A Week in Guatemala -- the translator that prayer brought my way

Here we are in action.  You can tell by our hair that a fan (thank you, Lord) is blowing.

Dear Cely, on our 2nd morning together, outside the church in Tecun Uman -- a natural sauna if there ever was one.  Can you tell that my skin is already "glistening?"  :) 

Cely and me after our last teaching session together.  What a treasure she was for me!

A few weeks before I left for Guatemala, my friend Lauren Cox told me that God had impressed on her to pray for the whole translation process while I was teaching and specifically for the person who would be my translator.  I was a little perplexed by this because translation had never been a big issue before, but I knew there must be a reason for God to prompt her like this.  And, besides, I'd never been called on to teach so extensively on a mission trip before.  

Since I had decided to teach the book of Esther to the ladies in the 8 churches that would be represented for the conferences, I asked for the pastor there to find a female translator for me.  After all, it would be women learning about a woman and even discussing what in the world a eunuch was, etc. etc.  You get the picture.

Well, at first a woman named Carol was designated.  I communicated with her by e-mail a few times before I left and was struck by the fact that maybe her English wasn't quite as good as it needed to be for the intense study I had planned.  But, I knew Lauren was being led to pray specifically.

When we arrived, Carol was the first friendly face that we saw once we cleared customs, and I liked her a lot.  However, that night at dinner she told me that her husband (a doctor in the area who works at several clinics) was recovering from typhoid fever and that she needed to go with him to several follow-up appointments in the coming days and wouldn't be able to translate for me.  Hmmmmmm.  She thought that Edwin, our van driver, would do a good job.   Hmmmmmm.  Even though Edwin had spent quite a few years in the States and had a good grasp of English, did he REALLY want to talk to women ABOUT women (and eunuchs) for the next 4 days????  Hmmmmmmm.  I was determined that I would not lose any sleep over this situation.

By the next morning, Pastor Otto (the coordinator for our week's work) had secured the help of Cicely Joachin, one of his faithful church members, and told me that she would be my translator.  I met her, and we chatted happily during the short trip from Coatepeque to Tecun Uman.  She introduced herself as "Cely," so that's who she was to me the rest of the time.  She obviously understood me well and was very familiar with the book of Esther.  Like so many others, she had spent quite a few years in the States, and besides that, she is just a very smart, dedicated, Christian lady with a servant's heart.  The first day there were a few stumbles and stutters by both of us as we established a rhythm and searched our brains for synonyms when the first words didn't "compute," but by the second day, she honestly could have taught the material without me.  She seemed to anticipate what I was going to say and how I was going to say it.  We made an awesome team!!!!  

As I watched the situation unfold and resolve itself so beautifully, I understood in a powerful and unmistakable way why God had prompted Lauren and how He worked everything out to perfection.

Cely has two beautiful daughters.  She and her husband own an internet business in the middle of Coatepeque.  When you finish reading this blog, I hope you will pray with me (and with her) that her husband will receive Christ as his Savior.