Two Sequels

Our "walk around the neighborhood" didn't go quite as planned. Lily, the little girl across the street, gave us all the news: The mother of the person in the corner house where the screams happened, no longer lives behind us- moved up the street and around the corner. The couple in the corner house are not her daughter, but someone else. So we went on with plan "B", Lily going along with us. We passed a soccer game in the street, met Lily's sister who lives around the corner, and moved down to the highway where Dick had met a couple in serious trouble. A grown daughter had walked out, they didn't knonw where she was, the relationship was strained between the couple. When we got there, we discovered the mother's mother had died two days before unexpectedly and she was all to pieces. We hugged, prayed and comforted as able, then met her younger brother. (The daughter returned for the funeral, then left again.) The brother was confused and hurt because the church he had been attending, where he met Jesus and learned the value of reading scripture, was hurling insults at the church he grew up in, the church of all his family.

We sat down at one of the tables in this bus-stop restaurant, and had a long talk with him. His sister wouldn't quit bringing us food and drink, even insisted on giving us a bag of the coffee they sell there. She said she felt a lot better after talking and praying. The young man found some help in just being listened to with understanding. Then we all prayed together, right there in the restaurant. We gathered up the entire box of pan dulce she foisted on us, the coffee, finished our hot cafe con leche and staggered home under the pile of stuff. She wouldn't take "no" for an answer. We sampled the pan dulce and gave most of it away.

We had another appointment with the dentist; she looked and felt much more peaceful and plans to call me to explore further what God is doing with her life. She said she had been at a very low point the day we came, and didn't know what happened. Said she NEVER acted that way in her life. I told her, "That's OK. We've seen the Lord work this way many times."

When she finished the three fillings I needed re-done, and some work on Dick, I asked how much we still owed. We had paid 900 pesos (90$US) as about half of the amount due. She said sharing her problems with us had helped so much she was absolutely not going to charge us any more. Again we demurred. She insisted. We accepted. This is the type of "health insurance" the Lord often provides for us when we are in this country. It's amazing and a beautiful experience, to see His hand so clearly at work.

Happy Fourth of July Evereyone!