August 25, 2008

• Serious Prayer Request

  I have just uploaded a bunch of pictures that I will talk about tomorrow – God willing.

  Today I have a prayer request.  Yesterday was Jesse’s “catch-up” day for mowing,  He mowed one commercial property that was laden with problems and that job took longer than anticipated.  The next property was a church, and church was over with by the time he and Camilo reached the property.

  A friend, of a friend, of a friend of Camilo’s needed money and showed up at the church and asked Jesse if he could help.  Jesse said, “Sure!  Grab a mower.”  The new guy (think his name is Jose) made two sweeps across the church lawn and began screaming.  Jesse was far away, as was Camilo (in the back of the church), when Jose came running to Jesse bleeding and hysterically screaming.

  Jesse unhitched the trailer from his truck, Camilo stayed to finish the job for Jesse and Jesse headed to the closest hospital.  He called me and said, “What should I do?” and I told him I felt the right and honest thing to do was to say that we would be the responsible party for the bill.  We don’t have “employees” per se,  and we don’t carry employee insurance or worker’s comp – since we don’t have employees.  Friends occasionally help Jesse, but they aren’t employees and usually don’t allow Jesse to pay them except to buy lunch.

  The GOOD news is that Jose’s three underside finger tips were severed (the fleshy part, not the nail or bone) and the injury could have DEFINITELY been more serious.

  Jesse came home from the hospital with a Workman’s Comp sheet for us to file.  I called the hospital back and thought I cleared up the confusion over the employee/employer *lack* of relationship and thought all was well after yesterday afternoon’s discussion.

  The hospital’s business office just left a message on Jesse’s phone and he asked me to call them back and handle things.  I used to work for this hospital (in the E.R.) and know a little bit about the wording of things and the billing protocol.  I told Jesse to expect an E.R. bill, E.R. doctor bill, and radiology report bill.  I kept asking him what they had done for the flesh missing and he said he didn’t know.  Jose had told Jesse to leave the E.R.  and he’d have another friend pick him up.

  When I called the business office back this morning, I quickly straightened out the fact that we don’t have employees, nor do we carry worker’s comp insurance (since we don’t have worker’s).  I explained Jesse had just met this guy and there was no relationship between the two of them prior to this week.

  Well, the GOOD news is that she said that she could discount our bill (since it was a cash payment) by 25%.  The not so great news is that the x-rays and E.R. visit were discounted “DOWN TO” $1203.18.  We will still have the attending physician’s bill and radiologist’s report to pay.  (sigh)  We’ll receive those later and separately.

  But then came the scary news . . .  He was referred to a specialist for reconstructive work on his fingers (which I wondered about all along).  The title “specialist” rang and echoed terror in my ears at the possible financial burden we have offered to bear.

  We have been advised that technically he is not our problem.  He was NOT hired as an employee and, before yesterday, he was unknown to us.  Jesse’s friend, Camilo, made a string of calls (via friend of a friend of a friend) and found out this guy is a known drug addict – quite possibly the reason he reached under the mower while it was running to change the height setting. 

  That doesn’t change the fact that we feel somewhat responsible, as this man WAS working for Jesse, even if it was for only a half hour.

  So much has happened in our family to others that has indirectly affected our household.  It’s a bit mind boggling to wrap our brains around it all.  I still believe, WITH ALL MY HEART, that God will honor us for doing the right thing.  It would have been so easy to have lied and done the wrong thing – and don’t think a tempting, although fleeting,  thought didn’t go through Jesse’s and my mind at separate times.  I’m glad we chose to be honest, but the possibility of a much larger financial burden than we had anticipated almost takes my breath away.  Jesse doesn’t know about the “specialist’s” appointment scheduled for tomorrow.  I called Jesse, but he hasn’t called me back.

  Jesse said the reason the man was so hysterical at first was because he had just been to a witch doctor (Mexicans have a devout Catholic faith, but a strong belief in using witch doctors, too) who said his stomach would be cut with a blade and he would die.  Jesse even asked me how to pray or help this poor guy.  All that came to mind was for Jesse to tell him, “Praise God that GOD intervened and it was only some flesh on 3 of your fingers.  God WANTS you to trust HIM with your life and not anyone else.”  This man has lived in the USA for 20 years, but doesn’t speak English and Jesse’s Spanish is limited.  But, he DID try to convey to Jose that God had intervened.

  Please pray with us that we are able to meet this injured man’s medical bills.  And please pray that, since we did the right thing, God will honor us by making a clear path for us financially.  It may be that all we pay for is the E.R. trip; and, it will be Jose’s burden to pay for any reconstructive surgery he chooses.  I just don’t know.  We’re praying God directs our paths to do the RIGHT thing, but not be taken advantage of by someone who is a crack user and may be needing money.

  • 12:16 pm
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