Missionaries walking their talk
By Frank Bradley Sentinel writer

FRANK BRADLEY/Sentinel Photo Roger and Beth Briggs in Hayesville on Monday.

Roger and Beth Briggs are a couple of dentists with a mission. For the past 17 years, they (and their four children) have lived in Guatemala, a poor Central American country. The couple worked there pulling and filling teeth, feeding the poor and undernourished and spreading the Christian gospel.

Their Guatemala ministry began when the Briggs lived in Clay County.

Two years after graduating from dental school and getting married, the Briggs moved to Hayesville and set up a dental practice. Eight years later in 1985, after their first three children were born, they began traveling to Guatemala doing dental outreach to the Mayan Indians of the Central Highlands.

Guatemala, a country of 13 million people with a land area a little larger than Kentucky, is located at the heel of Mexico's boot. It borders the Pacific Ocean's to the south and El Salvadore and Honduras on a diagonal line along the southeast.

In 1991, the Briggs sold their dental practice and moved to Dallas, Texas to receive Bible and missionary training. Three years later, after completing training, they moved with their family to Guatemala to serve as full-time missionaries.

On Monday, the Sentinel discovered the Briggs, who were back in Hayesville, where Roger said they were doing a little fund raising and also interviewing a prospective missionary family for missionary work in Guatemala.

Guatemala City, the country's capital, has a population of 5 million, counting dozens of squatter camps located on the outskirts of the city. The largest of these squatters villages, known as La Primavera, has a population of more than 100,000. Briggs said poor people have poured into these settlements from the rural countryside, squatting on public land, and seeking work in the city in order to make a better life for them and their families.

According to Roger, most live in little cardboard shacks until they can earn enough money to build a simple little block house with dirt floors, no running water and maybe only enough electricity to light one light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

He estimates there are 400 of these squatter villages where people are packed in like sardines with open sewer ditches. Water is brought in by trucks to fill 55 gallon drums from which they drawwater for drinking, bathing and cooking.

Guatemala is the largest country on the Central American isthmus. It also has the largest population of poor people. Briggs estimates that nine million people earn only $3 a day, while another three million make as little as $1 a day. He said the Guatemalan government can't or doesn't care to do much to help them. In any case, health care and public education for folks in these villages is practically non-existent. "The vast majority of humanitarian work that is being done there is through missionary organizations," Briggs said.

"The public hospitals and health departments have virtually no supplies. Medical workers have nothing to work with," he said. "People won't go to hospitals because they associate going to hospitals with death. Most who go die there. Many of the babies die from dehydration."

Beth said when she was at one of the hospitals, she saw a woman eating her meager meal with her fingers. "I asked them why she didn't have silverware," she said. "And was told, it had all been stolen."

Asked about the country's economy, Briggs said their number one source of income is from other Guatemalans who work in the United States and send money back to their families. Most workers in the country are poor laborers who work on coffee or sugar cane plantations where they are paid on average $3 a day for their work which might require them to pick a 100 pound sack of coffee beans.

Briggs said there are a few very wealthy families living in Guatemala, but they are not encouraging education among the rural people for fear of losing their cheap labor force. Although the country's mother tongue is Spanish, there are 21 dialects of Mayan also spoken by Indians, who comprise 55 percent of the country's population, according to Briggs. Many who live away from the cities and squatter camps, live in small rural villages without roads, where you can only get into them by walking on footpaths.

Guatemala has experienced the fastest population growth in the Americas, increasing from less than a million in 1900 to 13 million today. It also the lowest literacy rate in the Americas. Briggs said although the country has free schools, most do not attend because they are unable to buy uniforms and school supplies.

While Guatemala has a strong Roman Catholic tradition, protestants have demonstrated considerable growth in recent decades until about a third of population have become Protestants, chiefly Evangelical and Pentecostals. Still, it is common for traditional Mayan religious practices to be incorporated into Christian Ceremonies, a phenomenon known as "syncretism."

Briggs said his family's mission, known as "Hearts for Heaven, Inc.," is supported entirely by private donations and churches. He relys on pledges and contributions, saying it only takes $25 a month to sponsor a child.

"We are a small organization. All of the money contributed goes directly to support the Guatemalans," he said. "There are zero dollars used for administrative costs. Checks sent are changed into local currency and the money goes directly into feeding and providing care for the children," he said.

Currently, Hearts for Heaven is providing care for 1,500 children on a monthly budget of $4,400," he said.

According to a brochure, "Hearts For Heaven was incorporated in 1992 as a nonprofit health care outreach to Guatemala and all of Central America, with the sole purpose of sharing the love of Jesus with the hurting, the hungry and the lost. We believe that God is still pouring out His amazing grace whereby the blind see, the lame walk and the captive are set free."

Briggs said all four of their own children graduated from high school in Guatemala and then Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. Their son, John, spent two years working in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and is now pursuing a Masters Degree in Third World Development/ International Political and Economic Development at Fordam University. Their oldest daughter, Rachel, is married living in Knoxville and has an eight-month-old daughter, Elsa Faye. Their daughter, Rebekah, is studying at Emory University in Atlanta to become a physician assistant. Roger said their youngest daughter, Kathryn attends Cambridge University in England.

While Roger and Beth still spend most of the time overseeing missionary work in Guatemala, they also own a small home in Indian Trail, N.C., near Charlotte. Roger said it is convenient because enables them to catch a direct U.S. Air fight back and forth to Guatemala.

Roger said a young family from Dacula, Georgia also works with them in Guatemala. As mentioned before, the Briggs are trying to recruit another family to help with the mission there because they will eventually retire back to the U.S.

Roger said Guatemala had recently elected a new president, Alvero Colom, who is a Roy Mosteller look-alike. (If the new president exhibits some of Mosteller's behavior it would bode well for the country for Roy is known for his hard work and generosity in helping the poor.)

"Nevertheless, it's hard to say what's going to happen with the government with the new president," Briggs said.

Roger and Beth said they have fond memories of Hayesville.

"Hayesville was a terrific place to start our family," he said. But the couple have no regrets doing full-time missionary work in Guatemala. "It has given our children a world perspective,"Roger said.

To the couple, living in Guatemala for 12 straight years-- teaching, providing medical and dental care to the people there is like "seeing the word of God brought into our lives."

Anyone wishing to support the Heart For Heaven ministry may send checks to 1264 Willow Oaks Trail, Matthews, NC 28104.

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