House Call

Last Monday while Duane and the Fickers girls were in the City, a few men came to the gate and asked if Leslie would come to their home to examine their mother/grandmother. When Don told them that Leslie was not here, they left their phone number. Duane and Leslie ended up talking to them and decided that a house call was necessary. Yesterday, Leslie, Don and I went in search of their house.

Leslie knew where the village or aldea was but it is rather large and she had no idea how to find their actual house (no street numbers or even street names for that matter!). One of the sons was supposed to meet us at a certain point for us to follow. When he wasn't there, we had to stop and see if we had a signal on the phone so we could call him.

Here is the view when we stopped. We were pretty much driving up!


We didn't know it at the time but you can see their house from the road. Can you see the white house way to the left?


We kept driving and eventually met up with the man. He told us to pull over and park because we could drive "no mas" (no more). He told us that we would have to walk about 5 minutes or so. If you have ever gone hiking in the mountains, you will be able to imagine the trail that we followed. It was a small walking path along the side of the mountain. Eventually we were there.

Here is Don walking down to the home. It was just beautiful there.


I forgot to mention that we took Venuncio with us. My job was to take care of him. Because we had to hike, Leslie helped me put him in a rebosa. (I think that is how you spell it - we are finding that many of the words that they use here are not in our Spanish dictionary!) Anyway, a rebosa is a long, thin strip of material that they put around the baby on their back and then they tie it in front. Here are a couple pictures.




The woman was 73 or so years old and had not eaten for many days. She was also not able to get out of bed. She was very edematous (swollen) and had some fluid draining out of her ear. Her family said that she had had a fever and had some pain as well. They had taken her to the hospital in Joyabaj and the doctor there told them that she was anemic and she had an infection of her whole body. Don and Leslie examined the woman and gave the son lots of medicine and vitamins for her. They gave her an injection of antibiotics as well. Then Leslie started to talk to them about Jesus. She asked them if they went to church and if they believed in God. She told them that she hoped the medicine would work but their mother and grandmother was 73 and we do not live forever. When we die there are two places and we have a choice of which place we will spend eternity. She asked them if they understood "eternity" and that it was forever. She told them that we believed in God and in His Son for salvation. She asked the mother if she wanted to have Jesus in her heart and her answer was "yes" - so we prayed. The woman did not repeat the words of Leslie's prayer but we know that the Lord looks at the heart. We pray that she surrendered her life to the Savior in that moment. We also pray that the medicine works but more importantly, that the Lord gets the credit for any healing that takes place. We don't want the family to look at us and the medicine as the solution to their problem. We want to point them to the One who is the ultimate Solution and Provider for all of their needs.

Here are Leslie and I back on the trail, heading back to the truck.
I am so glad that I got to go with them on this house call!

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion (and Guatemala), "Your God reigns!"
- Isaiah 52:7