Mission to Guatemala, 2005
By Joy Corey
Our two hour and twenty-minute flight from Jacksonville, Florida was about to end. We had just come from our weekend OCMC orientation training and were making our way to Guatemala. We were the 2005 OCMC Mission Team to Guatemala being sent to relieve the teachers of the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orphanage for three weeks while they went on a well-deserved vacation. As the plane came in for its landing we caught glimpses of rusted metal roofs, rows of dilapidated hangers interrupted periodically by small abandoned shacks.
The 2005 Guatemala Mission Team Once deplaned, we were welcomed inside the airport by two contradictory images. Directly ahead, a band of mariachis played joyful, heel-kicking tunes while to our right soldiers and police, armed with AK47s, stood casually about chit-chatting with one another. Once out of the airport, the dirt, the smell of dust mixed with water (we arrived in the middle of their rainy season), the sound of ambulances and traffic ripping by all greeted us and warned us of what was to come. As we looked for Jorge, Mother Ivonne’s brother and the Hogar’s white 15 passenger van that was to pick us up, we were treated to a Mayan “happening.” Clad in their traditional and famous vividly, rich-colored Mayan clothing ( a Guatemalan hallmark) a family ran anxiously to greet those whom they had come to meet. The scene was so typical of a warm-hearted people.
As we made our way to the Hogar, Guatemala City was reminiscent of any dirty city like Tokyo, New York or New Delhi. There is no smog control; the air is so polluted. Our eyes glued to the windows so as not to miss a thing, we saw one of the strangest sites; there sat an armed soldier in the middle of a coca-cola transport guarding its precious cargo. Narrow dirty streets, crazy drivers zig-zagging in and out, abruptly cutting off one another with no respect for space, property or rules made for an interesting, but scary ride to the Hogar. Located in the worst part of downtown Guatemala City, the Hogar is guarded closely. We realized we had arrived when a huge metal gate was pushed open by an armed guard to reveal an inner courtyard where we parked. The Hogar takes up one city block and is completely walled in. No one can come onto the premises without being cleared.
While we were unloading our bags, we were welcomed by long-term missionary Christina Hagelios who escorted us to our respective rooms immediately behind the parking lot. An old, black, rusted metal door opened to reveal orange- tiled floors, a few tables, three desks strategically placed about the room, a tall metal cabinet and a sink. An opening in the wall to our right disclosed seven beds. Each room had a serpentine wrought-iron staircase that led to a loft with two beds and a bathroom. The men were to be housed next door. Fr. Gregory Horton of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Post Falls, Idaho was our team leader. These quarters would become home for the ensuing three weeks. The excitement was mounting. This was the culmination of months of preparation. We had come together as a team from various states: Ohio, Idaho, Washington, California, Illinois, New York and South Carolina. We had become acquainted with each other at our orientation in Florida, but now we would really get to know each other.
We quickly claimed our respective beds by placing our luggage either on or next to our choice and ran off with Christina to the comedor to have lunch. There we met Mother Ivonne for the first time who is one of the five nuns at the monastery. Mother Ivonne coordinates the orphanage. She was a micro-biologist in the world and a former Roman Catholic nun. She’s tall, commanding, gentle yet strong, fun yet serious, content, efficient, a disciplinarian yet very loving, caring, expressive (especially her facial expressions to the children) and highly gifted. I loved her immediately. Following lunch, Christina took us on tour of the orphanage; brick buildings connected by covered pathways; a beautiful church with four larger and four smaller bells; a gymnasium with bleachers, basketball court and soccer goal nets; a rather large rectangular swimming pool located just outside the gym; an infirmary staffed with nurses and two doctors who volunteer during the week on varying days, one a homeopathic doctor and the other a conventional medical doctor; an administration building located directly across from our sleeping quarters. This building is accessible to the public only after passing the scrutiny of the orphanage’s receptionist, Vicki, who receives visitors once they have cleared security. The Abbess of the Monastery, Mother Ines who is the General Director of the Hogar, the Social Worker and Christina Hagelios have offices here as well. Mother Ivonne’s office is next to the church. There’s a nursery for the babies and above the nursery, the toddlers are cared for by nannies. There are game rooms and classrooms. School is taught on the premises.
Just behind the well-cared-for Church building is a lovely grass park with benches and a roller-skating/blading and skate-boarding path encircling the park. A young boy who was adopted from the Hogar organized many activities in the States to raise the funds to build this park for his little brothers and sisters staying and living at the Hogar. He wanted them to have a park like the ones he has in the States. It previously was covered with dirt and served little purpose for the children. The children love to frolic in the new park; to throw frisbees and balls; to skateboard and roller blade. They love the feeling of the grass under their bare feet.. Thank God for the love of this young boy.
A very generous American couple donated twelve computers for their Computer center. I met one of Mother Ivonne’s best friends, Margarita, in the computer center. She and Mother Ivonne became micro-biologists together. Margarita teaches microbiology at the University in Guatemala and shares her time teaching by coming to the Hogar in the mornings to teach the children English. The children are learning quickly and they loved practicing their English on us, and we loved to practice our Spanish on them. So we had a deal! Margarita teaches at the University in the afternoons and early evening. How wonderful for the children and how unselfish of Margarita who is so adored by the children. Another of Mother Ivonne’s friends proved her loyalty to her friend when her son, who was visiting from Switzerland, unselfishly gave up three weeks of his vacation time to join our team which was short one member.
The orphanage was founded by Mother Ines’ great, great, great grandfather in 1857. It was called the House of Mercy and it was basically a hospice. For many years it was run by the Sisters of Charity. The orphanage in time fell into the hands of the Guatemalan Government who turned it into a reformatory for teenagers who needed correction. It was after this that Abbess Mother Ines signed a fifty-year lease with the government to run it as an Orthodox orphanage. Of course, this means she gets no financial support from the government. It is all private funding. She didn’t want to mix Church and State. At present, the government is about to pass a law to stop many types of adoption and much pressure is being brought to bear upon the orphanage. They are waiting to see what will happen in the congress. .Mother Ivonne said that in the ten years she’s been there, she has never seen so much upheaval about the adoption situation and that even the Roman Catholic nuns are worried about the whole situation as well. She asked that we pray for the children at the orphanage.
That first day Mother Ivonne met with our team to brief us concerning the orphanage, its rules and what would be expected of us. Mother Ivonne lives at the orphanage with the kids but leaves for the monastery (a 30-minute drive) every Sunday after Divine Liturgy and returns on Mondays. Mother Ivonne informed us that 180 children have been adopted and eleven adoptions are currently pending.
Eight hundred children have been rehabilitated at the Hogar; all victims of neglect or abuse. Mother Ivonne assured us that their #1 Boss is God and that their main goal at the Hogar is to get the children healed through prayer. The Hogar maintains a staff of sixty-four employees.
The nuns made a decision to stop taking in more children. This was partly due to the fact that they anticipated a substantial loss of income. A Guatemalan family, who owns a tile business, had been helping the Hogar by giving them less quality tiles to sell as a source of income. There was a chance that they might lose the possibility of selling these tiles which would mean a 70% loss of income. The nuns grew very concerned about losing the tiles but turned to God in prayer for the answer. They immediately began to cut back staff and to find ways to cut down the expenses. One of the ways they resolved this was to move the older boys from the monastery over to the orphanage to be with the other children. In this way they could cut out the extra staff at the monastery. This would mean lots of changes for the children who would now have to adjust. Handling change is very difficult for the children.
Many of the parents of the children were murdered, some are incest victims, most have been sexually molested. Mother Ivonne stressed in her briefing the need to be sincere and honest because we teach by example. She said, “These kids are like thermometers and can feel if you are honest or not.” She spoke of how the children need to constantly be reminded not to pretend; not to wear masks and added that we, the missionaries, needed to be careful not to wear a mask.
You could see how much the nuns love the children and it became evident day after day how much they love the nuns who have become the only stable force in their young lives. When it is Mother Ines’ or Mother Yvonne’s birthday, the children get up at 5:00 am and come to them with flowers and beautifully hand-crafted birthdays cards. Mother Ivonne advised the missionaries, “They will love you if you remind them that there are limits just like the ocean and the sand. God places limits on everything.” This is good advice for any parent.
The nuns have scholarships for the three older girls and plan to educate all the children. They have offered for the Highschool graduates to remain at the Hogar while they attend University. Currently, there are approximately 10 orphans eligible for adoption. These have abandonment papers. Without such papers from the Guatemalan government a child cannot be adopted. Since Mother Ines refuses to pay bribes to the government, it makes the process of adoption very difficult for them. So the Abbess Mother Ines has decided that they will raise the 100 or so children currently in their charge until they are fully grown and will provide for their university education or trade school to help make them independent, self-supporting and functional in society.
After learning about some of the history of the orphanage and their current political and financial problems, Mother Ivonne passed out papers explaining who would be in charge of what kids and how “El Tren de Chocolate” would be conducted. This was to be a summer camp program. It included swimming, arts and crafts, teaching them chess and board games, doing puzzles, playing table tennis, a visit to the computer center to play computer games, sports in the gymnasium and movies in the administration building. It was during this time that Mother Ivonne’s efficient German, no-nonsense, get-down-to-business demeanor became evident.
We got our first glimpse of the children at dinner as they lined up for their meal and prayer. (They pray before and after every meal.) They smiled shyly at us as we waved and gestured Ola! By the time we left Guatemala, however, their shyness melted into hugs and tears. Their beautiful large, dark round eyes and the thickness of their black hair told of their origins.
That night we fell asleep to the sounds of people shouting in the street; wheels of trucks screeching, the hissing of buses as they played “stop and go,” the revving of motorcycles, traffic racing up and down the busy street, music blaring from the nightclub across the way, horns honking, men whistling and planes flying overhead. The same sounds woke us early in the morning with intermittent sounds of fireworks added to the mix. From time-to-time there would even be the ringing of a gunshot. The men were also kept awake all night by dogs barking. Now I understood why the OCMC suggested we bring earplugs! Showers were restricted to three minutes to conserve on water and cost. This was a good discipline for us spoiled Americans!
Breakfast was served in the comedor at 7:15 every morning except Wednesdays and Sundays when we had Divine Liturgy. Matins followed at 8:00 a.m. in the church and Vespers were celebrated at 4:00 every afternoon. The children summon everyone to prayer by the beating of two wooden planks (simandron) and/or with the ringing of the bells. I was overwhelmed with tears when I first heard the children singing, reading, and chanting the services. They cense the church and its icons and know all the services by heart..
When I first set eyes on Abbess Mother Ines, I was overcome with emotion. I couldn’t stop the flow of tears. She truly was a living icon of our most Blessed Lady Theotokos. As each child approached her for a blessing, they prostrated before her and she lovingly reached out and took them into her arms, hugging them with tenderness and planting a gentle, motherly kiss on their foreheads. Her smile radiated with warmth and love. They would naturally fall into the folds of her robes and snuggle into her embrace. Her eyes spoke volumes. It was as though the Mother of the Universe was standing before us. My heart was warmed. My eyes were blessed. My soul rejoiced! On Thursday, July 11th, only three days after our arrival at the Hogar, 26 of us (21 orphans and 5 adults) crammed into the12-15 passenger van to go on a field trip to the hot volcanic pools in Guatemala City. The summer camp program involved 84 children which meant different missionaries took a group of 21 kids each of the three weeks we were there for the same field trip. Mother Ivonne’s congenial, helpful and warm brother, Jorge was our driver as he would become for all of our excursions. The large green, metal gate was drawn back and we pulled out into the dirty, dingy, dismal street with its buildings of flat, rusted metal roofs, rusted metal doors and multi-colored fronts. I prayed our van would make it up the long, winding, steep hills and that the breaks wouldn’t give out as we speedily descended the serpentine curves of the paved thoroughfares. The sound of the breaks screeching kept me focused on prayer. As our van climbed laboriously up a mountainside I asked where we were. A 17-year-old boy seated behind me responded to my question in Spanish, “It’s the monastery!” I could see below to my right a magnificent valley and lake with its multitude of inlets and outlets. The foliage was plush and deep green; the water very placid. The water reflected a panorama of green hues from jade to lime to celery to khaki. It was so peaceful. Absolutely exquisite. Suddenly, we were making our way down a dirt road and I could see a kupola that towered high and majestically above everything else in the deep blue, cloudless sky. I gasped and then it was in clear view: the monastery’s church that was under construction. Although the building won’t be ready to occupy until Christmas, there was enough done to be able to tell what it will be like when finished. It is magnificent. It is a piece of Heaven on earth. Its plans came from an Orthodox Architect from Mexico City. He donated them. He came out to the site to study the topography, went back to Mexico and then drew them to conform to the site. The architect still oversees the project although Mother Ines, who was studying to become an architect before she became a nun, climbs on a wooden switchback ladder every day to the top of the church to inspect the quality of the workmanship. If it doesn’t meet her standards, she makes them redo it.
When we entered the church, I was surprised to see the Guatemalan workers lifting the cement and water by buckets while two workers pulled on a cord to form a human pulley. It was so primitive and slow. Mother Ines explained that they had a modern cement mixer for the workers but they preferred to do it by hand. It’s already been under construction for two years. I pray God will allow me to return to see it completed.
The teenage boys who were with us took us on tour and proudly showed us their garden of greens and herbs they planted for food; the rabbits they’ve raised for food and income and the fish (tilapia) which they eat and sell as well for income. Sister Beatrice welcomed us into the immaculate and beautifully furnished monastery. Spread out over a long table in the living room was a magnificent epitaphion for the Theotokos made out of tile. Further entrance into the room revealed two other gorgeous icons on tile: one of Christ and the other of The Directress (Mary pointing us towards her Son). They were all written by a friend of Mother Ines who is a mason by trade and an artist by talent – not an iconographer by study. However, these had to be some of the most beautiful icons I have ever seen. She told us the story of how he came to write these icons for the monastery: When his wife gave birth to their fourth child, their only son, he was very ill and near death. He was a Roman Catholic, but had written a small icon of the Theotokos as a gift to the Abbess and the monastery. He had a copy of this icon which he placed in his son’s crib. He bowed before the icon in earnest prayer begging the supplications and intercessions of our most Holy Mother for his son. The boy was miraculously healed. After this miracle, they had their son baptized Orthodox and the mason is well on his way to becoming Orthodox himself says Mother Ines. It is apparent that the grace of God is on his work.
After our tour of the monastery chapel, we left for the hot springs in Guatemala City. The pools were refreshing and fun. The kids frolicked about and kept us missionaries very busy. From the pools we were off to Pollo Campero where we had the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten. For many of the orphans this was their first time in a restaurant, let alone one with a playground, and for one or two, their first taste of ice cream. I can recall one four-year-old boy’s eyes getting bigger and bigger with every lick. It warmed the missionaries’ hearts to know we had made this outing possible for them. The children and the adults with us from the Hogar thanked us profusely. However, it is to God we must direct our thanksgiving. The missionaries had the weekends off and so our first Saturday (July 16th) Jorge piled us into the van at 7:00 in the morning and we took off for the oldest city in Guatemala, and its first capitol, Antigua. (Guatemala has had five capitols.) First, however, we visited the monastery which is named “Lavra Mambre Orthodox Monastery” where we attended Divine Liturgy celebrated by the monastery’s priest, Fr. Athanasios. Father moved from Mexico City to Guatemala to serve the nuns. We later enjoyed a cup of coffee (they harvest the coffee plant that grows on their property) and cookies in their very modern and ultra clean kitchen. At this point, the older boys were still living on the monastery grounds in the guest house which is called “Casa Monte Tabor.” The view from the monastery grounds was beyond belief. (The boys weren’t moved over to the Hogar until the 20th of July.) Mother Maria’s niece, Bing Bing (they are Filipino), had been teaching the older boys to cook gourmet food. Every week they would prepare a luncheon for the men working on the church building and charge them. The boys wore chef’s hats and white chef’s jackets when they cooked or served. Bing Bing has now also moved to the orphanage where she continues to give the children cooking lessons. Several of the teens are still being taught iconography at the monastery. They go over from the Hogar in the afternoon.
As we made our way over the heavily brushed mountains of Guatemala, the Spanish Colony of Antigua founded in the 1400’s, suddenly came into plain view with its cobblestone streets, its original colorful flat-roofed and tile-roofed buildings, and its beautiful market places with their displays of fresh fruit and Mayan tapestries. As we drove through this ancient town a wedding was in progress at the church directly across from the city park. The bride and groom were in a horse drawn buggy in the town square. Our trip included dining for lunch at an Italian restaurant, shopping in an indoor market and touring the local jade factory and museum which was most interesting; I had never seen purple jade before.
The last weekend we were in Guatemala, the missionaries all flew to Tikal to visit the Mayan ruins. We walked for four hours through the rain forest with a tour guide. We saw a variety of wild life on that trip, had lunch in a restaurant in the middle of the rain forest, got caught in a torrential downpour, climbed the ruins, shopped and then flopped. It was great. We took three teenagers (two 17-year-old boys and one 16-year-old girl from the Hogar) with us. They had never flown before nor had they ever been away from Guatemala City. It was so exciting to view the trip through their eyes. It was a privilege that God granted the missionaries to be able to pay for their trips and to give them an opportunity to visit other locations in their country. The kids were nervous at first. They just didn’t know what to expect. For some missionaries, this was one of the greatest highlights of their mission work.
What did we accomplish on this mission trip? We learned to give of our love, of our time and of our talents. Some of us taught the teenagers how to play ping pong and have tournaments, others taught the kids how to put puzzles together to help develop their thinking powers; some challenged the kids to a chess game and taught them how to play; others played ball, soccer, badminton, frisbee and interacted with the kids on the playground jungle gym equipment; others went to the rooms of the kids and read to them at night before bed; others visited the nursery and held the babies; still others went to the three to four-year-olds’ room and read with them and taught them “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in Spanish. Missionary Bobbie Royhab was responsible for coming up with the arts and crafts projects. Most of the missionaries brought art supplies with them and with the help of others like Michele Walker, Jean Waschtschenko and Meghan Ray a beautiful proliferation of art projects was assembled. Missionary Ed Pier organized the kids into teams and held soccer tournaments. The female missionaries made 1st, 2nd and 3rd place ribbons for the winning teams. It was fun to watch Mother Ivonne and at the final competition, Mother Ines, as they rooted and cheered on the teams. Of course, the missionaries couldn’t teach the kids a thing about soccer (they call it football or rather “la partida de futbol”). It is the national sport of Latin America and these kids were dynamite to watch. With their backs against the goals, they were able from behind to kick the ball right into the net. I have never seen such fancy footwork as what we witnessed. Our final day with the kids was full. All the arts and crafts projects we had done with the kids during our three weeks were on display in one room which was sealed off with a large blue ribbon. The kids and the missionaries anxiously awaited the arrival of the Abbess who would tour their little art gallery. When she arrived, one of the orphans read aloud a beautiful card the children had prepared expressing their love and gratitude for all that she does for them after which they burst out with “God grant you many years” in Spanish (of course). The Abbess cut the ribbon and her entourage of nannies, cooks, and staff of every kind toured the beautifully displayed works. Some will be sold in the Hogar’s Gift Shop and the proceeds will go to the individual child’s account. There are three long-term missionaries currently at the Hogar. The two other than Christina had been working with the little ones who also had their artwork on display. They were absolutely adorable. From their museum tour, the crowd made its way to the Administration Building where all had been set up for a puppet show. I had written two puppet shows in Spanish before I left for our mission trip which the teenaged girls (the senoritas) put on. The young children who were seated in the front rows were mesmerized. The senoritas did a fabulous job. We left the puppets, their costumes and scripts behind for them to continue to enjoy.
Just the day before I experienced the greatest thrill of my trip when a six-year-old boy, whom I had spent the entire three weeks trying to teach how to roller skate, came flying by me at what seemed to be a hundred miles an hour. I was blown out of the water! I had just had a similar experience with his seven-year-old sister earlier that morning when for the first time she let go of my hands and swam a short distance over to me after weeks of teaching her to swim. This happened to other missionaries as well. It made it all so worthwhile.
In the early evening of our final day, immediately after Vespers, we assembled with our respective kids (we each had seven children directly under us; one had eight) and gave them presents. We sat in the park and hugged and kissed and wept. It was a tearful parting; we had grown attached to the kids and hated to say “adios.” Many of the children showered us with cards they had prepared for us, thanking us for caring, for sharing, for loving them and teaching them. The nuns have done an incredible job of teaching them manners, respect for their elders and authority, obedience and an appreciation for even the smallest thing. They are so polite; so warm; so tender. The work being done at the Hogar is amazing.
Each child has his or her story. I had grown very fond of two teenaged brothers, ages 17 and 15. One day as I was leaving my quarters, I saw them in the courtyard speaking to a woman I had not seen before. I approached and they introduced me to their mother. I told her what wonderful sons she had in Spanish and we hugged. She promptly agreed. Later I was to learn from Fr. Athanasios that this woman’s husband died at the dinner table one night at the age of about 42 as he announced to his wife and kids that he had just received a raise. The mother had to now support the family. She cleaned the home of an affluent couple and as time went on they wanted her to spend more time working for them and suggested she temporarily put her children in the Hogar in the afternoons so she could spend more time working for them. They told her they would help her. Instead, the Guatemalan government took her boys from her and placed her now 11-year-old daughter in another Home. The boys had not seen their mother for quite some time and were proud to introduce her to me. I cried when I parted their company.
The Hogar is full of sad stories. There’s a girl with one arm only; another with only one hand. There’s a boy whose feet were so badly burned when his mother put them in boiling water and another who can barely walk. They look to the nuns for hope and, through God’s grace, they get it. They looked to us for attention, and for a time, they got it. The mission team of 2005 Guatemala has agreed to write the kids that were assigned to them so that all the children will receive mail on a regular basis from us. Pray that we don’t let them down. By the time we left the Hogar, the issue of the tiles was resolved and their primary source of income restored at least 70%-80%.; we received news that the adoption of the three brothers that the Tecca family from our church (St. John the Baptist in Post Falls, Idaho) had finally been completed and we would now have a total of six adopted Guatemalan children from the Hogar with three more pending adoption; the removal of the boys from the Monastery and their placement at the Hogar was completed and seemed to be working; a new program was established whereby the older siblings have been made responsible for their younger ones in the nuns’ endeavor to make the children more independent. Everything the nuns do moves the children closer to independence; this is the only way to prepare them for the world outside the gates of the Hogar.
You might say, “But how can I help?” If the nuns could get financial help through the sponsoring of children, this would lighten the Hogar’s financial burden and allow the nuns to complete the work at the Monastery. Since they are only leasing the orphanage in order to maintain full control of its religious aspects, the day might come when they will be forced to move the orphanage over to that land they own and where the monastery is located. They are preparing for the future now by building quarters for the children bit-by-bit at the monastery in blocks of four rooms with two bathrooms in a square.. By sponsoring a child at $10/day or $300/month or $3,650 per year, their burden would be lifted and the work of the monastery furthered. Imagine what a blessing that would be.
Bishop Kalistos Ware (the author of the well-known book “The Orthodox Church”) said “Orthodoxy repudiates all forms of quietism.” Our Orthodox Faith is a faith of action and prayer. Nothing can happen outside of God: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1) If every Orthodox Church in America were to sponsor a child at the Hogar either through their Ladies or Men’s groups or through the parish as a whole, the nuns would be able to complete the work of building the monastery, its church and its quarters for the orphans. When a child is sponsored, the sponsors send cards and gifts for them. Jorge sends the sponsors reports, photos and cards from the children. The only condition the nuns have to meet with the government is the need for an external audit. The nuns have only one central fund which is handled by the Abbess. Most of the money goes toward salaries; for teachers, nurses, nannies and cooks. Those interested in sponsoring a child should write to Abbess Mother Ines at Hogar Rafael Ayau, P.O. Box 591828 D-012, Miami, Florida 33159-1828.
The Hogar and the monastery represent the only Orthodox presence in all of Guatemala. We must support them! What kind of Orthodox Christians would we be to ignore the work that God has begun through the dedication of these beautiful nuns. They have converted some of the locals who attend services at the Hogar on Sundays and Feast Days.
At our final meeting with Mother Ivonne, she said that “the best kept secret is still Orthodoxy. We have to be able to bring as many people as we can into the faith.” She also quoted St. Theophan the Recluse who said, “You have to be able to educate the children in the light of God.” She thanked the missionaries for coming and told us that our work at the Hogar was very important not only to the nuns and the teachers, but to the children. She kept emphasizing that the children really need us. The devil’s attacks are not limited to the boundaries of Guatemala; he’s everywhere. It was the experience of a lifetime; fulfilling, rewarding and soul-searching. We had a very congenial and loving team of missionaries and for that I will always be grateful to God. We will never forget the children of Guatemala; perhaps some day we will be reunited. To God be the glory! Amen.