Sausage, eggs, and cheese piled together and wrapped in a flour tortilla accompanied by one, then two, cups of coffee is a welcome start to the day. Truly blessed are the hands of this week’s cooks, Tiffany and Lanise Thompson, and their sous-chef Bridget Yeung (also our team’s money-lady and biggest fundraiser!!). Man may not live by bread alone, but it sure helps sometimes.

Nature buzzes and sways and chirps in perfect surround-sound. The air is crisp and so are the vibrant greens and blues. Agua, Antigua’s largest active volcano, almost seems to peer over into our little piece of paradise to get a closer look. Two fires have been started. Both can be felt and seen. One of the fires was started early in the morning, probably by veteran team member Bob Ewing; the other fire starts as soon as someone lands in Guatemala. For some, this second fire started over 20 years ago and is stoked each time they return to this land stretched between two continents and pressed between two seas. This fire has been passed on like an Olympic torch from one generation to the next. There is a particular type of glow that emanates from this second type of fire. You can see it in the early-morning eyes of the team as they sit in white, plastic chairs and wake up their voices in song.

Today’s song is In Christ Alone (a favorite of mine since college), which builds to a climax in the third verse:

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

This is the Gospel. This is the good news. This is not a part but the whole. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is the only answer for those of us caught in the deadly grip of sin. All power on earth and heaven can be found in the person of Jesus. Rev. Silverio expounds on this idea when talking about the woman in Luke who spent 12 years and all her money – fruitlessly – on physicians looking for healing from a blood discharge. This nameless woman, Silverio reminds us, would have been considered an untouchable person in the context of her culture. Although in an utterly hopeless situation, this lady still held onto one thing: her faith. She believed that if she could only touch, not the Great Physician Himself, but just the hem of His garment that that would be enough to make her whole. She did this, and the power of Christ washed over her in a wave of renewal. Her faith had made her well. Silverio compels us to remember the power of a touch.

Surgery is the definition of a ‘hands-on’ profession. This is my first time experiencing an O.R. (operating room), and it’s a whirlwind. The entire day is a well-oiled wheel of operations. Lights hover above a fury of movement. Blue is everywhere you look: scrubs, towels, hats, shoe-covers, trays, and bins. Wires connect walls to machines, and tubes connect machines to people. Saline is lifted above heads and flows where needed. Screens with jagged horizontal lines communicate to doctors in a language I do not speak. Images from a tiny camera attached to straight thin rod illuminate another screen and is guided by the steady hand of Dr. John Boon, Urologist. Balloons inflate and deflate sending oxygen into lungs. Doctors, nurses, and techs ‘scrub-up,’ washing up to and past elbows. A varied array of musical preferences are on display in each O.R. The gynecology team seems to prefer country music, while, in the urology room, indie and alt-rock can be heard (with the occasional Taylor Swift song thrown in). Tonsil after tonsil after tonsil is removed in one room, and in the next, prostates are roto-rooted – opening a passageway for urine to flow. (The medical term for this surgery is a ‘transurethral resection of the prostate, ‘ or ‘TURP.’) Dr. Huebner with his surgical team, which includes his partner in medicine, his partner in life, and his brother-in-law, perform several hysterectomies and remove benign tumors (fibroids) the size of grapefruit that prevent women from getting pregnant. The day was long and the work was hard, but the work was good.

Chicken spaghetti, garlic bread, and chocolate cake awaited us on the return to our little slice of paradise and was consumed – at least on my part – with the same passion and gratitude as the children who attacked the Minnie Mouse™ piñata just over 24 hours prior.

-Joel Bacon 4/3/2017