“Sendas Dios hara cuando camino no lo hay… Dios hara algo nuevo hoy.”
“La pobreza abre la puerta a todos
los tipos de violencia.” (Poverty opens the door to all types of violence) This
sharing and growth in community has been transformative for me, and for so many
of the other participants. We have begun to both understand and experience
transformation as God has opened our eyes. Many have been awakened to the
suffering in their own countries, and have committed to truly seeing the needs
around them.
Two women here have really touched
my heart. I spent time with each of them one on one in the last couple of days.
They shared their struggles and pain with me, and I prayed with them, listened,
and encouraging them to allow God to use their pain to help others. This
morning, during our opening time of devotions and reflections, both of these
women shared their stories of transformation and encouraged others to allow
their hearts to be touched and to support one another as we seek healing.
Let me take a moment to describe
the place where we are holding the conference. We meet each day in the Volcano
Room, on the fifth floor of CASAS. The room has a wall of windows on three
sides. All around us, we see palm trees and flowers, and there are volcanoes in
the distance on every side. CASAS is located in Zona 11 of Guatemala City, and
is within a small, gated neighborhood. To the right, from my view in the
Volcano Room, I see NoviCentro, the shopping center where we have gone for
groceries, ATM machines, printing, ice cream, and other food.
The food here has been very good- I
love the comida tipica. Our evening
meal (cena) has been red or black
beans with tortillas, white cheese, salsa, and crema. One night, we had
hardboiled eggs with it, and the other night they served sausages. The juices
here, of course, are wonderful. The most common is rosa de Jamaica- hibiscus flower juice. I already bought a little
box rosa de Jamaica tea to share when
I get home.
The evening today was incredible. After a somewhat difficult afternoon with some cultural and language confusions in the conference (turns out that the concept of “trauma-informed care” does not translate very clearly), the night was a beautiful celebration. The Nicaraguan students prepared the cena for everyone: gallo pinto (rice and black beans cooked together), planatanos maduros fritos (my favorite!! Fried sweet plantains), pico de gallo, crema, and queso nicaraguense. Amazingly delivious!
 |
| Laurel and I with Olga Piedrasantas |
After dinner, an older Guatemalan
woman name Olgita, who is helping facilitat
e the conference, prepared and led a
Mayan ceremony of healing from trauma. She shared about the war and the pain of
the Mayan people facing the deaths and disappearances of their family members.
Twenty years after the war, some of them participated in exhuming the bodies of
their loved ones from mass graves. She shared about her role of providing
psychological support at the site of the exhumation. She stood side by side,
arm around their shoulders, as the forensic archeologists delicately uncovered
and presented them with the clothing their family members were buried in.
Twenty years later, they still recalled exactly which shirt, pants, or skirt
they were murdered in. |
| For grinding the corn into flour |
The ceremony focused on the process
of making tortillas… from sowing the seeds, to growing the plants, to
harvesting, to shelling, washing, cooking, grinding, mixing with water,
preparing the masa, and palmeando las tortillas. Finally, they
are ready to cook, and eat. These new friends of mine shared for fifteen
minutes or more about each of these steps (and a learned many new words! I don’t
think we have quite so many, many words to describe corn in English). Then Olgita
took everything through visualization, bringing us to a place of rest and
bringing with us the person we most love and trust in our lives. There were raw
grains of corn there is a bowl, along with a pot of water, brought to us by our
loved one. Then, one by one, we were asked to picture removing each raw piece
of corn from the bowl, which represented each time of pain and suffering in our
lives. Slowly, as we removed them from the dark bowl and brought them into the
light the shell began to crack. As we put them in the pot of water, they began
to soften, to become something more edible.
 |
| The cross and Mayan symbols of healing |
With candles, music, and incense,
flowers and traditional Mayan cloths and symbols, this healing ceremony was so
powerful for everyone. At the end, we each
shared in some freshly made tortillas. You see, each person here needs healing
from something. As the creations of God, we know that our Creator can heal us
if we surrender to Him and allow him to work the long process of healing in our
lives. A major theme this week has been “the process.” What we have all been
learning is that, even in the midst of our pain, two things are still true: (1)
God can lovingly heal us and (2) God still wants to use us, through our own
pain, to come up alongside of others who are hurting.
