His power is made perfect in my weakness(es)...

In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul asked God to remove the "thorn in his flesh." God replied to him, "My grace is enough for you, because My power is made perfect through your weakness."
Several times on this trip, we have made mistakes. We are human. Imperfect, mistake-prone, and sometimes, just plain dumb. Because of this, some patients who we have seen this week have been asked to return to Clinica Ezell in November when the next eye surgery team is scheduled to travel down.
One such patient thought he would be able to have his cataract removed yesterday. For one reason or another, he didn't have the cataract removed, but instead, we will be coming back in November for another surgery.
Why did this happen? Why couldn't we remove his cataract and improve his vision? Only one person knows for sure, and it's His will that will be done because we are weak.
One of the nurses and I prayed for this patient last night before we went to bed. We asked for God's power to allow this man to see better than he could prior to the surgery and even asked for Him to allow his cataract to improve until it could be removed in November.
This morning, we removed the patch from the eye we operated on. Thankfully, objectively, his vision was no worse than before the surgery and subjectively, the man told us his vision was better! He was happy! From my point of view, at least part of my prayer had been answered...
Another thought on why this may have happened... What if, in this encounter with the ministry of HTI, The Seed was planted. This Seed is God's love, mercy, peace, and grace with which he has blessed His children. What if, in November when he returns to the clinic, he is ready to confess Christ as his Savior and puts on The Lord in baptism? Could that be a reason this happened?
Of course, none of us know why we made this mistake. But I do know one thing: Because of us, this man has another opportunity to encounter the love, mercy, peace, and grace of our Lord this November. His blessings have allowed us to travel here to minister to His creation, His power is made perfect in our weakness -- in the U.S., in Guatemala, and everywhere we go...

God bless you all...

Mardee O'Donnell