Today on Thanksgiving Day I cannot help but think about my friends down in Guatemala who do not have even the necessities much less all the extras like we do. I am grateful to God for all the things He has blessed us with...family to make good memories with, plenty of food, a nice warm house to spend the day in, and many other things.But apparently happiness does not come from these things alone because Emeragilda is one of the sweetest ,most thankful person I have ever met and she has none of these. She is a sweet lady down in Guatemala with 3 children who melt your heart as soon as you meet them. When I met them they were living in a small house with open doors and open widows,huge cracks in the walls and holes in the roof, and they were sleeping on boards with only 2 blankets for the whole family.They all had colds from sleeping in the cold,especially the oldest girl Wendi,had a heavy cough that would shake her whole tiny body. Emeragilda's abusive husband left her a few years ago and since then she has been living in fear of her mother-in-law who flies into a rage and beats her for no reason and trying to find enough work to feed her 3 growing children.
One evening while we were down there we took her and her children to get some warmer clothes,but after we took them home we decided to run into town to see if we could find some mattresses to improve their sleeping arrangements. We did find some mattresses and headed back out to her house thinking we would find them happy with their warm clothes and looking forward to their warm mattress but when we drove up to the dark house we saw them huddled out by the road sobbing. Come to find out the mother-in-law had come in threatening her and the children and they all ran into the dark to hide but were afraid to go back into their house.This has been life for Emeragilda and her children for the last 10 years but she has never had enough money to even consider renting a different house. She has worked hard and built up her business so we knew that if we could help her get another house she could then support herself and her children but they would no longer have to live in fear all the time.We did not have much time before we had to catch our flight back home but God blessed our efforts and we were able to get them moved just a few hours before we had to leave. Thank-you God that Emeragilda no longer has to live in fear!!
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