CHALLENGES, BATTLES AND ENCOURAGEMENT

The words challenge, fight and encourage were appropriate on our first visit to Nuevo Progreso.  Our friend Apolinar was burned severely last July when he was almost electrocuted while painting a building.  Now back in his home, he's improving but is extremely incapacitated.  There is no strength in his hands, the muscles in his neck are damaged and he can't raise or move his head.  He needs therapy and more surgery on his neck.



Apolinar Hernandez

 Apolinar was emotional when he told us what had happened.  He sobbed openly when Lloyd anointed him with oil and prayed for his recovery.  While Carla brought us refreshments, he hurriedly relayed to us what he could remember.

The instant he felt the shock, he called out to the Lord for help.  Immediately he felt someone shove him back which broke his contact with the high voltage wire, and he fell to the floor.   Three weeks later he opened his eyes in a hospital in Monterrey.  He had been in a coma and God had been speaking to him through dreams and visions.  Some places he saw were beautiful and some were terrible and full of frightening animals.  He saw two large lakes with a separation between them.  In one lake were beautiful people and good fish to eat.  In the other lake there were serpents and dragons and many people who tried to kill him.  He saw us many times in our Jeep and he asked when we would be coming to his house.  A woman who kept following him in the dream gave him a written prayer and then he was asked to make a decision whether he should stay or return to his family.  He told them he wanted to return, and soon after that he opened his eyes.

Apolinar questions why this happened to him.  Meanwhile friends and neighbors have brought food and some have helped purchase pain medicine.  After much pressure from attorneys, the owner of the building where he was injured paid his hospital bill, but he isn't willing to help further.  Doctors are suggesting therapy sessions for him in Rio Bravo.