Hola a todos!!
So the President announced the extension of the curfew to April 12 – Easter Sunday! Which means the continuation of school and non-essential business closures as well as no public transportation. From what I have been hearing, schools probably will not open again until May at the earliest. The nifty COVID-19 tracker I found online shows that Guatemala has – 25 active cases, 10 recovered cases, and 1 fatal case, so 36 total. It’s been a very slow increase and for that I am thankful. We are continuing our 7 day shift rotations for the foreseeable future. The children are continuing to play, do homework, and participate in daily devotionals. The older ones have also been doing Bible memorization! We will observe Palm Sunday this weekend and holy week next week with devotionals centered on Christ’s Passion. Please pray for the deliverers of these messages and the children, that the Holy Spirit would speak to their hearts. Planting seeds! Thank you for your partnership!
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"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer" - 1 Peter 3:12
In a country where close to 60% of the population lives below the poverty line, the lack of an income for any amount of time is scary. And while I find merit in the measures the President of Guatemala is taking to stop the spread of COVID-19, I can't help but worry about the consequences of forced closures on the many mom and pop businesses here. And so I pray for a quick and safe end to the threat of COVID-19. And I wait, to be honest, with a certain amount of anxiety, for word of the many needs that will crop up as a result of these closures. And I hope that God will use us to bring a measure of relief to those in need. Please join me in prayer for -
As of Monday, there were 20 confirmed cases and 1 fatality from COVID-19 in Guatemala. The president is taking aggressive measures and from Sunday, 3/22 until Monday, 3/30, he is instituting a curfew between the hours of 4pm – 4am. This is in addition to all schools being closed, public transportation halted, and non-essential businesses being shuttered (I tried to pick up a birthday cake and failed).
So how are we doing? We’ve implemented some measures to cut down on outside contact. Caregivers are now on a 7 day rotation (vs 2 day) and staff who come in and out daily are advised to keep a distance of 6 feet from the children and caregivers. No school, parent/relative visitations, no outings – essentially stay in place until further notice. Luckily, we have a good sized property so the children can run around – caregivers and kids had a lot of fun Sunday playing tag and hide and seek! We had worship service the past two Sundays here at our home and continue our daily devotions in the evenings. Patty and Valerin, our two chicken pox girls, are all better and 4 year old Tono (hopefully the last chicken pox case) should be able to join the other children by Thursday. Life goes on… Please pray for – • Tono to get better quickly. He’s lonely☹ • Staff to stay healthy and motivated during the 7 day shifts Thank you so much for your prayers! We (including kids!) are also praying for you too during this worldwide pandemic! It's been less than one week since I got back and so much has happened already! Praise God I came back when I did - a little later and I would not have been able to come for a month! (To try to control Covid-19 Guatemala has closed it's borders to people from the US)
Coming back to almost a full house was delightful and chaotic and busy!! All but two of the children were in school - yay!! And then Friday hit. In the early morning, one of the nannies wanted to show me something - Patty's tummy and back had a few tiny, bubbly, reddish/whitish spots. We took her to the local free health clinic and...chicken pox! Then came Saturday - public and private school closures for 21 days and for us, one more case of chicken pox. Life is never boring here! The good news is the little vegetable garden is growing squash which are delicious! We also have been preparing so we have food/supplies/water to last several weeks if needed. And at Tom's request (all those years of med school have finally paid off!) we have limited all visitors and started a hand washing protocol for the staff and children. Please pray for -
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Jackie YangDirector, Immanuel Children's Foundation Archives
June 2021
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