Carlos' Blog

Charlie and I have just finished climbing Volcano Tajumulco, altitude 13,841, and we are here on the summit of the tallest volcano in Guatemala. We have completed our climb of Walking, Hiking and Praying With Jesus. 36 volcanos in three weeks for the Mayan people of Tabacal. We will head back down now, to drive the Jeep some 6 to 8 hours back to our home in San Cristobal, to sleep in our own beds tonight.

Thank you for your prayers, for without your prayers and God’s help, we would not have made it.

Tomorrow we will download some of the pictures of the climb for you to look at.

Today, we climbed volcano Tacana, altitude 13,425. The Lord sent a guide to help us today. When we arrived at the staging area to begin our climb, I went over to a man sweeping the streets. His name was Javier, and I asked if he knew of anyone who could be our guide to the top. Javier replied, “I can help you,” and proceeded to be our guide. He knew exactly what to do and where to go. He was a real “God send!”

Today we had Byron and 5 others who climbed the volcano with us, including one man from Columbia from Byron’s church. When we got to the top of the volcano, there was a dividing wall to divide Guatemala from Mexico. Half of the volcano is in
Guatemala and half in Mexico.

Tomorrow we are climbing Tajumulco, altitude 13,841, the tallest volcano in Guatemala. We are hoping to start very early in the morning. Please pray for physical strength and protection from the cold. This will be our last volcano!

We had a good day today. We were able to climb two volcanos, Santa Maria, altitude 12,372 and volcano San Antonio, altitude 8,245. We had planned on climbing volcano Santiaguito, which was formed out of the side of Santa Maria.  We were not able to climb Santiaguito, as today it was very active and was spewing gas and fumes, which would be very dangerous for our health. The local population all advised against climbing Santiagito, so we drove on to San Marcos, and climbed volcano San Antonio. We will stay tonight In San Marco, and tomorrow, we will climb Tacana, altitude 13,425 and Tajumulco, altitude 13,841, the two highest volcanos in Guatelmala.

While climbing volcano Santa Maria we met at the top, an Italian tourist Alexander and a 14 year old boy, Allen who was his tour guide. Charlie and I became friends with them and they joined us in prayer at the top of the volcano. Charlie and Allen became good friends and we were coming down the volcano, Allen asked Carlos if he could joint them for the last two volcanos, I then talked with his parents by cell phone and they gave him permission to go with us.

We would ask for prayer  for good  weather. We are having a cold front this weekend and last year volcano Tajumulco had snow when a cold front came through. We are trusting God will give us good weather or He will equip us to be able to face the cold. Thank you for your prayers and thank the Lord for the 34 volcanos done so far.

Today, we took a day off from climbing to get physical exams with a local doctor in Quesaltenango. I was not feeling very well and Charlie was feeling sleeping when he reached the top of the last volcano yesterday, so we wanted to make sure our health was good to continue. They doctor said that we are both well, but because we have been on the road for about 3 weeks in very extreme conditions with the climbing and because our meals have not been regular, is the reason why we are feeling the way we do.

We also took the Jeep to a local mechanic and had it checked. Pastor Jorge was with us for the day to help get all this done. The Jeep looks good, and a day of rest has restored our spirits. Tomorrow we will climb volcano Santa Maria, altitude 12,372 and volcano Santiaguito, altitude 8,200.

The weather is changing and it is getting cold. Please pray for us as we have some of the biggest volcanos to climb in the next few days, including two of the biggest volcanos in Central America.

Today we climbed volcano Zunil, altitude 11,617 and Santo Thomas, altitude 11,469. We had two guides, but it still took us over 10 hours to finish these two volcanos. They were difficult and we are tired tonight. I have a watch that tells me how many calories I burns and in today’s climb I burned 3,800 calories. We finished volcano # 32 today and we have 5 more to go.

I would ask prayers for strength. Also the weather is getting very cold. Out of the 5 volcanos we have left 4 are of extreme difficulty. We have also been having some car problems with the Jeep. Please pray that everything goes well with the Jeep. If you have a Facebook account, please pray about sending your Friends an account of what we are doing, and how to contribute to the Community Center for Tabacal.

On January 11th, we finished climbing Cerro Quemado, altitude 10,486, around 12:30 PM. We still had plenty of daylight left when we came down, so we decided to climb volcano Cuxliquel, altitude 9,853. This volcano is used mainly for agriculture and it has plantations of corn on its slopes. When we got to the top of this volcano we found a Mayan altar. Charlie, Victor and I had  a time of prayer on this volcano and Psalm 23 came to our minds which talks about God being our shepherd and we His sheep, and how he protects and cares for us. The sky was blue and there were no one clouds, but while we were praying, a cloud came over us, only in the area where we were praying and a mist of rain came over us. (this is not the rainy season) We felt there the presence of God so vividly and it was so extraordinary to see His manifestation over us.

Today we are climbing volcano Zunil, altitude 11,617 and Santo Tomas, altitude 11,469, both high and with difficult ratings.

Yesterday, January 10th, we arrived at the home of Pastor Jorge Luis and Aura Betancur. This nice family is going to be providing housing for us for a couple of days. They have 3 children Victor 20, Monica 16 and Jorge 14. They have a ministry in Quesaltenango.

Yesterday we climbed volcano  Siete Orejas, altitude 11,053. Our guide was 75 years old! (this is the first person older then me to climb with us : ) ) A local forest conservation agency offer to help us and took us in their pick up to the volcano, which was a blessing because the access to the volcano was not that easy.

After the climb Pastor Jorge took us to a mechanic to have our Jeep checked and everything was okay. We went back to Pastor Jorge’s home and we had a great meal with their family and we rested for the rest of the day for today’s climb.

Today we are climbing volcano Cerro Quemado, altitude 10,486. Victor, Pastor Jorge’s son is climbing with us today and we are hoping to finish this volcano around 12:30 and go to volcano Cuxliquel, altitude 9,853. After the second volcano we will have 8 more to go.

I am feeling much better now, and I thank you for your prayers for my health and well being. Charlie is doing well also.

We would ask that each of you to pray for us as we finish these volcanos, as all of the last 8 volcanos are of high difficulty. Again we would also ask that you pray that we can find the roads to the volcanos, for our health and strength and also for the car so that we will have no car problems. The roads to the volcano access points are extremely rough and frequently unmarked.

I would also like to share some thoughts on Matthew 21: 21-22, wherein:

Jesus replied, ” I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you
do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain,
Go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done.  If You believe you
will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. “

In part of this verse  God is talking about the mountain of sin, insecurity and death. Sin is the mountain of  the past, Insecurity is the mountain of the present and death is the mountain of the future but in all this God is giving us the victory if we have faith and believe in Him.

We climbed 2 volcanos yesterday Tolimam, altitude 10,358 and Paquisis, altitude 9,282. These were very difficult volcanos to climb specially Tolimam. Part of the way we had to crawl to be able to make it because of the vegetation and it was very steep. We took two guides for each volcano. The guides for Toliman were park rangers and they knew they volcano very well.

We were hiking from 6 AM to 9:30 PM  yesterday and we were able to finish the four volcanos in the Atitlan area. Three of these volcanos were in the High difficult scale and one was medium scale.

This morning we started the drive drove to Quesaltenago and we are hoping to do one volcano in that area today.

Please continue to pray for us so we can finish the goal of the volcanos and be home soon. The Atitlan volcano were very difficult and also we had to climb after having been weak and sick for a day.

Also please pray for more people to donate for the Bible teaching and Feeding  Center for the village of Tabacal. We Praise God for his faithfulness.

We left at 6:00 Am this morning to climb volcano Tolimam, altitude 10,358. Today we are mindful of Isaiah 41:10-11:
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for you enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.¨

I woke up around 3AM this morning, unable to sleep and feeling very insecure about climbing volcanos Toliman and Paquisis with just Charlie. We are both tired and not feeling very well. So, we decided not to climb today in order to rest and spend some time with the Lord. We are going to visit a CMA church in San Pedro today to pray with the Pastor, and ask if there are a couple of men that may want to climb with us tomorrow. This is a church that we have helped and worked with in the past.

Please pray for Charlie and I as we need your prayers for strength and healing. Many of the volcanos we will climb this week are twice as high as the ones we climbed last week. I also think there is more danger, so I would ask that you to pray that when we are climbing we will be invisible to people that may have bad intentions. A good prayer for us right now would be the Lord’s assurance in Isaiah 43: “Carlos and Charlie, I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;”