Miscelaneous!

These last couple of weeks, I've been with a friend of mine in the hospital. She is doing well now, and it's all good. I do want to tell a little bit about the experience I had while coming and going to visit her.

When one come to the hospital, you have to show your identification before you can enter. Then you have to know where the patient is, which bed, which is normal. The id card stayed with them guards at the gate of the hospital, and it was given back to you when you left. Well, this one afternoon when I was leaving they couldn't find it... but luckily it was a copy of my id. The day my friend was discharged, they still couldn't find it =) but it's all good.

The room that my friend stayed in was with 4 beds, but there were only 2 of them there. So we were able to stay with her pretty much the whole day. In her room we had to wear a mouth cover and a jacket because the lady in the bed next to her had severe pneumonia. I didn't know the first time I came in, and the nurse whom had one told me to put on one asap - so I did. And then things were ok.

Yesterday we had another clinic and we saw many people. One lady came up to me and said that she wanted her ears checked. Yfke did that, and they were both clean - something that is not very normal here =) often they have lots of wax and it's hard to syringe. We saw that she had a bandage on her right hand, and asked what had happened. She said that she hurt it the day before. Of course we asked her if we could pray for her, and guess what.... the pain left. She got so excited, and asked if we could pray for her feet also because at night they are burning. So we did, but we don't know cuz we haven't seen her since.

There was a man there that had a lot of sorrow in his life, and he was wandering why he had all these bad things happen to him. And why God allowed all of that to happen to him. Grace and I talked with him for a good while, and he knows what he needs to do, but he doesn't feel ready or something. But we prayed for him, and believe that God will work in his life and show him what he needs to do.

This week we are invited to dinner every night, what a treat. People here are so hospitable, kind and friendly.

Today we went to lunch with the combi driver, David - which is a person that comes to pick us up when we go to World Vision - the other side of Ecatepec which is the area we stay in. It's a bit of a hassle to get there with public transport because there are 13 of us. One day he drove us home, and said if you ever need transport.... if he knew. He is also going to take us to the airport when we are leaving on the 10th of June. A good guy!

A clinic close to the market!

We had another clinic the other day, and so many people got touched by Jesus. The people that was there from the Pagiel church, who we did the clinic with, could tell us that over 20 people had come to the church after the other clinic coming to testify about what God had done in their lives. Two ladies had been healed from knee problems after they had gone home after a previous clinic. A guy had been healed from urinary tract infection, but we didn't know that that was his problem. It was so encouraging to hear all the testimonies that they told us.

One lady that had felt drawn to the place where we were came to the church as well. But let me tell her story. This lady was desperate for something, but she didn't quite know what. She felt drawn to leave the house and take the metro to a certain stop, while leaving her 2 children at home. She took the metro and got of at the stop, and felt drawn to the marked where we had a clinic. She came over where she was ministered to. Then the following Sunday, she came to the church with her 2 children and her husband - and some neighbors. God touched her life, and she has been touching other peoples lives. Glory to God.

This last week, I talked with 2 ladies. One of them had to go to the morgue to identify her son this last December. The police had found him dead on the streets with his hands cut off. An still to this day, she doesn't know what really happened to her son. The other lady was heartbroken, because her husband of 35 years had walked out on her. He had sold the business behind her back, then took the car and left her. I took their blood pressure, and started to talk with them. Soon realizing that they both were ready to receive Christ as their Savior. Jess, who is the pastors daughter stood close by, and she talked with them - and they both accepted Christ as their Savior.

We also have been syringing peoples ears, and the stuff that comes out is quite interesting. At times people are quite surprised that they can hear when the stuff has been taken out, but when they see what has been in their ears..... their facial expression is awesome. We have seen a unclean, clotted wax the size of a "cigarette butt" several times, quite the thing.

Today we went to a preschool and taught on nutrition, and another group taught on how to brush their teeth. We saw 50 kids, and measured them and weight them. It was so fun to teach them, and they were very enthusiastic about the whole thing. At first they were scared, because they thought we were giving them injections - but relaxed when they saw that we were only doing height and weight.

There are so many stories, and I'll tell more at another time =)

Prison visit!

On Thursday we went into one of the prisons here in Mexico City. It was quite the ordeal. The guy that was coming to help us get there, had some instructions to give us...... All jewelry had to come of, rings, earring etc... then we couldn't have any blue, black, grey or beige colored clothing. A lot of us had to run back to change =). Then we took taxis to get there, it was quite the ride. But we finally got there.

We had to wait in line to get in, and then when we did the door was locked, bolted behind us. Registration and then we got patted down and our purses got searched. Then they let us into the place where we would be. We were told not to look at the inmates, not to have eye contact with them and not to give them anything when they asked for it.

The session we came to was an open place with fence of course, it was where they had Mess. There were about 14-15 men there, the older ones. But some of them were 50. Mary and I was in a team, we talked a bit with the guys and then took their blood pressure. Most of them had high blood pressure. One, can't say his name, had been a believer for a long time - and he spent most of his time in prayer and to teach other about the Word. He got tears in his eyes and said he was so blessed by us coming in there and serve them in this manner. I was touched by him as well, you could see Jesus in his face.

I had a little opportunity to talk with one of the guards, and he said that here are 2500 men in this prison and 148 women. They are mainly Mexicans, but a few from Honduras and Cuba. He told me that there were fights daily, and even that morning when we came there was a fight that broke out - a person got stabbed. If the injury is not severe, they treat them in clinic at the hospital, but if severe they take them to the hospital.

Then we went over to the women’s section. There were 4 women pregnant, and 4 women with children. These were the women that we were told to minister to. We took their blood pressure, and ministered to them also. Some of them spoke English so that was a big help. One of the ladies had her baby 15 days ago, and was in a lot of pain while breastfeeding. We were able to teach her a good breastfeeding position, cuz the baby was not getting enough food and she wanted to give formula. You could see on her face that she was in lesser pain, it was so amazing.

I do hope that we'll be able to go back into prison and visit them again, you could see that it was an encouragement to them.

That same morning a friend of mine sent me a message on facebook saying, You are not the hope, but the hope you have in you, you bring to the hopeless. We all got very encouraged by that word, and really felt that God was giving these people hope.