A God Schedule (aka. A Crucial Need)

This week I had one of those times in which God interrupted my schedule in order to accomplish His plans. I have come to love these moments and see them not as intrusions, but welcomed course corrections to my day and life. That was the case yesterday when God led us to a little guy named, Jan. But before I share the story with you I should take a few moment to set the stage so you understand the significance.

It was Wednesday morning and the week had already wiped me out. Due to a series of events last week, I had been forced to delay our monthly food distribution until Tuesday. So, Monday was filled with preparations as food was weighed, bagged and sorted to prepare. At the same time I have been dealing with an ongoing war with our bank where our new ministry account has been established. Long story short…for the last three weeks we have been trying to gain on-line access to our account so that we could transact some much needed business, but we were unable to do so because someone at the bank had entered my e-mail address incorrectly. We kept explaining this to them via telephone, but they could not seem to grasp the concept. Finally, on Monday in the midst of food sorting and medicine prep, I found myself having to drive to Chimaltenango and explain the problem in person and watch them correct the issue. Finally, the problem was solved after taking a total of about six hours over a three week period because someone entered my e-mail as daryl@hopesorhome.org.

Between frustrating conversations with the bank, I decided to get a jump on the food distribution and make deliveries to some of the families in San Pedro las Huertas and San Juan del Obispo. We were able to deliver water filters to Vinancio and Katerin’s families as they have been carrying their water up from a water source 200-300 yards away from their shacks and dumping it into an old, metal 55-gallon barrel. We realized that both families were struggling with stomach issues, thus the delivery of the filters.

I returned home to find a family waiting for me who had a daughter with special needs. We agreed to come to their home the next day and meet her and do an assessment while we were doing the food distribution.

Tuesday morning came earlier than usual (or so it seemed to me) and we were off to do the distribution. I always love this day because it give me a great opportunity to visit with families. Late morning we stopped in at the family’s home and met Nirma, a 20-year old young lady. Her mother explained to us that she was perfectly normal until she was 13, but she then fell into depression and “lost her mind.” After further discussion we determined that she has good days when her mom says she acts almost normal. Then there are other days in which she is afraid to go outside and cannot concentrate. As we talked I realized that she was doing needlepoint and I asked her if I could see it. She held it up and you could see the truth of what her mom had been telling us. Parts of the needlepoint were beautiful and precise. Other parts were random scatterings of stitches.

I am not a psychiatrist, but I believed that we might be dealing with a chemical imbalance within her brain that could be helped with medication. We arranged for her to visit our doctor and asked her family to stop by and tell us what he said.

We finished the distribution and I returned home in time to eat quickly and then prepare for a meeting with a local group of citizens that works with children who have special needs. We helped to sponsor a Christmas party last year and they were meeting with us so that we could work together again this year. The meeting was productive and I was exhausted by the end.

It was 9:30 and I was heading to the shower when the bell at our front gate rang and I found myself face-to-face with Nirma and her mom and grandmother who were coming to report on their doctor’s visit. As I suspected, Dr. Augusto had referred them to a psychiatrist in Guatemala City, so I spent time with them explaining the next steps.

This brings us back to Wednesday morning as Gerardo, Brittney, Carissa, Jonathan and I were heading out to Guastatoya to make deliveries and visit with our sponsored families. As I stated earlier, I was tired. The thought of the three hour plus drive followed by a long day in a hot area and then another three hour trip back through Guatemala City traffic was not appealing…especially the day after our distribution. But there were families waiting, so we headed out.

Our second stop was at the home of Marian and Jorge. While visiting with these wonderful families, Marian’s mom mentioned a single mom with a little boy with severe special needs. She wanted to know if we would go with her to visit and see if we could help. As soon as she mentioned it I sensed that this was from God and, even though we were running late because of traffic and road construction and I was feeling so tired, I should allow God to keep us on His schedule. So we loaded up and headed out.

What we found was a little boy named Jan who stole my heart from my first glance of him. He is seven years old, has severe cerebral palsy and is very malnourished, but he is beautiful. His mother, Claudia, handed him to me and I spoke to him as he smiled up at me. His mother explained that she was struggling as a single mother of four children and was unable to afford his seizure medication or formula. She makes just a few quetzales each week selling used clothing, but cannot pay her rent.

 

She then mentioned that Jan had suffered from a cough for the last month, but she could not afford a doctor for him. Then he developed a fever eight days before. I grabbed my medical bag and thought I heard pneumonia in his right lung, so we immediately provided money for them to take him to the doctor and buy medicine. We then asked them to call us after seeing the doctor to let us know what he said.

As we were preparing to pray before leaving his mother broke down sobbing. When we asked her what was wrong, she told us how grateful she was for our help and didn’t want to ask for more. After prodding, she explained that she was completely out of money and could not afford to buy the formula that Jan needed (he cannot eat solid foods). We then realized that she was completely out of food and could not wait for our return the week before Christmas. After kicking myself for being so blind, we immediately provided the money she needed to buy his formula until our next visit.

Last week God took me to the woodshed about the way I work with families like Jan’s. Until that time, when we found a family with a real need we would provide emergency help and then explain that we would try to find a sponsor to help with their ongoing needs. We always told them that we could not make promises, but would do our best to help. God showed me that if we find a real need that we need to commit to help and trust Him to provide for us as we do. So, I told his mother that we would provide the following for him:

Medicine – Q.150

Formula – Q. 130

Diapers – Q. 20

Food basket – Q. 190

In US dollars this breaks down to around $60 a month. We will be providing this assistance to him and his family, regardless of whether we find a sponsor. We will trust God to provide it in some manner. However, we would love to have one or more of you sponsor him. If you do, we will provide you with regular updates and photos of him and will share any photos or messages you wish to send with him and his family. If you are interested, please e-mail me at daryl@hopeforhome.org.

Update: Last night we received a call from his mom telling us that Jan does have pneumonia.  This morning we sent more funds up to them to cover the cost of additional medications. Please pray for his recovery.

By the time we left his home it was 2:00 pm and we had only visited two of our scheduled families. But I didn’t mind at all. Somehow I left their home less tired than when I entered and we finished the day and the trip strong. My days always get better when I let God control the schedule.

That’s all for now. Blessing from San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Guatemala!

Daryl, Wanda and the Crew