We have been totally immersed in the Quechan culture. We are living their lifestyle, eating their foods, and doing their work, aka: manual labor.
It started with standing alongside the potato farmers and helping them in their fields. It is now on to helping finish a school building that is nothing but cement walls, floors, and ceilings; this cement building just so happens to be our “home” for the month. We are hauling rocks and dirt, mixing cement, and laying more concrete. After that is finished we are sanding and panting the walls, laying tile on the floors, and adding an entire second floor to the building. I can explain this work process with two words: sore, and pain.
My team and I went to go visit Pablo, who is our ministry contact’s nephew. Pablo has Stage 2 Colon cancer, and it is not good at all. The details that we got from our contacts were that his condition is not good, that he is a follower of the Lord, and that he is 26 years old. I have to be honest- seeing a 26 year old man lying so helpless and frail in a bed was heart retching. All I could think of was how young he is, and how talented this man was with his craftsmanship (he makes bags, and Quechan custom artwork). Our team bought this bag of his as our “ministry bag”; basically just to support Pablo, and to be reminded constantly of our fortune, and to be praying for his healing.
After we prayed for Pablo, the next morning he went into the city to get surgery. He has to stay in the city hospital getting Chemo 3 times a week for the next 3 months straight. Our team has committed to praying for Pablo’s recovery and redemption every single day, and I know we’d all appreciate it if you joined us in praying for Pablo’s healing and freedom from this disease.
Aside from Pablo, the little children have been just loving us. They have been both charming and disrespectful- which is tough. The disrespect is coming in when we’re telling them “no”, or telling them that they can’t hit each other, that they can’t throw rocks, etc., and they’ll deliberately disobey. Why? Because when they do that, we give them more attention; even if its negative. Last night during our team time, a group of boys aged roughly from 7-11 came to our site and started screaming and pounding on the doors begging for “mas stickers” (more stickers- we were handing out stickers as gifts earlier in the day). They were all extremely high and didn’t know what was going on. It breaks my heart knowing that their drug is their reality. Today my favorite little boy, Andy, was playing with beer bottles as his toys, and he said that his dad drinks a case a day. Please pray for Andy and his sister, and that they would grow to know the love and fatherhood of Christ.
