Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Great Victories don't bring Great Relief...

Enjoying a great victory in the spiritual world is a sure fire way to guarantee you will be receiving more attacks from Satan. Today we had another flat tire (seems to be an epidemic) and we did not get the drill rig repaired. We did make some progress and may have it semi-repaired tomorrow, but that will be too late for drilling since a team is coming to build a house.

Satan never tires of trying to discourage us, or of trying to get us to focus on something other than our successes. But the gift of 4 new souls entering the Kingdom yesterday is one he can never steal, and although I may be grumbling a little at today's events I will not allow him to cause me to dwell on defeat in the face of such awesome victory!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Floodgates have Broken...

You all know that we have been having a very difficult time lately and today was no exception. Just when I thought I might finish a well the mud pump blew a seal and is blowing oil everywhere. That's just the latest straw in a series of mind-boggling setbacks for us.

HOWEVER.....
The Lord's rewards make everything seem as if nothing! Lately we have been really pressing in on the kids to think about Christ and tonight the dam burst! It all started with Cesar who this morning asked me if he could invite Jesus into his heart. I told him to think about it during the day and if he still wanted to to remind me tonight...he reminded me 3 times! Joyce, Emily, Fabi, & myself took Cesar to our room and ask him to explain to us why he wanted to invite Jesus into his heart and what he thought it would mean in his life if Jesus were with him. He said he wanted to change and knew he couldn't w/o Jesus and he wanted to be able to go to heaven and not hell. We ask him to explain some scriptures for us and he did it perfectly and now Cesar is a child of the King! We wish you could have seen him beaming when we told him he now had a door in heaven w/his name on it!

As we were getting ready to leave the room Mauricio came in with Gershon and Antonio and told us they wanted to accept the Lord. We went through the same process w/them and in fact we were a little tougher trying to be certain they really meant it and were not just following suit. As much as we can determine (and of course only God knows) they are fully sincere. They, too, beamed as we talked about their place in heaven and that they were co-heirs w/Christ! Hugs and tears were everywhere!

While leaving the room Fabiola said, "I wish Rosa would invite Jesus into her heart." Before I got one foot on the steps to go downstairs Fabiola came out of their room and told me Rosa had been in there crying. I told her to go talk to her. Moments later Fabiola and Karen came downstairs and Fabi told me Karen had helped Rosa accept the Lord!!! (Our first missionary!) We all headed back up stairs, called Rosa into our room and repeated the 'sounding out' process to see if this was real or not. Again, as best as we can ascertain, IT IS REAL! There were more smiles, more tears, and more hugs...more talk of the strength of our family now! It is just unbelievable...it seemed as if nothing would ever go right for us and then this night comes...

I have no idea how to quantify or qualify this night; this is not something I've experienced before. I've been present when others have accepted the Lord and helped some to find their way, but never when it was the fruit of so many months, weeks, days, and hours of trying to bring light to your own! We can only say thank you to each of you...this is certainly your fruit as much as anyone's! Rejoice with us over this day: June 22, 2010!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Frantic times

It seems as if we've been running through the raindrops for far too long. Undeveloped wells, damaged swivels, flat tires, truck in the garage for three more days, minor accident, taking visitors to the airport, picking up visitors, hosting youth teams, trying to drill, surveying build sites for the next team, making hotel reservations, and trying to keep up with ten kids!

The visitors, Mike Sawyer, Emily Macon, Craig Mesman, & the team coming on Thursday are all major blessings. Without their help we surely would've sunk by now. A special thanks to each one!

Please pray I can complete a well tomorrow and Wednesday and then be completely prepared for the team arriving on Thursday. Sometimes it feels as if we're a million miles away from you all and the only thing that helps is knowing that your prayers are boundless!

Bless you all!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Blessings......

Joyce, the Kids, and I have been blessed lately with our visitors...this week Craig Mesman from Nothern CA. has been with us and seems to have 'morphed' his way into the kids hearts.

Emily Macon from Gallatin, TN. has been here long enough she lost her 'visitor' status. The kids have adopted her and it will tough when she gets ready to leave here.

Emily & Craig watched the kids for Joyce and I last night and allowed us an opportunity to go out for dinner. We didn't go anyplace special, but the hour or so of tranquility was like falling into your own bed after a hard day's work!

Thanks to Emily & Craig!!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

IHNFA

Irma strikes again...today we were supposed to be visited by a Social Worker who would speak w/the kids at 8:30 this morning. However, when no one showed by 10:00 a.m. I called and she told me I had to take Gershon, Karen, & Jesus to court immediately. Once there we were greeted by a child psychologist who first interviewed me for an hour and then each of the kids, one at a time. At the end of 5-1/2 hours we were told nothing except that we could go home and expect more of the same next week.

The difficult part is not knowing what the agenda is and how we can combat it. Truly the scripture about "...we don't fight flesh and blood, but...." comes to mind. Our only weapons are the spiritual prayers of all of you and ourselves. Please don't tire of lifting up these children.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Update.....

Sorry you haven't heard from us in so long, but our computer crashed and it has taken this long to get it back. The following are brief recaps of some of the events that have occurred since our last post:
  • Joyce is home and slowly getting better daily, she is still losing blood, but has a doctor's follow-up appointment on Friday and we will know more then. She spends less of her day in bed now and is slowly getting up and out more and more.
  • We've had a series of flat tires lately...two in the truck and one in the rental car, and for some reason it's never just as simple as changing a tire when it happens here.
  • We've had some visitors...Emily Macon & Mike Sawyer came in on June 2. Mike stayed for a week and helped to drill a well and do some repair on our rig. Emily is still here and will be here until July 7. She's been a big help to us as she is tutoring Angel & Jesus in math and reading. On June 14 Craig Mesman joined us and is currently helping us to drill another well. Craig will be leaving on June 21.
  • The truck was in the garage for 10 days and has to go back for 3 more.
  • IHNFA is coming in the morning w/a social worker for an "inspection/interview"...we have no idea why.
  • The three girls, Fabiola, Karen, & Rosa, had a dance recital that consisted of 5 performances. They were awesome and even got their picture in the La Prensa, the local newspaper.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Sooner than expected........

Joyce is home! After taking in 3 units of blood yesterday and last night her blood counts were up to an acceptable level and the doctor said she could recover at home as well as in the hospital. We are overjoyed!

The girls are at their second night of a 4 night dance recital and I have to go get them at 9:00 p.m. Karen and Rosa had a great picture in the La Prensa today.

Tomorrow I finally get our truck back and if it's working properly it will be a huge blessing.

Our problem is much the same as it always is; money. Joyce's hospital stay was 49, 000 limperas($2500), the truck is 15,000 limperas ($750), rent for the Mike's stay last week $350, meds for Joyce $50, meds for Joyce & I (generic lipitor) $45, electric bill 6700 limperas($330) and so on, and so on, and so on...

When you look at the numbers above and realize that all but the electric bill and lipitor bills were a surprise you can easily see how we are in a bind. We would like to ask each of you to consider presenting one, or some, or all of these bills to your church and ask them to take a love offering to help us cover our outlay.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

It all started with the AMBULANCE!

I was at the airport where Emily & I had taken Mike Sawyer for his departing flight, only to find out that it was delayed by 7 hours, when I received a call from Joyce frantically asking me to come home immediately. I could tell by her voice that something was wrong. She told me she couldn't breathe, couldn't stand, her legs hurt, she was dizzy, and her heart was beating very rapidly and strongly. I immediately thought 'heart attack' and yelled to Mike, who was still in line, to wait for me at the airport...I had to go to Joyce!

Jumping into the car and heading back to town I quickly realized it was the height of the morning rush traffic and I was headed in the wrong direction...I would never get there in time. I called a doctor friend, Margarita, and ask her to call an ambulance and send it to our house...which she did.

The traffic wasn't going to allow me to get to house in time to take the kids to school either, so I called our tutor, Dahlia, and had her call a taxi to take the kids to school. Finally I arrived at the house and the ambulance was still here and Joyce was sitting on the couch with the attendants working on her. Her heart had slowed and after checking her pressure and pulse they felt certain it wasn't a heart attack, but that they needed to get her to the hospital immediately to find out what the cause was.

Her blood test at the hospital quickly revealed a problem...her red cells, platlets, and hemaglobin were all drastically low and they had been perfect just 10 days earlier. The doctors decided to do an immediate endoscsopy and it revealed a bleeding gastric ulcer. While they were doing the test I had to run back to the airport to get Emily & Mike and return them to the house. Then it was right back to the hospital where the doctor showed me the results...he had injected medicine directly into the ulcer and then place rubber bands around it that would slowly starve it to death and cause it pass through the system. There was also a problem with some clots in the stomach.

Now I had to leave the hospital and go to the school to pick up the kids and get them home for lunch. After lunch it was back to the hospital where the doctor told me everything went well...he didn't believe the ulcer was cancerous, but would do another scope in 3-6 weeks to determine if a biopsy was necessary. He also told me there may be complications such as bleeding and perforations but he wouldn''t know that for a day or two.

Leave the hospital, go home, make a grocery list and head to PriceMart. Return to the house, unload the groceries, and back to the hospital to check on Joyce. She's out of the recovery room and in a room of her own and is resting; although she is very uncomfortable.

Back to the house, get the kids fed, the girls ready for their dance recital which starts tonight, call a cab to take them and soon I'll head back to the hospital to visit with Joyce. Thankfully Emily is here to take care of the other children...a God thing!

Please stay in prayer for Joyce to regain her strength...she is our strength!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Heat, well, and traveling

The heat is on again...today is almost unbearable outside, so most of the day is being spent inside with the air conditioners on and an almost constant call to "close the door!"

We are now at 209' in the well and have a bit more water, but we're still not sure if it's enough. We lowered a pump into it yesterday to see how flow we have, but we had trouble getting the pump hooked up to the live electric wires, so we will try again tomorrow. Please pray we find enough water to sustain them.

We went to church today (14 of us...we have two visitors, Mike Sawyer & Emily Macon) by piling into the compact rental car and renting a taxi. The truck is still in the garage and we probably won't see it before Friday, if then.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Things that fill our days....

It seems like our days lately have been filled with busyness and not with accomplishments, but maybe we can't see the forest for the trees..........
  • Our court date w/Antonio was a joke; the judge didn't know why we were there
  • Antonio's visitation was equally bad - supposedly the judge would only allow the mother to visit since the father was an alcoholic. The mother never showed; the father showed, but only stayed for 10 minutes and the visit was over. It was sad; you could see the father wanted to be a father, but alcohol was winning the battle...he just didn't know how.
  • Our truck has been in the garage for 10 days and will be there until at least next Wednesday. It causes us many, many headaches, i.e. we have two visitors which means we now need to be able to move 14 of us in a compact Hyundai. It also severely limits our ability to get any work done in our drilling ministry. Not mention the cost we are about to receive.
  • Put our last drill stem in the ground today to reach 209' and still can't tell if we have enough water to set casing or not. We will return tomorrow to have another look...pray for water!
  • Dance classes, English lessons, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, grocery shopping, well drilling, school delivery & pick-up...all w/one vehicle...it's tough!
Through it all we continue to lean on the Lord through the strength of your encouraging prayers.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Surprise, surprise...

That was the look on the judge's face when she saw Joyce, Antonio, and myself seated in her waiting room. I really don't believe she knew we were coming or why we were there. After some brief talk w/our lawyer she asked to copy our file on Antonio and we were dismissed! We do, however, have to take Antonio to Irma's office Thursday at noon to meet his drunken mother.

If none of this makes any sense to you; how do you think we feel?

Thanks for your prayers...please don't stop because we don't know what is around the next corner.

Bob & Joyce