Heartache

I have been sharing so much, and flooding facebook with updates about Guatemala, and the tragic eruption of volcano Fuego which has claimed so many lives.  This was the largest eruption in a number of decades, and because the ground was so wet from rainy season, lava flows combined with water, debris, and hot rock fragments (pyroclasts), superheated air, and volcanic gases.  This travels so fast, around 300 miles an hour.  Further, Fuego regularly erupts, but never so devastatingly.  Our group homes lie 8 miles from the crater so we frequently watch these eruptions from our homes.  Many people had watched these for years and were watching again when the fast moving flow swept over them almost before they even knew they were in danger.  This hit an impoverished area with little access, and was devastating.  The pictures are devastating, and many are very graphic.  The stories are worse. 

In part I have been in shock, and morning for the lives lost.  And in part I have wished to share this great need to the body of Christ in the U.S. who are a part of this same hurting body who are in great need for prayer, and support.  One grieving mother asked that she would not be forgotten when the news no longer follows because her heartache will last lifelong.  As of this morning, the death toll has reached 99 people with a few hundred still missing.  Courageous rescue workers now search for victims rather than survivors.  Their eyes have seen so much.  Please remember them also in your prayers. 

Our ministry has been coordinating with the disaster relief efforts and was able to travel into some villages on the slopes.  The road they would take to the villages hit hardest was impassable, but God directed them to two villages for about 7,000 people who were out of drinking water because the rainwater they relied on was contaminated.  Resources from ministries and the people of Guatemala, as well as donations from the U.S. helped provide water filters for the entire community in stations set up at churches and schools in the community.  However as they were there, the call came to evacuate recue workers because of further eruptions.  Our team stayed just a little longer to pray with the families still trapped in the path of danger.  There is so much fear here. 

An update yesterday from Daryl read “I should be sleeping, but I can’t. Earlier tonight, I received a message from a friend that contained a news article about the River Ceniza in Siquinala. After yesterday’s eruption, there was a flow of a high temperature gases and mud that flowed down this river. We crossed that river yesterday as we were leaving the village of El Ceylan. It was the long way out after they closed down the route behind us right after we came through.

What this means is that those villages are completely trapped. There is no way out.

The map below shows the predicament. The blue line is the route we drove into El Ceylan. The yellow circle shows the area where they evacuated and closed the road after yesterdays’s eruption. The green lines shows the back way we took home because we were notified of the road closing. And the red line shows the River Ceniza which had the flow of superheated gases, apparently right after we passed. There is no bridge. You have to drive or walk through the water. There is no way back in if the road does not reopen.

I try not to worry, but this is getting to me. And I am way up in Canilla and unable to return due to responsibilities here. Will you please pray for the villages of El Ceylan, La Rochela, and San Osuna? They are trapped in without a means of escape. I will try to get to them and check their status when I return. Praying I will be able to pass. These are the very same people to whom we gave water filters, hugged, prayed with, and laughed with yesterday, and I love them. Thanks”

It has been hard to be so far from Guatemala during this time, as this is also a time of remembering the anniversaries of two of the children he have lost; Angelita and Micah.  We also learned last week that beautiful Rosalinda, whom we had cherished, had been discharged from the malnutrition center where she had lived for over a year, and had been sent to her family.  Her family loved her deeply, but did not understand her intense health needs, and we learned that she had died. 

My heart is raw.  Death is not a stranger on a personal, and grand scale. 

Further, so so many hearts are hurting, and there is much fear. 

But God is SO SO much greater than our fears.  He holds all this in His hands.  God is faithful.  He holds the victory.  God has shown me a love deep enough for morn.  And he is faithful to love deeper still.  God loves Guatemala and her people.  He desires their hearts. 

This week in Tennessee has been a training camp at Cross Style where I am for this time.  And God is moving in many.  For me, never have I sobbed praises like this week.  Never have I seen how great and powerful and loving is our God than this week.   And this body morns for people they have never met because they see mourning before them.  God is a God of unity for His people. 

1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

    my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

    beholding your power and glory.

3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,

    my lips will praise you.

4 So I will bless you as long as I live;

    in your name I will lift up my hands.

5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

    and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

6 when I remember you upon my bed,

    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

7 for you have been my help,

    and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

8 My soul clings to you;

    your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 63

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

    the wormwood and the gall!

20 My soul continually remembers it

    and is bowed down within me.

21 But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[b]

    his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

    “therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

    to the soul who seeks him.

26 It is good that one should wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations 3:19-26

Through all this, there are so many stories of the provision of God.  My favorite is a tiny baby rescued.  Rescues pull out a bright, clean, healthy baby girl from the midst of a barren and dark landscape.  God has not left alone the people He loves.  

Please pray for this nation which God holds dear.  

After His heart

Katie Riley