San Pedro, Guatemala
Hurricane Stan Devastates Ministry Village
Low rising mountains covered with thousands of trees and other plush green foliage rolling down to a pristine lake makes one feel like you are in Grand Traverse, Leelanau, or Benzie county in Michigan. Add to that view the cool lake breeze, the many shops and restaurants that cater solely to the tourists and one can almost be sure that is where they are. However, the sound of “Buenas Días, señor!” and the smells of unfamiliar foods being cooked on small stoves on the streets inform you that this is not Michigan but one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala - and maybe the world - Lake Atitlan.
Perhaps the largest lake in Guatemala, it is surrounded by communities such as Santiago, San Lucas, San Marcos, San Antonio, San Juan, San Pedro, and Santa Cruz. It is not only a beautiful place but also a location with significant religious influence. To be sure, each of these cities has its struggles, problems, and desperate poverty as do most communities in Guatemala and Latin America. But now, since last October, this beautiful creation of God is also a place of mourning and recovery. Soon after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the southern United States, hurricane Stan hit Guatemala as well as parts of Nicaragua.
Raised in a Christian home and professing Christ as Savior at the age of ten, but with only the basic essentials of life, Dr. Israel Hernandez stated that upon graduating from medical school, “my dream was to live comfortably, have a car, a house, get married, and live well.” Pursuing this dream, he worked as a physician for two years in the capitol, Guatemala City. But dissatisfied with his earnings, he began to look for work elsewhere.
In October of 1997 he moved to San Pedro based upon the advice of a friend who told him he would do well there since there “were no private doctors in that place.” Though seeking personal gain, God had a different plan for Dr. Israel.
Isolated from family, friends, and not yet married to his lovely fiancée, Gengly, God began spiritually working on Dr. Israel, who soon was attending the First Baptist Church, studying the Bible, and “talking to God.” It was in these circumstances that the Lord opened his eyes to the poverty surrounding him and touched his heart to begin helping the poor not only in San Pedro but also in San Juan and many other communities. With little understanding about how to help them, his first strategy was to provide free basic medical care to everyone who could not afford his fee. Though in direct contrast to his initial goal, the Lord had put Israel - and his soon-to-be-wife, Gengly - right where He needed them.
Dr. Israel soon established a good reputation as a physician who cared for people with great compassion and who traveled from village to village to teach people about proper health care, clean water, waste disposal, and the love of God found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When disaster struck the area via Hurricane Stan exactly eight years after Dr. Hernandez moved to San Pedro it was only natural for him to be involved in people’s recovery from this tragedy. Not getting the “press” or attention of hurricanes Katrina or Rita, the devastation to Israel’s people and communities was nonetheless proportionately severe.
As Dr. Hernandez described it, “Since Saturday, October 1, heavy rains fell during the day and continued through Monday when it rained the whole night. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday it rained during the whole day and night and finally on Friday, the rain stopped, but a constant drizzle continues today when, thanks to God, we are able to once again see the light of the sun.
“On Wednesday morning a family from Tzununa arrived in San Pedro after walking through the night on the roads along the lakeshore seeking help for their town. Barges went out under the strong rain and practically 90% of the population was evacuated, as well as people from San Marcos and Jaivalito. We started to help these people as our church was one of the first to take in people giving them shelter and food. The barrio where the school is was totally destroyed. Several houses were destroyed and the ones that were not were flooded up to half the height of the house. Thank God no one died. We are giving them food and trying to obtain clothes as they only have what they were wearing when they escaped from their homes.”
In Santiago a whole barrio was declared a cemetery due to the estimated 1,000 people who were buried alive there by a mud slide. Area bridges were destroyed as were many roads on the mountains. Precious crops were washed away with the seeds that the people would have saved for the next planting. Beautiful Lake Atitlan was filled with trees and brush that were once on the surrounding mountains. Many houses were flooded with rushing water and now remain filled with the silt, rocks, and boulders that came down from the mountains.
Several houses were totally destroyed as was the one in which I met nearly 25 mothers in November 2004 who were being trained to be community health workers. Indeed, the whole barrio known as “Cinco de Enero,” was totally disrupted with many of the people now living in temporary plastic sided, metal roofed shelters provided by World Vision and USAID with no hope of permanent homes until 2007, an election year in Guatemala.
With the physical destruction also came the inherent increase of illnesses such as dysentery, skin infections and other contagious diseases in response to which Israel was thankful to God that he was able to “attend the injured and those already infected.”
Praise the Lord! Though unknown to him when he first moved to San Pedro on Lake Atitlan, Dr. Israel Hernandez and Acción Medica Integral San Lucas (AMI San Lucas) were in place to provide leadership, comfort, medical care, and with the assistance of faithful Luke Society donors, relief to many people adversely affected by Hurricane Stan. Food, nutritional supplements for babies and children, clothes, agricultural tools and seeds for planting the next harvest, medicines, water filtration equipment, soap, disinfectants, as well as toothbrushes and toothpaste were provided to hundreds of people.
Working with the local governments and village committees, Israel and his team are now also investigating how to provide families with good, safe, permanent housing once again while continuing their “normal” activities of health education and primary clinical care in the name of Jesus to hundreds of families and school children.
Please pray for this servant of God who had his vision radically changed as he opened his eyes to what the Lord wanted him to see in a beautiful but poverty stricken part of Guatemala.
Phil David