"Puentes de Vida" ~ Bridges of Life

A little over a week ago our entire family made a very long day of it and headed to the edge of the Cabeccar Reservation.  And I am so thankful for good little travelers who really don't complain about long hours in the car.  Daddy's only complaint is the too frequent bathroom stops...usually instigated by Mom.  I know, I am as bad as the kids.

It was an amazing day!  Several months ago we met a Costa Rican doctor who has dedicated his life since his medical career started to the Indigenous people of Costa Rica.  We got to meet his wife the other day as well.  She is an American and is also a doctor.  They went to Med School for the sole purpose of doing medical mission work.  They don't just do things here and there, these people live to help these people.  You would just have to meet them to fully comprehend their love for these people and see their desire to serve, completely and fully serve.  

They live about a mile outside of the reservation in a very small and very modest cabin.  He drives into the city to work in administration in one of the private hospitals where he has been able to make contacts and raise awareness for their work on the reservation.  The rest of their time is spent on the reservation serving these people and teaching them life skills that these people may not have ever had the opportunity to learn without their help.  They have raised funds to build foot bridges as drowning is the number one cause of death.  I could go on and on telling about the many different things they have in progress.  I don't know when they sleep!  

I have mentioned before the program that they started for the Cabeccar Women.  Judith (the American doctor) started a program 16 months ago.  The first 8 months she had several women enroll in a coarse she had developed to educate women on basic prenatal care, postnatal care, and newborn care.  She has taught these women basic things and this basic knowledge has saved lives.  These women went through the 8 month coarse and have been on the ground for 8 months now educating other women and helping other women.  She gave them something that will give for generations, and that is education.  

During election time in Costa Rica it is the law that government officials have to deliver ballots to the tribes.  One of these women who completed the coarse was seeing a women at the end of her pregnancy.  From the basic things she had learned she knew that a particular woman needed to leave the reservation and get to a hospital.  She did not know all of the physiology of what was going wrong, but she knew that something was wrong and if this woman did not get help, then she and her unborn baby would both die.  This young woman prayed that God would help her, help her find a way to get this woman the help that she needed.  These people are hours from the nearest hospital if they have transportation by a vehicle, and a vehicle can only get to the very edge.  Government officials arrived via helicopter to deliver the election ballots.  This woman acted quickly and used every resource.  I believe without a doubt that God answered her prayer with that helicopter.  I mean, what are the odds?  That is a God thing!  Only He sends a helicopter at the very moment it is needed.  She was able to arrange for this woman to be transported on this helicopter to the nearest hospital.  She used the knowledge that she was given, the resources God gave her at that moment, and she acted.  Her actions saved this woman and her unborn baby.  Had she not been able to be transported out by that helicopter she and her baby would have died.  She was having a placental abruption.  For those who don't know that medical lingo, that is when the placenta (what supplies nutrients and complete oxygenation to the baby) starts separating from the uterine wall.  She noticed the beginning signs of an abruption.  The doctors told her that she would have not survived if she had not gotten to the hospital when she did.  They did an emergency c-section.  When a placenta completely separates from the uterine wall you have minutes to do a c-section and get the baby out.  AKA....a nurse's nightmare!!!  Everyone on the unit moves at LIGHTENING speed!!!!  

{Left: Dr. Judith, Yamileth, & Gendry}

 

I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there isn't a nice labor and delivery room for these women with state of the art external fetal monitors, 4D ultrasound machines, epidurals, and an OR steps away from the delivery room.  These women don't have that.  They were born in a place, not of their own fault, where these aren't options.  Their reality is laboring on dirt floors without medicines, no idea what is happening to their body, no doctors, and at times delivering a baby completely alone.  They don't have everything that so many of us take for granted.  

I don't know to what extent or frequency that I will be able to help these women and this life-changing program that Dr. Judith has started, but she has extended the offer for me to help her with this program.  This is an answered prayer for me.  I was able to sit in on the last meeting with two of the women who completed the coarse.  I am in complete awe of their example to serve others and to love others like Jesus.  These women walk hours and hours to see just one woman or one newborn baby.  And then they do it the next day and the next.  They are changing lives, one life at a time.  If one life is saved, one life is changed, one life is able to see the love of God, truly know the love of God, and obey that awesome command that will free them, then the many hours in a car, hours hiking, the horrible Montazuma's revenge that strikes will be worth every second of my time and my family's time.  Because this is what it is all about...following Him, wherever the path may lead.  Please pray for this opportunity that has been set before us and that we will be able to plant seeds.  Keith, Lord-willing, will arrive with a group of 7 on July 28, and it is planned to travel to the reservation and go in further on July 30.  David wants me to be able to go on this trip.  I have only been to the edge of the reservation and not completely in, so this will be my first time.  As much as he wants to go, he is staying at home with the kids so that I can do this and spend some time with some of these women.  That is the most difficult thing about some of our work here, it means we each fly solo, because the kids can't always come, and this is one of those times.  So, please pray for all of us.

Red Letter Words

GO RED TO END IT!

"Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and need." ~ Proverbs 31:8-9

I always have grand intentions of getting things blogged.  I have a little notebook that I am constantly scratching down random thoughts, sometimes just little things I want to remember, other times blog post ideas, and then those things that I need to be reminded of so often.  With that said, I had an entire other idea that I was mulling over this morning while I was running...but then I saw all the END IT pictures.

While we feel as if we are so small and that we can't possibly do anything to help and there is nothing we can do - WE ARE SO WRONG!  To end Human Trafficking, you are right, I can't stop it, you can't stop it, or your church, but together with CHRIST we can END IT.  Anything is possible with Christ, Phil 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  It does not say some things, but ALL things.  

This was a great educating experience for my children this morning.  They needed to know this.  I got the red pen out and started marking, and we started talking.  Talk about some questions, and funny understandings from a four year old.  After I marked and we talked, Leia went running to find Daddy and her words, "Daddy, Daddy, I have a red mark so no one can sell me."  Okay, so she didn't get the whole picture, but we gotta start small here.  The other kids have been learning some about slaves, since they have been studying about the wars in England, France, and the War of 1812, so slavery has been mentioned.  They thought that since all these wars were fought that no one allowed slavery anymore.  I explained that these people are owned, they are property, they have no life, they have no choice, they are nothing.  They are treated horribly, they are punished, they are hurt physically, mentally, and endure things that we could probably never truly imagine.  They are still young and we didn't get into the even harsher realities of what most human trafficking consists of, but it was the beginning of a conversation that we will continue to have.  Because, like it or not, the trafficking is everywhere.  It is in front of your eyes, and you probably walked by someone in at least the last week that is imprisoned to this.  

Olivia wanted to share her thoughts she has had today after talking about trafficking this morning.

 

Costa Rica has become one of the highest trafficked areas in the world for this, and while the government here is being forced by the United Nations to crack down and do something about it, it is still happening.  I blogged more about this a few months ago, and you can find it here.  

I haven't had the time to research the origination of the X for the End It Movement.  But, for me, it signifies that the only way to stop this incomprehensible evilness in this world is with the words of Jesus, the ones that share of his love, his sacrifice, and the blood that was spilled for all of us sinners in the world.  One person at a time.  That is all we can do.  One person at a time.  One relationship at a time.  And sharing the One true KING.  I believe all those Red Letter Words are the best and only tool needed to Free the Slaves.

If we aren't using those Red Letter Words then it will be impossible to End IT.  

Jesus's very words were, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." ~ Mark 15:15

Meditations of My Heart

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

Psalm 19:14

{Everyday Flora in Costa Rica}

I have thought about this verse over and over {it has been a rerun in my mind constantly} the past few weeks.  It is the theme verse for this Bible study I started a few weeks ago with a couple of friends.  

What is the meditation of your heart?  What are your thoughts that play in your mind throughout your days and sleepless nights?  We can hide our doubts, fears, worries, anger, and anything else from others, but we cannot hide it from God.

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether."

~ Psalm 139:1-4

To everyone else, you and I may appear to have it all together.  But He really knows, because he knows the thoughts that flood every second and every minute of our days.

Is it all acceptable to the Lord?  Is He pleased with our constant stream of negativity, doubts, and worries that are literally clogging up the brain and taking over?  You know what I am talking about.  For me it is the constant thoughts of "I can't get it all done.  What if this happens?  What if that happens?  How are we going to deal with this?"  Let me tell you, I can come up with the worst possible case scenario faster than some people blink.  And what have I accomplished?  I have accomplished nothing but anguish and distress for myself and others around me.  Is this how I really want to spend my life?  I don't want my days to be overcome with these thoughts.  And can't we really say that none of this is for the GLORY OF GOD?  Not at all.  How can my doubts be acceptable to Him?  

This is what I want my thoughts to be.  These are the things I want to take over my mind in the silence spaces of my days.

Psalm 119: 27, 48, 78, 148

27 Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

{I want to think about His wonderful ways and works.}

48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.  {I want to know his laws, his commands.  You have to know them to follow them.}

78 Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.  {Just another example of placing our thoughts on His commands.}

148 My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.

{I want to hold onto His words and everything He has promised.}

We say we don't have time to meditate everyday.  But we do.  We have our thoughts all day.  We have spaces there.  You know we do, because we use those spaces and fill them with weeds that choke everything else out.  The saying "Mind Over Matter" holds very true.  Just as we choose shoes we will wear and what curtains match best, we choose what we think about.

"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." ~ Colossians 3:2

This is where my mind needs to be.  All I am doing is tormenting myself.  I have the choice to make my life miserable or to think about everything above.  Things of Heaven are higher and better than anything on this earth {Isa. 55:9}.  Worry brings fear.  Jesus tells us why we don't need to worry {Matt 6:25-32}.  My worries make me a prisoner in my own life.  

These are the things that need to be pouring from my mind.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." ~ Phil 4:8

Through the years I have caused my own heartache, physically and mentally, and all for nothing.  I simply have to Let GO and Let God because when I do, I am free, and all I have to do is pray.

{La Paz Waterfall, Costa Rica}

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~ Phil 4:7-8

The Difference

Through tear-filled eyes you hear the words, "Nobody wanted us."  Left at a young age, not the only child, but one of 4, and the oldest only 15 years old and the youngest 3 years old.  Their father left them years before for someone other than them and their mother.  Years later, their mother abandons them.  None of their family would take them in.  They had no one to care for them, no one to provide for them.

They were born into turmoil and extreme poverty.  A world where life was already very hard, and it just  got even harder.  When they became abandoned, their grandmother offered to take their older brother but none of the other siblings.  They went into government custody and remained there for four years until their mother decided to resurface.  They lived in a system with so many other orphans and abandoned children, where the common thought is, "I was not wanted.  I am not wanted.  I am not loved."

This is not a Costa Rica epidemic, it is a worldwide epidemic.  It is an epedemic of people not having the knowledge of what a true father is, and most of all who our heavenly father is.  It is an epedemic of people never learning what love is and how to love.  These children knew their father left them long ago, made another life for himself that excluded them from his heart and his life altogether, and the only thing they had left was their mother.  Left with nothing and in government custody, they call their father, begging for him to get them out.  He appeared for a few visits, but left them there.  Four years, these children were left in an orphanage, until their mother came back.  They left the orphanage and returned back to a place where there mother still couldn't provide and care for them.

These people are no different than you and I .  I was born in the United States of America.  I was born in a land where education is everyone's opportunity, where those who have nothing can obtain food stamps, women can feed their children with WIC, provide their children with free medical care, receive unemployment checks for a time until they can find a job, and so many more benefits that it is really just embarrassing when you think about the extreme suffering in the rest of the world.  I lived in a place where even if I couldn't find the job of my dreams to provide all the comforts and necessities to my family, I could have flipped burgers making minimum wage to provide them with food and shelter.   I could make minimum wage and obtain a higher salary than most people in the world and buy goods that are at a much lower price and more readily available than anywhere in the world.   I was born with parents who loved me, cared for me, and provided above and beyond what I ever needed.

The difference is millions of children in the world are born in a place where their life seems impossible to change.  They live in circumstances, that just aren't realistic to residents of the United States.  They live in places where they cannot continue their education enough to even read.  They live in a place, some with parents, some without, and they all think "no one wants me."

And the biggest difference is so many don't know God, they don't know Jesus, and they don't know His love.  How do you imagine a heavenly Father who is so awesome when all you have ever seen is the polar opposite of what God is?  And how will they ever know, if we do not "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" Mark 16:15.  How will they ever know what LOVE is and that,  "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" 1 John 4:16 if we are not teaching and being a light to the world?