By the time he left he was suffering from serious PTSD, although he wasn't aware of it at the time. After gaining an understanding of his own problem, he educated himself on the topic and is now treating firefighters and missionaries who also have PTSD. He was more than qualified to speak about identifying and handling stress in the missionary field.
It was nice to get out of the city for the weekend. I made a new friend named Linda. She is my Mom's age and has been a missionary in Honduras for 8 years. I kept thinking about the similarities and differences between my new friend and my Mom.
We were lucky we met Linda because she lives close to the retreat. We ended up having to escape to her house. It rained hard the whole time we were there. One night the rain was so heavy that many people who lived close to the retreat center were washed away and killed. We went to Linda's house because the road back to Tegucigalp was covered by three stories worth of dirt and boulders. It was impassible. They kept clearing out the road, then it would rain again, and they would have another landslide. Finally the road opened and we got out fast during a pause in the rain.
Because all of the traffic had been held up for so long, the 90 minute drive took about five hours. As we pulled up to my house we learned that Pastor John and his family were broken down on the side of the highway. The lady who drove me to the retreat had already driven for hours and still had a half hour drive ahead of her. So she went home and I ventured out to get out friends. Fany joked that I was on a rescue mission.
In the end, all of us got home safely. We were grateful. Meanwhile, they are still tallying the deaths in Siguatepeque. Last night I listened to the rain on my roof. The peaceful, romantic feeling that rain usually brings was gone. All I could think of was the destruction I saw on the news. I hope that one day rain will bring me a sense of peace again, but that will take some time.
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| One lane of traffic was cleared |
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| You can see why it kept sliding |
