PLEASE PRAY:

Right now we have a little boy, Gary, struggling for his life. He turns 4 on Sunday. His mom, Miriam, is our student. Yesterday he had weakness in his limbs and today has become unresponsive. Tonight he took another turn for the worse and is now in Intensive Care. The father was afraid of authorizing a spinal tap to help the doctors get answers. The authorization has now been signed, but apparently, doctors weren’t able to proceed because of Gary´s deteriorating condition. PLEASE PRAY FOR GARY!!!

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We have had a good start to our year at El Jordán... Bible Studies... a talk on managing money... four talks on “Recuperating Relationships in the Family” (between 40 and 60 adults… plus at least as many or more children every night!)… also a month of talks about sexual abuse… plus breadmaking – crochet – manicure – cards and other practical classes!!!

We tweaked both our evaluation and registration processes and our girls who last year didn’t show that they really wanted to change (an important clause in our mission´s statement) have been limited to only attending our talks and chapel meetings and will be re-evaluated in June. This allows us to dedicate our time, energy and resources to new girls coming in and returning students who are actually making steps in their lives to change...

• Pray for our new girls… some have never come to any classes. Others are feeling more at home at El Jordan… We have two visiting days next week to make contact with all of our new girls...
• Pray for our returning girls… that they will continue to learn and grow… We encourage them to attend a local church but this step is often very scary for them...
• Pray for the girls who we turned away at registration time… that the enemy wouldn’t use this to discourage them, rather that it would encourage them to get off the fence and seriously consider where their life is at...

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There have been SO many serious health issues within El Jordan… One of our workers, Tania, has a very serious congenital heart disease which has started showing symptoms in the last year but even more so in the last week or so… One phrase that always comes out of her mouth is “I work for the best boss! God!” and she willingly comes to volunteer many more hours than her half time “job”… Please pray specifically for wisdom and clarity in decisions that she needs to make and that her family may come to know Christ through this!

Maria Elena, our volunteer crochet teacher (for 14 years or so) was very sick, spent a week in intensive care with complications from her diabetes. It has affected her kidneys and she has been on dialysis. She is more stable health wise and the dialysis has been reduced to every 12 days. (Sadly, in the last two weeks her brother and then her sister passed away…)

Carlos was our administrator for a year (no longer working for us)… but had a brain hemorrhage… another story of God’s hand of mercy where doctors have had to say his recovery is a miracle. Pray for patience and perseverance in his road to complete recovery…

Ana Karen is continuing to improve day by day… She is working hard!!!! She goes with the physiotherapist once a week to a swimming pool and it has been SUCH an exciting and motivating experience for Ana Karen. After being "stuck" in a body that doesn't respond like it used to since the beginning of October 2018, in the water she feels the FREEDOM of being able to move her legs and "walk"... Other exciting new movements for her are: being able to roll over - both ways… being able to inch up and down in bed… and being able to "chat" on the phone... Her little girl, Leyla (almost 2), is still waiting for her operation to remove her colostomy and hook everything up… Until that happens, Gabriel (her dad) has to take her to the children’s hospital 6 times a week for a dilation procedure…

Then there have been so many others: Little Lily with a complicated urinary tract infection… Joaquin with a compound fracture in his arm (they have had to take out the plate and screws because of bacteria! They need to be replaced by something else…)… Beatris with her blood pressure and diabetes getting out of control…. Heidy Alejandra getting burned when two gas tanks exploded where she was working… Uncle Glenn breaking his hip after coming with us for an El Jordan outing…. and the list goes on…

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With our budget, El Jordán has never been able to have a Social Worker… However, last year we decided it was a necessity to help with documentation and follow up for so many moms and their families that come to El Jordán. We needed someone really special to fit into our team and who would have the heart, maturity and wisdom to work with our moms… In February, God brought Cesia to us… maybe you don’t recognize her name… but you prayed for her son, Joelito, several years ago when he needed a feeding tube that they couldn’t find in Bolivia… (God took him to his heavenly home almost a year ago… He would have been 9 on April 12th… Please pray for the family… their hearts still ache, missing little Joel…) Cesia is an answer to our prayers… and has already filled in many gaps - following up, touching base and walking along side of our girls… She is accompanying one of our students in the painful process of responding to incest coming to light in the home… (Please pray for this family!)

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Something I love about what I do is seeing God´s hand at work… God Almighty, reaching out to the least of these… What I love just as much is seeing how our girls are beginning to recognize HIS hand at work in their lives…

A couple examples just from this week:

A friend of mine gave 75 bs ($15 Canadian) of groceries to one of our students who has been going through a difficult time… Judith’s response was a teary overflowing of gratefulness to God who was looking after her, answering her prayers, showing His care and faithfulness even in the midst of hardship… The situation ended up being a beautiful reminder of God´s love both to Judith and my friend (who hadn’t imagined that a such a small act could actually be GOD – working in and through us!!)

Every Wednesday my poor Suzuki Vitara gets filled to the brim (even the front seat) with veggies given to us by vendors in the market… We use these vegetables to cook at the boy’s shops from Monday to Friday… we give bags of veggies to Ana Karen and other students going through times of need… and our other students can help themselves to vegetables when they come to classes…. Well, yesterday when we unloaded my Suzuki, two of our students were waiting to help organize the vegetables. Rosalba broke into a huge smile as she held up some limas – it was what Beatris had wished for just that morning because they were good for her diabetes… There must have been 200 limas!!! Katherine, a single mom of three, opened another bag and turned to me with tears in her eyes… “I prayed that there would be potatoes today!!!”… and God answered WITH . LOTS . OF . POTATOES!!!!

You see, with limas, potatoes and 75 bs of groceries, God lovingly shows our students that HE is real… that this isn’t about hermana Corina or El Jordan… it is the Loving Father they never had before… the Good Shepherd providing their daily needs. All of a sudden, teachings start to become real. We are seeing this year’s theme verse come alive in front of us:

They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard (seen!) for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." John 4:42

Rejoice with us! God IS real! Jesus IS the Savior of the world!

Please pray with us that our families would more and more, come to KNOW and BELIEVE in HIM… Thanks for being a part of what God is doing here in Bolivia through your prayers and giving!

Love, Corina (for Marco, Keiden and Marlee)