Mon. Sept 7,2009
We got up early today for an 8 a.m. funeral. Chema , 40 years old, mother of two, died of breast cancer slightly more than 24 hours ago. It was as expected as the death of a young ,gravely ill mom can be but the loss is keen and deep for her sister Diana, our close friend and another sister not to mention Chema's husband and children. Diana's mom died only weeks ago and her dad has been gone almost ten years. One major loss after another.
We sat through the mass and then went with multi others to the grave site. Wreaths and floral arrangements in abundance and even the classmates of her children came to pay their last respects.. The sun beat down mercilessly even at 9:30 a.m. and the sweat poured off the observers and the workers alike as the cement was poured into the frame that now held the last earthly remains of Chema.
We have seen and known of so much sadness in the last 7 years that we have lived here. Only months ago Yarit's father was murdered by an unknown assailant in their small store where they sold cases of beer. Her grief was so palpable for she did not hold back her anger , sorrow , loss and defeat. It was "in our face".
The incident I mentioned in my previous blog was an official and his son in two vehicles both murdered in cold blood moments before we came on the scene. We may never know why.
The reality is that death comes to the young and the old the wicked and the righteous. All of us need to be ready to face that day.
Tues.
I went to the General Hospital again to give support to whomever needed it as the Lord directed. Today a 31 day old infant who had been born prematurely was fighting for his life in the emergency room which is the only place with life saving equipment in the hospital. He had fought so hard to live and managed so well and then suddenly... His mother and grandparents were in the waiting area as mom could not bear to watch the staff struggle to get a few drops of blood from her infant. I encouraged her to go in and let her baby hear her voice and to tell him to fight the battle as hard as he could and to trust that God's plan for her baby is always the best.
Sometimes I hear myself talking to patients and staff and I know what I say is true and maybe at times even wise but I also am very aware that it is not that easy and that I too, in their place, would be struggling to believe that God is good and knows all before it happens. So here is where it stands in Psalms 139

13For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

He knows our beginning and He knows our end. We can trust Him.

Why then is it so hard for us to live for Him??

I know I won't be able to keep this up...all this blogging but maybe it will be more frequent than the old web page..I hope so.
Today bright and early we headed out by car to a town about an hour away. On the way we passed an accident. they were still looking for someone in the ditch..my old EMS training started to accelerate! Someone taking the curve too fast I guess.
The purpose of our journey today was to visit a woman we knew who had recently escaped from domestic violence in an isolated community. She was now living with her mom. The town that she escaped from had one woman who showed concern , visited her and shared the love of God. This as it turned out was our land lady!! She has been a blessing to us but I see that she is a blessing right where she lives in the heart of narco traficking ganaderos...ranchers. Many have moved out of that town for fear of their lives but Dona Brenda has her eternity already sorted out and she is going about being God's servant. She is in her early seventies.
We took about 2o min. finding the place which turned out to be a thatch roofed mud house. Quite well made actually.

The woman who we will call Senora O has HIV and so does her 7 year old daughter. She has 5 kids in total. Her sister who lives with them has 11!!!

Her little girl cannot hear due to chronic untreated ear infections. So another part of the trip was to bring them both back to the city to have an appt. with the doctor in DIF (social services). It had been all arranged. Remember we live in Mexico. So after eating "pollo sin huesos" (chicken without bones) otherwise known as beans and tortillas, we headed back to town. On the way back to town we passed another incident that looked very much like someone had just gunblasted all the windows out of a vehicle and another truck lay on its side. No emergency vehicles had yet arrived as we were waved past.

The doctor at DIF had left on an "emergency" to Guadalajara! This sort of thing is not all that uncommon and works the other direction as well where patients do not show up for appts. but since we were the ones who had made the trip .. it did not sit all that well. We did get an audience with the director of DIF who then made plans for a Monday appt.
During our discussion afterwards I discovered that the little girl is actually a half sister to another little girl we know living with her grandmother here in town. That little girl ,6, also has HIV. The biological mother is somewhere in the U.S. and Sra. O's husband fathered the little girl now in question. If you have followed me at all you have just seen a messed up situation that is too familiar here.
We prayed and they hopped the bus for the 1 and 1/2 hr busride home.
A portion of the day in my life!!

There is something else troubling me today. My missionary friend Alisa has taken a month out of her busy life to ride her bicycle on behalf of abandoned seniors here. To make people aware of the plight of a group of vulnerable and powerless individuals all over Mexico but especially where we live. To raise awareness and to raise funds for a Home for them here.
Her heart is to do this for God and pray that people will respond to the need by giving.
You see a small group of Christians living here, both Mexican and foreigners , who had no intention whatever of building anything had been prompted by God to do that very thing. It has been around 3 years in the planning and all is in place...except the money.
You need to know that all along the way we were sufficiently inexperienced, unskilled and without financial resources that we could not believe God would ask this of us. Let someone else do it!! He would not let us off the hook. Lord..why not help abandoned and abused children ??!! There is so much more interest in helping children and certainly their plight here is just as important! The answer came. Build this home for ME and for the old ones left on their own without help. So we carried on.
I believe the truth of the matter is that if we do not step up to the plate and trust God than we will be disobedient. And there will be no change.

Will Alisa's desire to please God be rewarded with the donated funds needed to start the home?? It really has everything to do with God and His plans and not a great deal to do with us and ours.
But this we know..if we are being obedient whether it is in the planning, the bicycling, giving financially or just making people aware...God will do it and He alone will receive the glory!!
Did I hear an Amen?!!

http://www.ztookc.blogspot.com/
http://www.bethechangeok.org/

well we just got back from having pozole with our friend Ben. Ben is a 72 year old man who loves Zihuatanejo and just wants to serve God in whatever way He leads. He is humble and recognizes he is still learning.
You know I think that is the key...humility and open to being transformed from the inside out. He is an encouragement to us and I hope we were to him.
I want to tell you the story of Sulema.
I met Sulema in the hospital in April (I think). She had just had her 2nd baby. The birth was fine. The problem was the huge tumor, angiosarcoma, on her leg. It encompassed half of the upper and lower portions of her leg . She had been in Tijuana where she lived with her husband when she got pregnant which was also when the tumor showed up. They decided to wait till the baby was born before treating the mass. At that point she decided to come to our area where her parents lived and seek the support of her family and medical help. She was discharged from hospital to wait at her parents home for appointments with doctors in larger centers, I visited ..several times. We prayed and talked about how God was in control of the situation and that we could trust Him. They kept calling it a virus but I knew when they showed me the report of the ultrasound that it was cancer. I did not speak to them about what it is Jesus wants to do in each of our lives. To cleanse , forgive and make us new people who love and serve Him right into eternity...saved by His grace.
One day I went to visit them again and the house was completely closed and the neighbours had no information. I went 3 weeks in a row until the neighbour finally had a phone number. In time there was a form of communication by text messaging. I realized that the family had gone to another city in order to be closer to the area where she would get treatment.
I was so anxious for them knowing that this was serious and feeling very irresponsible for not having fully shared the gospel with Sulema whose life was now in danger. Somehow I had to fix this!! I went to my friend Alisa who had contacts in Lazaro and she directed me to a pastor who worked there on weekends. She did not hold out much hope since the city was large and the chances slim that they would be anywhere near this family . I had no real idea of where they were and only had the first name of Sulema.
Not too long after, we were in the seminary where this pastor worked on weekdays. By this time I was more than anxious about Sulema who now was an amputee and the "virus" had spread to her lungs. They needed spiritual and practical support and I was not there!! (by this time you can see that I have a problem in thinking that I must resolve all the issues!) As I began to tell the story of Sulema it was not long before he stopped me. "But sister, he said, we are already visiting her and taking care of her in a number of ways". I was confused for sure and asked if Alisa had already informed him of this situation. "No", he said, "they moved into a place beside some church members ..he is a nurse and has helped with her medications and his wife is helping with meals etc." "We have prayed with them and over time all came to know Christ as Saviour".

I cried..I was so moved by the grace of God. So rebuked by my arrogance in thinking I had to solve this...God had a plan..and I was only a small part of it. His team of believers working together for a common end...that the world might know!!

The Hernandez in me !!

ok. I am going to give this a try. Our own personal website doesn't seem to get updated and I really have no clue about working on websites so maybe this will work.
Today is September the first and I guess it is approaching fall back in the North where I used to live!!
It is a very warm day in Zihuatanejo and in many ways we are still playing catchup with work that has been waiting for us since our trip to the North.
Yesterday I spent several hours waiting at the IFE where I will get a credencial electoral which is used all the time here as identification since it has one's photo on it. Actually the only reason I can have one is that I am now a Mexican as well as a Canadian thanks to the birth registration of my father, Ths should simplify my life considerably and I can now participate in things that as a foreigner I could not before. I can buy land or a house (if I had the money!) without all the legal requirements and trusts required of foreigners. I can vote!! Next step is the passport and then I will truly be a Canadian/Mexican
Waiting in line is a part of Mexican life here. No matter what it is there is a wait involved. In fact on entering IFE they told me to come back and make an appointment tomorrow!! However in Mexico it helps to know people who can make the process simpler and thus it was that instead of lining up at 6:30 a.m. for an office that opens at 9 a.m. I was able to wait at 1:30 p.m. in a very cold airconditioned room along with a number of others till my name was called. Still about a 3 hour wait.
I went to the hospital this a.m. which I generally do on Tuesdays and Fridays. Today there was a 55 year old woman dying of kidney failure and another woman of 66 dying of diabetic complications. It is an opportunity mostly to be a comfort to families and to encourage them to speak to their loved one and to seek peace with God now in order to have peace for eternity. Without exception the families have been grateful for someone to come along side of them and help them to make some sense out of a very heart breaking situation.
There was a young teen in emergency today who had been to the talks we give and she was so happy to see me even though her baby is a bit yellow right now!
Our prayer letter went out today and so my list of things to get done is almost finished.
Ron is preparing for this month's classes in geography/archeology at the seminary and today I have to complete yet a short talk for our pregnant teens at the hospital. At this point in time it is a weekly task for me but generally its a shared ministry that at least two other women participate in. This particular year is interesting because the staff makes a point of sitting and listening as well. Not to judge us but to learn!! They love it! God is good.
well I want this to be a bit of my day and it is an experiment so we'll see if it works!
P.S> the photo is my Grandma Hernandez and myself a number of years ago!