Maria Isabel Update

Maria Isabel is scheduled at the top of the list for the heart surgery team returning to Honduras on January 8th. We had hoped to find a way to get her to the states and have the surgery sooner, but the visa process will take longer than our January appointment. Maria Isabel is still weak, but she is holding on with hope as she awaits her operation. We are leaving these next few months in God's very capable hands.

Brayan and I went to take more food and visit Maria Isabel and her family Friday and received a very warm welcome. Well, my truck & Brayan did anyway. As soon as she saw Brayan she almost leaped from her mom into his arms. She started pointing to my truck and telling Brayan that she wanted to go with us. They said she got excited the minute she saw the red truck coming. She recognized the truck that had taken her to the doctors who spoke of healing. It brought people who loved and cared for her. It brought food and supplies to her. But most of all...to her, it brought hope.

As we sat under the metal roof in the middle of their tropical jungle-like home, I absorbed the surroundings while watching the love flow from Brayan's heart to Maria Isabel's. If his love could fix her heart, she would be perfect.

Something happened in those moments as Brayan held Maria Isabel in his arms that is almost unexplainable. As I watched Brayan interacting with the family, I saw not our young boy who we watched grow up at Faith Home, but a grown man doing what he was made to do...letting God flow through him. I saw God's arms surrounding Maria Isabel and giving her peace and love. I heard God's voice speaking words of hope and comfort to the parents as he explained the plan for surgery in January and that many people in the United States were praying for her. I saw God revealing Himself to Brayan as he became God's hands, feet & heart to Maria Isabel and her family.

As we drove the long road back to the highway, we sat in silence for a while, each absorbed in our own thoughts for what we had seen and felt. When the silence broke, we talked about God's purpose for Maria Isabel, even if her life is short. The lives she has touched and changed will continue to help her and others like her. Only by the grace of God were each of us born where we were and and blessed so that we can bless others. Even those at Faith Home were chosen by God for a purpose. They were rescued out of circumstances similar to those living in the jungle of El Banano...for a purpose. I thank God for Brayan and the other children & young adults of Faith Home and pray that they continue to find their purpose as they reach out to the world around them with God's love.

Maria's brothers & sisters                                                                      Their kitchen