Corona and Lyme: living it up in the time of Covid-19

Jency, Carmen, and me doing facials

It was my friend Jaime who sent me this text. "Oh no, Betsy, not Corona AND Lyme!" I had just returned miraculously from the States to Honduras after attending a conference in Thailand. Due to the Corona virus, Elvia  (who runs our children's home) and I got stranded in the USA because Honduras had rapidly shut the airports. We prayed and fasted and 14 days later the President of Honduras opened the airports for folks like us to come home. The only problem was that commercial flights had been cancelled until May. Nope, not gonna work.

We continued to cry out to God and the good news came in the wee hours of the morning of March 28th. There would be six flights designated by United to fly Hondurans back to their homeland starting on March 29th. I clutched my little residency card to my chest while making the reservation, so thankful for this answer to prayer. I was very anxious to be with my children and to sleep in my own bed during this wild health crisis. I wanted home.

So that's why is was kind of ironic that our one small dog, who suffers periodically from these parasites, had carried  ticks into my bed. That first night I found two ticks scurrying on my extremities and three less mobile ones in my bed! Welcome Home Mama Bets! That is where the funny beer joke from Jaime came from.

It has been really good to be home despite the initial ticks in the bed and the virus fears of my children. Almost too good. We have been enjoying this time of forced family socializing. They already had a good routine established so I have tried to respect that as much as possible. They have been doing a great job of taking care of the house and each other during the time of Corona.

Yesterday we hung out on the porch to vary our confinement a bit and we made creative plans for celebrating Elvia's BD from the required distance. They decided to make her a cake in the shape of an E with the brownie mixes we brought from the States. I would make her an early Easter basket filled with chocolate eggs and specific Bible verses hidden in plastic eggs. We had a great time laughing and planning.  Jency decided on her own that we should cut the grass with big scissors to get our very small yard ready for a big plastic pool should funds become available. Susana and I did Insanity  (a very strenuous exercise video) together which is a miracle in itself since she hates to exercise. Our after dinner (Carmen made delicious tacos) activity was watching "I Still Believe", a powerful movie about the sovereignty of God and how He brings good out of evil. We decided that this was the perfect time to do facials that someone gave me while I was Statside.

 I didn't cry during the movie even though it is very moving. It wasn't until we started our nightly prayers for the victims of this horrible global plague that I started to weep. I began to feel guilty for having such a good time with my girls while so many are suffering. I began to wonder how to feel less useless in a time of global pain. I felt such sadness over the many deaths that daily seem more real than the statistics they are lumped into. It was then that I sensed a rebuke from on High, from God, who is of all things very Global. "Do you believe that prayer changes things or not? Because one very important thing you can do in this time is to come to Me on behalf of others." A sense of peace came over me. I have been praying for several days now that Jesus would do an Easter miracle, that He would bring life from death as only He can. He is the Redemption Specialist. He brings life from death, joy from suffering, beauty from ashes. I have been praying that He would turn this whole thing around and bring revival. I do believe He has our attention. And so we will pray as never before. We will live it up, God's way, in the time of Corona, believing that He will bring comfort and strength, healing and salvation!

Here is Jeremiah's prayer for deliverance in another time of great distress.

"O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water. Heal me O LORD,and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise. Behold, they keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!"

Jeremiah 17:13-15
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