Hello,
hello!! It’s been a good few days without internet, but it’s nice to have it
back now! I’m writing on this lovely Saturday afternoon having just gone
shopping and made bologna-and-cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches with potato
chips for Eysel and I. She and the baby haven’t slept through a night in nearly
5 days…Genesis has a cough to end all coughs. And when you’re about ready to
keel over, nobody does comfort food like Americans.
Also on
the good-news list: I am basically 100% back to normal health-wise! I'm still
noticing the weakness when walking (oh who are you kidding Cat, you're just
really out of shape), and am living up to my reputation to be able to sleep 11
hours a night even with an afternoon nap, but all in all I'm feeling much, much
better - praise the Lord!
Updates from the past weeks:
At the
beginning of March I traveled to Sucre with Esther to a large, well-established
Christian clinic there. We spent two days seeing long-term pediatric cerebral
palsy patients and working with kids on speech therapy. It was so cool to see
another Christian clinic and the wonderful work they’re doing in the lives of
the patients and their families from Sucre. We stayed at Esther’s family’s
house, whose dad is a pastor, and whose whole family is a blast. Good food,
good jokes, and good laughter.
The
second day I taxied back to Potosi and almost immediately left for Yawisla, out
in the countryside of Bolivia where the Hawthorne’s spent 15 years of their
ministry. The town is nestled in a valley and the whole area is stunningly
beautiful. I spent the weekend reading books, playing with the local kids,
cooking with Mary, climbing ridges to watch sunsets, and star-gazing at the
most magnificent night sky I’ve ever seen. It was a good time, to say the
least.
I have a
semi-official date of departure for La Paz! I’ll be heading out at the
beginning of the last week in March – looking at the 26th or 27th. Praise the Lord for flexibility and encouraging
support from the team in La Paz! They are such a blessing.
On
Thursday I visited a mine. It was absolute insanity. Literally a once-in-a-lifetime-experience,
first because there aren’t very many other places in the world where the tour
guide would sit the group down for a chat and forget to mention the dynamite
explosion that’s about to go off 50 feet away 10 seconds later, and secondly
because I probably would not volunteer to go again. As we were scaling vertical
openings in air so thick with dust our headlamps were basically useless, I just
kept thinking of the cave tours in the States where they make you sign a paper
saying it’s going to be a bit chilly and don’t let you touch the walls. I’m
pretty sure the extent of the fore-warning this time was about 10 feet from the
entrance: Tour guide - “Anybody got asthma? Pregnant? Claustrophobic? Good, let
me know if you can’t breathe.” It took a long shower to get the smell of sulfur
and arsenic out of my hair. Don’t worry – apparently arsenic in small
quantities is good for your nervous system. In large quantities not so much. I
have some (sort-of) pictures that I’ll put up, but the stories are better told
in person, so ask me about it when I get back!
Prayer
CEMFY
(the name of the clinic here; stand for Centro de Medicina Familiar Yawisla)
had an emergency patient 3 days ago who had broken his back last week falling
from a tree while harvesting on his farm. He spent nearly 6 days in his house
before his family got him to us, and he’s completely paralyzed from the waist
down. He has sons, but they all live in other cities, and if nothing changes,
his wife is completely without a provider. I held her while she cried as the
doctors tried to get him onto a stretcher to move him to the local hospital,
and the team here just keeps praying for a miracle. PLEASE pray with us – this
family is selling nearly everything they have just to get tests done, and they
have nothing to pay for whatever those show needs to be done.
Other
CEMFY prayer request: The clinic is currently in the process of looking at
options for moving location – the current place is expensive and has other
issues. So far the search has been unsuccessful – please pray for the Lord to
guide the leadership in where He wants this clinic so that it can best serve
the people of this area with the love of Jesus.
For me –
opportunities to talk about Jesus. The other day when the paralyzed patient was
at the clinic with his family, I felt over and over again that God wanted me to
go to them, read Scripture, and just talk with them. I found excuse after
excuse, mostly regarding my limited Spanish, and never did. It is something
that I deeply regret, and that night the Lord gently led me to Exodus 3 and 4,
to the story of Moses and the burning bush. At the climax of all of Moses’
excuses, and God’s repeated reassurances of His presence, Moses says,
“O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past
nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him: “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes
him deaf of mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
Now go. I will
help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Exodus 4: 10-12
I have
rarely felt so directly spoken to; so obviously, but tenderly, corrected by
God. Well there you have it. I am to speak, despite my fears, despite by lack
of vocabulary, despite my excuses. So Jesus, teach me what to say.
I love
you all. Listen for His voice today.
Catherine
