A Day on Stone Island

December 11, 2008 – Today I spent the whole day on Stone Island with Lydia. Stone Island is not really an Island it is a peninsula attached to Mazatlan, to get there by road is not easy, you have to drive all the way around the city to get to the road and it is assessable only by truck, a car would drown in the ruts, if it has rained you cannot get there at all. So you get back and forth by water taxi....little motor boats. The cost is 5 pesos each way and if you live there it’s even less. I’ve been coming here for a few years now because it is so quiet and peaceful, just a beautiful escape from the crowded city. The beach, in my opinion is much nicer than in the city, it’s wider and far less crowded. My visits to the Island have been limited to spending time lounging by the beach with a good book, eating delicious seafood from one of the many palapa restaurants that line the beach, taking a horseback tour through the coconut plantation....and then reluctantly heading back to the city. This time my visit was very different, I didn’t even see the big wide beach where I used to lounge. I was also given a little history today as to how the Island first started off....it was an Island in the beginning. The city of Mazatlan used the Island to store the unwanted people there, there was huge lepers colony, a mental institute, anyone with a disease that could spread, and instead of keeping the criminals in jail they send them to Stone Island. Many people that live there now are descendants of those people. This place is full of all kinds of horrible problems and not the tranquil peaceful place I have always thought it was. There’s a church for witches, they have a beautiful little church with pretty stained glass windows, if you didn’t know any better you would think it was a little catholic church. There are demonic people, people that are deemed mentally insane, there is drugs and alcohol abuse, so much sexual abuse and physical abuse. The beautiful setting (and it is beautiful) is a wonderful cover for the dirtiness. This had been Satan’s kingdom for many years......where do you begin the healing for these people?
I followed Lydia around as she did some home visits to people she has come to know over the years that need a kind word or just a hand to hold. Our first stop was an old lady that lives by herself in a tiny little shack, in the last 3 weeks she has started to slowly go deaf and blind and has extreme pain in her knees keeping her from leaving her house. Her family for some reason does not come to see her anymore. Since she can’t understand when you talk to her she seems to make things up and thus not making much sense most of the time, which may be the reason why her family is not coming to see her anymore. For example, this morning she told us that her son in law had come and cut the wires to her electricity because he did not wan to pay for it anymore (she has no means to pay for it) but when we talked to her daughter later in the day she said that there had been a short in wiring and being afraid it would cause a fire he had the electricity turned off until he could fix the short. ...a few misunderstanding like that could surely cause some friction in the family. She is afraid that the doctors don’t know how to bring back her eyesight and her hearing; she says the medication he gave her makes it worse. She told Lydia that every week she waits by the door for her, she doesn’t even take time to clean her house, she just sits and waits. She was very firm when she said “I don’t like a dirty house so you must come more often” (in Spanish of course). How lonely she must be. From there we move on to another lady who also cannot leave her house because she is very obese, which also just started happening not too long ago, the doctors can’t seem to figure out why she is just getting bigger and bigger, and of course angle and back pain. She had requested a bible which Lydia had brought for her (her birthday present from her son). She is also just a very lonely lady that just wants someone to come and visit and hold her hand. This is how we made our way through the Island, visiting one sad, lonely lady after another, each one that had raised many children and now sit by door alone hoping someone will stop by. This is not right. This reminds me of how important it is have a good, strong and most of all a forgiving relationship with my own child and with The Lord now so that when I am old and senile and perhaps a little difficult to be around (more so than now) my child will not abandon me and I can gain strength from the Lord. Our last visit was the most touching, a young lady that had been struggling with AIDS for the last 5 years, she is now confined to a bed and slowly deteriorating, I don’t think she weighed 65 lbs, could barely lift her arms and has to be fed and cleaned like a baby. She confessed today that she had a great fear of dying, her past had been very sinful and she was afraid for death to come. Lydia assured her that there was a way to insure she end up in Gods heavenly arms to live forever more in heaven, free of sin and free of AIDS. As we held her she gave her life to Christ and we continued to pray that she can hold on to that promise of everlasting life in heaven. Though this should now be a happy ending to the story it is not, as her husband also has AIDS it just hasn’t progressed as far yet and they have 2 small children who have not yet been tested (to our knowledge). Should these children by some miracle not have the disease, they will become orphans. This makes me ask “God, how could this possibly be your plan?”. Perhaps he knew this would be the only way she would accept Christ so she could be saved? What about the children, how is this for their good? I have many questions even though I know I am only supposed to have faith that God knows what he is doing and I don’t need to know the details.