San Andres Clinic

Heidi was in clinic in San Andres with Katie and Leslie today, while Matt watched Isaac and helped with the building efforts at the airport. Isaac spent much of the morning and afternoon crying and screaming-- A phase which we sincerely hope he will outgrow soon! He is SO cute when he's happy, though, and growing like a weed... now up well over 9 pounds.

Clinic today was pretty busy, so we'll try to just hit a few highlights--

One lady provided us a great witness opportunity when she clearly told us that her stomach hurts when she drinks beer! (Alcohol is VERY not acceptable in any of the Churches down here... We have written before about the very legalistic climate) So we at least got a chance to talk to her about how better to fill that void with God's love than with alcohol. (Well, "we" meaning Katie, really... Great job, Katie!) The lady decided that she had to talk to/get permission from her husband before she could consider finding a Church or hearing more, though, unfortunately. We prayed for her after she left (she declined to let us pray for her while she was there), and ask you to continue to pray with us for her and millions other like her.

Another lady is planning to ask her husband this week if it's okay to pursue surgery for her prolapsed uterus. (Think: parts falling out where they should NOT be falling out and where you do NOT want them to be doing so, for you non-gynecology types who are reading!) We will help her if she decides to go through with it, of course.

This has been a recurring theme this week, it seems... There have been lots of stories of women who truly have no autonomy in their homes or lives. This is a sad but very, very real state of affairs here. We're not talking about trying to break through any "glass ceilings" or anything , either-- We're talking about women scared to get health care because of what their husband might think about them needing some recovery time... or women who are afraid to let people pray for them because they are afraid of what their husband might think.

So please remember to keep the women of Guatemala and so many other countries around the world in your prayers. This has weighed heavily on our hearts recently.

Tomorrow is our first post-Isaac clinic back out in Nueva Santa Catarina. After clinic, we will drive down to Guatemala City to get some errands done and stay overnight. Tuesday it's more errands... then we pick up Isaac's maternal GrandDad at the airport! We are all so excited about his visit, and will be sure to post lots of pictures this week of our time together.