COLOMBIA REPORT
Special prayer request for Mark and Barbara Stringer, missionaries to Colombia, South America
Dear Prayer Partners,
Nicole Esther Trujillo is the almost one year old daughter of our youngest daughter, Sandra, and her husband, Luis Darril Trujillo. Nicole recently contracted a cold at her day care center, and it has turned into pneumonia.
Sandra works from home by internet selling wholesale flowers in the United States, but her boss doesn’t want a child occasionally crying in the background while she is making a sale. Therefore the day care center looked like a practical solution. Now we are all questioning that.
Nicole’s cold would seem to be going away one day, but would be worse the next, so on Tuesday we decided to take her to the hospital emergency room. The doctor assured Sandra that she had brought her daughter at the right time. Sooner, they would have just sent her home and later would have been very bad. The verdict: Nicole would have to be hospitalized for from three to five days. Since Sandra is still breast feeding her, she would have to stay all that time too.
The next day the doctor informed us that there was not only one kind of bacteria causing Nicole’s sickness, but two, and she would be in the hospital at least seven days. We are extremely preoccupied. She can seem pretty good at one moment and then she can get all congested and the oxygen level in her blood can drop way too low the next.
We are not asking for financial help. Her medical insurance will cover everything except about $100.00. But we do urgently need your prayers.
Prayer requests:
1. Please pray often for Nicole. She is very sick. She is in isolation. We all have to put on a mask, gloves and a gown to go into her room.
2. Pray for her mother. Sandra has epilepsy, and the extra emotional demand seeing her daughter so sick is really hard. Sandra is a very good mother, and that adds to her stress. Pray that neither she nor any of us will be infected by this terrible disease.
3. Pray for her father. Luis Darril hasn’t been the perfect father, but he loves Nicole, and seeing her so sick is drawing him closer to Sandra and to God.
4. Pray that the church’s upcoming marriage enrichment retreat on Good Thursday and Good Friday will no be hindered by this.
Reasons for praise:
There are some wonderful things to thank God for also.
1. The medical staff seems to be very well prepared and caring. Pray for them, and ask God to do for Nicole that which goes beyond man’s abilities.
2. The hospital is very clean and up to date. We have been told that it was pretty run down seven years ago, but has been on a special plan to improve these last seven years, and the results are very positive.
3. We thank God for you Christian brethren that we can reach out to in these times of need. God bless each one of you.
Mark & Barbara