Ministry in Bethel

I guess the third time is the charm… still pretty rattled that I have already written this blog post twice and both times it deleted right before I was going to push send. Very frustrating! But I hope this one is still as good as the others. For this post I just really wanted to let all you guys know exactly what my ministry looks like and why the reason were here. I don’t have much to say for this week mainly because I was dead to the world for 3 days in my bed. I was always expecting to get sick; I just didn’t think it would happen this late. I thought it would be in the first couple of days not in the 3^rd week. This week has been really bad for my squad getting sick; pretty much everyone has spent a day in bed…… or in the restroom.

As for this weekend we went to Leon which is a pretty big touristy city. They had some awesome shops there and incredible restaurants. We were there for about 6 hours and it was really the first time I think we all felt like tourists, which was a nice break from all the hard work we have been doing. Other than that on Sunday some of the squad went on a field trip to check out some waterfalls while the rest of us stayed back and just chilled. Amazing to be able to relax and do absolutely nothing, really made me feel like I was back home. Also had a good chat with my fam jam back home on skype which brighten my day. And ya, I guess you can tell other than the sickness I have had a really relax week.

Ok, and for the reason were here, I’m praying right now that I can get this message across because I think it is really important you guys realize what we’re doing here. I’ll try not to scatter my thoughts but it’s incredibly hard to explain what’s going on here through a computer. Anyways I’ll give you some background information on Nicaragua and where I’m stationed at. So you may know that Nicaragua is the 2^nd poorest country in Central America (used to be the poorest until Haiti got hit hard with the earthquake). Nicaragua’s main export product is sugar cane so you literally see sugar cane fields everywhere. It is huge in my area so you can understand that there is big job opportunities working for the sugar cane companies. I don’t want to throw a percentage of the amount of men that work for the sugar cane companies but it is a large amount. Now you may be thinking that this is all quite good, that these men are able to be employed and provide for their families. Which it is but, the working conditions are absolutely brutal to say the least and the men don’t get any compensation when they get sick/injured. You really have to remember that the average temperature here is around 37 degrees so any job that requires you to work outside in the sun can be exhausting. Now the reason I’m explaining this is because what this all leads to, and that is a disease that effects the mens kidneys. The doctors don’t exactly know what this is caused from (The heat, Pesticides in the field, long hours etc.) really could be all of the above. The saddest thing about all of this is that most of the men will not have symptoms but, the companies will do a test every year and if your infected with the disease you are fired and really have no hope of getting hired by anyone ever again. So these men literally sit at home all day unable to provide for their families while slowly dying from the disease. As for the main community were immersed in, Bethel. There are around 60 people that have the disease and about 6 that are in dire need of treatment. Treatment is putting the men through dialysis which just cleans the toxins out of their bodies. This treatment has literally taken men off there death beds, which is incredible; the problem is that most men cannot have access to this treatment. So this is where we come in, it hasn’t been totally set out yet but, the plan is to build a treatment building right in Bethel so all the men that are sick can receive treatment. I think I can speak for my entire squad when I say were all super excited this is happening because we have all seen the families affected by this. I ask that you guys continue to pray for me and my team and that we will be able to make lasting change in this community. It’s going to be a lot of hard work but we all see the benefits it is going to make and how many lives it is going to change.

So that’s my whole spiel, I hope that I got the message across. I’m looking forward to this week and the people we will be speaking with in Bethel, I’ll keep all you guys in my thoughts and prayers. Sending love home to all my friends and family…….

Peace Out!!!

 (Just a heads up, dont ever ring the bells on a Catholic Cathedral… oops!)

          (Cutest kid in the world hands down)… besides Matt and Tasha

                                                      (Leah and a Cutie)