Getting Acclimated and Visiting Mingo

We are using these first couple weeks in Guatemala to get acclimated to our new surroundings, get unpacked and get familiar with the routine here at the home. There are several young men who grew up in the home and live in San Andres. Hogar de Vida is still their home and they all play a vital role as part of the family. One of these young men is Mingo. He is 21 and is currently teaching in one of the schools in a nearby aldea. He and Alfredo (also from the home) come each afternoon and help the kids with their homework.

On Thursday April 29th at 1:00 in the afternoon, Mingo was driving his motorcycle through the mountains after school on his way to lunch with a bunch of other teachers. As he rounded a sharp curve of the narrow road, there was a car coming right at him. He tried to swerve and miss it but he collided with the front corner of the car. He broke both bones in his left leg all the way through and fractured his collar bone. Praise the Lord that it wasn't much worse! He is going to a hospital an hour away from here today to see if he needs surgery. Please pray that he does not need surgery because our understanding is that the care there may not be the greatest and surgery could cause more damage than good. As I make this request, I am reminded to thank the Lord for the great medical care we have in the states that we so often take for granted! Because Mingo's collar bone is also fractured, he can't use crutches, so he is in a wheelchair.

We went to visit Mingo yesterday and he looked great. He was in good spirits, however he did have some fear about going to the doctor today and having potential surgery. Please pray for Mingo and his complete recovery. We didn't take any pictures of Mingo in his wheelchair yesterday and I was going to include a pre-accident picture below of him from January when we were here but I am having a hard time getting the picture to upload. But if you look at our blog from when we came to Guatemala in January there is a picture of him there. He is the one in the Iowa sweatshirt.