The Poor Among Us

Our house, for the last two weeks, has been full of phone calls, emails, and endless brainstorming about how we can get corn here to this valley for the least amount of money and as quickly as possible. We have been told that we need to move quickly because the corn that is available is being bought rapidly by speculators and companies in Mexico. These are things that the Ficker men (Craig included) are particulary good at.

We have thought and prayed long and hard about how to involve the community - especially the local church - in this project. We have asked for help from our good friends Oralia and Sebastian in San Andres. They are the directors of the orphanage there and have a feeding program as well which is being stretched to the breaking point. We will host pastors of the local churches to a lunch on Friday to enlist their help as well. Our thoughts right now are to ask for donations of rice, beans, oatmeal, atol and oil from the churches as well as their help in locating families who are at risk. It is a different way of thinking for most here who are used to receiving and not so much in giving. Pray with us that their hearts will be open to helping...that they will understand that giving is so much more blessed than receiving!

My prayer for many years has been to have a deeper understanding of the man Christ Jesus - this man who died for me; this man who is fully God - in whom I put all of my trust. I have come to realize something profound...that He was (and is - because He never changes) Jewish. And if I want to understand Him, I need to understand Him in His Jewishness. Now, I know very little about the Jewish faith and I do not desire to live under endless laws about how to wash my pots and pans but I do want to know what it is that moved Him; how did He think? So I have begun to study...and what I am finding has opened my eyes to so many things that I have never understood. For example, one of my favorite scriptures is John 12:1-3 where Mary, in deepest worship anoints Jesus' feet with costly perfume. I have meditated long on that and wished that I could have been Mary. But as I read the next few verses, I find Jesus saying, "you will always have the poor among you..." It has always confused me and because I now find myself living among the very poor, I want to understand why He said that. Couldn't He in all of His power, fix that? And then I read in Deuteronomy as Moses gives final instructions to the Israelites as they prepare to enter the Promised Land about the tithes that they are to give. My understanding of the tithe has always been 10% of our income to the church but now I see that it is so much more. God instructed the Jewish farmers to leave grain at the edge of their fields so that the poor could harvest it every season. They would leave 1/50th of their crop, as well as "leket"or the leaving of dropped stalks for the poor. In addition, Moses commanded that 10% of the crop every third and sixth year of the seven year cycle was to be given to the poor. Now that is a lot of rules and regulations, but the heart of the law behind all of that is that the poor are provided for; that although they are poor, they are not to be hungry; that it is our responsibility to provide for the poor. And in this agricultural culture, that is what we hope to express to the church - the body of believers here. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow give these farmers a vision of how God designed provision for the poor? And even greater, that as we here begin to live by His rules, we would reap the benefit of His blessing - "All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out." Deuteronomy 28:2-6. Would you pray that we will be able to express our hearts to these pastors as they gather here Friday? Would you pray that above all else, that the Name of the Lord will be honored in this project?

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed...

I usually don't write anyone or pretty much talk with anyone on Sunday evenings. I'm usually too exhausted to think...much less talk. But tonight is different. I...we, are so burdened by what we are seeing in our community that I have to share it. Friday we went out to a remote village to do a mobile clinic. We have been there several times and it is a very isolated community of indigenous people with the normal needs of most communities in this area. This time however, we were stuck by the overwhelming need. Although we only saw about 60 people, almost all of the children were very sick or very malnourished or both. When we asked if there was enough food, most said no, some said that their harvest this year would be small.




Saturday, we had a pretty normal clinic day, adding only one new child to our already full feeding program. But later that evening, Cali, our friend from the Peace Corps who works in the city office came with news of the "red alert" in our area - signifying the urgent need for food. We spent much of the evening trying to figure out ways to help.




And today, I was overwhelmed with requests for food. Almost everyone we talked to said they were out of corn, some asked for corn, others asked for money, and almost all seemed resigned and without hope. These are people who live always on the edge of desperation...even in the best of times. One woman came asking for prayer for her husband who was threatening suicide. She is 8 months pregnant and told me that her husband said that if the baby was a girl, he would feed her poison as well...but if it is a boy, he will let him live. And so we prayed for Felipe, we prayed that God would open his eyes to see his value as a husband, as a father, as a child of God; that he would see the importance of his life, that he would understand and know his God and Father who longs to love him.

But somehow in the middle of circumstances that leave me overwhelmed and grieved beyond words, I know that God is still God, that He holds the universe in His hand. I know that He sees and is grieved even more than I am.


"You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed...Psalm 10:17,18

"Feed my sheep."

It is hot and dry...so much like April here at the height of the dry season. With September usually come the torrential rains. Not so this year. The corn is dried and much of it died before ears were formed. This will be a difficult year.

Here in this culture, corn is the main staple. Those who are prosperous have dried corn stacked neatly against the adobe wall in their bedroom. It is taken out as needed, ground into meal and made into tortillas. A healthy man can eat 10-12 tortillas with each meal. A woman recently told me that her family of seven will eat 10 pounds of corn in 3 days. A hundred pound bag of corn costs about $20 - often more than a week's wages IF a man is working. When we are trying to assess the level of need in the clinic, asking if they are buying their corn is a defining question. Growing corn is a loosing proposition. Because it is so important to their diet, corn is planted year after year in the same field with seed from the last year's poor harvest. Corn will not grow without fertilizer now and that costs nearly $30/bag. So each year people actually loose money by growing corn...not as much as they loose however if they have to buy it.

In the last month, the price of a bag of corn has risen Q60 ($7.50). We have added 7-8 children to our nutrition program each week for the last 2 months. Last week we added three infants less than 3 months of age. All of their moms had very little milk because they were not eating. When mom is not eating, neither are the other children in the house. So in addition to formula for the babies, we are giving large bags of beans, rice, oatmeal, and sugar to entire families. I am concerned - this is only the beginning of a year that may prove very difficult for many families. Today, President Colom declared Guatemala in a state of emergency due to the large number of chronically malnourished. Sadly, we have the highest rate of malnutrition in Central America and fourth highest in the world. And rural areas like ours are the hardest hit.

Duane and the boys are looking into getting a container of corn shipped down from Illinois. We are not sure how it will work with government regulations and such, but we are doing some investigation. We rest in the fact that God is our provision, that He is faithful and that He is a just God. We trust that He will open doors and that He will give us creative ideas to provide all that we need to serve these people whom we have grown to love so much.

Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things: you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

I have not posted for a while. We have had lots happening...most of it good, some of it sad. Two weeks ago we hosted a group of young people from Washington for a week. They were a great group. We went out to several different schools and we taught about creation and how important each one is in the plan of our Creator. We still have the freedom here to talk about God without intimidation. The teachers were all grateful for the encouragement that the team brought and each one said that they would continue to reinforce what we taught the children. My favorite school was in a village called Pajopop. It was a very long hard walk down to the school after a 45 minute drive. The teachers work with nothing...no books, very few pencils, no crayons. Most of the teaching is done by oral repetition with very little room for creativity. And because all of the children enter 1st grade not knowing any Spanish, there is a huge language barrier which stands in the way of much learning - outside of learning Spanish - which is important. As we began our long walk up the hill from the school, Duane called me...a little frantically...saying that the social worker, child psychologist, and the pediatrician working on Abi's adoption would be arriving within the hour. We raced up the hill and arrived before they did. The visit went well and was another step closer to finalization of Abi's adoption.



Typically on the last day of a team's visit here we take them to do a little shopping in either Panajachel or Antigua. As we finished our day in Pana, we received a call from the retirement center where my aunt and uncle have lived for the last several years. They have been like grandparents to our family and their health has been deteriorating for the last year. My Aunt Verna had been admitted into the ICU. We made arrangements for me to leave the next day with the team. Unfortunately Aunt Verna died Sunday morning but we have the confidence that she is with Jesus. She died quietly, without suffering and I am grateful to have had the last days of her life at her bedside. I also got to spend some time with Ryan, Katie and Jacob, as well as my two sisters - a tremendous blessing and joy for me.



While I was gone, Katie and Craig kept the clinics going and even made a trip out to San Pedro with Heidi and Chris - another doctor who came to help. They were overwhelmed with patients and the heat but were able to make it back by evening as Heidi and Chris had early morning flights out of Guatemala. It was a tremendous amount of work for them to do and I am so grateful that they were willing to do it!



I returned from the US Tuesday afternoon, completely exhausted. Fortunately, Wednesday continues to be our day of rest...so that is exactly what we did. In the afternoon we flew out to a village called Mixcoloja to visit with a woman whom we have helped in the clinics for several years. She is 8 months pregnant, has 6 other children and a husband who is unfaithful and regularly beats her. He recently lost their home and they have been living under a piece of plastic in the middle of nowhere, eating some days, and some days they have no food. We wanted to see her situation first hand and find out in what way we could help her. In the end we decided that we will pay the debt owed on her house and put the title in her hands and not those of her husband. We left her with food, prayer and the promise to work toward a solution to her situation. She sobbed great sobs as we prayed for her, and her children surrounded her in an effort to console her. She broke our hearts. Pray for her when you can...her name is Candalaria. She is a Christian but has been put in "discipline" (she is not allowed to go to church) by her pastor until she apologizes to the woman her husband is living with. Apparently Candalaria hit her...go figure.



And today, our friend Victor (who runs the drug and alcohol rehab center about 2 hours from here) invited us to a service at his center. We had a great time of worship, testimonies from the men, and prayer followed by a lunch which Victor had very thoughtfully prepared for us "gringos." He is doing an amazing job of loving and caring for men who are rejected by everyone else. Many days he collects them up out of the street in drunken stupors, brings them back to the home, detoxifies them and shares Jesus with them. What better way to learn of His love.

"I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!"Matthew 25:40

A week has passed since I wrote about little Domingo from Chiminisijuan. He is the 3 year old, severely malnourished child whose mom and two siblings accepted the Lord last week. He was there waiting yesterday for clinic with his mom. He at least cried when we weighed him and his mom says that he is beginning to eat (he was eating a bag of chips as they waited). When I asked how her husband was, she told me that he had come - so she called him in. He was sober and said that he had stopped drinking and given his life to Jesus this week. We rejoiced with them and then prayed for them - that God would give him the strength to resist when the temptation comes to drink again. Mom was beaming. God is so good!!





Monday afternoon we had a gentleman come into the clinic who was having difficulty breathing. We put an oximeter on to see what his oxygen level was and found that it was 60 (normal is 90 - 100 - 60 is an indication that he would not live long - hours maybe). We gave him some oxygen and talked with them only to find out that a doctor in Quiche told them a year ago that he had a spot on his lung and sent him home to die. He did not want to go to the hospital so we talked with him about Jesus. He was a Christian although his family all walked out the door when I began to talk with him about the Lord. He finally looked at me and said, "I am going to die, aren't I?" I said yes, that I thought he probably would not live very long but we talked about heaven and we prayed together. He cried and said he would miss his children so much. We sent him home with a small oxygen tank to use until his family could all get there. This afternoon, his family came to return the oxygen tank and to thank us for our prayers. It seems that he began to perk up when he got home and is no longer having any difficulty breathing. They understood that it could only have been the power of God that has given this gentleman life instead of death. I don't know how long he will live - he is elderly - but until he leaves this earth, I believe he will be testifying about the power and love of our God!





And a funny story... We live next door to a very sweet elderly couple. I recently went over to visit with Dona Reyna. Her cat began rubbing up against my legs so I asked her if he caught rats for her as I know firsthand that they have a large population living with them. We treated their son for an infected rat bite several years ago. She replied that he was a horrible mouser and that he would only eat them when she caught them and fried them in a little oil! It is at times like this that I realize our cultural differences are very great!



Our friend Adrienne is here for the month. She comes in and immediately steps in to help and keeps us in line. She is great and we are grateful that she continues to come each year. This will be a busy month here with lots of visitors and a team of young people from Washington. We are thankful for each one who comes to help and serve alongside of us!

waiting...

I have not written for a few weeks - there are never enough hours in the day. It seems that we have more work and less help these days. Honestly, I have been a little discouraged and have been asking the Lord if we are doing what He desires or if we have missed Him somehow. I don't know why...He is always so faithful to provide all that we need. Rachel was cleaning out a drawer earlier in the week and found the first letter that I wrote before we had even left the US, 11 years ago. In it we were explaining all that the Lord had put on our hearts to do here in Guatemala, and I wrote, "There are also groups of completely unreached indians over the mountain range north of the orphanage. Our dream is to be able to take the Gospel to this area, 'to prepare the way in the wilderness, the way of the Lord; to make straight and smooth in the desert the highway of our God.' (Isaiah 40:3) As we all re-read it, it was clear that this is the right direction. So we wait on Him - trusting that He will bring the right people alongside of us to help - in His time. My friend Bonnie Wallace used to say, that waiting on the Lord was just that - like a waiter in a restaurant - serving.

Yesterday in Chiminisijuan in our line of children receiving milk from the nutrition program (we weigh each baby every 2 weeks) was a little boy whom I had never seen. His mom handed me her newborn first who was fat and healthy and then she laid her 19 month-old on the scale. He was severely malnourished with edematous hands and feet and the skin hanging off of the rest of him. He just laid on the scale without a fight - lethargic from a lack of food. Upon questioning, his mom told me that he would eat beans when they had them but mostly they just gave him coffee. Giving coffee to very young children is cultural - it is weak, warm and full of sugar - I often see it in baby bottles. She had the saddest eyes as she told me that she has 7 children and a husband who is drunk all the time. They are buying their corn which is an indication that they don't have enough to eat - all of their money goes to buy corn to make tortillas - which is their most important food. Armando began to talk with her about the Lord, asking her if she went to church. She said that she had in the past but her always drunk husband was an embarrassment to her. Armando included her two older children in the conversation and when he asked them if they wanted to accept the Lord again, the little boy said, "Do it mom, do it!" So all of them together repeated the prayer of salvation. The little boy, Pedro, said that he could read, so we gave them a Bible which he proudly tucked under his arm, with instructions to start in the book of John and read to his family each day.

I have struggled to find a way to make the God that I know...a God who is so faithful and kind to me - relevant to people who never have a moment of joy, who watch their children go to bed hungry, who are beaten down by their desperate struggle to stay alive. How do I talk to them about a God who loves them and cares for them when their circumstances shout otherwise? These are questions that I have asked the Lord since our arrival here and while to this day, my understanding is very small, I am beginning to understand that He is our judge. Not a judge who is ready to condemn (although we may eventually see that side of him), but a judge who is our advocate; a judge who sees and will bring justice where there is injustice. So we talk to people about this characteristic of our God; about how He is watching and waiting to bring justice to those who put their trust in Him. We talk with them about the judgment that awaits those who hurt his children, and we talk with them about the hell that awaits those who mistreat his chosen ones. We talk with them about the need to pray for those who hurt them, knowing that this will bring freedom from the bitterness that grows out of unforgiveness. And we encourage them that even though their outward circumstances may not - and probably won't immediately change, that they become part of a community who will stand with them in prayer - that they are no longer alone. So would you pray for this family? Would you pray that Fermanina's husband would be freed from the bondage of alcoholism and that his eyes would be opened to the salvation that Jesus brings? Would you pray that he would begin to be the father and husband that this family needs? And would you pray that little Domingo would live and not die?

"Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady to knees that give way

say to those with fearful hearts,

"Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come,

he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution

he will come to save you." Isaiah 35:3-4

Juana

There are times when I think that we are seeing changes, that we are making progress, that we are able to shed a little light in the darkness. And then there are others times when I am knocked off balance by the depth of ignorance and darkness that still exists here. Yesterday was one of those days. Remember the young woman in Unilla (in the Zona Reina) that I wrote about 2 weeks ago? Juana, 5 months pregnant, had been sick for many weeks. Her husband had tried to care for her by taking her to the witchdoctors, following their instruction carefully until he finally had her walk, in her very weakened state, in the middle of the night, to their home village, where we are told she died. In her last hours, we are told, they tried to call us to take her to medical help but it was too late. I am grieved because she did not have to die, she had options...not that I have delusions about "our abilities". But a hand, an offer of help was extended and they refused it. And I am grieved because she died without knowing the hope of eternal life...without knowing the eternal God.


So we grieve for her, for her husband - who tried to care for her - in his way, and for her 3 young children who will grow up without their mother's love. And then we go on, continuing to pray that God will open up eyes, that His light will shine in this darkness. When Duane spoke with Rudolfo (the community leader of Unilla) yesterday, he invited us back to his village. So we will return at the end of this month. Would you pray with us for this family and for this village?