When Women Fight and God Laughs

(This is a long blog, but please stick it out. It gets pretty entertaining, if I do say so myself)

I would like to take a moment to share my day yesterday with you. But in order to do so I need to give you some background information.

As you know, Yosselin had her surgery on Tuesday and it was a tremendous success. We saw almost immediate results in her alertness and the size of her head reduced considerably once the pressure was relieved. So that afternoon we went into standby mode. We were committed to drive Yosselin and her parents home because we did not want her on a long, crowded chicken bus ride so soon after surgery. But we did not know when the doctor would release them. So we waited and made contingency plans.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening, I received a call from my daughter, Brittney, in San Pablo La Laguna (Yosselin’s town). She told me that Juana and Michael (a single mother and a child with special needs with whom we have been working) had been thrown out of their home by Juana’s mother and had no place to go. So we immediately went into prayer mode for what we could do to help. Meanwhile, arrangements were made for her to stay with a pastor from the town for a night or two.

Then, on Wednesday evening, I received another call from Brittney. She had found out that Billy (a young man with cognitive delays and seizures with whom we have been working) was also homeless. His family had kicked him out. What was shocking was that he had apparently been homeless for the last five months.

Each month we visit families and deliver medicine, food, diapers, formula, diapers or money for therapy. And each visit we take a photo of the sponsored child. But around five months ago we were told that Billy was living with another part of his family but they would take the medicine to him. I don’t like that arrangement, but I knew he needed his meds and I had no other means of getting them to him, so I agreed. We now know that they had kicked him out and that most of the medicines we were bringing did not make it to him. I confess that I was angry when I found this out.

Brittney and Michel (our ministry partner that works with us in San Pablo) found Billy. It turns out that he had been staying most nights with his Aunt and her family, but they did not have room in their house for him. (Their home is an 8’x8’ house made of corn stalks and sheet metal.) So he had been sleeping outside on the ground next to their pila (a sink for washing laundry and dishes).  He would use a cardboard box and some old clothes and rags as a mattress, but when it rained water would flow through his bed. So he would drain the holding compartment of the pila and curl up in it to sleep, a very tight fit. His aunt’s family would give him whatever food they could spare each day. This broke my heart.

We immediately began to pray and think about ways we could help. It is dry season now, so rain is seldom an issue. Michele told me that he thought the most important things he needed was a bed, food and clothing (he had only the clothes on his back). I had posted the situation on Facebook and several people committed to send money to help. So we began to plan and pray.

I had no sooner hung up from that call when the phone rang again. It was Gerardo telling me that the doctor was releasing Yosselin the next morning between 8 and 9 am. Gerardo was scheduled to go to Guastatoya with Dale, so we decided that Manuel and I would pick them up the next morning and take them back to San Pablo.

And that brings us to yesterday. I got up early to drive to the hospital in Guatemala City. As I was getting ready I received a text message from Manuel saying that he was sick and needed to get some medicine for the stomach pain he was experiencing. He made arrangements to meet me in Chimaltenango on my way back through after picking up the family. However, I received another message while driving telling me that he was being held in the hospital. (He was released last night and is doing much better.) So, I called home and we made arrangements for Taryn to meet me and ride along and bring some supplies we needed.

I arrived at the hospital and found Yosselin and her family excited and ready to go home. We just had to wait for the doctor to provide discharge order. So we waited…and waited…and waited and… (You get the idea.) Finally we left the hospital at around 12:30 pm, and I was dreading the long drive ahead combined with our late start.

In the midst of all this, Wanda and I finally made a decision regarding what to do about Juana and Michael. We had been considering hiring another nanny to help in the home, so we decided to give her a chance. Brittney spoke with her and asked if she would be interested in working for us in return for a place to live, food, medical treatment and a small amount of cash for personal expenses. She readily and joyfully agreed. So, we made plans to bring her and Michael back with us.

I met up with Taryn in Chimaltenango. We stopped for lunch, and I bought the medicines Yosselin needed and a folding bed and mattress for Billy. Our drive up took longer than usual due to stops to care for Yosselin, but we still pulled into San Pablo at around 5:00 pm. We picked up Brittney so she could visit the families with us, and it was decided that Juana and Michael would stay at her house while we did so. At this point I wanted to just get in and out quickly. There is a series of sharp cutbacks going up the mountain that we call “the lower intestines” because that is what it looks like on the GPS display. These are hard to negotiate during the day, but that difficulty is multiplies after dark. So I wanted to get out of town before the sun set. Alas, it was not to be.

We delivered Yosselin and her parents to their home and gave them final instructions regarding care of her incisions and medicines. Then we immediately went to find Michel and have him help with the delivery to Billy.

We found Billy with the family that has been helping him. We gave him his bed and gave the entire family a basket of food. Since they were sharing what little they had with Billy it was only right to give them all food to share. I gave Michel some money to help him buy clothes and we made arrangements with the family to build a small, sheltered area for his bed with us providing the funds to do so. It was a wonderful visit and we all prayed together. When I took Billy’s photo, he laughed. It was the first time I had ever seen him laugh and was a sharp contrast to his tears the day before.

(From this point further, I do not have photos. My hands were too full to handle a camera.)

When we left his home things began to get interesting. Some of the neighbors told us that the municipal police has been walking around my truck asking questions about us. They were gone by this point, but Michel was concerned. He called the mayor who knew of no problems. Then one of Brittney’s neighbors approached us and told us that the police had been at her house talking to Juana. We raced back and found the police gone. The door was closed, and the lights were out, but Juana and Michael were inside and Juana was cowering and sobbing. I approached her and she grabbed me and started talking frantically through her tears. It took me a while to determine what she was saying because of her crying and rapid speech, but I then realized she was saying, “Please take us with you! Don’t leave us here! I don’t want to stay! Please let’s go right now!”

It turns out that her family found out about our plans to hire her and take them to live with us. They approached the police who came and told her that if she wanted to leave she could, but she could not take Michael. Her family accused her of neglecting Michael. Once again, Michael made some calls and confirmed that the police had no authority to say or do this, so they were free to leave. We quickly loaded their possessions (a small bag and small box), and I escorted them out to the truck.

And here things get even more exciting. I had opened the door and told Juana and Michael to get in when I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye. I later found out it was Juana’s sister who ran up and tried to snatch Michael out of his mother’s arms. And at that moment Juana (about 4’11” and 90 pounds) delivered a right cross to her sister’s jaw that jarred MY teeth. Her sister shook her head to clear it, looked at Juana and “it was on like Donkey Kong!”

When the altercation started, I was semi-between Juana and her sister, so I immediately stepped more in the middle and tried to break it up, absorbing a few blows and scratches in the process. There was yelling and a crowd quickly gathered. The arguing and yelling were all in T´zutujil, so I don’t know what all was being said, but I suspect that much of it was not church language.

So, here I was trying to break up the fight with people yelling around me, and I suddenly saw myself from a new angle. It was as if I was looking down on the whole situation from above. And, in that moment, I silently asked God, “What am I doing here? I am a pastor for crying out loud! What am I doing in this little community surrounded by a fight and hearing a very obscure language being shouted in my ears? What am I doing here, God?!?”

And then something happened…

I felt God laugh.

You know what I mean? That tickle that begins in your heart and bubbles up through your throat that doesn’t come from you, but from Someone Else. And I heard God’s voice:

Daryl, remember when you were a teenage and thought that following me would be boring? What do you think now?

And something happened. I smiled. I was trying to break up a fight and absorbing blows and trying to calm the situation…and I grinned. Fortunately everyone was focused on the two ladies trying to claw each other’s eyes out, so no one saw it. But I smiled and God laughed. And it was good.

We eventually calmed everyone down. Her sister made accusations of neglect again, so I explained that they would be living with us and we would make sure that Michael was well cared for, including doctors and therapists. She finally stomped off muttering more of what I assume was non-church words, which left us with the crowd that had gathered. And at this point I had no idea on which side they were. My concerns were quickly settled, though, as they gathered around to tell Juana and Michael goodbye and to thank us for giving Juana and Michael this opportunity.

We were leaving Brittney behind at her house, so my primary concern was for her. Would Juana’s family retaliate against her? But Michel, his wife Maria, and all the gathered neighbors assured us that they would look out for her and not to worry. So I hugged her goodbye and we drove away.

Michel rode with us to the checkpoint at the exit of the town to make sure the town police were not waiting for us. (They were not.) So we continued up through “the lower intestines” on a very dark night.

About an hour later I called Brittney to make sure everything was okay. She had been sitting out on the street with several neighbors visiting and everything was calm. She also told me that Michel and Billy had come by to show her the clothes they had bought for him. She said Billy had a huge smile as he modeled his new clothes.

By the way, yesterday was Juana’s 21st birthday. So when we pulled into our home at 9:00 last night Wanda had a plate of cookies with “Feliz Cumpleaños Juana” written on the cookies along with a gift. We sang to her and she blew out her candles and we ate together with the newest members of our family.

Please pray for Juana and Michael. Our town is an entirely new world for them, and our home is still another world. Juana’s primary language is T´zutujil and her Spanish is almost as broken as mine. This will be a challenging adjustment, even though they are excited now. In addition, Michael is not well-behaved. Juana was only 15 when she had him and she has much to learn about parenting. She has also fallen victim to the notion that, since he has special needs, he cannot learn better behavior. So we will be teaching and helping her in the coming days.

Juana carries a lot of anger and hurt from her past. But God has shown me more than anything she is just a little girl who really needs a family. Pray that we can be that family to her.

And, finally, please pray for our home and family as we add two more to the mix during the Christmas season.

So, now you know about yesterday…and how God sometimes laughs in the middle of a fight so that we can smile.

Blessings!

Daryl, Wanda and the Crew