Sugar Cane Serenity

I wanted to share with you one thing that has been placed on my heart.While being in Nicaragua I have seen one thing that has affected the entire country. Something that is treatable and shouldn't cause so much pain and suffering to the people I have fallen in love with.This something is chronic kidney disease (CKD). CKD is a kidney disease that is permanent or long-lasting kidney damage that if left untreated will cause death. 

A major cause of their kidney damage is the toxic chemicals – pesticides and herbicides – that are routinely used here in the Nicaraguan agriculture.The chemicals that large sugar cane companies use are banned in the United States, Europe and Canada, and they're used here, without any protection, and in large amounts. Day after day of hard manual labour in hot conditions – without sufficient replacement of fluids – causes harmful effects on the kidney that are not obvious at first but over time accumulate to the point that it enters into a diseased state. Most men don't show any symptoms in the early stages, so many of them don't know they have it until the later stages, when symptoms include anaemia (with weakness/breathlessness), bone disease, nausea and vomiting. Final-stage CKD patients may die without dialysis or a kidney transplant.

The large sugar cane companies check to see if you have high levels of this disease. If you do show signs of the disease then you will get fired. Once being fired you no longer have a way of finiancially supporting your family. The company also gives you a card to give to a family member (normally the son) receives the card. You can use this card at any time to start working in the large sugar cane company. So the huge companies will never lack employes and the kidney disease continues to grow and grow.

Those who are ill need treatment with dialysis – which can keep them alive when their kidneys fail. But few can get it because dialysis is extremely expensive and rarely available. There is a main 2 lane road called Nicaragua 12. Everyone uses it from semi trucks to bike taxis. One day my team and I went to the dump to unload all of the weeds and trash we picked up. We got back on the main road and were stuck in traffic. Mario told us there was a protest going on. Sometimes they can last for hours. We waited for a while and decided to walk home. We asked how long it would take and mario said "about a hour". We started to walk and reached the protest. The employees of the company and families were protesting for money for treatment for the kidney disease. They were all in the middle of the road with signs. I passed so many men who were sick and needed help. We walked 6 1/2 miles and the entire time I couldn't stop thinking about it.Everyone fears that working in the sugar cane fields is a big risk, but there are no other jobs around. Any jobs that are available don't pay as much as working in the fields. 

This disease has affected every single family i have met. The population of Chinadega is 25,000 and at least 5,000 people are sick with disease.I have prayed over a family that lost their husband and dad 2 days ago. I have meet boys that are only 18 and 19 with this kidney disease. I work building a house with three men named Louis, Juan Carlos and Fransico. They all joke around all the time and have such funny personalities. I have met so many widows who are still holding on to their deceased husbands. I know little boys who can't just be a kid because they have to work because they are now the man of the house. Everyday I see sick men on the street trying to make a living, from selling ice cream to begging on the ground crying out for help. I had to walk in the middle of a protest because of the disease. There is a doctors office 30 yards away from my house that always has a sick men waiting for treatment.

Everywhere i go i see the devestation this disease causes to Nicaragua. 
Everywhere i go i see darkness from the disease. 
Everywhere i go i see a sick man
Everywhere i go i see a family affected from this kidney disease 

But more than any of those things i see something FAR greater and stronger than any physical disease.

Thats God.

Need i say more? 

God fills in the places that i fall short in. His name alone "Yahweh" is MORE than enough. God is the greatest healer of all, physically, spiritually and physically. God is alive and moving here! 

God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 
Enjoying one moment at a time; 
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life 
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.