The Hopkinsville Connection

Sounds like the title of a movie, doesn’t it. Maybe a great cloak and dagger story; or could be a touchie feelie about small town high school sports. But the real story is much better than either.

 

The real story is about a group of real people who went out into the real world and made a real difference in the lives of over 2000 people in less than a week. As I got to know these people, I came to realize that they had already been making a difference in the lives of others before they ever went to Guatemala; and that they will continue to make a difference now that they’re back home.

 

 

Home is Hopkinsville, Kentucky. A place even more obscure than Guatemala – yet the common link between six souls who were willing to have their lives changed in order to change the lives of people they’d never even met.

 

Doug Woods looks like he should be playing tight end for the Tennessee Titans. At 6′4” and 270 (according to the airport luggage scales), he’s definitely got the size and body mass to go pro. He’s got the looks (according to his mother) and charisma (according to everybody who knows him) to give great interviews, too. But instead of football, Doug works at an auto components manufacturing plant, making suspension systems parts. Odds are, every time you drive somewhere, you’re being held up by one of Doug’s suspension parts. Comforting thought. Doug’s just the kind of guy who is willing to hold others up – he’s got a big heart. And once you know that about him, he’s comforting to be around.

 

In Guatemala one night, Doug volunteered to do the devotional. A “devotional”, as best I’ve ever been able to figure out, is evangelical lingo for something between a bible study and a peptalk. Doug’s devotional was really him telling his life’s story, how he was raised catholic with all the rules and regulations, but was now finding real freedom in loving Jesus right back. As anytime we humans have something really meaningful going on, we tell others about it. Same for Doug. And who wouldn’t listen to Doug – genuine, comforting, 6′4”, 270!

 

It’s his smile that says it all though. You can always tell a person who is comfortable with themselves and wants to give you a gift. Doug doesn’t have all the answers – he’s still sorting things out; but he’s willing to let you walk along with him while he does. And that’s more than you can say about most people in this world.

 

In our bunkhouse, I had to learn how to choreograph the wake up routine with six other guys stumbling over and around each other at 5:30 in the morning. One good thing, the shower only had cold water, so there seldom was much of a wait. I said it was refreshing. Doug said I was crazy. All of which is to say, it took me just a little while to figure out that Patrick, who is built more like a linebacker, was Doug’s brother in law, and also from Hopkinsville.

 

Don’t know if he and Doug are rubbing off on each other, or if their wives have similar tastes in personalities, but sincere and comfortable are two words it didn’t take me 10 minutes to connect with Patrick. In fact one night when I said to the team that it was a privilege to get to love on the Guatemalan folks we’d been around each day, it was Pat who said it even better – “Those people deserve to be hugged – they’re worth it” What more do you need to hear to know a man’s true heart?

 

Patrick works for Wal-Mart, keeping the goods flowing during the night shift at a gigantic (just think Wal-Mart) distribution center. If it wasn’t for Pat not sleeping at night, the rest of us wouldn’t have near as much fun shopping during the day. I got the idea that there wasn’t much in the world that phased this man – he just rolls with the tide. In fact I think he would have been just fine with me driving one of those vans on the Guatemalan mountain roads without so much as blinking hard. Unfortunately he always got outvoted by the faint of heart majority. Gee, didn’t we come to Guatemala for adventure?!

 

But here’s the real kicker! Not only had Doug and Pat married sisters (thus the brother in law thing), but their wives were actually part of the team, and it was a couple of days before I realized that. Geez, you’d think being from KY that first thang in the morning, ole Doug ‘n Patrick would be laying huge wet kisses on their honeys, or at least sweeping them up off their feet and twirling them around the breakfast table. Then it would have been obvious to everybody. But the breakfast table was about 25′ long, so like I said, it took me a bit to figure out who went with who.

 

Anyway, there were Karen and Nickie – wives of Doug and Patrick, and sisters no less. That family tree thang in KY can git real confusin’ sometams. I should know, my mother is from KY.

 

Karen is the big sister (of a family of five girls and 1 boy), though she and Nickie look more like twins to most folks. What Karen doesn’t look like is an offensive lineman or a linebacker, which is fortunate for her. And she puts up with Doug, which is fortunate for him. She holds down the administrative fort for a home health company, which I guess makes her more like a quarterback or a utility infielder. At any rate she’s always sitting there with this demure look, but be forewarned, she’s quick witted like lightning – you don’t want to be standing out in the open. And never ever play Scattergories with her!

 

At our clinics in Guatemala, a couple of times I happened to notice Karen shootin’ those veterinarian sized syringes full of deworming med into people’s mouths. Now it may have looked like Kool-Aid, but it sure didn’t taste anything like it; and as she would squirt that evil concoction in, Karen’s own face would crinkle up just like she was tasting it herself. It’s not many folks in this world who can feel somebody else’s pain, or taste what they’re tasting for that matter.

 

Nickie was kinda the same way. You got the feeling she was never holding anything back, was willing to give all she had to whoever needed it. I never saw her pull away from anything or anyone, no matter how dirty, how needy, how smelly. Nickie has a masters degree in early childhood education, which is more than likely why she gets on so well with Patrick – or maybe why she had to get the degree in the first place. Either way, you can see that she has a thang goin’ on when she’s around kids.

 

In fact I got to meet her two children, Rebekah and Nicolas a couple of days ago. Talk about an enlightening experience. Wonderful kids are always the most valid compliment a parent can have about who they are.

 

So all in all, as I got to know Nickie and Karen in Guatemala, they did seem like twins in a lot of ways. Had the same big heart; same ready smile; same peaceful disposition; same dangerous sense of humor. And no matter what game it is, don’t play it with these two, unless you’re on their side. And if they’re on opposite sides, you should leave the area promptly.

 

Well I’m gonna’ stop for now. One can only get so much Hopkinsville before you get overwhelmed. But I’ll be back soon with Part 2, where you’ll get to hear about Herman Turner and Darrell Dankin, and my recent trip to Hopkinsville, which I pulled off without even having to use a travel agency…