I´d now like to introduce you to our other 2 precious nephews! Jairo is 2 years old, and Gerson and I had the privelege of naming him! Hudson is 4 years old, I think. They are both the sons of Gerson´s older brother, Aldo, and his wife, Judith. Aren´t they handsome? Unfortuntately, they had a very stressful week last week!
On Thursday evening, Gerson's parents called to inform us that Aldo was in the hospital with horrible stomach pain. He had been in pain for almost a week, but tried to "tough it out." (MEN!) When the pain continued to worsen, Judith convinced him to go to the hospital. He drove himself the 45 minutes from their home to this clinic near the university where Gerson works. They dropped the boys off 3 blocks away at Gerson's parents' house.
Aldo was immediately admitted at 10:00 A.M. and underwent testing. He was diagnosed with appendicitis. However, when we called in the late afternoon, he had not had surgery. On Friday morning, we called to see how the surgery had gone. We were horrified to hear that he had not undergone surgery until midnight -- AFTER his appendix had ruptured! They also had to remove his gall bladder, which was also inflamed and about to rupture. (I didn't even know gall bladders could rupture!)
Thankfully, Aldo came through surgery fine. We are praising the Lord!
The kids really missed their parents. Aldo and Judith were at the hospital from Thursday morning until Saturday afternoon. Gerson told Aldo we would drive his family home when he got released from the hospital. On Saturday afternoon, we picked up our two nephews and headed to the hospital to pick up Aldo and Judith. The boys wouldn't let their parents out of their sight!
Aldo and Judith live outside of Santa Cruz. In fact, if you remember several posting ago, "We're not in Kansas Anymore," those are the same roads that lead to their house! We were surprised they lived so close to the resort where we had gone for retreat! Because they live so far away and we didn't know WHERE exactly, we had never gone to visit them. It was fun to finally see where they live!
Anyway, Gerson drove Aldo's car while I drove behind in our mission vehicle. It was quite the challenge to stay behind Gerson in the busy Santa Cruz traffic. Once we got outside the city, the drive was much more peaceful and relaxing for me!
Aldo makes a living as a taxi driver. Therefore, the station wagon Gerson drove is Aldo's bread and butter. It was joy for us to be able to take this precious family home after such a stressful week.
This is where Aldo and Judith live. If I'm not mistaken, they've lived here about two years. Judith was very proud of her beautiful flowers. They also have chickens, 2 dogs, and a rabbit. Judith also has a little kiosko (store) inside the house to sell food/hygiene products to their neighbors since they lives so far outside of town.
A happy family! "We're home!"
Jairo and Hudson were also glad their bunny had survived the 3 days all alone!
As I´ve mentioned several times, one of the teams Gerson works with is a women´s indoor soccer (futsal) team. They play soccer inside on a basketball court. The goals are smaller and the rules are quite a bit different from soccer rules. Instead of 11 players like in soccer, in futsal, there are only 5 from each team on the court at a time. Also, the soccer ball they use is a bit smaller than the standard soccer ball. Gerson´s father is named the coach, but we go to almost all the games and Gerson ¨coaches¨ from the sidelines!
Last night we had a game. We are now in the final rounds and we are one of the top 6 teams in Santa Cruz. It is now down to double elimination. Unfortunately for us, we lost last night´s game. That means we have to win this coming Tuesday in order to make it to the semi-finals. I tried to take a picture of the scoreboard 30 seconds before the game ended. As you can see, it's fuzzy! We are the team with 3 points. At the point when I took the picture, the opposing team had 4 points. However, right after I shot the picture, the other team scored a point from mid-court, finishing the game with a 2 point lead. We were disappointed, but we're hoping the season doesn't end for us on Tuesday!
The team is made up of mostly university students. Several of the girls are still in high school, and Gerson is trying to recruit them for the university next year. They are a great group of girls, but most of them do not have a personal relationship with God. This does not stop Silvana, Gerson's sister, from initiating prayer before every game. Although many of the girls aren't Christians, they are constantly being reminded of Him during their times of training and playing. Continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts and draw them to Himself.
This is during half-time. As you can see by some of their expressions, they have a lot of fun and normally there is quite a bit of comedy going on before, during, and after the games! Our team is really good, and actually we've beaten every other team in our division. Our problem lies in that the girls don't show up on time for the games and rush in unprepared mentally. They have also stopped going to practices due to scheduling conflicts. These two things have caused several important losses for the team.
Many times after our game, Gerson stays behind for the next game to do the stats. That's what happened last night. We were disappointed he was asked to do it, because Silvana left the futsal game to go to her basketball game. We've been too busy to go to any of her basketball games this season and we were looking forward to seeing her play. However, we stayed behind to do stats. By the time the second futsal game was over, so was Silvana's basketball game. Oh, well, maybe next time!
I enjoy going to the futsal games. Unlike soccer games, they are fast-paced and only last 40 minutes rather than several hours. I often find myself doing odd jobs while watching or waiting for the game -- babysitting, tutoring an athlete in English, or talking to parents of the athletes. It's great for building relationships! Keep praying for Gerson and me as we try to reach youth through sports!
