Lighting Crashes

20 May, 2019

The 1994 breakthrough album ‘Throwing Copper’ by the band Live featured a hit entitled ‘Lighting Crashes’ hence the title of the blog and the thematic rescue of our emotional roller coaster day.

Lightning crashes a new mother cries
Her placenta falls to the floor
The angel opens her eyes
The confusion sets in
Before the doctor can even close the door

Lightning crashes an old mother dies
Her intentions fall to the floor
The angel closes her eyes
The confusion that was hers
Belongs now to the baby down the hall

Ed Kowalczyk pours out his soul vocally as he carries the song through it melodramatic tempo, as one life begins and another dies, the circle of life is completed. For me, this music is comforting in many aspects as I analyze the days events and try to assimilate a few words for my teammates, friends and family in recounting 3 specific events.

Today was culmination of a long emotional struggle. One of my daughters found out she was pregnant late last year… the due date was sometime in late May early June. During the planning stages of the trip I was unsure if I would be able to go this year because of this event.  With a firm due date of the May 29th set, I crossed my fingers and agreed to come to Honduras this year primarily due to the fact that Daniela resigned as construction coordinator and the team needed me to attend and over see the project… All was well until a few weeks before we left for Honduras, she found out the baby was in a breach position and needed to have a C-section delivery scheduled on May 20th. You can see my dilemma and emotional struggle.  After many prayers and considering all of the needs, Collectively my family and I came to a decision to allow me to come to Honduras and impact many lives in the community that had waited for quite sometime for this project. Today my forth granddaughter Rylee Ann Hackett was born at 8am this morning, the mother and daughter are doing well. Certainly an emotional high for me, but sorrowful as well because of my absence.

As the team assembled this morning, David our new translator received word that his older sister, who had been battling cancer was not doing well. He also had to make a difficult decision to press forward and go up into the mountains and continue the project for Teo. You could tell his heart was heavy with emotions thru out the day. Before arriving at the compound, David found out that his sister had pass away from the illness… we gathered and prayed for him as he prepared to journey to San Pedro this evening to make preparation so say good bye to his loved one. Our hearts ache for his loss though we did not know her, but we worship a faithful God that does know her and calls her one of his own, Godspeed for her and prayers for the family.

Our evening concluded in the dining hall as a supprise birthday party had been planned for Senor Mater aka Jerry Kilby.  For many years and trips to Honduras, the dates have coincided with his birthday falling some where in the two weeks we are here. He too, has to make a decision to attend this adventure and his family are some what left out of the celebration of this event. Thanks to Maynor and everyone for the party, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and I know Mater loves all of the special attention he receives.

Serving the Lord requires a certain amount of sacrifice, these may be extreme examples of that… but the rewards and blessing overshadow the short term loss for each.  God bless and goodnight from the Federation frontline portal entry point.

Marco Francisco Valle Valle