What a beautiful, Sunday morning here in Antigua Guatemala! I walked outside to clear views of all three volcanoes. I could see the tree lines and the new rock that is being formed daily by the eruptions.
Yesterday, we met up with Scott, Melissa, and Madi Davis in the Central Park so that we could all walk together to church. They attend an evangelical church about 3 blocks off the square. I am here to tell you that it was another “coincidental” moment for us. When we got to the corner of the block where the church is located, Melissa introduced us to her friend, Brandon. Brandon is the director of a school right outside of town. He is from Texas originally. Kristin noticed that he was carrying a bible with a Young Life logo on it. So naturally, our YL conversation created an instant connection. We are excited to check out his school and ministry while we are here. Oh, and Mac LOVED Brandon from the start! J
Worship had already begun as we took our seats. One of the songs we sang during worship was a song written by a friend of ours who lives in Nashville. We sang it in English and Spanish and I noticed that there were a couple of people in the front row using sign language. As a musician and writer, my hope is that my music would be heard by as many people that will listen and not only just listen, but be inspired, moved, changed, etc. I stood there and listened as the voices and hands of the congregation blended both harmony and language into a beautiful masterpiece. A glimpse of heaven anyone?
Part of the sermon time was a “spotlight on ministry”. The ministry to be spotlighted today… the deaf ministry. Hmmm. After the service, I introduced myself to Gustavo who heads up the deaf ministry for the church. Let me pause right here and say, that I have struggled the most with the language barrier. Most of my Spanish-speaking conversations consist of: “Hello, My name is Darrell. What is your name? How are you? I am fine.” And then it gets complicated unless the other person can speak English. The amazing thing about my conversation with Gustavo is that he is full Guatemalan and was taught sign language by Spanish speakers. But since he uses Guatemalan Sign Language (which is very similar in structure and grammar to American Sign Language with subtle differences), we were able to communicate clearly with each other. He and I both noted in our conversation that it was really cool how this works. I am still amazed by it.
After church, we walked a couple of blocks down the street to a great bakery/restaurant. Scott, Melissa, Madi, and Brandon joined us, as well as some new friends we made that morning at church. The degree in which we were all able to engage with one another was remarkable. It seemed like we were all old friends, just back from summer hiatus, catching up with each other. There was even a huge fish tank full of piranha that the kids went nuts over.
I love how our “being” here allows us to walk into situations fully anticipating and watchful of how God is speaking to our little family.
“Hola! A Que tiempo es la Mercada salida?”
at which point she just looked at me. Then her brow grimaced. So I repeated with a little more determination.
“Hola! A Que tiempo es la Mercada salida?”
She said she did not understand. I found myself getting a little angry because…come on…I took Spanish in high school and I know what I am talking about here. So I said, “Gracias.” And we left. Kristin asked me what I was saying to her as we walked off. I told her what I had spoken and then I tried to play the victim. Like it was the lady’s fault she didn’t understand. Kristin just started laughing as we dissected what exactly it was that I had said. Turns out, I was asking her, something like:
“Hello. At what weather is the Market exit?”
LOL.
So, looking back, the lady was more than patient with me and had tons of grace because she didn’t shame me with laughter, but tried to accommodate a gringo with no clue.
A couple of cool encounters yesterday. As we walked around, we ran into our friend Ashley who works for Hannah’s Hope in Guatemala City. She was giving a tour to a group that she was working with. We chatted for bit and made plans to see her again next week. We said goodbye, walked around the block and saw Melissa's daughter (another friend we made on our trip last year). The little girl was playing in front of La Merced (an old and beautiful church) with her babysitter. We stopped and introduced ourselves to the babysitter and let the kids play with our little friend. What a treat those two “coincidance” meetings were.
Later that night, Emma did some rooftop reporting on a beautiful sunset. See the video below.
We sat Emma and Mac down yesterday to give them the safety plan in case there was an earthquake. We noticed before we came that there were couple over the last few weeks and that talking about it before it happens, would be better. The plan was simple, if the house starts to shake, run out of your room and into the courtyard. Well, the plan was all good in theory but they had questions. And the questions set off a series of more questions that initiated fear of the unknown of earthquakes. They both were afraid to go into a room alone because there might be a…well, you know. Kristin and I assured them that we would keep them safe and even if there was an earthquake, we would be ok.
At around 2am local time, Kristin wakes me up to the whole house shaking. The chandelier in each room, the hanging fern plants, trees, it’s all just rocking back and forth. And not just a subtle rock, it was a substantial swaying. We both ran downstairs and perched ourselves on some outdoor furniture in the courtyard right outside the kids room and… we swayed. Back and forth for about 2 minutes. To me it felt like getting off a ride at the fair and it taking a few seconds to get my bearings because my body still thinks it’s in motion. My stomach swimming a little, dogs are barking all around and car alarms are going off. Remarkably, the power remains on until an aftershock around 4am local time. The 7.1 quake was centered, best I can gather from the internet, off the coast of Honduras. The biggest aftershock was listed as a 4.9, the one that shut off the power. The kids never flinched, but kept snoozing away.
This morning at breakfast over a bowl of Cookie Crisps, Emma point blank asked me, “Daddy, was there an earthquake last night or something?” I paused. Mac, with spoon in mouth stopped and looked at me too. Still pausing. I knew neither one had felt it nor would they know the difference if I were to say “No.” But I didn’t. I told them there was an earthquake and that mommy and daddy woke up and made sure everything was safe. They both kind of shrugged and said “OK” and returned to the Cookie Crisps. A few minutes later, Emma and Mac came up the stairs to our bedroom porch where there are views of four nearby volcanoes. Volcano Fuego began erupting, as it does daily. A plume of smoke shot straight into the sky and the four of us sat and watched.
We are 2 days into our 5 week quest and already we have witnessed incredible things. Thanks for riding along with us.
“He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.” Psalm 104:32
