I was reading about gravitational waves the other day. They have to do with the 4th dimension of time and are supposedly variable. I think you could twist that around to be an excuse for time getting away from you, so that's why I couldn't blog this past week. Gravitational waves were moving pretty heavy around here.
Thanks to everyone who prayed for our trip to Unilla. It went really well. Just yesterday we went to San Pedro, where we have been going for over a year and a half now. The differences in the villages are huge. Both need Jesus, but San Pedro is just an easier place to go to because we know and trust the leaders. Benjamin and Sylvia (who you can see in the picture) have been workng with us there since Duane first flew there two years ago. They just made a trip to have their baby in Quiche, and also helped us with the cleft palate surgeries while they were there. Sylvia made a comment to Katie this trip about drinking. We were talking about some of the men's relationships with their wives, and Sylvia turned to Katie and was like, "Of course drinking and and wife-beating go together. Where the men don't drink, they don't beat their wives."
Along that same line, Daryl (a friend who is down from the US with his wife Stacey) and I went to visit Victor's rehab center in Quiche. Since starting seven months ago he has had 210 men go through his program. He told us today that if it weren't for Duane, Leslie, and our other friend Roy he would not be able to keep the program running. Today several of the men were gone for work (thanks to Roy), so Daryl and I spent some one on one time with a couple of the men. The last man we talked with was Antonio. He was 44, and had been kicked out of the house by his family. Unlike many of the other men at Victor's, Antonio has land, a family, and many job skills. What he doesn't have is a content heart. Sitting down with him, he shared with us with tears in his eyes his story. Several years ago he had an affair, and the other woman tried to kill his wife by jamming a stake through her head. His wife survived, Antonio returned to take care of her, but not without many problems in the house. He turned to drinking. Now he says when he's on his way to work or in the street and a buddy invites him for a drink, he can't turn it down. "Other guys can just take a drink and then go on to work," Anotonio told us, "but I have to have another, and then another." As I was translating this to Daryl, he told me to tell Antonio to quit thinking about himself. Nearly everything Antonio had told us up to that point had to do with him thinking of himself and his happiness. All it caused was more problems. He felt like he was backed against a wall, rejected by his family, and just wanted to run, but didn't know where to. After I shared what Daryl had said, and that he needed to give control to Jesus and start living with a servant's attitude, Antonio just broke. He asked us to pray with him to recieve the spirit of Jesus into his heart as we kneeled on the ground and he prayed through his tears. Daryl told him that he may feel backed against a wall, but that God was standing just across the room with a pillow inviting him to rest.
Antonio will have to choose to obey the spirit of Jesus inside of him, but I believe he is a new man. He wants to give up drinking and reconcile with his family.
Although Antonio's story is a little more dramatic that most of ours, I think we have all been in his position, often trying to gratify our own desires, only to our own demise. God is waiting with a pillow, inviting us to rest from chasing what we think we want, so he can give us the life we were made for.
This week we've been doing a little extra with the team that came in last Tuesday from Washington. They are mostly young people and have come to us with positive attitudes and hearts ready to share the love of God.
(Look see!)
(Daryl and I have been sticking together a lot this week, picking up tortillas every morning in town and making house visits)
