unexpected share in ministering family issues in those faraway lands. In Guatemala, God allowed me to preach to a small group of pastors, Christian workers and their wives in a two-day conference on parenting issues. I also was asked to preach at two Sunday services, touching upon family issues. Frankly, I am amazed at the simple and timeless truths of scripture that touch every family on the earth. I was honored to have the privilege of speaking to these faithful servants of God in Guatemala; however, I was deeply impressed by their simple faithfulness to the ministry and their burden to reach the lost in the most poverty stricken and remote regions of Guatemala. I believe that our family is reaching a new level of understanding about church, family and home schooling in terms of practical discipleship training designed to raise up a godly offspring ready to serve the Lord for his kingdom purposes.
We are grateful to God beyond words for letting us go down together as a family, and we are grateful for all the prayers and support given to us by so many friends and family. Having the family work together was a blessing beyond imagination. I am amazed how the children and family unit quickly broaden the impact of any spoken message. I was so blessed upon seeing each of our children step up and serve with a heart of love and kindness; selfless in focus and joyful in heart. One of our children once shared with me how in childhood he would pray each night and thank God for his pillow, and would then pray for all of the children of the world who did not have a pillow or even a bed. Well, we got to meet some of these very children and their parents in their homes and on the village streets. The only toys we saw among the children were small tops, soccer balls and an occasional basketball.
When I have read missionary stories or listened to missionaries share their experiences, the term "culture shock" is used to describe the stress associated with entering into a different culture. I guess seeing the poverty would best describe the culture shock I experienced. Probably every American would characterize the standard of living in most of Guatemala as extreme poverty; I don't think many in the villages has a pillow, and most children have no bed. However, their simple way of life has survived for generations, and maybe, what is perceived by us as poverty is ordinary and adequate to those who live it generation after generation. While visiting South Korea last January, I saw a museum of the old style villages of Asia, in Guatemala, I saw these same kinds of villages filled with people and "thriving" so to speak. I was told that the Guatemalan government has declared that there is no poverty in its borders. This means that charitable shipments of bulk vitamins and the like have been banned, you must purchase them from the store if you want them. What is poverty?
Back home, a man told me of his experiences from the 1940's, working in the Central American region. He described poverty in terms of annual income, which was around $175.00 U.S. currency back then. Huts were made of mud and stone, small wooden poles with palm roofs, all built by machetes, shovels and hand trowels. Today, some 65 years later, we saw the very same standard of living that he described, only that the income in some villages is lower at $150.00 USD. The gospels tell of the anointing of Jesus with expensive spices. In response to complaints of the "waste", Jesus said, "the poor you will always have with you". Looking at the poor in Guatemala I realized a little of what Jesus meant, poverty is systemic to man's lost condition.
Poverty must be corrected at its source, which is hopelessness. Praise God! Hope is the one need of man that the Gospel deals with in a sweeping, conclusive manner. A hopeless man has no motivation to improve himself and he just subsists on what comes with his limited efforts. I think what stood out to me the most was the difference between the believers in a village and their counterparts. The hope that believers have in Christ gives them a different outlook. In the first village we visited, the only house with painted walls and a bright appearance was the house of believers. Yet their cheerful quarters were not as impressive to me as was their readiness to use their limited means to reach the lost around them.
Every family in a village owns some property, even if it is only the lot their house is built on. Thus, land is the villager's greatest mark of wealth and their source of pride. Even the poorest of the poor idolize their land to the extreme. I have often wondered what Jesus meant by "poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3), because just being poor doesn't make you a Christian. I think I saw the answer among the Guatemalan village Christians. Their genuine hope in Christ enabled them to have a heart of love for their fellow villagers. In order to reach these poor, they live among them and sharing in the impoverished conditions as a means of access to reach the needy for Christ.
In one village that we held a clinic, I met a man named Marion who, as a new believer, was deeding over a small strategic parcel of his land in order to build a church for gospel outreach in his village. A new pastor is coming in December to take up the work. Perhaps surrendering one's own resources for the sake of the Gospel is the best definition of "poor in spirit". I was amazed at the brightness of his face compared to the other men from that same area. How joyful his eyes were as he imagined the honor to have his land used for the work of the church. We visited his property and he marked off the proposed boundaries with delight and anticipation. I was told that one's land is his most precious possession and men will kill or main any creature that dares violate their land. What a contrast to see this dear brother freely giving away his wealth and stature for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was moved!
It appeared to me that each village generally had a common standard of living among its dwellings. If one dwelling had dirt floors, all dwellings had dirt floors. If one had concrete, all had concrete. There are no building permits, engineering standards or covenants that restrict or impose any type of standards; however, it seemed that each community had adopted common practices. Soccer is perhaps the most significant cultural glue of all of Latin America. It was somewhat strange to see that every community had a soccer field, no matter how poor the people were. In some communities, the only public facility was the soccer field, while other communities had a saloon (a United Nations Medical station that is used once a month or so), or sometimes a Catholic Church, and less often some villages even had a school. Towns are larger, with at least one Tienda (store), or more, depending upon population. However, even the big city gave clear evidence that functionality was the only standard for appearance in the public thoroughfares.
We were hosted by Songs of Joy Orphanage which coordinated our clinics through Pastor Miguel and his local congregation in Colorado. Whenever we came into a village, we set up our medical clinics in the most prominent community center available. This varied with each clinic. On Monday, we set up under the pavilion of the Catholic Church, right off the soccer area, which was the village center of the Colorado area. On Tuesday, at the village of Jicamapa, we were treated to a school complex, of which the well water and septic system had been installed by Pastor Miguel's church, and the Songs of Joy Orphanage. Jicamapa was pastor Miguel's grandfather's hometown and God seemed to give us favor with many decisions for Christ according to our perception.
Wednesday, we went way up into the mountains to a small village and used a brand-new church building (a pavilion) that Pastor Miguel's church had built. (I helped finish wiring the switches for the lights.) This church is the only community center for the village (I did not even see a soccer field). The roads to this village had been improved, and the U.N. has recently completed bringing electricity and running water into this area. However, the community water supply amounts to one spigot with a drinking fountain, just off the main road, (it reminded me of a water fountain for tourists in the Rocky Mts.). Water is fetched in jugs that are carried on top of the women and girl's heads, the most common form of transport used for small items.
I was especially excited to be at this church because its pastor, Tonito (pronounced Tono) had attended my seminar. (The high point of the seminar was his request to thank Sally and I with a "payment of prayer". The group first gave hearty testimonies of their appreciation, and then prayed for Sally and I with the utmost zeal and love we've ever heard. ) To get to the S.O.J Orphanage where the seminar was held, he walked 3-1/2 hours to catch a taxi and rode for another 1-1/2 hours. Pastor Tonito lives in the village with his wife and 5 children. He has an infectious smile and is filled with joy. He had been blind, but through surgery, God restored his sight. His first words to his wife were, "you are so beautiful!" It was a real blessing to work where there was an active church with outreach teams that will be there after we are gone. Our work in each village was making new contacts through the medical clinics and sometimes getting new professions of faith from some of the personal work at the prayer station or house to house visitation. Every person will be followed up by the local church in the weeks ahead.
By the way, the village taxis are small open pick-up trucks with a single cattle rail installed around so people can hold on standing up, while the driver races recklessly over the mountain curves in a hurry to beat the next cabby for a fare. Open taxis are the primary means of public transportation for the remote areas. Rain or shine, the open back of a pick-up is the only ride most villagers ever get. Personal trucks don't even have the rail and passengers usually have to sit on baggage and hang on for dear life, but that doesn't stop anyone from getting a ride.
Thursday, we set up clinic in a village called Minerall. Its community center was the soccer field. The U.N. blue medical saloon was there, but too small and not available to us. With the sun blazing overhead, our group simply put up a giant silver canvas into a pavilion-like roof. I was amazed at the ingenuity displayed. Every man and older boy walks around with their machetes at their side. This is the primary tool and weapon of Guatemala. With plenty of trees available, poles were cut quickly with machetes and the corners of the tent were stabilized as securely as if it were a Barnum and Bailey's circus tent. Minerall is the place where they hope to build a new church on Marion's donated property. When we went to see the property, Stephen (12) went with me. A road crew was filling a washed out gully with big stones. Stephen jumped out of the truck and started filling in stones with the crew -- which they loved. It was a real joy to see our children joining in with whatever the work was at hand. They were a real blessing and their sweet countenances gave others lots of love and joy. I couldn't but swell with joy, seeing my children walking in truth as simple servants of God.
One of the universal features of peoples houses and property is the compound effect. By this I mean that each family sets their property apart with some sort of a wall or barrier designed to keep trespassers out. This was true of the stateliest mansions and the poorest shambles. Essentially, a family creates a compound by this barrier wall or fence. Inside, the compound was randomly divided into smaller sub-units or houses depending on size etc. Some compounds would house multiple generations is separate homes, while others simply had multiple families sharing the same 2-room dwelling. Pigs, dogs, chickens, goats and cows wandered unchecked throughout the compound, and in villages where the barrier was only barb-wire fencing and cactus, everybody's animals wandered everywhere. Sewers, drains and runoff simply mixed openly in the yards, walkways and roadways. With all the rain, the smell seemed minimal, but your feet were in constant jeopardy.
Malnutrition was the standard for all animals except maybe the cows. Most animals look like science lab skeletons with a furry blanket pulled over the rib cage. Brahma cows were introduced from India and they appeared to be ideal for the situation. They appear skinny from a distance, but up close you can tell that their coat is shiny and full and their offspring seem to be healthy, nursing on full udders. I have often thought that the highway grass in America would be ideal to use for cattle grazing. The only pasture in Guatemala is the untended grasses and weeds that grow along the roadside and property barriers. To access these places, the cattle roam freely.
Driving is a hazard because you never know when the next turn might hold a dozen cows meandering down the highway. Over half the time, no human attendant can be seen. Maybe highway grazing is not as wise as I thought !-) Speaking of hazards in driving, I was astonished at the level of danger attendant to the Guatemalan road system. There were no speed limits that I ever saw posted. For that matter, there were nearly no road signs of any kind. The biggest danger was that drivers passed on a solid yellow line at all times. With so many kinds of transportation and varied speeds of each vehicle, you simply drove around anyone going slower than you wanted to. It was scary enough seeing our commercial bus driver attempt to pass while barreling down upon a tractor trailer coming our way; however, seeing them do the same on a hair-pin curve in the mountain without any visibility whatsoever caused me to close my eyes and pray for God's mercy.
Probably some of the biggest miracles were God's provision for safety on the highway for our team. For example, on Monday, we were ministering with the church in Colorado. Our plan was to have an evening crusade and I was to preach. Late in the afternoon, one of the men from the church came and told pastor Miguel, "God told me that these people have 45 minutes to leave or they won't make get out". Within 30 minutes we were packed, loaded and driving away. We had to ford a small river that ran across the street all the time. Ten minutes after we crossed, a giant flash flood came crashing through that street and we would have never crossed till morning. It was amazing the giant boulders that wash downstream and the force of the fast-moving water. It was the rainy season and everyday we saw a major storm; however, since the roads and drainage systems are so poor, every storm presents a real danger to travel. On Tuesday, we were finishing early, and noticed big clouds building up. We packed up and left before the storm. Driving back through the area the next day, we saw tons and tons of mud and rock slides that covered the roadway. We were protected this way on Wednesday as well. Because of the terrain, everyone had to ride in the back of pick-ups the whole way there and back. Coming back, and just before we reached the orphanage, we were belted with a big storm (which everyone loved getting soaked by). The next day we saw several trees and a couple of 6-ton boulders sitting in the roadway where we passed just before the rain started. That was a little unnerving, but God was daily merciful to keep us out of harms way.
In closing, I have a brief comment to make about the poverty of Guatemala and some present dangers to our own children here in America. I am convinced that the best definition of poverty is a lack of hope, not a lack of resource. This makes poverty a spiritual problem more than a financial problem. Simply put, discontentment is Satan's greatest tool to provoke people to despair and hopelessness. Discontentment is the failure to find satisfaction in the things that a man does have, it causes him to look at what he does not have and despair for ever having it, or scheme to take it by means that are wrong. Discontentment reduces the value and meaning one's life to the sum of the things he possesses. Such a value always finds fault by the discovery of what he does not yet have. Contentment, however, removes ones eyes from his possessions and fixes them rather upon the relationships one has and the service which one might render to his fellow man. Service is the best antidote to selfishness. We actually need very little to meet our needs and find contentment. Paul said, "therefore, having food and clothing, be content". (1 Timothy 6:8)
Childhood is the best place to develop contentment and servanthood. A child needs very little and thrives upon the relationships he has and joys at the participation he can share in the service to others. I saw this in living color in our own children; as they served others, they were full of contentment. The poor Guatemalan children also taught me a great lesson. Poverty to them is a consistent discipline against their own desires. As a class of children, I might venture to say that the village children were the most well-behaved children I have encountered. They waited patiently at their mother's side for hours, yet blossomed forth immediately upon any occasion given them to be taught or engaged in any activity. The quiet contentment I saw upon their faces seemed to say to me, "I am happy because I am at my mother's side". Belonging is more satisfying than possessing. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
(1 John 3:1)
This ends part one of our Guatemala report. I will describe the evangelistic outreaches we had in the villages next time, in part two.