I had really wanted to go out to the beach and find a shaded spot to read, journal and escape the heat. So I said ‘see ya later’ to the guys at the ice cream shop and headed toward the beach.
After I had gone a couple blocks down the street I turned around and went back to greet and introduce myself to an old black guy in a wheelchair who I had seen the day before as well. He was hard to understand because he only had a few teeth (and because he spoke Spanish) but he said his name was Chante, or something like that. After exchanging a few sentences (most of which were in opposite languages) I took him to a nearby restaurant to buy him a lunch of chicken and Coca-Cola. After I paid and he was eating, I decided to say goodbye and get back to my trip to the beach.
a catholic statue just off the shore
I walked along the beach for maybe 10 minutes when I passed by a lady sitting in the sand. She looked up at me and said in a very loud and thick Caribbean accent, “I can’t stand up.” She spoke English (though I couldn’t understand it all because of the accent) and I ended up buying her an ice cream bar with the 3 Quetzales I had on me. I found it interesting that there just happened to be a random ice cream guy on that part of the beach that was not very populated at all. I gave her the ice cream bar and continued on my search for a good shaded spot.
I found my spot a couple minutes later and started reading. For some reason I kept looking up and seeing what that lady was doing. She ended up coming over toward me and we again struck up a conversation.
Her name is Justine, and we got to talking. It ends up that there’s something wrong with her foot or ankle that is causing her to not be able to walk or stand up. I didn’t fully understand why, because I couldn’t fully understand her when she talked. She has no family, there was something about 5 years ago or since yesterday, and something about an animal eating away at her. She had tried to get to a doctor before, but they never really did anything for her. Some policemen walked by and she talked to them and apparently arranged for them to come by in the morning to take her to the hospital.
I noticed she had a cross around her neck, and asked her if she knew Jesus. She said yes, and then I asked her if she had a Bible. She doesn’t have one. I prayed for her and for healing for her leg…and then I actually carried her back to her house maybe 100 yards away. Before I left I told her that I would bring her a Bible sometime in the next 2 days.
Two mornings later, Clinton, pastor Marcos (who we were staying with) and I headed out to find Justine so I could give her the Bible I bought at the Catholic church. On our way in to town we passed the other pastor in town, named Salvador. He turned around and came with us. And it ended up being an act of God that we just happened to pass by him on our way to see Justine.
She was home, she remembered me and she was cleaning her injured leg. And I just have to say this right now…I have never in all my life seen such a wound. Just above her left ankle there was probably a 7 inch, half of her leg section that was just gone. Not much blood, but just raw meat and broken bone. Ya know, you always hear of stories of how people have seen injuries so deep that you can see the bone…but I always thought they were exaggerating. I am now a person that has seen such a wound. It was hard to look at. As she sat there talking, she was dabbing a cloth on it and you could hear it snagging on the broken bone.
I gave her some bread and water that we bought on the way, along with some eternal bread and water; The Bible. I mentioned how it was an act of God that we ran into Salvador…the man took charge of the situation. For some reason I was skeptical about how helpful or anything the pastors would be, but Salvador was so loving and compassionate and caring toward Justine.
We left after maybe 30-40 minutes and via calling Mildred to translate stuff, Clinton & I found out that the pastors were going to try and get a doctor to come from Puerto Barrios to her house to get her some much needed medical attention. But also we found out that they were going to come visit her everyday to see how she was doing and to talk to her about God. I was blown away! I’m still almost tearing up as I just wrote that.
As we were leaving on the boat, Salvador came down and told us that the doctor didn’t have time to come over to see her, but that he ( Salvador) was going to get a taxi and take her to the doctor at the clinic in Livingston.
We have meant to call pastor Marcos back to see what has happened since we left, but we haven’t done it yet. And last night we decided as a team that we are going to head back to Antigua on Sunday or Monday, but I am going to for sure go back to Livingston before we leave to see Justine. So I will post an update when I am able.
Please PLEASE say a prayer for Justine. Pray that the pastors will indeed go to see her everyday and that they will have great conversations with her about God! And that if she doesn’t already have Jesus in her heart, that she will soon. Then also pray for her leg. Clinton & I don’t know how she will be able to keep that part of her leg…so just pray that any infection does not spread and that Jesus will just have his healing hand upon her.
