{"id":1421,"date":"2016-05-02T15:25:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T22:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2016-05-03T11:01:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T18:01:02","slug":"salvador-the-truth-behind-the-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/2016\/05\/salvador-the-truth-behind-the-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvador: The Truth Behind the Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Salvador\"<\/a>\u201cAt some point, God will ask you to sacrifice on his altar not only your stories about your own life but your version of his stories as well. Your softly lit watercolor felt-board version of scripture stories and church history must, like all your stories, be abandoned at his feet, and the messy, vibrant, and inconvenient truths that characterize God\u2019s real work with real people will have to take center stage. If they don\u2019t, then how will God\u2019s work in your hungry messy, and inconvenient life ever do the same?<\/em>
\n When God knocks, don\u2019t creep to the door and look through the peephole to see if he looks like you thought he would. Rush to the door and throw it open.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2015 Adam S. Miller<\/p>\n

I am about to give an alternative narrative to someone else\u2019s story.\u00a0 I give it because I think it is more accurate than that given by the other person. It is surely not 100% accurate, since each of us sees the world through our own filters, but it includes others\u2019 experiences and even their sense of betrayal when certain secrets were revealed.\u00a0\u00a0 I am convinced that when each of us reviews our life in a sphere which demands empathy and compassion, we will see not only our experiences and actions but how they impacted others around us.\u00a0 Ugly secrets we thought we had kept will reveal themselves as doorways to unthinkable consequences.\u00a0 Our sudden outbursts of anger will linger in the hurt feelings of those who felt our rage.\u00a0 The many ways in which we cast ourselves as either hero or victim will return to us in echoes of self-deception, self-justification, and self-involvement.\u00a0 We will see all whom we overlooked or even damaged while we were focusing on our own image.<\/p>\n

I am not the star of this story. I lived it only as a bystander.\u00a0 Each who participated would tell it differently.\u00a0 In many ways, the story simply exists as itself, a pattern which many have set or have inadvertently followed.\u00a0 It does include betrayal. Of that I am certain.<\/p>\n

One who felt deeply betrayed was my father.\u00a0 I do this blog post series in tribute to him,\u00a0 to the truth he lived, and to his boldness in confronting what he perceived as evil\u2013 to name it, to condemn it, to do what he could to heal its consequence, and to repent for the part he played in endorsing it.<\/p>\n

I will, for now, present five scenes which I will develop in upcoming posts:<\/p>\n

Scene 1, 1961: Carlotta de Yalibat, from Coban, Guatemala, is living with us in Provo, Utah.\u00a0 She wears her black hair in a long braid.\u00a0 Her blouse, called a huipil,\u00a0<\/em>is embroidered\u00a0 with bright flowers, and her skirt, called a corte, <\/em>is from a Guatemalan loom.\u00a0 I am six years old, in first grade, and I want to show off this exotic woman to all of my friends.\u00a0 She does \"\"not attend church with us, because a man named Dale Grover (this is the only name I have changed) comes every Sunday to take her to a Spanish-speaking ward.\u00a0 Dale had served as a missionary in Guatemala, and loved the people.\u00a0 He loved Carlotta (whom we called \u201cHermana Yalibat\u201d), and she loved him.\u00a0 Once, Hermana Yalibat came to my school as my \u201cshow and tell.\u201d\u00a0 I laid my head on her lap and she stroked my hair.\u00a0 I was validated before all other first graders.<\/p>\n

We know that our father loves both Dale and Hermana Yalibat, and that the three of them freely inhabit a world we cannot yet comprehend, a world which includes not only Spanish but Kekchi, Hermana Yalibat\u2019s Mayan dialect.\u00a0 Dad is working on translation projects with her.<\/p>\n

Scene 2, 1971: Dad tells us we must not mention Dale Grover to our grandparents, because they do not believe in his work.\u00a0 In fact, they think he is an \u201capostate.\u201d\u00a0 We are certain that our grandparents simply do not understand.\u00a0 Quietly, we fill envelopes with flyers about the foundation Dale has established to help hundreds of people like Hermana Yalibat.\u00a0 He is working miracles in Guatemala and has sacrificed his whole life by moving to a place near Coban\u2013with his wife and children\u2013to help the Mayan Indians.\u00a0 There could be nothing more heroic. But heroes are often misunderstood. Once, when my little sister reveals to Grandma Groberg that we have been stuffing envelopes for Dale, Grandma gives my dad a stern look.<\/p>\n

Scene 3, 1975: Our whole family goes to Guatemala, and we visit Dale and his family.\u00a0 We are astounded by the good he is doing.\u00a0 He tells us about how misunderstood he is, and we pray for him.\u00a0 \"Cakchiquel<\/a><\/p>\n

Scene 4:\u00a0 April, 1978:
\nDad and I, with some returned missionaries and two Mexican friends (Lluvia and Olivia), and Dad\u2019s protegee, John Robertson, return to Guatemala.\u00a0 We go to Dale\u2019s plantation.\u00a0 Dad and John will supervise the RMs in making dictionaries of the various dialects they have learned.\u00a0 I will go to another city, a city I love, called Momostenango.\u00a0 Dad and I will be out of communication for a month while I do my own projects in Momos.\u00a0 I will live with a Quiche family, the Zarates.\u00a0 Before I leave, however, Dale talks to Dad and me about a very bad church leader named Elder Bradford, who is rich, white, and does not love the Mayan people.\u00a0 Elder Bradford does not like Dale.\u00a0 Dad and I shake our heads in sympathy.\u00a0 I can see J.B., one of the RMs (one whom Dad and I met while he was still a missionary working with Dale, who was the \u201cdistrict president\u201d at the time), pacing.\u00a0 He is only yards away from us.\u00a0 I see him pace and glance at us occasionally.\u00a0 He is unsettled about something.\u00a0 I can sense that.<\/p>\n

Scene 5: May, 1978:
\nI leave Momostenango, having decided to join Dad and the others with Dale.\u00a0 Miraculously, I find my way, though I had no idea of how to get to Dale\u2019s house.\u00a0 (I will describe that miraculous trip later in this series.)<\/p>\n

\"bus<\/a>It is morning when I arrive.\u00a0 I am directed to where my dad is working, up a hill.\u00a0 I go to him, we hug, and I announce, \u201cI think I\u2019ll stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dad looks at me hard and shakes his head in a firm NO<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s get on the bus,\u201d he says, referring to the bus we had taken to Guatemala, which is parked a few yards away.\u00a0 We get in.\u00a0 Dad closes the bus door. \u201cYou are not to come here,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

I wait, confused, and see Dad\u2019s eyes fill with tears.\u00a0 \u201cDale has apostatized,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And then the story comes.\u00a0 My dad weeps as he tells it.<\/p>\n

These are the main scenes.\u00a0 I will fill in the blanks in the blog series.<\/p>\n

TO BE CONTINUED.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt some point, God will ask you to sacrifice on his altar not only your stories about your own life but your version of his stories as well. Your softly lit watercolor felt-board version of scripture stories and church history must, like all your stories, be abandoned at his feet, and the messy, vibrant, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1301,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[277,91,275,147,6,276,11],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cakchiquel","tag-guatemala","tag-kekchi","tag-mormon-missionaries","tag-mormons","tag-quiche","tag-robert-w-blair"],"yoast_head":"\nSalvador: The Truth Behind the Fiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cAt some point, God will ask you to sacrifice on his altar not only your stories about your own life but your version of his stories as well. 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