Over the last few months, Aminta had been feeling increasingly worse.  She was suffering from dizziness, lack of energy, and trouble with her vision.  One day her employer, who has a diabetic relative, took her blood sugar levels to see if they were elevated because the symptoms sounded familiar.  Sure enough, her blood sugar was over 500 mg/dl.  This was scary because normal blood sugar is anywhere from 70 – 140 mg/dl.  Aminta’s health continued to decline to the point that she had to quit her job.  She hadn’t said anything to us because she was afraid of going to the doctor.  Thankfully she realized that she needed to get some treatment and shared what was going on with one of our missionaries.  This began a month-long series of appointments.

We took her to the doctor we use for everyone in the ministry.  Some tests were done and it was confirmed that she was diabetic.  The doctor prescribed some medicine and ordered more blood work to check Aminta’s fasting and post-meal blood sugar levels.  The cost for the medicine, 15 days of pills, was $25 and the blood test was $60.  This was something neither the ministry nor the family would be able to afford long-term.  Thankfully, one of our missionaries remembered that the local health clinic offers free medicine and blood tests for patients.  We picked a day and took Aminta to the clinic.  It proved to be a very long day as the waiting process began at 9:30 a.m. and she didn’t finish with the doctor until 3:30 p.m.  She was told to come back the next day for another blood test and arrived at 6 a.m. and did not return home until 2 p.m.  She then had to go back to the clinic a few days later for another visit with the doctor at which point she was given her medicine.  This also involved hours of waiting.  Despite all the time this took, we are all very thankful that Aminta is able to receive her medicine and blood testing for free.  We are also thankful that since she has started taking her medicine she is feeling better and her vision has improved!

Aminta’s children have decided it is best if she does not work because of her health and so her 2 oldest daughters are now looking for work outside of the home while Aminta stays home and takes care of the younger grandchildren.  Her one daughter needs to get her official paperwork before she can get a steady job and we are waiting on details from the family to see how we can move forward in that process.

Also, as you may remember, Aminta is in the middle of waiting to see what will happen with the charges that have been brought against her for ways that her bank account was being misused by her ex-daughter-in-law.  They are hoping to have a hearing within the next few weeks but in the meantime, Aminta has to travel 3 hours one way every 15 days to check in with the legal system.  This is a cost of about $20 for every trip she needs to make.  Thankfully, her siblings and church members have been able to help her since she stopped working but we do not know how long they will be able to continue to do that.

Please join us in praying for Aminta and her family.  Please pray for complete healing from diabetes so Aminta can go back to work and support her family.  Please pray for her oldest daughters as they continue to study and search for work to help with the family.  Please pray for provisions for Aminta’s trips to check in with the legal system because if she misses one check-in they will come and take her to jail for 3 years.  Please also pray for the court case to be dropped soon so that Aminta does not have to make these trips anymore.

Thank you for your continued love, prayers, and support for this family!

For Christmas, a friend of one of our missionary couples, who is a professional photographer, was here and took some pictures of Aminta and her family.  We were able to bless the family with copies of these pictures and we’d like to share some of them with you as well.