Silver Lining

Presbyterian Synodical Meeting

Santos the obtero addressing the church

Normally when it is time to go on furlough I leave with some excitement. Excitement to see "home" and family and friends. Excitement to be able to get some rest and relaxation away from the stresses of work and the context in which we live here in Guatemala. However, this time around I do not feel that as I leave Guatemala with a heavy heart. I spent the last three days in Cubulco supposedly to witness part of the organization of the church in Cubulco. Instead, I found the church divided because of problem within a family. Instead of that problem staying within the family it was spread throughout the church. I believe the pastor dealt with it correctly although it was a "lose lose" situation with no positive outcome. The family does not agree with the decision and therefore are opposing him and talking bad about him and because the people in Cubulco (shame based society) are about saving face, they will not stand up for what is right, but will support whoever they talk to. This makes dealing with problems and sin extremely difficult. Then if you add the gossip factor in, which is rampant in a small town, it makes it all the more difficult. So instead of witnessing some thing constructive, I witnessed something destructive. Instead of spending time enjoying watching what God is doing, I watched the destruction of what God is doing because of human sinfulness. I spent the next few days dealing with this issue and others surrounding it and although I was able to provide Biblical counsel and encouragement, I did not go away with a sense of confidence that things will be resolved soon. I feel that the problem will continue on and that the gossip surrounding it will continue to go around as well. Of course what goes around is not the complete truth, but the version of the person who is wrong. It is hard to deal with things when the truth is being covered up and people are not being honest. It is hard when people who are not directly involved with the issues at hand prefer to believe half truths/lies rather than the full truth. I am constantly amazed how members of the church prefer to believe the gossip in town over the truth. What also amazes me is how cultural norms take precedent over what the Bible teaches. Time and time again, I will be in situation where people ask me what to do and even though I show them from Scripture what the right course of action is, they almost always do what the culture, family, community says. I understand that it is difficult for make that break, but as long as this happens the church will continue to remain weak. There are many things within a culture that are good and that we can learn from, but there are others that are not and need to be changed. Too often culture and tradition trumps the Word of God. The Bible should supersede a culture and bring about changes and not the other way around. However, we often face the opposite and that makes the work very challenging. Please pray for the pastor and I as we face this challenge and pray for complete transformation of the people in the church that they will surrender to the Word of God.

Pastor Xicara Teaching

Instead of meeting in the church we met in the coolness of the shade outside

Even though I had some difficult days, God always provides encouragement and hope.... as silver lining if you will. This time the encouragement and hope came from the church in Pichal. Recently the church expressed its desire to function as a proper church with a functioning consistory. In the past we formed consistories in most of the churches, but in most cases they failed to work as the members did not see the importance of having them. The consistories would meet when necessary, which in most cases was when they were planning a special service and deciding on what the eat afterwards. Very little emphasis was placed on the spiritual well being of the church. It was not for a lack of support or lack of teaching from the missionaries. For years we have been struggling to organize the churches and looking for practical ways to help the people see the importance. An idea occurred to me to see if our obreros could attend meetings held by the Presbyterian Church. I spoke with Pastor Xicara about this and he gave me the contact information. I sent a letter to the secretary who gave his approval and informed me that the obreros could attend for the same price as Presbyterian pastors. While only one of the obreros attended (unfortunately the others had other commitments), the result was positive as this obrero (Santos) returned home to his church (Pichal) and told them what he had experienced. His enthusiasm was contagious and the result was a meeting together with Pastor Xicara and myself last Saturday in which teaching on the offices was done and candidates were named. Over the next few months more teaching will be done on the offices, elections will be held, and office bearers will be installed. This is exciting and encouraging. The church in Patuy is in the process as well, but many of the others are not. I ask that you pray for the organization process in the churches of Pichal and Patuy. Also pray for the other churches in Cubulco, Xeul, Pajales, and Chirramos. All of these churches have various degrees of problems that hinder their growth and development. Pray for God's Spirit to move powerfully in the lives of all the members and the leadership.

Spiritual Scorecard

Overlooking Lake Atitlan

In 2011 Woord en Daad Holland, who is the main donor of AMG Guatemala, introduced us to a tool called a scorecard. This tool measured the quality of education and the participation of parents in the project. Initially, we were not all that excited about the tool, because we thought it was just another thing that needed to be done. However, once we started implementing the tool we soon realized that it was very useful. The way the tool works is that you meet with teachers, parents, students, and leaders of the church and go through the different themes that are presented. After a time of discussion the people involved have to give a score from 1-4: 1 being weak and 4 being strong. My job is to facilitate the discussion by asking questions and making sure that the score that is given is in accordance with what is stipulated. Afterwards each project has to come up with an action plan in the things they will do to ensure that the score will be higher the next time around.

This year, 2013 we are once again doing the scorecards in all of the AMG schools and education centers. In 2015 we will do it again. Although the scorecards were good, we felt that it was missing a component which is the spiritual. For us, the spiritual is the most important. It is the reason why we exist as an organization. We firmly believe that there is no true transformation or development apart from Christ.  We can educate, feed, clothe, and provide medical/dental care to kids, but if we have not shared with them the Gospel of Christ we fall short. Therefore, in 2012 with the help of others in AMG, I developed a spiritual scorecard. Although the spiritual is hard to measure and more subjective, we felt that there were enough things that we could measure. In the spiritual scorecard we are measuring how often the Bible is taught and whether it is taught in a chronological way. We look at the Bible knowledge of the students and staff, and whether the staff shares their faith and testimony with the students on a regular basis. We look at church attendance and testimony, the visiting of families and praying for students. We also look at the involvement of the church in the project and the lives of students and their families. 

Although I was not 100% satisfied with the scorecard and was not sure as to the best way to implement it, we decided to start using it and make changes as necessary. We have had to make a number of changes, but all in all it has been useful and well received. It has created discussion which in my opinion has been good. The purpose of the scorecard is not simply about giving a score and measuring where each project is at spiritually, but also about getting people to think and create discussion. 

In the near future I hope to develop a few more scorecards to measure other areas of AMG Guatemala like their camp program and their child protection department. I also hope to rework the spiritual scorecard and make the necessary changes and expand it to include more things. It is my hope that through the scorecards we can better our programs and most importantly help the students,  staff and church in their spiritual development.

Wedding in Patuy

Three weeks ago I was invited to attend the wedding of Felipe's oldest son Fredy. Felipe is one of our church leaders in the rural village of Patuy. We left early Sunday morning and walked 2 hours to Chirramos where we held a service. Pastor Ken Herfst was also invited to attend and he did the service in Chirramos. After the service and lunch at Chema's house we walked 1.5 hours to Patuy. The service did not start until late because it started to rain and the bride, groom, and family had not yet come down from the house. Once they arrived the service started. Pastor Ken Herfst preached and Pastor Xicara officiated the wedding ceremony. The wedding lasted around 2.5 hours after which we all ate tamales and drank hot, but weak mountain coffee. After everyone returned to their homes, we bedded down in the church. The night was short and sleep was hard to come by. At 3:00 am we left Patuy to walk 3.5 hours to the truck. We had been told that the road was going to be closed at 7:00 and would remain closed for 3 months in order to pave a certain section that is prone to washouts. We did not want to risk coming late and having the truck stuck there for 3 months and having to hike all the way home. After getting cleaned up in Cubulco we drove to Guatemala City since we had other commitments to attend to. We had a good trip and it was nice to be a part of this special event in Patuy and Chirramos.

Visit to AMG Head Office

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly to Chattanooga, Tennessee to visit the AMG head office. Four missionaries from Guatemala were invited to attend 3 days of strategy meetings. We arrived around midnight, several hours late because our flight from Atlanta had been delayed. After a short night of rest we spent the following days sharing about what we are involved with and looking toward the future. It was great to be there and be part of the discussion. I found it also wise on their part to involve missionaries and other national workers in coming up with strategies instead of making decisions without the input of their partners and missionaries on the field. It was also special for me to be treated like one of them, even though I am not an AMG missionary.I was given a tour of the office which is quite large and also got to see their publishing house and bookstore.

It was a true privilege to be able to visit AMG. It is definitely an organization that wants to please God and seeks His guidance as they move ahead. It is filled with people passionate about God and His work that He is doing through them around the world.

Lia and the Kids are in Canada!

I am sitting in a room at the house of AMG's rural coordinator (Estuardo) in a rural village called Patzun which is 1 hour west of Guatemala City. Yesterday Lia and the kids left for Canada in order to make it in time for the graduation of Lia's nephew Brad. I will be joining them in several weeks. 

Lia's trip did not start out very well. After checking in, she proceeded to go through the immigration check point where they told her that the paperwork for Jesse and Tristan was not in order. They took her to a separate room and detained her for some 45 minutes trying to figure out what to do with her. The incomplete paperwork was not our fault but the fault of the immigration office who botched it. They were supposed to have put a stamp in the passports, but they claimed that it was not necessary even though I specifically asked about it. Anyhow, after several phone calls and tense moments they thankfully let her go. One of the women in charge of immigration at the airport had worked at the immigration office and she knew that things were a disaster there and therefore let her go. This year alone the immigration department has hired and fired the staff twice already. Thankfully the rest of the trip for Lia and the kids was uneventful. They arrived earlier than expected in Seattle and arrived in Chilliwack at around 1:30 in the morning.

This is the second year in a row where our departure for Canada ended up being stressful. Last year we needed an exit visa for the two kids as their residency had not yet been approved. They told us that the process of getting the stamp would take five days. Since you can not apply too early we decided to do it two weeks prior to our departure date. The 5 days turned into 10 days. Then when we went to pick up the passports they told us that we needed another document (which they had not asked for before) and told us that they would have the passports ready the following Friday. Our departure was on Wednesday. It took a while to convince them that it was their mistake and that we needed the passport by no later than Tuesday. They agreed, but it was nerve racking waiting for them to give us our passports back which they did just before closing at 5:00 pm. 

These are some of the challenges we face in Guatemala which are time consuming and cause unnecessary stress. We have been working on getting Jesse and Tristan's residency for close to 2 years and when we finally thought it was done, apparently there are still some things missing. We hope to take care of that after we return from our trip to Canada. The problem you have in countries like Guatemala is that most government positions are political. So it is common practice that when a new government (party) takes office (which usually happens every four years) that they fire almost everyone who is paid by the government and hire new people who are supporters of the current party. This makes things very difficult as you are constantly dealing with new staff many of whom do not know what they are talking about. You can ask the same question to 5 different staff members and receive 5 different answers. This is extremely frustrating and time consuming, but sadly it is part of life here and there is nothing you can do about it....... but smile, take a deep breath and say "this too will pass".