Sunday is the day when we distribute corn. The truck is fully loaded and waiting this morning to go to San Andres. Thankfully, this year has brought lots of rain and the fields are green. A few people are beginning to harvest the early corn. Yesterday I saw beans drying on the street in front of our neighbors house. Once the corn is fully harvested( in November), we will bring an end to this project which was designed to meet the need of those who were hardest hit during the drought of last year. However, what we discovered when we began to evaluate the need last fall, was a large number of women - mostly widows, but some women abandoned or whose husbands are incapacitated by alcoholism - who are hungry. Some are "viajitas" (older women) who for some reason do not have families to help them. Others are women with young children. Women here who do not have husbands to plant and harvest the food that will be needed for the year, are left without a way to earn money. Some will make patates - which are large woven sleeping mats made of grass. A weeks worth of work will yield Q25-30 (about $3.50) - not enough to buy corn, much less the other (more nutritious) foods, or clothing, or school supplies, or medicines that their children need. So we began to help these women with "viveres" ( a 25 pound bag of beans, rice, oatmeal, and sugar) which we distribute every two weeks. This project will not end. Even though we are financially stretched as we buy more 100 pound bags of food each week, we can find no way around God's repeated command to feed the widows and orphans. For we know that this is the fast that He requires. Isaiah 58:6-7 says, "Isn't the fast I choose: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and to not ignore your own flesh and blood?"

Here at home we are busy getting ready for our annual visit from the Real Life church in Washington. We will again be going out to several of the local schools to teach a lesson about how God has created our bodies, and how to care for them. They will also be building a small house for one of the widows up in Chiminisijuan whose house is falling down. It should be a fun week! Four days after they leave, we will close down the clinics and leave for Houston to celebrate the wedding of Hannah and Matt. We will continue food distribution during the time that we are gone but will not operate the clinics. It is challenging to make sure that all those folks who get monthly help with their medications for diabetes, or hypertension or asthma have enough to continue their treatments during that time when we are gone.

We will be at home in the Marine for a few weeks after the wedding (from September 2-23). We hope to see some of you during that time!