Last week, I wrote about little Paula who the Lord supernaturally healed. This week I want to tell you about Alex. I got to know 11 year old Alex and his parents several years ago. They moved from Guatemala City because of Alex's asthma. They felt that the air was purer here. We helped him with his medication and often he would come when he was having an especially difficult bout. Last Sunday he was at a birthday party with his friends when his asthma began to flair up again. He finally left the party to go home and use his nebulizer. But the power was out in town that day. His parents borrowed a truck to take him into the government clinic. But they didn't have power or a generator. So they tried to bring him here. This is an election year and last week there were endless parades and parties in the streets in an effort to gain favor with voters. Alex's parents tried to get through town (and Canilla is very small) but they could not. But the time he arrived, he was unconscious. Ryan and Joseph were the only ones at home. I was in clinic in San Andres so they called Duane who ran home as quickly as he could. They began oxygen and started the generator. By the time they started to nebulize him, he had stopped breathing. Duane tried to do CPR and was still working when I arrived many minutes later. I wish I could say that we prayed and the Lord supernaturally intervened. But He did not.


All week we asked ourselves why? What could we have done differently? We have all had sleepless nights. I would like to say that we have had a revelation that has helped us understand. All we know is that HE is sovereign - He knows the beginning from the end, He understands all of our human suffering. And we trust Him - even when circumstances are impossible to understand.


It has always been a dream of ours to open an acute care center - where we could have someone here 24 hours a day to provide care. As I was talking our children though all of this by phone on Sunday, Ryan kept saying with such anguish, "what else can we do Mom?" Unfortunately, for Alex, there was nothing else that we could do. We do not have a hospital, I am not a physician.We do not want it to happen again though. So we are once again asking the Lord to send all that we need to that - physical and financial help.


Show me your way, O Lord
Teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
For you are the God of my salvation;
On you I wait all the day.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for you.
Psalm 25;4,5,21

Paula

Clinics have been so busy in the last few weeks with little ones sick with pneumonia. I have no way of knowing for sure but I think it is RSV - a virus which causes severe illness in children under a year or children whose immune systems are compromised. Since it is a virus, antibiotics
do not work. Two Tuesdays ago in Chiminisijuan, we had 11 children from the same village who all had pneumonia and were so sick. We always ask mom's to take their little ones into the hospital knowing that, especially there, that they probably won't go. So we give them oral medications and pray for them and send them on their way. Rarely do we know what happens to them.


This Tuesday was no different. As Armando and Bob were praying with the people, I noticed a little girl who was breathing about 60 times a minute and appeared to not have enough strength to hold her head up. We brought her in right away and put on the oximeter (a little machine which reads out the oxygen level). Paula was reading in the 60's (normal is above 90). We asked her mom if we could take her into the hospital - but she would not go. Her husband died 7 months ago and Paula was the youngest of 6 other children. There was no one to care for the other children. I cannot explain the sense of helplessness that we felt as we watched this little one struggle to breathe. Kim (a visiting nurse practitioner) and I agreed that we would try to get some IV fluids going and give her the strongest antibiotic that I have through her veins. And we all started praying and didn't stop until she left. She was so weak that she didn't even cry when we started her IV. Over the course of about 2 hours, her oxygen levels gradually dropped down into the 40's. Kim and I agreed that it would be better for her to die at home than in the clinic. We gave mom a bag of food and drove her as far as we could with the 4-wheeler and said good-bye. Under normal conditions, there is no way that she should have lived. But today Tomas called with the good...no, amazing...news that she was "doing well"!!! Now we pray that her mother - who is not a believer - will understand what a miracle God has done!


I will sing about the LORD's faithful love forever;
With my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
For I will declare, "Faithful love is built up forever;
You establish Your faithfulness in the heavens." Psalm 89:1,2