We will make it safely across... with grace.

A post from Debbie...

Here is my favorite picture in the world!
It's the one our friend John McCallum took it on the road to Chijolom.

Today was a great day! We visited the seminary classes here in Coban with the Bi-National committee... habla, habla, habla... to my joyful surprise, there attending the advance classes was Arnoldo, the man in the picture reaching for the baby! This picture was taken my very first trip to Guatemala on our first excursion. I did not know of this man at that time. He was a stranger in a foreign land.

Today I learned something new (a common event in my life right now) there are different degrees of a handshake in K'ekchi-land. If you don't know or trust someone you basically touch hands but if you trust and really care for someone you grasp far up the arm. Thinking about pictures today, I was carried back to that first time on the road to Chijolom and attempting to cross a  nasty mudslide with grace when I remember a hand reaching out (I don't remember a face because I was busy looking at my feet and where I was trying to step) and grasping my arm far up and helping me cross safely. I stress the word safely because I felt very safe and cared for and I knew I was going to be okay. Today, given that picture and location, I am pretty sure that man was Arnoldo. He represents for me Christ in all of us, reaching out to us. When people ask me why I would give up all I had to come here, this is why... because Christ is reaching out to all of us.

Theological Training for Indigenous in Cobán
(Arnoldo is in the back row second from the left)