Sometimes the multitude of problems in the lives of the people we serve leave us bewildered as to how to help them. Such was the case with Eduardo. Eduardo basically raised his kids due his wife’s alcoholism. He took the children everywhere with him while they were growing up. Eventually his wife left him for a younger man. Then Eduardo’s father tragically burned to death when his house caught on fire.
After these events, Eduardo sank into a deep depression and stopped caring for himself. All day long he sat in the darkened room of the cardboard house he lived in next to one of his grown son’s home. He constantly muttered to himself and would go to the bathroom on the floor inside, living in filth. We would repeatedly try to get him to bathe, but he stubbornly refused. We cleaned his living quarters, but the next week it would be back to the filth. This went on for several years. Frustrated with his behavior, his kids gave up on him. We just kept praying for God to intervene.
A few months ago, we noticed he was bleeding from his stomach. It must have scared him because he wanted to go to the doctor, but the doctor wouldn’t see him until Eduardo had bathed. A lady who gets help from the Food Bank offered to take him to her house. She and her husband had an extra room where he could stay. He meekly agreed to go with her, and he allowed them to clean him up.
The transformation was incredible. You could hardly tell he was the same man, now with clean clothes on and his hair cut and combed. They had even cleaned up his fingernails and toenails which had been infected with fungus.
Now Eduardo smiles and is happy. He continues to live with this couple as he receives medical care from the doctor. His children have been to visit him and are pleased with the change in their father. Thanks be to God, what was a seemingly hopeless situation has been turned around.