Cary and Rita Sills

July 2017 

PAIN - PRAYER - PROVISION

July started off with a flurry of house builds, home visits, and eye/general surgery clinic.  We were able to help with 12 house builds this month.  Each one was a blessing to us as well as to the family receiving the house.  This is especially true now that Rita and I are responsible for all the home visits.  We visited 13 families this month in the poorest of poor regions in the Panchoy Valley of Guatemala.   Each of these families we visited 3 times and were able to share the gospel message each time with the final culmination of presenting a new house to the family.  We know the families are blessed but we have been amazed at the blessing we, ourselves have received from sharing with the families.  The families are in a wide spectrum of their knowledge and view of God and Jesus Christ.  We have witnessed to evangelical Christians,  Catholics, Seventh Day Adventist, and non-believers as well.  The poor are poor, we do not choose the families based on their beliefs,  we choose based on need and then share the belief we hold in Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His human death, His Resurrection, and His free gift of grace.  Blessed does not even begin to describe our feelings at each encounter.

Our house build for Alba just this past Thursday.  We had members of the extended family looking on and pitching in when they could.   Alba had seen the houses being constructed around her by our teams and had decided she would never get one because Rita and I had not come back to let her know she was getting the home.  The day we showed up on July 13th,  she started crying the moment she opened the flimsy gate, she knew why we were there and her husband had told her to keep the faith all along.  It was a very moving and a blessed day for her as well as us.

Petrona received a house in San Lucas on July 10th.  She was so excited.   Above you can see the makeshift bucket with rope to draw water every day near her property.  Petrona and her daughters received a house, bunk beds, water filter,  a wood-burning stove.   In addition, due to your gifts we were able to bless Petrona with a pila.  She had been doing all her clothes washing in buckets.  We are expecting to have the pila delivered next week.

Some of the obstacles in driving to the feeding center at Santa Maria de Jesus

Rita and Katie and their weekly women's bible study in San Lucas.  This is one of the highlights each and every week.  Rita and Katie are taking the Mayan women, many who cannot read or write, through the stories of the bible from the beginning with the gospel being presented every week

During July clinic Cary had his very first kidney stone.  It was very painful but if he had to have one, this was the place and this was the week.  His doctor ended up being one of the best colon cancer surgeons in the country.  He cancelled all his afternoon surgeries, accompanied Cary to get the CT Scan about an hour away with 3 nurses and one doctor meeting us at the lab.  After a day of meds,  he was able to pass the 4.2 mm stone around midnight Wednesday of the surgery week.  He has a few more stones from the CT Scan but they may never drop but at least now we know how to recognize the pain of a kidney stone.  The Operating Room folks decided to give me a gift and take many pictures of the stone.  (This was not the one he actually passed in the picture but you would not believe the faces of some of the nurses when they came in and were shown the stone).   God's provision of medical care and facility and the right time and the right place was a gift from God.  Another blessing from a very amazing month that we will not soon forget.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you get a chance,  take a look at the previous blog about God's provision and Hubert and Sharon Donaldson,  it was an experience where we could see God moving and providing for our needs and adds to this month of blessings from God we will never forget.

Thank you so much for your prayers and know we covet them and feel the presence of prayer and God each time we get the opportunity to work with the poorest of the poor here in Guatemala.

Blessings,  Cary and Rita.