As my wife and I were preparing for our trip to the Haitian border this morning, as we began to share our thoughts, we found ourselves both still affected by and thinking about our visit with the young man who was very near death with his mother at his side yesterday. Those of you who follow us on facebook probably read our post. As usual, we went to Piedra Gorda in the afternoon to hold church service. Before we left, two sisters there asked if we would go with them and pray for a friend of theirs in Guatapanal (the next town over). When we arrived we quickly realized this young man was very ill and dying. His mother said he was not eating or drinking and he was very thin. It reminded me of another very similar vist 4 or 5 years back. It was Pastor Shawn Cutshall, his son Caleb and I, and we were asked by a neighbor if we were missionaries, and then if we would go and pray for a man who was dying. We shared the Gospel with him and his family and prayed with him. He died hours later. I have no doubt that was one of those divine appointments arranged by God. That was on a short term trip. But now we live here, ministering to these people, and now I find myself in a similar situation, with another grieving mother about to lose a son in the prime of his life in the same town. I have seen death first hand. I have seen disease wither somenone to practically nothing. I have been at that bedside begging God to have mercy on a particular individual. I have seen someone take their last breath and then die. For me it does not seem to get any easier. Although there is that hope we have in Christ, and we have the confidence when someone seems to be a genuine, born again, blood bought, child of God,…..but there are the others. The ones we do not know and we enter the situation to intercede in the final moments of a persons life before they take that step into eternity. Those are the hard ones.
First Post
Well it is Sunday afternoon and I am just sitting here thinking about all that God has done and is doing here. We have been here almost 5 months now and time is just flying. If you have been receiving our newsletters you know alot about what we have seen and been through in our short time here. Definetely too much to talk about in this blog, so here’s some of the current stuff. (If anyone would like to receive any of our previous or future newsletters send us a message at salgadodrmission@gmail.com to be put on our email list.)