Life and Death
May 26, 2011 – 8:35 pmThis last week has been very hard on us here in Belize. I feel my mind going in a hundred different directions, so bear with me.
It started with a young family that we know from a remote village that we minister in. The mother delivered her son, Cesar, two weeks ago at the same time of having chicken pox. The baby then caught the chicken pox and we received a call they were at the hospital. I went to the hospital and my heart was so overwhelmed with grief for this family. The doctors allowed me to go in and see the baby and pray. After stabilizing the baby they transferred it to the hospital in Dangriga which is a couple hours away. We transported the family to the hospital and within minutes the baby passed away. Having lost my own son, I could feel the anguish of this mother. I wanted badly to take her pain away and to be able to comfort her. I could only speak to her through a translator which made it that much harder. The doctors would not be able to do the final investigation until today (Tuesday) so we drove them a couple hours to their village, where they then hiked in a couple more hours. We picked them back up today, did all the paper work, picked up the coffin and the baby and drove them back up to their village.
In the middle of all of that we had another family that we are very close to go through a tragic situation. The mother tried committing suicide by drinking poison. This family has 9 children and we have been so close to them over the last three years. Jervis stayed in the hospital all day Saturday, praying and singing over her. She was in a coma, her mouth, tongue, teeth and gums where black from the poison burning them. The doctors gave up on her and told us it is only a matter of time before she dies. We continued to stand in faith and believe that God could heal her. Today, she is talking, her mouth looks new, and there is no dead skin or burnt marks. We are continuing to pray there will be no side effects from the poison and that this family will come to know Jesus as the ONE and ONLY!
When I was at the hospital today I was asked to help another family from the same remote village as the one that lost their baby. It is actually the sister of the grieving mom. The sister had a baby three days before and this baby now has the chicken pox. She has been in the hospital for a couple of days and she is very tired, so we will be going on rotation and helping her through the night until they are released.
Meanwhile, we are still fighting against the dump. Our container with all the furnishings for the building will be here next week. We have a list of things that need to be done before we can unload it, so we are praying for God to multiply what our hands can do.
We pray that you are doing well and that you continue to see the Lord in new ways each day. We are so thankful for the opportunities that the Lord continues to give us to show His love.
Be blessed,
Jervis and Melissa
Hello, my name is cathie and i am a friend of roy oneal who is there in belize with yoiu. i am writing for a young man i know, someone who is such a good person but is troubled. his mother just died two weeks ago and she was all he had. i was wondering how to go about setting him up on a mission trip. i live on the central coast in arroyo grande cal. please let me know, i feel he could contribute much to the kids there, thank you ,cathie