We're starting to get acquainted with the ins and outs of Las Mangas life.
The other day Peter came over to tell us that several of the colegio students in town need to go to La Ceiba to get checked for AIDS, apparently due to their own concerns that they could have been exposed to it -- through homosexual and heterosexual promiscuity, or parties with syringes, or something. There is not a lot of accurate knowledge of the HIV virus, but there have been enough cases here to cast a dark fear. It is probable that in a few years the AIDS bomb will blow up here as it has in other locations, and already there have been some scares.
But we were shocked and saddened because these were kids from Instituto El Rey who have been actively involved in a Bible study with Ester, the directora. As it turns out, none of those who have been tested have tested positive, but it was sobering nonetheless. Please pray for these young men and women in particular, and for the youth in the river valley generally -- it is a real battle to remain pure and faithful to Christ.
There are also some weird things going on with the church next door, the main evangelical church in town (the other is Adventist). Apparently since November the pastor has been increasingly disagreeable: throwing people out of the church during meetings, calling others thieves or accursed, claiming to be a prophet of God. He sometimes goes to La Ceiba with a placard on his back reading "profetia de dios", and he claimed to have had a vision of President Bush coming to Las Mangas with bags of money. They've built a glass office with expensive furniture for the purpose of receiving him. Once he told a family that he would not pray for their ringworm-infected son because it was leprosy. Which would seem comical, except that many of the people in town are really hurting because of it. And there is good evidence as well that the pastor is hurting too. Please pray for unity, love, truth and righteousness in the church.
In other news, we have made our first loan, of about $20 for medicine for someone's young son. He has not paid it back yet, but there may be an opportunity for him to work in order to pay it. Pray for continued good relationship with Jose.
I´ve been working with Santos Ramirez, an ingenious and ambitious farmer living in La Moralla. He grows a lot -- everything from the traditional beans, corn, and yuca, to rice, pastiche, tomatoes, peppers, pineapple, mustard, and tobacco. But they are struggling to make ends meet right now. The bean harvest was severely damaged by the rain we've had recently, and he is frustrated enough to talk about going to the states to earn some money. On top of this, he has some sort of heart problem that makes it difficult to climb and carry heavy things (which is the farming life here).
Thanks for your prayers.
