Day 7 - Thoughts from Kenzie, Steven & Mr. Stoesz

Thoughts from Kenzie

Today was really great. We woke up a little later. We were all very excited to sleep in until 8:00am.  After breakfast (at 9:00 am) we headed off to the hospital.  We handed out food bags and a brunch type meal to the families outside the entrance to the hospital that had loved ones inside.  It was very touching to see that we could bring some light into people’s lives that had so much going on.  To see their hurting faces have a smile on them was the best sight ever.  After handing out food we were going to go inside the hospital to pray for the patients inside.  We were about to go in small groups of four  when a doctor stopped  us.  He explained to us that they did not want all of us to go in for some reason, and that only Selena (the woman leading the hospital mission) a translator and one student could go inside.  I was privileged to be that student.   We went in and met a beautiful three year old girl named Brittany.  We prayed over her and then her dad came and explained that she had just started chemotherapy for a cancer in her stomach.  Her dark hair had been cut short and her big brown eyes seemed to glow with excitement to see us.  I played with her for a little longer and then we prayed once again for a miracle for this beautiful little girl.  I then said goodbye, not wanting to leave her side, as she waved goodbye to me and smiled.  We then moved on to a room of tiny babies, we prayed for their mothers who were glued to each crib cradling each of their babies.  We exchanged smiles and then said goodbye, the feeling in that hospital was pretty gloomy but when we had prayed I could feel a glimpse of hope and I knew that God was working in each of these precious lives.   After praying for Brittany and the babies we moved on to a gunshot victim.  We went in and prayed for him, it was amazing to feel God’s presence in the room. After we had prayed, Selena and the man were talking and something in their tone was moving.  She then began to pray for him and he repeated.  As the prayer came to an end, our translator told me that he had just accepted Christ in his heart.  It was amazing. We then left him with some goodbyes and then walked down the hallways to leave. As we were leaving we saw the gunshot victim’s mom coming down the hall and we prayed for her as well.  God was working in that hospital and it was amazing.

-          Kenzie

Luiz and Celina Guzman; leaders of
a hospital ministry

Beans & Chickpeas: some of the food
we served

Alison, Rebecca (La Fuente ministry
leader), Brittany, & Kayly serving food

Ms. Stahl holding a newborn baby,
allowing his mother to enjoy the meal

Thoughts from Steven

Today we went to the Hospital to hand out food, clothes, and prayer. When we got their Selena wanted 6 of us to go in with her to invite people to our tables. I was lucky enough to be in that 6. We walked in and right away saw the gunshot victim that Kenzie was talking about. We said hi, told him about our missions, then left to go and find more people. We walked down long hallways with 4 rooms on each side. In each room there were 8 different people. They didn’t sort it by age, sex, height, injury, nothing. You were put where there was an empty bed. I walked into a room with 7 woman and 1 boy. I thought I would get to know the boy a bit. His name was Jorge and he had gotten into a motorbike accident. His leg had pins coming out from it and he was in ok shape. He asked where I was from and then asked how the temperature was. I said really cold and he laughed. Walking down the many rooms all I saw was gloomyness, hopelessness, and very little joy. When we walked in Selena, with her big smile would say, “Buenos Dias” and all the patients would smile at that. It felt really good to bring a smile to someone that we didn’t know and were there was no joy to begin with. An example of this was: We walked into one room with a mom who had delivered her baby 2 days earlier. The bed next beside her was of a lady who had lost her baby. She was very distressed and very sad but Selena went over there and prayed for her. By the time we left that room there was a smile on her face. It also felt sad when we walked into a room and on one side of the room one patient would have loved ones beside them, while the person across from them had no one. It felt really awesome being able to make someone’s day by doing the simplest thing that I know how to do in Spanish saying the word ‘Hola’. By the time we finished and got out of the building the food table and been cleared and the clothes table was being soon diminished. It was a very humbling moment watching how we feed the poor, clothed the naked, and healed the sick. One more quick thing about the hospital. As Kenzie was inside praying over people Mrs. Alaska (Jennifer, but they are from Alaska so I call her Mrs. Alaska) told us this story about a group of people who went in to do the same thing we did but was only aloud to pray over 4 people. They did that then they left. A few days later they got a call saying that everyone in that wing that they prayed in had been healed. That story encouraged us so the rest of us, so we started praying for the lost inside. To hear that one of the patients had accepted Christ and to know that we were praying for that outside showed me and a lot others just how powerful prayer is.

In the afternoon the guys went to a drug rehab place while the girls got to go to a girls home. Since I’m a pretty young guy I wasn’t allowed to go to the drug rehab place so I was lucky enough to go with the girls to a place called “Nana’s house” - a girls home. There was one boy there, though, that I would be able to hang out with. The first day that we got here we went shopping for things for supplies. Mr. Stoesz came up to me and told me about the girls home and how there was a guy there. He then came up with the idea that that I should get him a little gift bag, so that’s what I did. I had found a Manchester United shirt that I wanted for myself but then Mr. Stoesz came up with the idea that I should get one for my friend and show him that me being Canadian want him being Mexican to be the same. So I got him the same shirt and a soccer ball. As we got to the home I noticed the ball right away and to my excitement he had been one of the boys that came with us to all the different kids programs so I had gotten to know him pretty well. We got there and we headed to the park. I played soccer a bit with the boy and even some of the girls. The girls played with the other girls in a game of duck duck goose. We soon decided to play freeze tag. That was the most tiring game I’ve ever played. Those girls were really fast. We played that for about half an hour then rested. Jennifer told us that we had ten minutes left and then the girls were going to get a makeover. Well one girl didn’t want a makeover she wanted to run. So for that next ten minutes I was chased by a mob of girls. We got back to the home and the girls started doing their makeovers and I started playing dominoes with Ociel (boys name). He loved it very much and soon a few of the girls wanted to play. By the time we had finished we had played dominoes for 30 minutes. I then gave Ociel the jersey that I had for him. The look on his face said it all. He loved Manchester and loved red. It was a really awesome feeling to do that for him. I won’t be forgetting that moment any time soon. While I’ll was doing that the girls were doing the other girls’ hair, nails and even my nails. Yes one girl thought it would be funny to paint my pinkies so they soon turned purple. One girl even did some of our girls’ hair. She was really good and could do things that we couldn’t. Also I was told that she was very fast at braiding hair. Taking pictures of it all was really fun too. One girl Candy wouldn’t allow me at all to take pictures of her. Jenifer then explained that I wanted to remember her beautiful smile and that I wanted one picture. In the end I had gotten the picture that I wanted. Even though I’m not a make-up, hair & bracelet kind a guy, it was fun to do that with the girls, and the guy. Over all it was a lot of fun and the fun that I needed to keep going. Who knew going to a girls home would be a lot of fun? Keep prayer in mind for the girls, they have been through a lot but have a spirit of joy in them. Their names are: Ociel, Dulce, Teresa, Isabel, Candy, Itzy, Maria, Selena, Yareli, Adilene. Thank you all.

-          Steven

Thoughts from Mr. Stoesz

While the girls and Steven were at Nana’s house, the rest of the boys went to an addictions rehabilitation shelter. The men who come to this shelter, ranging from teenager to retired, come voluntarily. Most who come are not Christians, but are exposed to the love of Christ through the workers and special guests. They have had some men who gave their lives to Christ while in rehab – one even deciding to become a student at La Fuente’s Bible School. Celina and Luiz, the couple who led the hospital ministry that morning, were also there this afternoon to deliver food and clothing. We brought soap to distribute, but our main role was to share our testimonies. Mr. Ferguson had prepped our guys that they will ask three or four of them to share their testimony. It turned out that all the guys shared their testimony in front of these men. This was a big step for some of our guys and we are very proud of them. Afterwards, some of the men came up to our guys to ask for prayer, which our guys were happy to do.

In the evening, I read out the current blog comments before debriefing our day. The team has really appreciated the amount of traffic that has been to the blog and especially the comments.

It has been a very impacting day!

-          Mr. Stoesz

Note: internet connection is slow right now, so we will have to wait until a later time to include pictures. KS