|
=========================================
April 30, 2006 Hector has informed me that the family is doing well. They now have water
and electricity in their new (hut) house. They have a lavenderia or "wash sink" and no longer find it necessary to walk
several times a day to fetch the water that is so far from their home! Maria tells us that Pedro has not had alcohol
since Easter and continues to improve. Please keep these people in your prayers!
=========================================
First, be sure to read April 4, 2006 just below before you read April 13, 2006 to understand this latest post.
April 13, 2006 I am back in Guatemala for a short time and Hector has given me some encouraging news.
It seems that our friend from Apple Valley, Roman, went with Hector the day following the disturbing news of the drunken rage
imposed upon the children (see April 4 below) by Pedro their father. In this encounter, Roman made it clear that there
was some protection for the family and it would come from a "gringo" from Apple Valley. I have not talked to him so
I do not know what exactly was said but I do know that Hector has been back several times and Pedro has not taken a drink
in the last 10 days! Whatever works! I will be going to visit them tomorrow and will bring you a further update
then.
April 4, 2006
Just as I am leaving for the United States Hector brings me some distressing news. It is best summed up in my e-mail
below:
================
Sent April 4, 2006
You may recall (or not) the drunk, Pedro and his wife and seven children.
We have completed a house for them which they were already working on as shown below.
They lived in a very sad circumstance, with their drunk father and
his problems, in the little bamboo structure to the left of the white adobe house above. The little girl and boy above,
the youngest in the family, were so withdrawn and scared the first time we saw them they would seek the farthest corner of
the room. The fear was very evident in their faces. When I took these pictures last Thursday, there was such a
great change! They were smiling and acting normal, like children! The father is pictured below.
Hector spent the day yesterday in the village of Santa Catarina and one of the things he did was to visit this family. As I said the house
is completed and we wanted to get the electricity and the water connected. The news he brought back was incredibly bothersome
to me. It seems the father, Pedro above, got drunk Sunday night and returned home in the middle of the night while everyone
was sleeping inside their new house. Pedro had taken earlier in the day what little food they had and two sheets of
laminate steel used for the roof and sold it (almost gave it away) so that he could buy the alcohol. When he came home
in the middle of the night, he began yelling and screaming at his wife, and hitting her as he told her what no good parents
she had. Her parents are both dead as are his. But he continued this abuse in this tiny 10 foot by 12 foot house
in front of the children. And then he urinated on them all before leaving.
I would ask you all to pray for
this family, Pedro included. My first impulse last night was to go find him and beat the crap out of him. I'm
being honest. Both Hector and I have already talked to him about how his drinking affects his family and how his wife
would leave him if he continued. But you see, there is a big problem here. There is no place to go. She
has no family on either side and very few friends. They live on a hillside almost at the very top of this village, the
farthest away from help. To tell her to lock him out may expose her to even more of his anger, and with no help.
I spoke to Hector today and we
are going to offer her the little house we were using where we show the movies. It is located next door to the police
which provides her some degree of protection. We will see what happens. God knows, he really does. Sometimes
these things are just hard to understand. But we trust that he will make this right. Perhaps it is for this reason
we were led to this family in the first place.
=========================================
April 2, 2006 Pedro has been sober for several weeks and his house is now complete!
His family is getting used to us and we are very fortunate that God has allowed us into their lives.
We are in the process of getting electricity and water connected to their house. This is an impossible dream for
them and will cost us less than $50. The impossible dream?
We will update this story as we have more information.
|
| Pedro is on the right |
March 18, 2006 As you may recall we first met Pedro, an alcoholic on Monday.
He was drunk. He came to us Monday night asking for a little money so he could have one last drink. We declined
and instead took food to he and his family. We met with him on Wednesday and he was sober for two days. He, his
wife and son professed acceptance of Jesus Christ on Wednesday morning and then helped us unload the truck of donated items
on Wednesday night. He was still sober. He returned and helped us all day Thursday during the distribution.
He was still sober. We returned to his house on Friday. He was still sober. And today, he helped Jimmy,
Hector and Rani carry bags of cement and sheets of laminate steel up to his house so the contractor could start working on
the completion tomorrow. We are very pleased to report that he is still sober.
This may not seem like a big deal but it is. He was drinking rubbing alcohol, which is the stage alcoholics go through
here before they die. He already has seen a 25-year-old son die this way. And he was well on his way.
He has seven more children and a wife who love and need him. Maybe now they'll have a husband and father. It's
in God's hands. We just praise him for all this.
March 15, 2006
Today we went to Santa Catarina to meet with an alcoholic named Pedro and his family. As explained below we met
with this man Monday and he told us he was going to stop drinking. We made arrangements to meet Pedro, his wife and
children in our new building at 10 a.m. this morning.
On the way there we talked about what we may find waiting for us. Maybe Pedro wouldn't come at all, especially if
he was drunk. Maybe none of them would show up. We didn't know. We just knew that God had charge of the
situation, and we were eager to see what he would do. When we arrived we found Marie and one of her sons, Domingo waiting
for us. We asked where Pedro was and she said he was with their sick child at their house (hut). Because their
house is so high up the mountain, we did not want to go hike up there to check on him (come on, I went twice yesterday!).
Then Marie offered to send her son Domingo up to get him. He left and we waited. In the meantime we put up our
new curtains.
After awhile (I told you it was a long way up!) Pedro showed up. He was sober! My Pedro and I talked
with him and his wife Marie for quite a little while. Then my Pedro turned to me and explained that Pedro, Marie and
Domingo, their son all wanted to pray to accept Jesus Christ into their lives. And so we did. And they did.
I know that some of you are thinking that maybe they just did this because they sensed that we are going to help them.
I understand that and maybe it's true. But it's not our concern. And maybe, if you had walked up to their hut
Monday night in the dark, and sat in their hut by candlelight, and saw the tears and the despair and the children's faces,
just maybe you would see the hope they now see. And we were very careful to explain that the hope is not in us, but
in the love of God. How blessed we were that God allowed us to experience this as he worked in the lives of these people.
March 13, 2006
Today we met this family, in the depths of despair over a common problem here in Guatemala: alcoholism.
This man is Pedro and he is an alcoholic. Not a simple alcoholic like you are probably accustomed to, but a seriously
sick and rapidly dying alcoholic. He drinks rubbing alcohol. Constantly. He beats his wife and terrorizes
his family. What little money they have he frequently takes to buy more alcohol.
Pedro is 46 years old and is married to Marie who is also 46. They have been married over 26 years. They had
eight living children, that is until a year ago when their 25-year-old son died... of alcohol poisoning. You see he
too was an alcoholic just like his dad.
Pedro and Marie has seven children left ranging in age from four years to 16 years old. The four-year-old is sick
as it is a 16 year old. They have fever, sore throat and runny nose. It's no wonder; they sleep on the floor (dirt)
and have few blankets. Their house, if you can call it that, is only 3/4" bamboo poles lashed together. It doesn't
break the wind in the cold night so they have scraps of clothing, plastic and anything else they could rummage hanging on
the wall. Their stove is an open flame wood fire and their griddle is the top of a 55 gallon drum pounded flat.
The kids do not go to school, except the third grader because they do not have the money. The 16 year old is building
an Adobe structure next-door to the bamboo hut with donated materials. The family lives on a piece of land so high up
the mountain it's got very little value, donated to them from someone in the Catholic Church. Marie's mother and father
died when she was a child and she has no family, and Pedro's mother and father abandoned him when he was a little boy.
He has no family as well.
Hector, Jimmy and I along with Pedro visited this family in the daytime because we had heard of their situation and Jimmy
and Barbara had brought some money and were looking for a project on their visit here. And God brought us to this family.
After we left that afternoon we were talking about whether to help them and had decided this was God's intention. That
evening we returned for the first movie in our new Santa Catarina Building when Pedro (the alcoholic) walked up to us and we began to talk.
He told us he was going to quit drinking "tomorrow" but he needed just a little bit more tonight to settle his stomach.
He was just a few cents short of being able to make his purchase and asked us to help him, assuring us that this would be
the last drink he took. Of course we declined and instead talked to him about his real need. He was not as drunk
as earlier and was starting to shake, signifying his 'need' for just one more drink.
After telling him that his family needed him and they were hungry, he agreed to let us buy some food and take it up the
mountain to his family. And he agreed (at least in that moment) that he would not drink any more.
As Hector went with Pedro to buy some food Jim and I talked about this family. It was after dark but there was
a full moon, which would be necessary in just a few moments as we walked up the dark paths all the way to the top of the village,
hundreds of feet up the mountainside. It was not something I was looking forward to for the second time that day.
We walked up the path and finally reached the "hut" after taking several rest breaks (for me) and sweating profusely
(me), huffing and puffing (me again).
We spoke with the family in groups: Hector spoke to Pedro while I talked to Marie. I explained to her that what
was happening with her husband was not good and that we could not help them if he was going to take the materials we brought
to the site to help with the house to buy alcohol. At the same time unbeknownst to me Hector was talking to Pedro and
telling him the same thing. Then we got the children and asked them if they loved their father. They said yes.
We asked them if they want him to drink. They said no. Pedro cried. Hector then explained to Pedro that
if we started helping to build a house for them it was only because God provided a way. He explained that if Pedro came
home drunk or stole from our materials we would call the police and have him arrested. His wife Marie agreed.
The children agreed. Pedro assured us he was through drinking. Time will tell. We set an appointment for
Wednesday at 10 a.m. (that's today, this morning). And now we will see.
Read about Hardships
|
