Wislon

I normally go the fruit market for Casa de Esperanza every other Friday. Since Friday was a wild and crazy day, Matt, Nicole and I left here at 5:30 Saturday morning. Nicole convinced me, without too much effort, that we should stop at Dunkin Donuts after we finished at the market. After an uneventful trip to the market, we stopped at the Dunkin Donuts near Hospital Escuela. We ate our donuts and sitting there visiting. We were not in a hurry. We had a couple of small errands to run before meeting Marc and the Tupelo group.

While we sat there, a young man about Nicole's and Matt's age walked up and asked for money. I am not real big on handing money over to anyone. His name was Wilson and he lives in Sabana Grande, which is about 10 miles further from here. We asked questions and found his mother was very ill. She had an infection in her stomach and needed some tubing and things to help drain the infection. There was a hole and there nothing more than a bag over the hole in her stomach. I told him I would buy what his mother needed. The four of us walked to the pharmacy. Wilson walked with a limp and his right foot was swollen to at least twice its normal size. After asking, he told us he hurt it playing soccer. I don't think it was broken, but probably badly sprained. Wilson really did not seem to be concerned about himself or the pain to his foot.
His only concern was for his mother.

We got to the pharmacy and he didn't really know what he needed. We told him to go back to the hospital and get a prescription and we would wait on him. He asked if we would go back to Dunkin Donuts so we could at least sit down while we waited. He limped back to the hospital and found a nurse, but still needed to see the doctor. He came hobbling back in Dunkin Donuts to tell us it was taking longer than expected. While we waited, we decided he probably had not had anything to eat in a while. Most people haven't that are at the hospital with a sick family member. Matt took care of getting him a sandwich. When he returned, he said he did not need the sandwich and we asked if he was hungry and he said yes. He, then, readily accepted and ate the sandwich.

We all walked back to the pharmacy and bought what was needed for his mother. We said we would pray for his mother. Nicole spoke up and said lets do it right now. The four of us held hands and Nicole began to pray. Wilson prayed at the same time. After the prayer, he was weeping. Honduran men don't show any emotion, especially one that involves tears. He hugged us all repeatedly and thanked us many more times than was necessary.

I thought about this incident the rest of the day. We have never had to send one of our kids out to beg for money to pay for our medical care. Even, if a few people shared a few limpira with him, it would have taken a long time to get enough for what was needed. Aren't we blessed and sometimes we do not even know it.

With all the Dunkin Donuts in Tegucigalpa, there is no logical reason that we would have stopped at the one near Hospital Escuela. It is not where Marc normally stops and I tend to go wherever Marc has stopped. Perhaps, God knew we needed to run into Wilson. I will not forget his determination to help his mother, nor his compassion for everyone around him. I pray this morning Wilson's mother is better.

Terri