Volume V, Issue XIII
New World Pope, New World Hope
Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires, has been chosen to be the next Pope. Taking the name Francis, he becomes the first Pope from the Americas. The 'other' weekly news magazine has The Story [click to read].
To the North of Argentina, the Kingdom of G-d is quietly building in the Bolivian city of Sucre. On February 4th of this year, without any fanfare, Mission of Hope, Bolivia [click to read] quietly opened the doors of their long awaited Sucre clinic. Pastor Alex Merguzhis led a staff devotional and then they opened the doors. The first day they served a handful of patients, but as word spread people began walking for miles to be treated.
Sucre is inhabited primarily by Quechua people. Often treated as second-class citizens in Bolivia, the Quechua lead hard lives. Julian and Vasila, the first patients treated, farmed their land all their lives with hand tools only. Now disabled and unable to farm, they look to their children for what they can provide. Simple medications to ease pain and make life better are beyond reach. There is no public transportation so Pastor Juan Bayo, who donated the land for the clinic, often uses his truck to bring patients who cannot walk.
90 year old Sebastiana, a widow who lives alone in a remote area, could not walk to the clinic. A childhood accident had left her unable to. Pastor Juan was able to bring her so she could receive care.
Mission of Hope, Bolivia is the G-d-given vision of Cindy Thacker [click to read]. Ms. Thacker is a nurse and cancer survivor. Her own story is one of amazing triumph, but her foremost desire is to see the Kingdom of Heaven triumph over and over again in the lives of Bolivia's poorest people. The new clinic in Sucre is making that hope a reality!
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