Please Pray for our Kids! - 12/10/06

Last night we learned that several of the high school youth had been in a very bad accident. Two are very badly injured and are in need of prayer.

One of the kids here drives a car that everyone calls la cucaracha, which looks a lot like a doon buggy-- it's an old vehicle without a roof, hood, or doors. Last night after dark, some kids were driving around the rice fields in la cucaracha, hunting crocodile when the car dropped into a big, newly-dug ditch. When the kids hunt here, they stand in the back of the cucaracha and use a spotlight to see their target. When the care dropped into the ditch the kids came down and hit the bare metal of the vehicle (I do not know whether or not any of them were thrown from the car). Two kids are in neck braces, one has stitches and one is being taken to Guatemala, where better doctors with better equipment can deal with his critical injuries. One young man, Reuben, broke three ribs and is complaining of back pain and partial numbness. Another, It is my understanding that his face slammed into the exposed metal of the cucaracha and did extensive damage to his mouth and jaw. One of Nathan’s students came by this morning and reported he had only one tooth left and his jaw was crushed. Bradley, is in the worst shape.

We prayed with the parents and youth at the medical center last night, but the kids are still very upset and Reuben and Bradley’s conditions are still painful and serious. Accidents are common here because kids as young as 11 drive 4-wheelers and scooters, and they like to push the limits and show off. But this situation is different because no one was being especially unsafe, yet they were hurt very badly. The kids realize it could have been any one of them. The mother of the driver is especially upset. Her son walked away with only a neck brace and some soreness, so she was so relieved. At the same time she feels so much guilt because the other kids in the car were hurt so badly.

Plus, any tragedy around Christmas time is a difficult one. Please keep the kids and their families in your prayers.