A Special Day with Felix

Well, we had quite the busy week. Most of our days were rearranged for us, but that is fine; it makes life more interesting! Saturday was a special day. We had gone to see Felix the week before. We are discipling his youngest daughter, Ruth, who is pictured in the previous blog. Anyway, the first day we visited Ruth, she told us that her father had fallen quite a while ago and broke his pelvis, so now he is bedfast, although he is able to sit up for short periods of time. She asked us if we would visit him. We told her we would, that we would come to her house first and then go to visit him. So on the first Saturday, we went at 10:00 to Ruth’s, and by 10:30 am, we were on our way to Felix’s. We walked about 7 blocks, but Ruth was carrying her little girl, and she wouldn’t let any of the rest of us carry her, so we ended up getting a mototaxi for the rest of the way. We were glad because it was way further than we thought. We got to the house, which is the house of Ruth’s older sister, Ruth. She cooks food to sell in one of the markets. She cooks the food in her house and then takes it down to the market to sell for lunch. Her daughter and granddaughter live there too, along with Felix. Empe and I waited outside a few minutes while they got Felix ready to receive company. He is 80 years old. He was so glad to have company. Felix is a Christian, but because of his physical state, he is unable to leave the house to go to church. We offered him words of encouragement, prayed with him, and even sang one of the songs he remembered from church. He told us he couldn’t read his Bible anymore because he didn’t have glasses. So, we told him we would come back the next week and bring him glasses. That gave me one week to get glasses made. I decided the best thing to do would be to make one of each strength of lenses so that, if need be, he could try on the different glasses instead of using the tester board. We weren’t sure how it would work out. So this past Saturday, we went back to see Felix. I had finished the glasses at 12:30 the night before, and was ready to give away our first pair of glasses. Again, Empe and I waited outside for a few minutes while they got Felix ready for visitors. When we entered his room we were surprised to see Felix was sitting up and ready for a visit. Empe told him we wanted to read some scripture with him, but we wanted to have him try glasses before that so that he could read along. We tried the tester board since he was sitting up, and that got us close. We ended up trying on the different strength’s of glasses that were close to the one he thought was good. Once he tried the glasses and saw that he could read, he began to cry because he was so glad that he would be able to read his Bible again. His older daughter, Ruth, saw what we were doing, and said she was so glad he was getting glasses. She said when she would read her Bible she had to hold it far away, so we asked her if she wanted to try some glasses too. She asked if she could really have a pair. We said, “Of course. We want to help people.” She said others have offered to help in the past, but it was always for a price. That seems to be a common factor here. People say they will visit or help, but they want the family to pay a price for that visit or help. Nancy and Kristy have run into the same thing. Anyway, now Felix can read his Bible. He wasn’t able to see the really fine print in italics, but he could read the headings and verses. So when we left him, Felix was encouraged in the Lord and would be able to read his Bible once again. Please keep praying for Felix and his family. Although there is no way possible to afford the surgery he needs for his pelvis, and now the doctors say he has bone cancer as well, we know that if it is His will, God can heal, or at least relieve the physical pain.