One night

I wrote this last night after this experience and just thought I would share it with you guys:

Rode my motorcycle up to the overlook point tonight right as the darkness was about to overtake the light. As soon as I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the peachy orange color, the only color still left in the sky that hadn’t been overtaken by the darkness of the night. I stood in awe of the beauty and magnificence of it all. The sky reflected the sun that had said goodnight over the horizon more than 20 minutes before. As I looked out over the jungle and the ocean, it was almost as if the ocean and the sky ran together because they were so dark. However, the light was not giving up so easily and there were streamers of orange and peach woven in and out of the clouds. They stayed this way for a while before giving way to the darkness of night. The ocean looked so calm that I almost couldn’t tell where the ocean stopped and the sky began. As I began to listen instead of just stare in awe, I heard the sound of the waves way down below crashing into the shore. They were faint, off in the distance, and it took effort to hear the beautiful music they were making. I never would have thought that you could hear the waves from that high up the mountain, but it was almost like they were echoing the sound of the ocean and nothing, not even the jungle was going to get in the way of it’s singing unto the Lord. Their echoing was so distinct that it was almost as if I was standing on the beach at night, staring at the darkness listening to the tranquil sound as the waves naturally crested and broke onto the sandy shore. As I took my focus off the waves, I heard the sound of the jungle insects, singing their night song in such harmony. I knew night was here by the symphony that was being played out by the insects, but the sky said otherwise. As I stood there in awe staring into the darkness, listening to the music that creation was playing for the Lord, I began to hear more sounds off in the distance of the monkeys. I heard the very distant sound of the monkeys adding to the music creation was making for the Lord. They were adding their own special effects to the sounds creation was already busy making. “Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” Psalms 69:34 Thank you Lord for letting me hear the praises that your creation sings to you.

Mom's visit

Mom had a wonderful visit here at the hosptial. I took her on the motorcycle, up to the water tower, to the beach searching for sand dollars and star fish, showed her around the hospital, took her into balfate, went to a restaurant on the beach out in Rio Esteban. We were able to paint my room, which I have been wanting to do since I arrived...it was an aweful dirty cobalt blue color. We had a wonderful mother/daughter time. I was very glad that she got to see where I am and meet just about all of the full time missionaries that are here that I am working along side.

Mom got to see one of the miracles that sometimes I write about on my blogs...and see that the sign in front of the hosptial...Dios obra aqui (God works here) is true and that he does truely bless us here. There was a baby that came in one night when I was called in about 7 or 8pm. It was the daughter of one of the employees here that is about 3 months old. She had been having some constipation and so they took her to a midwife out in the community which is what most of the people here do. (The midwives here are clueless and sometime perform witchcraft, and most of them are completely uneducated.) She went and bought mineral oil for the baby at the local pulperia, heated it up, added salt and poured it down the baby's throat. The oil was way too hot and scalded the babies mouth and esophagus. After a couple of hours because the burn was so bad, the airway started to swell and the baby started having trouble breathing...that is when she arrived at the hospital. After arriving, we decided there was not much we could do for her since her airway was closing and didn't have needed equipment to deal with the situation, they gave her a steroid injection, and sent the family to the city. After a little over an hour car ride, they arrived at the public hospital (sidenote: they will not even take patients if they don't look sick...there have been so many patients just turned away at the door). After I got back home, mom and I prayed...prayed for the missionaries who were taking this family to the city, prayed for the family and for this tiny baby. The Lord heard our prayers that night! The baby was sent home the next day and is now doing fine...praise the Lord!

As mom's time was wrapping up here, we started to hear about a strike on Spirit Airlines (her airline) and kept attentive to it. We found out on Monday after checking Spirit Airlines website that mom's flight had been cancelled for wednesday and her money refunded. As we were looking for tickets and finding they were about double what she had paid round trip to come, we contacted a friend who appeared on skype. He used to work for Delta and let us buy a buddy pass. Mom was able to get on the first flight on wednesday as planned. She also was able to leave at noon instead of 1am, had a direct flight and was placed in first class...we are guessing because of his seniority...and she only had to pay $30 more for this ticket than she was refunded. What a huge blessing that was...and what a huge blessing it was to have mom visit! :)