Back in January, I wrote a post about a giant landslide that occured not too far from us. Sadly, many men were buried alive when a huge part of the mountian came down on them.
These men were all from small villages in the mountains, and they were making their way to the coast to work. I also mentioned one family in particular and the opportunity Wilf had to visit with them.
This is Agupito and his wife. They live in one of the villages where we have a small church, although he and his family are not Christians. Agupito had polio as a child and the disease left him quite crippled. He has difficulty supporting his family as the only real employment for men in these villages is farming.
Agupito and his wife have seven children. Wilf is uncertain of how many people live in the family home. Unlike many, even in this remote village, this house is not made of adobe brick, but sticks.
Imagine living in this stick house with many other people-especially in the rainy season we are in now!
Agupito's eldest son, with his wife and children, live right beside the parents and he has always been a big help to his father. Two of Agupito's daughters are married as well but still live with their parents--with their children as well.
Sadly, Agupito's oldest son, as well as his two sons-in-law were all buried in the landslide back in January. Miraculously, his son survived but was very badly injured. Wilf visited the family earlier this week and he was happy to see that the son is able to hobble around a bit now. It is still uncertain how much of a recovery he will make. He was able to stand with his wife and two daughters for the picture!
This woman and her sister below, are left as widows and now dependent on their crippled father for support.
Agupito appealed to the obrero in his village for some help! We had a food collection for the family in our church in town and in the other village churches as well.Also, the school where Wilf used to teach (BCS) is having a fund raiser to help buy new clothes for the entire family!
Juan, the obrero in the village, came into town and purchased the new clothes. He had quite a heavy load (he did have some help carrying it the 2 and a half hours back to the village!)
We are thankful that we could help this family out in a very small way. We are also thankful for the opportunities Wilf has had to read and pray with them.It is a sober reminder once again of the power of God, and His awesome goodness and grace to us!
7 comments:
how devastating, especially to think going through that without God or any comfort or hope in Him!! tragic. thanks for the update, it was timely for me as i had just been looking out my window and lamenting the missing and damaged trees in our yard, how trivial!! i am ashamed to admit it, how sometimes such small things can bother me wihtout thought of how insignificant they really are. a good reminder to look at things with an eternal perspective!! and of course to be thankful. love to you all, praying for you and hope that you all stay healthy for the last bit of time there!!
Thanks for posting again! I find the kids very cute looking! They do look sad though - is it just b/c of the camera? Love the surroundings! We're thankful Wilf has been kept safe on all these treks!!!
Very humbling post, Sharon. Any way we can help? Probably not....I've been reading missionery books lately and just feeling ashamed, as Carole said, of my pettiness. I'm thankful for all we've been given but not thankful enough - and sometimes so focused on these materials blessings (or what I may consider a lack in some area) that I forget our greatest blessing - one in which the poorest of the poor can share - salvation in Christ!
That is quite the situation. It's so hard to imagine living like that!
Thanks for posting!
Rachel
We're thankful that you all were able to help in some way and will pray that the Lord will open their hearts to His Word.
A reminder of how blessed we are!
Seeing those pictures and hearing about those families puts life in perspective. Things we think are so important really aren't in the grand scheme of things. Thanks for updating us, and we will pray that the Lord would work in those families and use even this tragedy for His glory. Miss you more than ever:(
Sharon,
Is there anything else we can do to help that family? If you think of anything let me know. Very sad--I'm glad you were able to help them and we'll pray they'll come to know the Lord.
I'm sorry I missed your call Sunday--we had a couple families over, and then my week has been crazy with standardized testing, piano judging and other things...and I'm leaving to go to TO tommorow. Soooo, hopefully we'll connect next week (: Love you!
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