Sunday morning, I woke up knowing more changes were being implemented in Guatemala. Primarily, a nationwide curfew, forbidding anyone, except essential personal, from being out between 4pm and 4am and implementing decreased market hours for essentials only. What I didn’t except was to see instructions on my phone. I noticed where it normally had the phone carrier, TIGO, it now said QuedateEnCasa. 

For some, the instructions to stay at home (QuedateEnCasa) may seem restrictive and intrusive. For others, the words only augmented their fears, but for me the message had a completely different impact. I read it from the public health perspective of trying to protect people in an already compromised health care system here in Guatemala, but even more I saw the spiritual implication.

QuedateEnCasa is a reminder to stay in the presence of the God who sees, who knows, and who cares what is going on at this time, the God who has not been caught off guard, but is present. It is a reminder to find Him and ask what He wants to do in and through me at this time. It is a reminder to lift my eyes and thoughts higher, beyond the current circumstances to His promises. It is a time to seek His face and pray. It is a reminder to be in tune to how He may want me to reach out to someone else during this time. 

I’ve purposed that this time will not just be something to survive, but to live in and through it. I don’t want to miss what He is doing. 

What is God saying to you? What work is He doing in you? (He is teaching me some important lessons and revealing areas in my heart that need to change. It is a growing and working time.) How does He want to use you? Who might be someone He wants you to reach out to, even in the middle of your own fears, to offer hope and encouragement? 

In our ministry, we have cancelled our rehabilitation promoter training and helping in therapy clinics. They’re closed, too, to abide by the President’s guidelines and set an example for those we work with. However, the work of Therapy Clinics International has not stopped. Shes, our Guatemalan physical therapist, has developed handouts for our students to review key concepts from home. We are calling those with whom we work to see how they’re doing, making sure they have some food for their family, encouraging them, and praying with them. We are also working on plans for when these restrictions end and we can keep moving forward. 

Thanks for continuing to stand with us during this time. Our work may be different, but we have not stopped or lost hope. We continue to move as He leads us during this time.