Cecelia welcomed us into her home last week with no outward reservations. Though her house is small and the bed is in the living room, it is immaculate and has little touches here and there that speak of a desire for people to feel at home. Rodney, Luis and I were visiting this woman for two purposes. One, to continue building a relationship with her and to offer support and two, to be able to share her story when we have team orientation.Writing Cecelia's story based on one visit will be difficult, but I will do my best to share what I understood from this one meeting and hope that I will be able to get to know her better in the coming months.
Cecelia's life has not been easy, but to see her hope in the Lord is evidence of God's hand in her life. She described her relationship with her father growing up as one lacking in love. There basically was no interaction or support on his end. While there was no verbal or physical abuse, the neglect of her overall person is abuse enough. She said that when her father was in the hospital, about to pass away, he called her to come see him and asked for her forgiveness. She freely gave it to him. Cecelia's first marriage did include abuse - physical and verbal. He left her for another woman and ended up getting shot by the other woman's husband. Cecelia married again, this time to a man who later died in a car accident. Her second husband was also abusive.
Cecelia came to know Christ five years ago when she was brought to church by her grandson, Andrey. Andrey is 22 and lives with his grandmother, and suffers from a severe mental illness. He has been diagnosed with bi-polar but refuses to be on medication or receive other medical help. Andrey came home while we were visiting with Cecelia and interacted with us occasionally during the afternoon. He would be very lucid at times and then he would branch off into a stream of consciousness that involved snippets of information that he picked up from TV or other media. Cecelia said that he writes constantly and some of his entries say things like, "There is no future for me." Andrey has also tried to strangle Cecelia in the middle of the night. She rebuked him in the Lord's name and he immediately stopped...when she tried to question him, he had no idea what she was talking about. So there may be more to his problem than a chemical imbalance.
Before we left her home, we prayed with her. I hope that God will show us ways to support her as she continues dealing with family issues as well as life in general with her grandson.
This is one of the many stories of the people in Los Anonos. I am glad that God is with us here, equipping us to serve and being strong in our weakness.
