Tuesday after clinic, Tomasa - a woman whom I have known for many years - came and asked for help with her son oldest George. George is 22 years old and has taken the role of provider since his father's death 6 years ago. I have watched him grow from a little boy to a man. Tomasa told me that he was sick with a fever and unable to get out of bed. I gave her some antibiotics and Tylenol and promised to do all in my power to visit them as soon as possible.

Yesterday Duane, Abi, Tomas (our Quiche translator) and I hiked down to their home. It is an incredibly difficult walk - descending about 3,000 feet - and an incredibly beautiful one as well. George, thankfully was better and had been up that day to work in their fields, harvesting their corn. We prayed for him...mostly because he has chosen to leave the church - and God - for the moment. Tomasa then began to cry and ask for prayer. She has eight children, lives in a two room house perched on the side of this mountain. Her husband, before he died, had planted coffee which has sustained them over the last 6 years but now has reached the end of its productivity and yielded very little harvest this year. Her corn crop was stricken with a blight and produced only 2-100 pound bags, which will feed them for less than a month. She had no other food in the house. She did not ask for prayer for all of this however...it was only after we had prayed that I began to ask. She asked for prayer because she is lonely and although she did not express it, she is weary as well. I tried to put myself in her shoes...and found them unbearable. And yet I know that God sees her struggling to provide for her children, to raise them in the faith, to love them, and I know that He is pleased. I know as well that He will provide justice...whether in this life or the next. Psalm 140:12 says, "I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy." And I trust that His word is true.

We will help Tomasa with food for her family - hopefully in a way that will not defy her dignity. As always, we remember, "that too whom much is given, much is required." And we have been given so much... Please pray for her and her family when you think of it - pray that the Lord will give her the strength to perservere and that He will allow her to feel His presence and His love in her daily life. For it is in those moments when we feel His presence that we are refreshed and strengthened to continue.