Light in Darkness

Laughing at a bad joke, enjoying the mountain pine trees as the sun goes down, eating with friends and family, taking care of honeybees...these are some of the good things that God gives us. Every good and perfect gift comes from him, and I am so grateful for the light he gives us on this earth. At the same time I am all too often reminded of the darkness that exists in this fallen world. We got word today from the mayor of Unilla that the lady we visited died. I don't remember if I was ever told her name, but her family was really weird and chose to consult the local witch doctor rather than let us take her to the hospital. Malachi, Katie, Leslie, and I made several visits to her house to pray and check on her (she was the lady on whom I started my first IV), but her family refused help. Evidently her husband came (I don't know where he had been) and made her walk to a nearby village in the middle of the night. The next day he called our friend the mayor of Unilla for a plane ride from the white people because his wife was doing really bad. Well, we never knew any of this and couldn't get to that village anyway because it doesn't have an airstrip. So that day the lady and her baby (she was 5 months pregnant) died. I think she had at least one other child.
Anyway, we're really praying about what to do for the village. There is such a presence of darkness there and only the light of God will change the hearts and mindset of the people. Last night we listened to a message on the Internet from a preacher in Missouri, and the focus of his message was that as things change spiritually we see the results physically. So I'm trying to spend more time and effort in prayer, trusting that God is bigger than man.

As for news back here in town, there's not a whole lot new. David and Juan are working on painting large generator that Don Barton gave to the ministry a couple years ago. We've been using it at Chiminisijuan almost every week up till now, but it is finally in need of some maintenance. Also, here's a picture of my bee hive. My dad was wanting some pictures for reference.

Last night after church here (I didn't go to Joel's because I wasn't feeling too good with my puffy, itchy eyes) I went into town to have a soda with the post office man. He and his wife run a tienda in the park and lots of people go there to sit around and talk at night. We talked about bees, his family, my family and God. I was really trying to scout out and get a feel for night life there in the park. Duane, Katie and I are talking about singing some songs and then showing a movie on a Friday night with the projector. Most people know us and what we stand for, so we're talking about just going and showing a movie with a good message, maybe indirectly about God, but something that's still entertaining. The Jesus Film that we show in the aldeas and in the Zona Reina wouldn't grab peoples' attention here as much I don't think. They've been exposed to a lot of the Gospel, and have seen a lot church life that is opposite of the Gospel. Just going and making ourselves available for something fun would open doors in the future I think. Anyway, we're thinking about it.

Yesterday in San Andres was really busy again, but I don't think I scared too may kids with my puffy face. We prayed for several people. I got a drunk man (although not at the time) named Juan, who pretty much just lives on the streets without a family. His liver was enlarged and he's very anemic, so we prayed and gave him lots of vitamins. He was thankful, but I he didn't want to give up the bottle for Jesus. Later I got a kid who had some brain damage after some thieves jumped him in the bank, but don't worry it wasn't a bank around here. We prayed and gave him some vitamins and ibuprophen. This afternoon Leslie, Katie, Heather and I made our way back to San Andres to pray. On the way we saw "Petunia" along side of the road. I don't know exactly why Leslie named her Petunia, but Petunia is a midwife here who brings lots of her patients to our clinic for ultrasounds. She has no teeth, and gave us 12 rotten mangos. Katie thinks this was probably because they need to be soft for her to eat them... but she jumped right into our car-full of gringos and just talked away. Prayer was good. It's one more thing to do every week, but it's worth the investment. While we were inside praying we left our mangos sitting on the hood, hoping for some little kid to think he's found something good. But the kids know rotten mangos when they see them. (In Petunia's defense, they weren't completely rotten, just a little soft for us). Tomorrow we're heading up to Chiminisijuan for clinic. It's raining now, but the road should still be passable in the 4-Runner. So I hope you have a good day when you read this, and remember: pray hard, enjoy God's gifts, be light in darkness, and stay away from rotten mangos.