Wednesday, May 20, 2009

On our knees...

Prayer is probably the most important thing that we do here. It is always a temptation to skip that part, to relegate it to the last thing that we do. But we know that without it, nothing is really worth the effort. Lately our hours of prayer have increased. Guatemala's newly elected president was recently implicated in several murders and there has been talk of removing him from office. And in typical Guatemalan fashion, those in support as well as those who oppose him have been demonstrating in the streets of Guatemala City. So we pray...

On a more positive note, on the 30th of this month, there will be a service in San Andres designed to unite the pastors not just in San Andres but in all of the surrounding villages. This is something that we have prayed for since our arrival 10 years ago. The mayor, who is a Christian and our good friend Pastor Rodi are organizing everything and met with over 50 pastors on Monday. They are anticipating around 5,000 people who will attend the 2 day event. We pray that God will grant these congregations to be like-minded toward one another...that they with one mind and one mouth will glorify the Father. (Romans 15:5-6 - my paraphrase). We pray as well that this will be the beginning of a powerful movement of God in this place.

And today, after much prayer and many hours of preparation gathering paperwork from all parts of this country and the US, we submitted Abi's adoption to the final agency for approval. With regulations changing daily, we are told to anticipate another 3 months but this, we are told, is the final hurtle. We are hopeful that all will be complete so that we can attend Hannah's graduation in December.

And always, we pray for those we see in clinic. Yesterday was an especially difficult day in Chiminisijuan with so many sick children. We saw 2 little babies who needed to be hospitalized but as is so often the case in this village, they will not go. So we do the best that we can do medically and then we pray, trusting in God to do the miraculous. As we arrived here in Canilla after clinc, I was greeted with a woman who comes frequently for her asthma. She was very sick and gasping for every breath. We did all we could do here, started her on some oxygen and then Duane quickly flew her into the hospital in Quiche. So, much of my sleepless night last night was spent praying for these and others.

As we anticipate 2 trips to the Zona Reina in the next two weeks, we ask for you prayers as well. Please pray that God will touch hearts with His love and mercy and that these people can know and understand the free gift of salvation that only He has to offer. Thank you!

3 comments:

  1. I thought the President was alleged to have been involved in a murder, not implicated. The former represents a mere allegation, the latter suggests evidence confirms his culpability.

    As guests in this country we ought to exercise prudence when we join the political fight against the current government, which is at present urging a de facto coup.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm about 200% sure that no side was taken in the political situation here.

    The explanation was that the president has been accused of having a part in some rather nasty things. As a result, we pray.

    Let's not read anything into this that wasn't written.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Go Matt :)

    P.S. We miss you guys down here...

    ReplyDelete