I hope you don’t get tired of reading my letters… Sometimes I feel like there are very few “dull” moments… each day is filled with different needs and circumstances…
Do you want to know what happened today? I got a phone call while I was at the weekly planning meeting at El Jordan… It was Janeth… Her voice broke, “Could I come by and talk to you?”
When I met Janeth 13 years ago, her boyfriend was a street kid, shining shoes in the park… Her second baby had made a surprise appearance and was born in a very small, private clinic because she couldn’t make it to the state hospital… I helped with the bill that they had no way of paying… and their little, curly head baby girl was named “Corina”.
They now live an hour out of the city... Ricardo (her boyfriend) has problems with his birth certificate… and can’t get an ID card… and therefore, nor a good job… Right now he is earning only 500 Bs. a month ($75)… and they have 6 children… They are squatters on the “bad side” of the dike that was built to keep the town from flooding… They survive by making reed mats in the summer… and by raising their own chickens and ducks… They had two cows, but one died and they had to sell the other one because of some unexpected expenses…
Janeth hasn’t been well… and the doctors in her town say she has a tumor, possibly cancer… and sent her into the city for a biopsy… Janeth got in line last night at 10 p.m. outside the cancer hospital… for an appointment this morning… (and there were already others in line!!)
She won’t get her biopsy results for a month… She is scared… trying not to think the worst… and came by El Jordan this morning so I could pray for her… and give her a hug… “If I have cancer… will you help me?” Can you imagine being 28… with 6 kids… earning $75 a month… and facing the possibility of cancer?
The kids have always loved any Bible booklets I’ve given them but Janeth and Ricardo have never been more than politely interested in God except on the two occasions when his dad and mom were dying… and Janeth asked me to talk to them about God before they died… What I am praying, is that this situation will draw Janeth and Ricardo to search for Him…
The other situation today has to do with Tania – who I happened to mention in my update letter yesterday… About a month ago, her boyfriend (who doesn’t show signs of wanting to change) punched her… leaving a bump on her face…
One of our volunteer dentists saw her… and took her this past Friday to get a panoramic x-ray… Not only has poor Tania been living with a fractured jaw(!!!) she has an inch long (by a 1/4 inch) bone splinter that is starting an abscess on her face!!! A maxillofacial specialist “happened” to be doing a surgery in the clinic where Tania got her x-ray done… and they “happened” to meet when he was on his way out… There in the hallway, he examined Tania’s x-ray… He says an operation is URGENT to fix the fracture and remove the splinter before it breaks open the skin and complicates the infection…
He has offered to operate for free… but he needs two metal plates to fix the fracture ($220 US each)… and because Tania can barely open her mouth, he would also have to use general anesthetic… An anesthesiologist charges about $120 US an hour… The other expenses are: use of a surgery room in some hospital/clinic… and medications… In the specialist’s opinion Tania probably has less than a week before the splinter breaks through her skin (because a pustule has already formed)…
That is why I’m writing again… two days in a row… Even with the surgeon not charging his honorariums, the surgery is way beyond her means… and yet the surgery can’t be delayed too long either… If there is anyone out there that would be willing to help, please let me know…
I’m sorry for always presenting different needs… but your prayers are valued… and I know that if you pray, the need will be met in some way… Thank you…
To end the letter on a happier note… Ana Gabriela wanted to talk to me after our Bible Study this afternoon… It has been almost exactly a year since she started coming to El Jordan… before that she adamantly said she was a “devil” and NEVER going to change…
Now she LOVES coming to El Jordan… but Juan Pablo, the father of her youngest two kids, never has wanted to come… (partly because in a fight quite a while ago, Ana Gabriela burned all of his clothes and he didn’t have anything except a pair of shorts to wear…) Every Thursday night in June we have special meetings for couples… We prayed that Juan Pablo would come… (Ana Gabriela saved up some money to buy him a pair of pants and two shirts…)
Juan Pablo was the last one to arrive on the first Thursday evening and Ana Gabriela was so afraid he wasn’t going to come… He apparently has been trying to put into practice what he’s been learning. What she was so excited to tell me this evening was that Juan Pablo had prayed to give thanks for the food… Ana Gabriela said that when she heard him praying, tears filled her eyes and “her heart was so happy”…
What Ana Gabriela doesn’t know is that Juan Pablo asked me this past Thursday night if I could open up a “bank account” for him at El Jordan because he had secretly saved up 900 bs. ($130 US) because one day he wants to surprise Ana Gabriela by buying her a fridge… Awww….
Their hearts are getting softer… please continue to pray for them to one day know the Lord personally… and also for the 14 couples who are coming on Thursday nights!!!
Thank you so much…
Corina