Pray for Guatemala - Week Five

We are more than half way through January, which means I'm only a few weeks from departure for my month in Guatemala.  Vaccinations - check.  Extra scripts - check.  New nebulizer - check.  Vocabulary memorized - on-going.

This week we lift up our scrub nurses in prayer.  When we are in Guatemala, the scrub nurses are in charge of all the OR equipment.  They are tasked to make sure all the things that are needed for a procedure are sterilized and in their proper place.  After each procedure they separate sterile from used and non-sterile and assist in "turning over" the room for the next case.  We pray for these nurses as they maintain sterile technique in the OR.  May they be able to do their job with joy and keep them safe from sharps and other real dangers in their job.

image from Women's UN Report Network www.wunrn.com

We also pray this week for "Child Mothers" in Guatemala.  The original article that I linked to on my "Prayer Schedule" no longer works.  In fact any similar articles seem to not pull up or have disappeared.  But other searches describe the sexual exploitation of children in Guatemala during the 36-year civil war and since.  The sexual exploitation of children in Guatemala for prostitution as well as for adoption is well monitored by the U.N.  Some of these girl children, indeed, are forced to be mothers in order to produce babies for adoption (at great profit to their captors) for the U.S. and Europe.  We pray for the children in Guatemala who are sexually exploited.  We pray for the governments of the U.S. and Guatemala that they may work together to stop the suffering and misery of so many children.