Remember lining dominoes up as a kid? Did you ever make try to make intricate patterns and lines so that you could push just one tile and all the rest would fall gracefully, one after another?
Well, that´s what God does too.
He likes to line up all His little dominoes in complicated and beautiful ways. The He gets to smile, and we praise His sovereignty, as they fall just perfectly into place.
We got to see His mastery of dominoes last week.
Last Wednesday, my team and our host, German, were visiting a few of the 200 widows in Xenacoj. That afternoon, we attempted to visit a widow named Marcela. I actually mentioned her kids in my last blog also. Marcela´s husband passed away less than a year ago and she has 4 young children to care for. In order to provide for them, she has to work often selling children´s clothes. Therefore, the kids are often home alone. They are ages 5 to 12.
When we knocked on their door, Diego and Magdalena Susana answered. They are the two oldest, 12 and 10. (Diego acts the very responsible father. He has a proactive passion for taking care of his family, is very smart, and holds the family just barely together.) The middle daughter, Maria Raquel, was playing inside. When they answered the door, they let us know their mom wasn´t home. So, we went on our way, saying we would come another day.
Then, right after leaving, we ran into Marcela on the cross street. She was on her way home with a large sack of goods to carry. We would have just said our greetings and gone on our way, but because the sack was heavy, we carried it back up to her house. Since we were now in her house, she invited us in to talk for a while.
Immediately upon entering the house, we were all shocked, including German. The place was a disaster, the worst living environment we´ve seen so far, with messes everywhere. Food was spilt on the floor, clothes everywhere, and chicken running around. Marcela did not seem overly disturbed by the situation. She was not able to be home more, and felt her kids should still enjoy their childhood by being free to play in the house as they wish. German had had no idea things were this bad with them. But since he had now seen what was going on, he knew some changes needed to be made. German told Marcela we would come Friday to help her clean up some.
When we went further inside, we were surprised to find another child curled up in the corner of the bed. We hadn´t even realized another child was there. She said it was her youngest, Juan Pablo, and that he was sick with a fever. German said to pay close attention, and if things got worse by the next morning, to take him to the doctor or call German. After a while, we left, planning to return Friday and takes the kids out for a picnic lunch. We also planned to do some cleaning, since German suspected the illness may be caused by the living conditions.
Come Friday, we head over to Marcela´s house. It turns out Juan Pablo is much more, and Marcela had not sought medical attention and had no intentions of doing so. German told her to go to the doctor now, while we took the other kids to the park. German ended up taking her and her son to the doctor, because she had no inclination to go of her own accord. (We were told this reluctance is both a question of having money to afford treatment and also of trusting Xenacoj doctors, who often take the payment but don´t actually give treatment.)
Juan Pablo was very sick, with stomach parasites and other serious issues that we could not translate or understand. He got some treatment on Friday and later went to the hospital in Guatemala City. As of now, he has been there 4 days. They initially could not operate because his heart was very weak, but the most recent update is that he is doing better and should be released soon. We are uncertain if the operation occurred or not.
German and some friends also cleaned the house Friday to prevent future illness. Hopefully, after this incident, there will be a greater effort to keep it sanitary and healty for the kids.
After Juan Pablo went to the hospital, German made these comments.
¨This with Juan Pablo really reminded me that God takes care of widows and kids. What if we hadn´t gone to see Marcela Wednesday? I would not have gone to see her if you 7 weren´t in town. What if we had not passed her in the street as she was coming home? What if we were running 5 minutes ahead of her? We would not have know Juanito was sick. The child would have never been taken to the doctor or the hospital. He may not have been alive today. I knew God wanted us to see Marcela Wednesday, and now we see why. God takes care of widows and kids.
And he was right. It´s not like we made some kind of great effort, or did an extraordinary deed. But because God lines up His dominoes as He chooses, one sweet 5 year old from Xenacoj gets to live to see another day.
Update on the Joy Bombs!
Our team is doing well. We are getting into the groove of living each other and are starting to know each other better. We only have 9 days left in Guatemala before we meet up with the other 6 teams next month in Honduras. We do not yet know where we will be there or what we are doing.
In Xenacoj, we are spending more time with the kids now, recognizing and knowing many of the kids in and out of school. We are also still visiting widows. Please pray for Marcela and Juanito and their family, as well as the other families and widows in Xenacoj I mentioned. Pray also for rest for our host, German.
I am still fundraising and need about $4000 to be fully funded! If you feel called to give, please click on the ¨support me¨link on the left! Thanks for all your love and support! Also, you can email me some encouragement or a life update on you ([email protected])!
