Ending Holy Week, revving up for Resurrection Sunday and a lowkey celebration in our church of the anniversary of the dedication a year ago. Because the clinic was closed Thursday and Friday, we used yesterday to have a Dia del Campo- day in the country. Hm, but we LIVE in the campo! We met for prayer at the church early armed with picks, hoes, shovels, machetes and water. We began our adventure like ducks in a row, using the creek as our path, crossing again and again as we gained a bit of elevation traipsing thru the jungle. They kept talking about the presa, or dam, and I had visions of a large structure to retain the water. Well, it was a concrete wall about 10 ft. long, perhaps 8 inches thick, with a bit of water backed up behind it! It is where we get our water for the church- not that we have running water, but its a source to fill barrels with to flush a toilet, no more. We got to work scooping out leaves and clearing a blockage of the primitive filter they had over the tube that carries water above ground to us below. It frequently needs repairing as the cows use the creek and stomp on the flexible tubing. Mission accomplished, we enjoyed fellowship as we came back down, wet, dirty, with tiny ticks on us.
Emily is the 9 month old daughter of one of the young women I bible study with weekly. It was fun to catch up with her development this week, reestablish ties with the mom, and begin challenging her to grow again. This face shows totally joy in living, don't you think?John finally has his bike on the stationary trainer out on his new patio, overlooking the jungle. The other AM was like we were on a Monkey Highway, with Fruit Loop birds thrown in for color. The whitefaced monkeys were ascending the canopy, jumping one at a time from the trees to a huge manaca palm, bending the frond way back and scampering up that frond to the middle of the giant plant and jumping to the next tree. Was like a monkey parade. The toucans added a colorful touch. Makes biking fun!
One of my visits since arriving back was to a young Garifuna friend who has married and become pregnant since I left for the US. Was delightful to see her in her new role, knowing her husband had thought it best for her not to work while pregnant and would not be seeing her around the hospital. She has been biblestudying with a group of 15 or so Catholic women, single, near her home. She is one that has agreed to be trained in using the Proclaimer to share the Garifuna Bible with a listening group in her home. We will be having Faith Comes By Hearing come out here in a week or so to do that training, and they will equip several with this machine that is solar powered and handcranked to listen to the Word in their own language. While visiting, my friend introduced us to the fine and complicated art of making casava ( is that "a" or "i"?), a flat, tortilla type bread from the yucca root. My friend Ritza from the hospital, also Garifuna , bravely took a turn at making a round! I volunteered to just take the fotos.
Had the opportunity to visit with a 7 yr old girl who lives about half an hour from here who has been a patient in the clinic since I left, diagnosed with a skin cancer that has destroyed her face totally, kind of like leprosy. She knows the Lord, has a limited number of days left, and it was decided while she was with us in wound care this week that we would begin home visits instead of her making the painful and embarrassing trip to the hospital for help weekly. Pray for this 26# emaciated child, that somehow she might find joy in the journey, and that those that care for her and her grieving parents might have wisdom in all ways. Lord, imprint on Marbeli's heart that despite this disease, she is "fearfully and wonderfully made" and that her days were written in Your books even before the beginning of time.
May your heart be touched by the things that touch the heart of God.
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