Wednesday in Huitzapula

This part of the trip was one that we waited what seemed like an eternity to experience. As we drove around today, it was overwhelming to see all the poverty around me, but I know that out of poverty comes grace; out of depravation comes blessing; out of many languages spoken comes the only one that matters - love; out of nothing comes everything. The scripture that came to mind is the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-22) as Jesus preached to the disciples,

20 Blessed are you who are poor,for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.

This was the theme of the day. We had an extremely busy day planned traveling to all three mission sites that the church at Huitzapula supports, all in three different parts of a very mountainous region. The names of the three places are 1) Meson - where we visited a school and offered breakfast to the children (who only eat once a day); 2) Zopilotepec - where we saw the worship space of 30 years and ate lunch with a family; and 3) Totolapa - where we climbed one of the highest points in that region to check out the view and later played games with the children. We worshipped at all three, singing hymns of praise and the songs of the children in the indigineous language of the people. A couple of our folks preached at those services. We returned from our visits in time to pray with a chronically ill parishoner who is need of a kidney transplant but can´t afford the cost to travel to Mexico City. The last part of the day was spent with a man who had been critically injured in an accident sometime over the past year. Diego has two small children and a wife, and hope that he will walk again, but the process has been slow for him and his family. He lives with his father´s family in one of the nicest homes we saw in Huitzapula.

Each of these places suffer from extreme poverty and in some cases the threat of fighting and killing among the people. In Meson, the residents there have experienced a great deal of violence from neighboring people over land disputes. In almost all of these locations - including Huitzapula - the men are absent from the communities, mostly as a result of their work. They either work in the fields during the day near the towns where they live or they travel to the U.S. to support their families. The sad thing is that the women are left to raise the children most of the time. It was just a very sad situation to see, but I´m grateful for the experience because it showed me that God´s grace abounds even in the most desolate, impoverished places that we don´t dare to imagine exist. Being here was a true blessing for me - if only for a day.