During absence recording Scriptures, boy falls ill

I visited the home of one of Viña’s Scripture-recording technicians yesterday and heard some disconcerting news.

Two weeks ago, the day after Isidro and Carlos left for Cobán to begin recording the Mayan Q’eqchí-language New Testament, Isidro’s wife faced a health emergency at home. For reasons unknown to them, their baby boy, Juanito, who is about 14 or 15 months old, went unconscious for a half hour. (This picture shows the baby’s hammock, hanging next to the kitchen stove. Juanito is sleeping under the blankets.)

Isidro and his wife live next door to Isidro’s parents and several other relatives, but at the time she was home alone. Everyone had gone to one of the many weekly church services. Isidro’s wife called him in Cobán, but he could not do anything as he was about 8 hours away by bus. Sometime later, she was able to get the boy to a doctor, but the doctor could not find anything wrong other than a slight fever.

Juanito has had a number of health problems, and still cannot sit up or walk. He also appears to have some eye problems. Praise God, they passed through this recent test and Juanito has been fine since.

Please pray for this family, for the Lord’s protection against any attacks while Carlos and Isidro are away. They returned home this weekend for their first visit back, and left again this morning to resume the work. Being separated for six to eight weeks (with weekend visits home every other week) puts a strain on the families, and even worse when there are emergencies such as this. Viña’s staff here said such events are not uncommon when they go to record the Scriptures.

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The kitchen stove, by the way, is called an ONIL stove. These much more efficient and safer than most Guatemalan wood-burning stoves, using less wood, saving trips to fetch firewood and preventing burns from children falling into the fire. The link I have included explains more and allows you to donate a stove.