Photo by Geoffrey D. Brown

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“Go on without me,” she said.

Her companions couldn’t believe their ears. She was saying she couldn’t make it, with more than four miles to go. Her water was almost gone, and she was dehydrated. She had gotten flushed and tired on the way up to Oregano and had had to rest once already.

The other missionaries shared their water and, after a few minutes, all pushed on. The mission was not going to split up. But the event marked the beginning of a crisis on June 16, the seventh day of a nine-day mission of the Frederick Church of the Brethren, that seriously threatened the safety of the team.

Together for the hike were seven missionaries from the church, resident missionaries Robert Jackson, Tharsis Rodriguez-Jackson and Donnie Iler, Zacapa residents Pastor Carlos Mejia Lopez and his sister, Elena Lopez, and a News-Post reporter.

The purpose of the two-day trip — up to Conacaste, which sits at about 3,000 feet above sea level, and back — was to bring faith to the villagers, who had already gotten to know many of the missionaries in earlier visits. The plan was to make a hike of possibly four or five hours, worship in the village, lead children in crafts, and show a movie. The missionaries would camp out on the covered front porch of a villager’s home, worship with the villagers in the morning, then head back down the mountain the next morning.

But the team’s pace was agonizingly slow. The heat of the sun and a shortage of water for much of the nearly seven-hour hike sapped their strength, and the missionaries feared for the health of their ailing team member — and the possibility that more would be stricken.

Yet they were guided by their belief that missionary work involves sacrifice and suffering. For the leaders of this team, the risks of a journey were not measured against the relative benefits; the benefits of bringing the Christian faith to people who lack it were immeasurable, they believed. Several times throughout the trip to Guatemala, in team devotional meetings and conversations, team members referred to the sacrifices and struggles of the earliest Christians, who traveled to spread their faith and frequently were persecuted, jailed, killed.

None of the missionaries admitted to a desire to suffer. But the trip to Conacaste was testimony to their willingness to sacrifice, and to the strength of their conviction.

The hike started out smoothly. Early in the day the team crossed suspended bridges over a roaring river, passed through farmland, and took in the view of the rugged mountains ahead of them. But until the hill approaching Oregano, the route was fairly easy.

Alongside the river a farmer stopped Dr. Julian Choe and asked him to check on his daughter, who had suffered splitting headaches for three months and had pain in her left hip. Dr. Choe gave the farmer ibuprofen for the girl and, along with Pastor Carlos and Mr. Jackson, prayed for her pain to be lifted, laying their hands on the girl’s head. Before returning to the trek, Dr. Choe promised to stop in on the way back down the mountain the next day.

Beginning to climb now, Mr. Jackson pointed to a mountain in the distance and told the group there was a town of 3,000, none of them Christians. The group paused to reflect on the possibility of a future hike.

The first test of the trip was the steep climb to Oregano. Ms. Stanfield, 43, who had been sick earlier in the week with a stomach ailment, soon showed signs of exhaustion. The heat hovered around 90 degrees for most of the day.

As the group climbed higher, the raging brown river shrank below them. Impossibly steep cornfields spoke to the farmers’ resilience. On 60-degree slopes they had poked holes in the earth to plant corn on every clear patch of mountainside.

Villagers from Conacaste carried the group’s extra bags, but the missionaries were making impossibly slow time in the heat, and Ms. Stanfield’s condition was worsening. With water running low and three hours hike to safety in either direction, the team started to show signs of tension. Mr. Jackson, a cool-headed and confident man under the toughest conditions, worried aloud that someone might die.

The team crept along, stopping frequently in a valley with no shade, facing the longest stretch of uphill hiking. Several team members were running out of water now and dehydration and heat exhaustion were becoming a serious danger. Mr. Jackson said the group might have to drink from a muddy puddle if water ran out. With no option to turn back, the group gathered its resolve and pushed ahead.

The team’s luck turned around soon, however. Finding shade at the beginning of a wooded stretch, they came across a clear stream running over rocks. Resident missionary Donnie Iler, who had decided just two days before to tag along, carried a three-liter bladder of water on his back — a bag fitted with a hose popular among hikers and others who spend hours in the heat. And, as a precaution, he’d also brought along a charcoal filter for the bladder, which would make water safe to drink. He took the bladder from his backpack and filled it to its three-liter capacity. Ms. Stanfield and other dehydrated members of the team drank as much water as they could and, after a short rest, pushed on through the thick vegetation. The wooded slopes provided needed shade. The team climbed higher as the path cut into the slope, in some places with steep drop-offs of hundreds of feet to their right.

The last hour of the hike was the most difficult, with several steep climbs. Remarkably, the oldest members of the group, Mary Jane Tabler, 65, and Pastor Butch Reinhold, 66, showed great stamina. Both had been on grueling hikes before to the mountain village, and they were mentally prepared.

The final few steps to Conacaste took the greatest effort and, reaching their destination after nearly seven hours, the group sat in exhaustion on their host’s front porch.

A dinner of black bean paste and tortillas restored some of the group’s energy, but Ms. Stanfield didn’t eat. She slept as the missionaries fired up a portable generator and showed a movie about Moses. She was gripped with pain throughout the night, retching for long stretches.

The next morning after prayers and song, the team filled their bottles with potable water from the village tap, its source upstream from any contaminants. Ms. Stanfield hardly looked prepared for another day of hiking in the sun, and there was marked tension in the group. Some bel

ieved that the mission had not spent enough time with the villagers, while others thought the team should have gotten an earlier start to avoid hiking in the hottest part of the day. But Ms. Stanfield said she would be able to make it and, at 8:30 a.m., the team said good-bye to their hosts and headed back down the mountain, having accomplished less than they had planned but, in a way, a great deal more than they had expected. The return hike was quicker and less difficult, but still challenged several members. Ms. Stanfield was weak and had to rest several times before pushing on. Going down the hills they had climbed the day before, several of the missionaries expressed amazement they’d made it up in the first place.

Dr. Choe paid a return call on the farmer, and reported that his new patient was doing better. He diagnosed a leg-length discrepancy that caused her hip pain, and muscle strain in her neck and head that caused the headaches.

Crossing the river once again on the suspended bridge, the group approached a soda stand in the village of Santa Barbara, where they’d parked. They found some chairs and some shade, and drank some cold sodas. Ms. Stanfield smiled. The team had made it to Conacaste and back together.

A week and a half after the mission’s return, Dr. Choe recalled the difficult hike, and said he planned to return to the region to climb to a more remote location — a probable two-day hike — to the town with 3,000 people, none of them Christians.