...and they will be my people.

Friday, July 24, 2010

I photographed a handmade banner hanging on the wall of the church where we worked today. In English, it reads, "Thus saith the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Tosagua and they will be my people."

We headed over to Dios Con Nosotros (God With Us), a local church this morning to conduct a screening for some of the people of Tosagua. The children were more timid than we've seen and less cooperative; so many didn't get their hemoglobin checked. (The hemoglobin station involves a quick finger stick and taking a tiny amount of blood from the fingertip to rule out anemia.) Still more children pouted as they moved from station to station and several refused to allow me to check their pulse or blood pressure! This is quite a change from before, where the children were eager to see what our station was all about and willing to allow us to do most anything as long as we smiled at them and patted them lovingly.

The children, in fact some adults, are a little suspicious of us. I can see mistrust in their eyes. Still others – especially the abuelas (grandmothers) – are very loving, hugging and kissing us over and over and thanking us and repeating, "Dios le bendiga." (God bless you.)

The pastor, Noberto and his wife, Belen (Bethlehem) were very gracious, bringing us fresh mandarin oranges & papaya, freshly baked bread & cake still warm from the oven and drinks throughout the day.


We saw a little over 90 patients and learned how to flush a toilet without running water by pouring water into the tank before flushing. Before lunch, we washed our hands by wetting them in a bowl of water, lathering up well with soap, then rubbing our hands to rinse as someone poured "clean" water slowly over them into a basin. What servant hearts the people of Tosagua have! I really felt humbled having someone assist me to wash my hands.

During a delicious lunch prepared for us by the hotel staff, (fried rice with peas and carrots, chicken, fried plantains, and a warm potato salad with cabbage) the water truck came to fill up the cistern. After that, thanks to gravity, we had running water in the sinks and toilets!

A photo of me with Bella, a lovely lady with high blood pressure...



Following dinner at the hotel, we headed to the open air arena, one block away, to watch what we thought was a soccer game. Pastor Noberto promised to save a spot for us if we would agree to come and we were under the impression he was going to play. We arrived at 8:00 pm and it seemed as though they were never going to get started. We finally left at 10:00 pm without ever having watched a soccer game! We never did figure out what they were doing – it may have been a kick-off for the soccer season or some kind of exhibition – who knows, it was all in Spanish!!

A photo of Noberto, the pastor of Dios Con Nosotros Church in a soccor uniform!