Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Wednesday Report from Rolando Zelaya

First, the day started as usual getting ready for the next village (El Ciprés of Santa Cruz de Yohoa) which was located about 2 hours away from the hotel. As always, I was looking forward to serve the people and yet at the same time struggling with not feeling overwhelmed by the crowd that I knew was going to be there.

Today, we saw 60-70 patients - all kinds of people and ages but pretty much similar circumstances. Always a lot of kids, many rashes (common thing in rural areas), and some others malnutrition, and still others extremely neglected to the point of hopelessness.

Now, I going to be a little personal. Marta Lydia, less than four years old, and Josue, one year old, belong to those whose hopelessness is their ever present companion since her mom Iris, age 27, shows a lack of desire to keep on living.

When it was Marta's turn to see the doctor and me, she was just another needy, "dirty," little girl in need of medication and little affection. But she sat next to us in front of us with her mom and brother with a big smile on her face showing us she had found a little hope in that place. In the process of our conversation about the medical condition of the family, Marta had already made herself comfortable leaning her body back against my left arm joyfully moving her two hands as when little children play.

Impressed by her action, I said to Doctura Katarina, "Look, she feels so comfortable here!" Really I was impressed by Marta's boldness. It was an awesome experience that brought to memory a burden that God had laid on my and my wife's hearts about adopting one or two kids from Honduras. Marta's little act of boldness confirmed in my heart that this is what we, the Zelayas, are suppose to do.

Please pray as we start the process of adoption. Could it be Marta and Josue? Only God knows. But if its them, we will gladly and humbly take them in so that they can have a "comfortable", meaning godly family that will take care of them. Thank you again very much for your prayers.

[The following pictures and commentary are from Tim Rice.]

In the picture below from left to right are Rachel, Rolando, Dr. Kathy, and Terri. I think the picture was taken during our lunch break.


On the right side of this wonderful and friendly girl below are two lemons that were the size of grapefruits and on the left side are mandarins the size of oranges. They grow some giant fruit here.


These are some of the many children who came for the deworming medicine and vitamins.

3 Comments:

Blogger Tim Rice said...

On Wednesday, we gave deworming medine and/or vitamins to a little over 100 children. We did not get the chance to do as many play activities with them due to the rain and the two treatment areas being a distance apart.

The property we set up on was one of the prettiest places yet. They had about eight fish ponds on it. There were also banana trees, lemon trees that produced lemons twice the size of normal grapefruits, mandarin trees, grapefruit trees, and more. This property was just recently donated to the MAMA Project. It also contains dormitories for groups that came and worked in the area in the past.

For lunch Wednesday, we had ham and cheese sandwiches. For supper, we had fried sausage, fried whole plantains, fried beans, farmers cheese, and tortillas.

For devotions, Rolando read from Philemon commenting about how Onesimus had gone from being useless to useful; and how that similarly when we become available to God, we too change from being useless to useful.

Thursday, January 19, 2006 7:48:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's great to read updates of your days! We check in every evening! It sounds like you are having great experiences. Blessings as you continue through the week!

Thursday, January 19, 2006 11:14:00 AM  
Blogger Tim Rice said...

Thanks, Rich and Jeanette. We are having a great time. Thanks for your interest.

Thursday, January 19, 2006 6:50:00 PM  

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