Duane and I took out a very secure insurance policy against the "empty nest" syndrome that most folks our age feel when we agreed to adopt Grace and Abi. But with David and Joseph in the US now for going on 6 weeks, and now with Craig gone as well, we are getting close. Our house is so quiet without the boys...well, as quiet as we can get with Abi around. They hope to be home within a week or so. They originally went home to help Katie and Ryan get their house and all the barns painted but then after much investigation on corn storage, it has become a hunt for grain bins. They have found 1 which a man whom we have never met, has generously donated for this project. The boys, with lots of help will dismantle it and get it loaded onto a truck that our friend Martin will drive down, hopefully within the next few weeks. We purchased and began distributing corn last weekend to folks within our nutrition program.

Little Irma and her mom (see last week's entry) came on Sunday. Irma was better but still very listless. Her sister was very sick this week with pneumonia as well and after we weighed her (22 pounds at age 4), she just laid down on the floor in the middle of the clinic and went to sleep. The beginnings of our clinic days in San Andres are always so chaotic but we all just walked over her until we could gather around her on the floor and pray for her and her family. We sent them off with enough food to last the week and instruction for her husband to return this weekend so we can follow up on them. There were others as well. One woman insisted that she was fine carrying 50 pounds of corn along with 20 pounds of rice and beans and the milk that she comes for bi-monthly along with the baby on her back. She had an enormous smile to go with her enormous load as she walked out of the clinic.

We finally were able to speak with the mayor of San Andres this week...he is a very busy man and almost never in San Andres. He spoke of being overwhelmed with the need and that was obvious by the long line of people waiting outside of his door. In the US our mayors are typically surrounded by people who are delegated to take care of the needy so that he can take care of the business of running a city. Not here. Those who are hungry. those who are needy in whatever way come directly to the mayor. He told us of his Sundays with his family when he has a line of people waiting outside of his home with their needs. He has a list of over 4,000 women who are either widowed or abandoned. He told us of a prophetic word that was spoken over him by one of the local pastors who said that corn was coming, corn to feed the people. It was given to him over a month ago - even before we began to talk about it outside of our home. So we will work with both he and the mayor of Canilla and those pastors who have come for with an interest to help. Please pray that we have wisdom and that it is obvious to all that our help comes from the Lord...

"I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." Psalms 121:1-2