Day Five - Friday, March 30

Today starts with a bang. It's Tim's birthday! Most of the boys race up onto the guest house roof where 6 two-foot long rolls of fire crackers are set off in celebration. The anticipation, the terror, the noise & the smoke... an event made for adolescent males (and a few middle-aged yet child-like adults).

Breakfast is early this morning. We are off to Chicoy to visit a sink-hole & then to Beerseba Chicoy for morning devotions.

The sink-hole is huge. It's an area of land that has literally sunk down into the surrounding bedrock due to moisture & land movement (we are in an earthquake prone area of the world). For hundreds of years, this sink-hole has been used by Mayan priests to practice witchcraft as they invoke cures & curses for a price. Walking up to the entrace, there is no evidence of a hole of any kind, it's as if we are simply hiking up a steep moutainside. As we approach the entrance, what at first appears to be a dark abyss reveals itself as a smoke filled cavern. Smoldering fires at the bottom of the sink-hole fog the air with smoke. The rocks are black with the soot of hundreds of years of fires. As we descend into the sink-hole along a narrow path, an altar along one wall of the cavern can be seen surrounded by stalagmites that few people would be able to wrap their arms around. Stalactites hang from the ceiling with pointed tips facing down. The air may be laden with smoke, but there is a palpable heaviness as well. As our team reaches the bottom of the cavern, we turn and look back upwards at the entrance that is almost unbearably bright compared to our dark & smoky surroundings; an immediate analogy comes to mind of mankind straining to see into heaven. Our group gathers into a circle away from the altar and with eyes shut, begins to sing. "Light of the world you stepped down into darkness..." followed by "Did you rise the sun for me, and paint a million stars that I might know your majesty..." and "Praise God from whom all blessings flow..." and finally "God of wonders beyond our majesty, you are holy...". We may have started with some timidity, but soon the team is singing full voice & praising God. We can hear our choruses echoing back at us off the rocks, and later in the evening many group members share about hearing other voices beyond our echoes singing. For 20 minutes we sing, pray & quote scripture. Many of the team are struck with emotions. One of our team felt & heard a rush of wind brush past them. Others are sure that they heard the movements of angels. All of us know that we are in the presence of God! Perhaps it's just that our eyes have been closed for the past while, but when we open them, the cavern is a lot brighter & the heaviness is gone. In our heads we know that the spirit world is nearby, but now in our hearts we have experienced it.

As we slowly make our way up & out of the sink-hole, it is a much different group of individuals than went in. May God continue to reveal himself to each of us in new & meaningful ways.

We have devotions with the children at Chicoy & then race back to Tactic for another morning of children's ministry. As the morning progresses, it begins to rain. Light & misty at first, and then finally sheeting down for 2 solid hours. Instead of walking to the Peter's for lunch, the vans are rounded up to provide us with rides. As we eat, the rain continues, but becomes a light mist that continues to soak the air. Instead of going to the work site in an attempt to now move mud around, Les makes arrangements for us to visit a nearby coffee finca (plantation). After a lunch of Guatemalan taco chips covered in homemade salsa, meat sauce, gaucamole & squeezable cheese in a bag, we load the vans for the trip out to the coffee finca.

The roads are slick & wet, which isn't a problem until we leave pavement and begin the climb into the mountains on dirt roads. The higher we go, the steeper the hills & narrower the road. The road twists & turns through a series of switchbacks as we wind our way upwards. At points, the only thing between us & a drop of doom is a barbed wire fence. Somebody points out that the barbed wire won't prevent our descent, just slow us momentarily. Eventually, the mud & the steep incline win out and we must disembark from the vans and complete the walk to the finca.

At the coffee finca we watch how the red coffee berries that have been hand picked & sorted are processed. The processing is a science teachers dream system; gravity fed, density separated, sun drying & humidty checked! The red berries are poured into a large hopper through which water runs & carries the berries downwards into a rolling screen which separates berries by size. As the berries are separted, they drop into various water fed channels that carry them to a tumbler that scrubs the outer red coating off them. The white beans then drift along their assigned channel to a "switching" station. Beans that are floating, because they are less dense & therefore of low quality, spill over into a new channel and are carried along to a collection site. Beans that sink to the bottom of their channel, because they are denser & of higher quality, are carried along by the current to another collection point. The beans are collected and spread out on huge drying decks to dry in the sun. Because it is still raining, none of the beans are out drying, but we are told that every few hours a worker will walk through the layer of drying beans with a rake to turn the beans. At the end of each day, the beans are swept up & stored in bags until they can be laid out for drying the next morning. After a couple of days being dried, the beans are poured into another hopper which carries them into a slowing turning bin that is heated with hot air from a nearby furnace. The furnace is fed from branches that have been trimmed from trees throughout the coffee finca, as the coffee plants need partial shade in which to grow. The beans are dried until they have lost about 80% of their moisture content & then bagged for sale (these ones are bound for Starbucks). The beans are roasted in another facility, which releases the coffee flavouring & turns the beans to a rich, dark brown. As we leave the coffee finca, we pass a drainage ditch with running water that is carrying the red husk of the coffee berry to an area where they sit & ferment for many months and then are used as fertilizer throughout the coffee finca.

By the time we have returned to the guest house, the sun has begun to shine & it's almost time for the trip to the Peter's for dinner. At dinner, the dining room is draped in streamers & hung with balloons in celebration of Tim's birthday.

After dinner, Les has one of the teachers, Hecter, in the Beerseba program share his testimony. We hear how he grew up in a family of 2 girls & 3 boys with a father who barely acknowledged his children. Hecter re-tells various events in his life that began to harden his heart towards others & how he always wanted to sing. But then, he tells of the grace & forgiveness that was taught at Beerseba Chamche and he has dedicated his life to teaching sharing the gospel of Christ with the children of Tactic & the surrounding area. Hecter is one of the worship leaders that leads the Beerseba students in devotion every morning. We are blessed by his testimony.

As we applaud Hecter's testimony, a string of fire crackers is set off behind the dining room, which signals the entrance of a birthday cake with 18 candles. Happy birthday Tim! The one & only gift is a stack of 31 firecracker strings. After cake, everybody pours outside to light firecrackers. The day ends as it began, with bangs, lots of smoke & shrieks galore. What a way to end our week!

As we walk back to the guest house, the evening's events have invigorated the team with perhaps a bit too much adrenaline. It takes several hours until all is quiet & the house sleeps peacefully.