Zona Reyna for Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to celebrate by going up into the rainforest/jungle of Zona Reyna to do clinic. This was our third time in this area. There is no electricity, no running water, and no churches in the area. The people do okay, more or less, by growing and selling Cardamom (a spice produced here in Guatemala) but the standard of living is still pretty low and these people are absolutely starved for the gospel.

As many of you know, this is the area we've been trying to reach for a while now. The enemy is clearly opposed to this. This is where Duane and the boys broke the nose gear on the Aztec airplane a year ago - and that plane is still out of commission. Every time we go to this area, we lose a vehicle (this time being no exception - read on). And we have had many, many small battles with the enemy here, logistical and otherwise. Things just always seem to be more difficult than they need to be.

In the past, we've brought a few friends along to help evangelize to the people. This time we kicked it up a notch by inviting the Stuckenburg family to come along. They are a missionary family who lives near Lake Atitlan (who took in Baby Sarah earlier this year, if you'll remember). They specialize in evangelism and outreach and have worked in probably around 50 different countries. Tom (the dad) brought 8 kids with him between 13-23 years old to help evangelize and work with the local children. They put on plays, taught songs and games, handed out coloring pages and crayons (which the adults seemed to enjoy as much as the kids), taught Bible stories, and showed the Jesus film overdubbed in the local language of K'ekchi.

Once again, the enemy was at work. We had been told to expect 1,000 patients, so we planned accordingly. We had 150, some of whom were "manufactured" patients. Clearly, someone is trying to discourage us. But no such luck. We had a great time and left even more convinced that this area needs to be reached.

Of course, since we were in Guatemala, every day was an adventure. We mentioned the Stuckenburgs, but additional members of this cast of characters included our friends Arlen and Deb from St. Louis, Dr. Jeff Lambert from the Woodlands, Craig Phoenix (also from St. Louis), Tomas and Juanito (two of the Fickers' workers), the Bell family, and the Ficker Family. All in all, 26 of us went, counting 4-month-old Isaac and 2-year-old Grace.

We all met at the Fickers' house in Canilla for Thanksgiving Dinner, complete with Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Even outside the US, we can still eat like Americans! The logistical plan for the trip involved sending the big F-350 (loaded with equipment - and 8 passengers) and the Tacoma (with 9 passengers) up into the jungle at 4am on Thursday. (It's about a 5 1/2 hour drive.) We were going to receive a weather report from a local in Saquixpec at 7am and decide whether the rest of the crew could fly in or would have to drive. We prayed for good weather and got it. The doctors and the babies got to fly, as well as a few others - Duane made two trips (great because the docs were preparing to see a ton of patients and the babies really don't appreciate being locked in a car for 5-6 hours and it's only a 15 minute flight.)

However, nothing really happens quite that easily. When we tried to add just a touch more air to the front strut on the plane, something went wrong and we lost ALL the air in that strut, making the plane unflyable. Over an hour, a phone call to the US, a trip to the local gas station, and lots of prayers later, we got some air in the strut and we able to fly 8 people into the jungle. Then one more truck had to go with the remainder of the equipment.

Friday, it rained all morning, making a set of flights out look a little unlikely. But with some additional prayer, the skies opened up in the afternoon. Duane was able to ferry 8 more people out by air. Then the fun started.

Less than an hour into the return trip, the front bearing in the Tacoma failed. We had been nursing it for a little while and thought it would make the trip, but we were wrong. The front hub locked up and that was that. So we found a small church in the village we had just come through and asked the pastor if we could leave the truck in front of his church for a few days. We gave him a few Quetzales and a bunch of bananas. David, Aaron, Juanito, Joe, and Matt worked on tearing the front assembly out of the truck while Tom, Katie, and Deb supervised the consolidation of three trucks worth of people and stuff into two trucks. About six people ended up riding in the back of Aaron's old truck (the vehicle that came up after the plane left on Thursday) and a bunch of gear got left locked up in the Tacoma.

Later in the trip, the Ford punctured a tire. It had already lost one on the way up and the spare had been patched, sort of. Luckily, Craig had brought down a tire plugging kit and we plugged the tire in the middle of the street in another small town - while a police officer was trying to make us get out of the way of some chicken buses that were supposedly going to come through. David works fast, though, and we were ready to roll by the time they got there.

The crew that had left Saquixpec before 3pm finally arrived back in Canilla about 10:30pm. The group that had flown in earlier in the afternoon had been able to get dinner and some warm, dry beds ready for them with the help of the recently donated generator (of course, there was no power in Canilla Friday afternoon).

This morning was clinic in Canilla. Again, the power went out and we had to use the generator to finish clinic. Duane had a charter flight to Guatemala City, so he took that opportunity to pick up the bearings for the Tacoma. The boys will have to go back up into the jungle this week to fix the truck and drive it home. Fun, fun.

Since Leslie will have plenty of help at clinic in San Andres tomorrow (she'll have Katie, Arlen, and Deb), we're taking the opportunity to go to church in Chichi. Monday is our clinic in Chicabracan.

And here are some pics from the weekend. I'll post a few more tomorrow, maybe.