update on little j.

Little J is doing so much better!  Both of his eyes are open, and his head is no longer swollen.  Some of the scabs on his forehead are gone, revealing new pink skin.  And he was up walking around the burn unit with his IV in tow today.

I'm really encouraged!  Thanks for praying!

The head nurse and I are conspiring to keep J as far away as possible from the home, San Benito, where this horrible accident happened.  The nurse and I have both heard awful stories about the home, and they've been very neglectful of J, dropping him off and not checking back for a week.  His parents also have only come to visit once...

Please keep praying for J.  There is still a long road ahead...


***UPDATE 6/3/11


J was in enormous amounts of pain yesterday after an operation on his left arm...

Today, they apparently did some skin grafting...  Based on his reaction and pain yesterday, the doctors have decided to keep J unconscious in the ICU for a couple of days.  So I won't see him until Monday at the earliest.

Please keep praying for him!

success.

I think I have really big dreams and high expectations for the kids, and I can't settle for just helping them survive or making their lives more bearable on the streets.  Granted, there's room and need for every type of ministry to street-dwelling kids, for sure.  But my focus is on individual life transformation, and it's wholly dependent on a heart change and a relationship with the Lord.  So I measure success differently than other people who work with the kids.

Although I stop in at the bridges to visit the kids still living on the streets and to keep up relationships, my time and efforts are mostly focused on the two couples with babies who have recently left the streets behind: Patty and Efrain, Zulma and Gary.

The fact that they're living in rooms out in the country is surely something to be celebrated, especially considering that each of them was on the streets not that long ago.  I'm so proud of them.  But I fully believe that eking out an existence in the campo is not all that God has for them.  He wants the kids to know Him and love Him, and He wants to give them abundant life.  

I think He wants us to dream big and trust Him to transform lives.

When the girls come to my house, Casa Koinonia, several days a week, one of the things I try to do is spend time talking and praying with each of them individually.  And the one thing that most encourages me out of everything that I've seen, experienced, and done in all of my years in Bolivia is seeing small traces and hints of character growth in the girls... living evidence of the Potter shaping their hearts...

Zulma absolutely blesses my heart on a daily basis.  She is so full of goodness and kindness, and she works so hard at being a good mother to her two babies.  The one area of her life where we've been working is her impulsiveness and short temper, especially in her relationship with Gary.  He doesn't always make good choices, and because of that they've had some crazy and violent fights in the past... in front of their 3 year old and 1 year old.  So we do a lot of relationship counseling here, and I try to pour into Zulma's life as a mentor.

(Pray for a guy to come be a mentor to Gary and Efrain!!!)

In the last couple of months, I have seen so much evidence of God working in her heart and life...  She is developing patience and making the effort to show love and handle conflicts in a mature way.  Their fights used to end in one of them escaping to the streets for a night or two.  I'd have to go hunt them down and then pray and talk with them individually and as a couple...  It would take at least a week to get through the initial problem and recover from the fight.  But lately, these kinds of conflicts have not been happening, and I see it as clear evidence that the Holy Spirit is moving in their hearts.

For example, Zulma got really upset with Gary the other day, but instead of yelling and fighting in front of the babies, she chose to handle things differently.  She didn't allow her emotions or temper to control her.  She waited until things calmed down and the babies went to bed, and then she talked with Gary... and he apologized!  The next day, they came over and we worked through the problelm.  No running off to the streets, no relying on drugs to calm their emotions, no screaming and no yelling...

Character growth like that paints a beautiful picture of God working in her heart.  These are the things we should celebrate.  And this is why I'm in Bolivia... and why I'm starting Casa Koinonia.

bichos, car wrecks, & miracles.

Bichos have struck again.

Three weeks ago, I was in the hospital because some kind of amoeba had taken up residence in my intestines.  I left more or less without doctor's approval (I just can't afford financially to be sick!) but was given a plethora of medication to take, pretty much guaranteeing that no amoeba, parasite, or random disease would survive inside of me.

But here we are, three weeks later, and I'm sick again... or still.

I've had amoebas more times than I can count.  These things just happen when you spend your days in some of the filthiest places in the city...  But two different times, God chose to miraculously heal me.  Once was at the annual business meeting at Risen Savior Assembly following a 3 week trip to Bolivia.  (Guess how we promote the business meeting now!)  And the other time was in 2009 after a 6 month battle with amoebic cysts.  I have lab work to prove it, oh ye of little faith.  :)

It's been an interesting month.

In between my bicho outbreaks, I almost died in a car wreck 4100 meters up in the Andes two weeks ago.

I was traveling back from a 3 day trip to La Paz with my friend Ken, two of his volunteers, and one of the boys from his project in Santa Cruz when our breaks went out on the way down the mountain...  We swerved to avoid running into the back of a semi and hit a car head-on, which sent us careening down the side of the mountain.  It was literally the most terrifying and surreal moment of my life.  I'd write it out play-by-play, but Ken already did that... and better than I could  You can read the details of the wreck here: Ken's blog about our accident.

This photo doesn't do it justice, but you can kind of see the mountain we went down...

That rock I'm sitting on was part of a pile of rocks we ran into that rolled down the mountain with us.  We landed on the only flat-ish part of the mountainside, and you can see the drop off right in front of us.

Towing the truck up the following day.

A lot of really cool and miraculous things happened to keep us alive...  And a lot of people miraculously knew to pray for us at the exact time we were falling down the mountain.  Read Ken's blog.  It's an incredible story of God's protection.  We should all be dead.

I was really upset and unsettled for a day or two after the wreck.  Even now, two weeks later, remembering the second we went over the side of the mountain sends a cold shiver down my spine.  But at the end of everything, I've come to a much deeper level of understanding that there is no safer place to be than in the hands of the Father.  This life is so fragile!  And no matter what I do - from the food I eat to the plans I make - I really have no control over what happens to me.  But God does!  And knowing that my life and future rest in His hands gives me a profound sense of peace.

little j.

Please pray for J, the little guy on the left...  He was staying at a home for boys from the streets last week when he slipped in the kitchen and ended up knocking over a pot of boiling grease.  It spilled all over him, burning his face, head, neck, and arms.  I went to see him today at the hospital, and he is unrecognizable.  It looks like his eyes are both okay, but his head is very swollen and covered in bloody, oozing wounds.  His arms are mostly bandaged, and one ear is really bad...

Workers from the home dropped him off at the hospital on Thursday but haven't even returned to check on him.  And children's services hasn't gotten involved, yet...  This is all just guaranteeing him poor care during the many weeks that he will have to spend in the hospital unless someone fights for him.

He needs a lot of prayer!

And we may need to help financially long-term.  Unfortunately, as of right now, we have no money at all...  So please be praying about that, too!