ANA KAREN… and CHRISTMAS ON THE STREETS 2018
About 10 days ago, I got the very sweet surprise of hearing Ana Karen’s voice for the first time in 2 and a half months… Doctors had been puzzled with the difficulty that Ana Karen was having with breathing… and also the severe reaction she would have if they tried to remove the traqueotomy… 41 days after the traque had been put in, the doctors changed it for a smaller one, when they discovered that the first one was too big!!! - blocking her breathing rather than giving her freedom to breathe independently… and making it impossible for her to talk…
The new tube made a huge difference and immediately she was able to talk and breathe with ease… In less than a week her tracheotomy was completely removed… Ana Karen was moved from Intensive Care… to Medium Care… and had been in Medium Care for less than a day when they moved her into a regular room (with a lot less care…) It was so neat to hear that the ICU nurses would come down to check on her or visit her…
About a week ago Ana Karen was discharged from the hospital… but it took until this past Friday for Ana to be able to go home… Even with the original discount (because of their economic situation) the bill was still $11000 US… After a couple days, it was brought down to $2233 US, still a lot of money, but definitely more manageable…
She has been lent a hospital bed… and is now at her mom´s house and with her family. Leyla will be scheduled for her operation any day which means Gabriel will have to be with her 24/7 in the hospital… Brenda, Ana’s mom has also been hospitalized for an infection and signs of preeclampsia in the last stages of her pregnancy… Ana Karen will need ongoing physiotherapy… and right now, the daughter of one of our students who is studying to be a registered nurse, is helping out from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. while she is on vacation (until February)…. Thank you for your prayers and help in this situation!!! …and please continue to pray!!!! Ana Karen still has a long road ahead of her in her recovery…
Yesterday we celebrated our Christmas on the Streets… The days, weeks leading up to it have been filled with difficulties ranging from: sickness, money stresses (with the Christmas bonuses, Christmas on the Streets, Ana Karen and our broken submerged water pump – 85 meters underground!) and Marlee´s special dog dying (Gordon)…
We were also so saddened to find out that one of “our girls” – Liliana – passed away on Wednesday night… She was one of El Jordán’s first students before she went her own way again for years… eventually coming back to El Jordan last year (although not this year…) She shared a bit about her life in our El Jordan video last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uOwkpnRm_k It was a terrible three day saga to bury her (in a country where you are supposed to bury people within 24 hours…and where culture dictates that you need to accompany the body around the clock until the burial)… She is also one of the ones under the bridge who Marlee gave her blanket to several years ago – the start of “Marlee´s Blanket Fund”… Sigh… her three living children (between 16 and 20) and her siblings struggle with the streets, addictions or unstable lifestyle… She also has siblings on the streets/addictions… We are praying that Liliana´s death might rock their lives… and cause them to search for God…
One incredible thing was that the church, that in the last year has opened its doors to street kids, (including Liliana and her family…) offered their main meeting room for Liliana´s wake… I went for a couple hours the first night and my heart was incredibly blessed to see a church being a church… at midnight the pastor, his wife and a half a dozen members making supper for Liliana´s family and friends who had been busy all day trying to get permission to move the body, trying to get a coffin and a death certificate… That night, the knot in my throat was not only for Liliana – it was from seeing Christ´s body at work… living, breathing and reaching out – in love, care and sacrifice – to this family who are some of the “least of these” of our society…
One of my deep frustrations is seeing apathy and complacency within Christianity… where there is so much “knowledge” yet not:
“He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?”
declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 22:16
I get disappointed at the general disinterest in caring for others… We encourage churches to reach out to the street people who are within blocks of their doors… offering them, with no strings attached, the “easiness” of picking up great plates of food and gifts to share with street people, but receiving only silence as their answer… Unfortunately, this year for Christmas on the Streets wasn’t different… so my heart was blessed to witness Christ´s heart being lived out in that church… where the message was loud and clear – not in a very neat and proper sermon, but in their lives and service, breaking down the barriers that blind or deafen the lost… allowing them to hear and see who Christ is… For all the street people who went to Liliana´s wake, they now have a point of reference of a church where they know they are welcome…
Back to Christmas on the Streets… we made some changes this year… doing it on the 22nd… cooking from early morning, serving and taking it to the streets in the afternoon…
A couple people who stood out to me:
Daniel and Sorangela came 4 hours on bus from the town of Camiri (where my sister and family were missionaries) JUST to help us for the day… arriving the night before, helping us for 14 hours straight and then heading home the morning after…
Both Vicente and German, obviously alcoholics, were walking alone along the street… when we gave them their food and gifts both broke down in tears, giving thanks to God, because HE had remembered them…
I sat on a soaking wet straw mattress (it had rained most of the morning), under scraps of plastic which made a bit of a shelter for Jenny and two other drug addicts… Tears ran down her cheeks as she told me a bit of her story… she is from Spain, but here in Bolivia lost custody of her 5-year-old girl, Laura… She told me of the “family” she had found in those bushes of “no man´s land” …people who cared and looked out for her like she had never experienced before… She was wet, sick and sad… her daughter will turn 6 in just a few days… the relatives who have little Laura have moved and changed their phone number so Jenny can’t find them… I wrote my phone number on a “pole” from their shelter… for if she ever wants to come to El Jordán or talk more…
Heidy Alejandra – our student who had just spent 3 days helping with all of the paperwork and mess to bury Liliana – came straight from the burial to El Jordán… because she wanted to go to the streets with us…
Beatriz (our student) and her 16 year old daughter Stephanie helped ALL day on Saturday… from early until everything was done… even though they had to go home and stay up all night to make pig-head soup which is their way of earning money for the bare necessities… Stephanie just finished grade 11… with honors… even without her mom being able to buy her textbooks all year long… Beatriz and her extended family members (about 20) received Christmas on the Streets for almost as long as I can remember because of the addictions (etc) in their household… But… in the last year and a half, have been coming to El Jordan and God is doing an amazing work in their lives…
So that is just a little bit about Ana Karen… and Christmas on the Streets this year…
May you have a joyful season of celebrating Christ coming to earth, the greatest present no one deserved… His Life… given for our forgiveness and freedom… May we be faithful at making HIM known… in the place where God has us today!
Thank you for being a part of this ministry…through your prayers… care… and support!!
Because of HIM,
Corina (for Marco, Keiden and Marlee too)