Guatemala Team ~ June 18, 2019

Medical Team
This morning Susanne and Farr saw 10 more patients. Again the predominant complaints are pain in the back, shoulders, knees, and feet, as well as trouble with digestion and stomach pain. We met a young woman who seemed to have a more serious form of peptic ulcer disease. She had lost 20+ pounds from loss of appetite, and she was the thinnest person we have seen in these two days. Please pray for her for healing. Farr treated her empirically for a type of infection that is common with peptic ulcer disease, but we of course do not have the means to confirm that that is what she has. that reminds me that yesterday we were able to get a telemedicine consult from Carrie Alspaugh for a skin condition. That was pretty cool. Thanks Carrie! We were confronted again by how much we depend, both as patients and as healers, on God‘s healing. It’s a miracle that our bodies heal at all, and we are praying for each of our patients that God will bring the healing that they need.

~ Farr Curlin

Team One
Hola from Guatemala! Day two with the family of Amelida in Chiquimula saw us mixing cement for the floor of the Hygiene Unit. I never saw myself as a concrete mixer but I was rocking it! (Sarah Alexander said I could write that). The Hygiene Unit is coming along beautifully, especially with the oversight of our two master masons, Ephraim and Senor Marcel. We finished early so were able to sit together with Amelida (mother), her sister, her eight month old daughter Jasmine, our team, our translators and the masons.  

We entered into a time of prayer beginning with our team reading scriptures that the Lord laid on our hearts. As Amelida followed in her Bible, I realized that she was treasuring every word of scripture. Please read Isaiah 40:11 and Psalm 1:1-3. She truly embodies these verses as she and her home, and tiny piece of property are “like a tree planted by streams of water that bears it’s fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” She “gently leads her young.” What a joy it is to watch her. We truly enjoyed talking with her, except for the times the rooster in her house drowned out our voices with his crowing!  But, seriously, I have two short prayer requests from this family: Amelida would love for you to pray that her husband would begin to attend church. The grandfather, Senor Marcel, asks for rain because his crops are drying up.  

Later in the day, we went to a little section of town called “Los Engeneros.” Potter’s House makes inroads into a community by engaging in prayer walks. On these walks they visit individual families, pray with them, and give them a very full bag of groceries. We were on a team that visited four out of eight families scheduled for today. One of the families, that truly impressed us, was headed up by a grandfather and his wife who were married at age 16 and 13. They are now 81 and 78 years old! They clearly love the Lord, the Bible, and their family. They make their living by gathering recyclables in the Chiquimula dump. During the visits we prayed for three babies with coughs and gastrointestinal issues. Lack of access to water is a real problem for this community. All their wells are dry. One of the grandfathers in one family is a pastor. Farr asked him to pray for us and he laid his hands on each and every one of us. We were truly touched.

To God be the glory! 

~ Susan Dominguez

Team Two
Dona Rosa’s extended family had turned on her. Close relatives had been trying to steal the rights to her family’s property. As a single mother and grandmother, her situation was troubling. By the grace of God she was able to sell her property and move her family to another home further away. The situation shook her faith and, according to the workers at Potter’s House, was not sure if she could fully trust God. Thankfully, the staff at Potter’s House have been faithfully building a relationship with Dona Rosa, her son and daughters, and their spouses and children, all of whom live in her new home. Before we arrived they had installed the structure for a complete hygiene unit that provides clean water, a shower, a toilet, and a sink and stove for cooking. Our team worked with hired masons to plaster walls, and pour concrete floors for that unit. By the end of the week, we will paint the walls and install a working stove.

While the work has been good, building the relationship has been more important. The Potter’s House staff asked us to share the gospel with the family and I was able to share from our morning devotion, in which Jesus declares that he has come to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy to preach good news to the poor. Jesus’ preaching in his home town that day caused a furious reaction in which neighbors he had grown up with tried to throw him off a cliff. You could see the light dawning on Dona Rosa’s face as she realized that Jesus knew what it was like to have people who should have loved him, instead, reject him. She nodded as I explained that he is familiar with our sufferings and that he came to invite us into a family led by our Heavenly Father, who will never reject us. I led them in a simple prayer before we set to work again. I can’t say what took place in their hearts that day but the staff were very encouraged that this family has become more and more convinced of God’s love for them. Now, they have a very physical reminder, as they will be able to enjoy the benefits of a practical and vital hygiene unit.

Grateful for God’s immense love for the nations,

~ Patrick Dominguez