We knew there had to be another option for these dear sick people than to go home. The hospital told us that we could come back at 7am the next day because the clinic is open from 7am-12noon and they will see as many as they can within that time frame. We realized that if these 3 sick people went home, they would not return in the morning due to fear.
So, with the little Spanish that I know and the little Spanish they know, Tauna and I were able to convince the young couple and the pregnant woman to stay. The 70 year old grandma was a different story. She was adamant about going home. Finally, after much prayer and convincing she agreed to stay. Now…where were we going to sleep??
Before leaving Panajachel, I had gone to the bank and taken out some of my personal money. Wow, was that a blessing and well needed. Tauna only had about 100 Quitzalez ($17) on her but there were 7 adults and 1 baby. So, we considered finding a hotel for all of us. By the grace of God a worker from the hospital found us and offered us a place to sleep for the night for free called the Casa de Fe (House of Faith).
As we arrived to the House of Faith we noticed how beautiful and spotless the place was. (I’ll explain later why it was so clean). The sleeping area reminded me just like you see in the movies, rows and rows of hospital beds in one room. As our friends got settled in to our new home, Tauna and I went out to buy dinner and bring it back for everyone. We knew these people did not have much so we wanted to splurge and buy them a nice dinner. We bought them each a platter of beef, rice, black beans, platanos, eggs, tortillas, and coffee. We also knew that the baby didn’t have any formula left. So, we bought him formula, diapers, and baby wipes (which the parents had never seen).
After enjoying our meal as a group, the man in charge of the House of Faith had a meeting with all the people staying there. Now you would think that a place called the House of Faith would be sweet, right? Wrong…in his meeting he spoke very authoritative to us, degrading, and told us that he would be waking us up at 5am to clean and scrub the entire place including the bathrooms and areas we didn’t use and if we didn’t like it he showed us where the door was.
When we all got into bed Tauna and I went around to all the sick people and prayed for each one of them. When we got to Grandma we felt her skin and it was on fire. I took here temperature and it was way above normal. We started to cool her down with cold towels (which she hated) and just stayed in continual prayer. In the middle of the night I awoke to check on her and she was much cooler…Thank the Lord!
In the morning at 5am we were awoken by the lights going on along with brooms, mops, and dust towels. After cleaning the entire place and eating a few pieces of bread we were off to the hospital. Tauna and I stayed in prayer as each one was seen by the doctors and I was able to cover all their medical bills. If Tauna and I were not there they would have been turned away and would not have been able to pay for their medical attention.
The baby has an appointment for surgery, the pregnant woman had a bad infection that is being treated but the baby is fine, and grandma is feeling much better and awaiting results of some blood tests. As we left the hospital the faces of our new friends had changed from stress, pain, and sadness, to hope, love, peace and joy!
Oh by the way, the woman who owned the animal clinic was at her house so we were able to visit her after the hospital with our new friends. That really made Tauna’s day even though she felt God was not calling her to this clinic! Isn’t it awesome how God can use us for his glory if we just trust and follow Him and don’t get all wrapped up in our own lives and desires?
