Tonight we want everyone at home to know one thing for
certain: no matter how hard we might try
to come down here to be a blessing to the people here, we always end up being
the ones that are more blessed! I’ve
always loved the (true) saying, “you can’t out-give God”. And even when we have given 13 and ½ hours at
the hospital today between four major surgical cases and 15 more clinic
patients, the saying holds true.
Today we were blessed by the smiles and tears of relief and
gratitude of several family members when we were able to tell them that their
loved one’s surgery went smoothly and they would be out of the OR in a few
minutes.
Today we were blessed by a hospital staff that worked right
alongside us without (much) grumbling or complaining, despite the fact that
they work three or four times as hard during the weeks we are here than when we
are not, and they don’t get paid extra.
Today we were blessed by a patient that brought us apples as
a gift—out of gratitude for us “taking care of her so well”—Friends, I am not
exaggerating when I say we did almost nothing for this patient, and she waited
from probably around 7:30 am until 4:15 pm before we could even see
her!!!!! We explained that a problem she
thought she was having was actually normal and gave her a small tube of cream
for some itching. I truly hope and pray
that what she felt, though, was God’s love working through us to bless
her. (God knows we were tired enough to
have very little left of ourselves to give her at that point!)
Today we were blessed—as we always are!—by the hot lunch
that the hospital cook provides us. She
is simply amazing, and it’s embarrassing how well we eat here while on a “mission”
trip!
And today we were blessed, most of all, by each other’s
company and laughs and silliness and energy keeping each other going. Do you know I have NEVER had any personality
issues with any small team I have brought down here, despite 10 years of travel
with folks that often didn’t know each other, sometimes didn’t even know ME,
and have always stayed in quite tight quarters?
Never. That’s nothing short of
divine intervention, friends, and I am so grateful for it!
We do need to ask for some extra special prayers, though,
for our new friend Ofelia. We diagnosed
her with a bad cervical cancer tumor today (biopsy results pending but it was
pretty obvious). It is not operable, and
her only treatment option is to get very expensive radiation therapy down in
Guatemala City several hours from here.
She is basically the single mother of a nine year-old little girl, as
her husband left for The States about six years ago and rarely sends money
anymore (he has a new family there now).
Her little girl’s name is Yesica.
I lost my mother when I was nine. That’s no way to grow
up. Please pray for divine intervention
as well as for the father to step up and pitch in! I’m really worried about how advanced her
tumor is.
I’ll really try to post some pictures so as not to end on a
low note here, but no promises—internet is spotty 😉
God bless you all, and good night!
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