“My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways.”
~ Proverbs 23:26
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to be with other kids? Do other kids like to be with you? Are you a leader? Are you a follower? Do other kids want you to lead them? Do you want another kid to be your leader? What do you think makes a guy, gal or kid a good leader? What would be some examples to you of what a good leader does? What would be some examples to you of what a guy, gal or kid would do that would make him or her not a good leader? Would a good leader to you know what he or she is doing? Would a good leader to you know where he or she is going? Would a good leader to you listen to the guys, gals and kids who he or she is leading? Would a good leader to you tell the guys, gals and kids who he or she is leading what to do? Between Bolivia and Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa have had the oversight responsibility of a dozen summer teams. A summer team spends up to eight weeks in another country. The first weekend that a summer team was in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa would take the summer team by train to a railroad town called Pailón. Pozo Verde is the name of an Ayoré camp. Ayoré is the name of a primitive, indigenous tribe in Bolivia. Ayores live in small clans. When missionaries first began to arrive in Bolivia – way before your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia, Ayoré guys, gals and kids wandered around in clans in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands. When missionaries established a contact with an Ayoré clan, the missionaries would help the Ayoré clan settle on land that had been procured by the missionaries. Missionaries who were with the mission – South America Mission, that your grandmaa and grandpaa were with when they lived in Bolivia, located and resettled before your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia two Ayoré clans on two reservations that are restricted only for Ayores. One of the Ayoré clans was resettled on a place called Zapoco while the other Ayoré group was resettled in Pozo Verde. Pozo Verde is located about ten kilometers from Pailón. During the time each year that a summer team was in Pailón, your grandmaa and grandpaa would walk with the summer team to Pozo Verde to visit the Ayoré guys, gals and kids who were living there. While the summer team guys and gals were in Pozo Verde, they would play with the Ayoré kids, do a program and see firsthand what life was like for Ayoré guys, gals and kids. Ask your dad if he remembers walking to Pozo Verde.
The walk with a summer team to Pozo Verde each summer was a long, tiring hike. The only way to get to Pozo Verde the first years that your grandmaa and grandpaa took summer teams there was by taking a path that would be muddy in places. If the sun was shining on the day that the summer team walked to Pozo Verde, it would be an uncomfortably hot walk. Tammy Brock was on a summer team that came to Bolivia. Tammy was a student at Wheaton College. The year that Tammy was accepted on the summer team that went to Bolivia, Tammy was responsible for assigning about 200 other Wheaton students to summer teams that were going to different countries. The year that Tammy came to Bolivia, a road that passed near Pozo Verde had been cut out of the jungle. Instead of having to walk on a narrow path to Pozo Verde, the summer team could walk on a gravel road to a short trail that led into Pozo Verde. Your grandpaa knew how to get to Pozo Verde using the path; your grandpaa did not know where the entrance off the new road was into Pozo Verde. All the guys and gals left at the same time to go to Pozo Verde. It did not take long before a group of summer team guys and gals got ahead of your grandmaa and grandpaa. Tammy was between the first group of summer team guys and gals and the group of summer team guys and gals who were with your grandmaa and grandpaa. After going several kilometers, your grandpaa could no longer see the first group of guys and gals. Your grandpaa was not worried about losing touch with the first group of guys and gals as your grandpaa thought that Tammy could see and was following that group of guys and gals. After walking and walking and walking . . . Tammy stopped. Tammy walked back to your grandpaa to ask your grandpaa how much further the walk was to the path that went to Pozo Verde. Your grandpaa told Tammy that he thought that she was had been keeping an eye on the first group of guys and gals – that she would see them turn onto the path that went into Pozo Verde. Your grandpaa a few minutes later stopped at a small mud walled, thatched roof house to ask where the entrance of the path was that led into Pozo Verde. A lady in the house told your grandpaa that the entrance to the path to Pozo Verde was several kilometers back – that your grandmaa and grandpaa and . . . had walked by the entrance of the path into Pozo Verde. Your grandpaa was not happy that the path going into Pozo Verde had been passed by so much as the inside of his legs had become chaffed by rubbing against his blue jeans. Your grandpaa’s saying for that year’s summer team became ‘if you do not know where you are going, do not lead out’.
Proverbs 23 talks about paths. The proverb’s author wants every guy, gal and kid to know that they can choose a path or paths that will lead him or her to become a well-known guy, gal or kid and/or that will lead him or her to become rich and/or that will lead him or her to take what another guy, gal or kid has and/or that will lead him or her to act a fool and/or that will lead him or her to always get drunk and/or . . . all these paths are paths that the devil walks. The proverb’s writer writes in verse 26, “My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways.” Your grandpaa knows that a good leader will always know who he or she is to follow. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are praying that you will only follow guys and gals who know the entrances to God’s ‘doing what is right’ paths.
Proverbs 23 (229)