Today was our medical clinic day. Fittingly enough, both of our infirmed have fully rallied and participated fully today (but under many watchful eyes). These days are perhaps the hardest to explain and do justice. The abject need of the people that we see is heart wrenching, yet the ease with which they express their joy and thankfulness is humbling and spirit-refreshing. Then we had a church service that also played on a completely different set of emotions, within our mission family, as we rejoiced at a joyous occasion.
The blue church had been transformed into a field hospital, but as a tin structure on a hot sunny day, it quickly became referred to as “the oven” especially by those inside. With the addition of string, sheets, and clothes pins, the inside became 9 family exam rooms and a pharmacy. Outside there was traffic control, triage/wound care, and hygiene kit distribution. We set up a makeshift pharmacy with 45 medications on our formulary for the doctors to choose from. The 150 families that had been registered the previous days were brought in as a family to see one of the 9 doctors. Once “in the system” one of our mission team acted as a runner to escort the family through the process, bring prescriptions to and retrieve medications from the pharmacy, and keep their assigned doctor hydrated and in supplies. Additionally, every family that came through got a hygiene kit with general health supplies and some extra goodies. Outside we had a group of trained professionals from our own mission team performing general wound care on anyone that came in. To keep them in patients, a number of the teens were going door to door advertising the service we were performing and bringing them to the care area. All told, we helped more than 150 families get basic healthcare that we take for granted, and many more had wounds, from the very minor to the frighteningly major, cared for and treated with supplies not generally available to them.
After the hot day we returned to the orphanage to have dinner, and discuss the day in smaller groups—decompressing and going over the emotions and also our motivations for doing this kind of thing. We then went back to the blue church, which had been transformed back into a church, for an evening worship service. We led the church in both a Creole and a Spanish song, Mark preached a sermon, and we were witnesses to an exciting commitment and blessing. Two of our members, John and Anne, each gave testimonies to those present of their emotions for each other, and of what the trips to El Brisal have meant to them and their relationship. John and Anne had known each other as children, but lost touch over the years having gone separate ways. After a chance meeting, they began coming on FFP mission trips together, found love together, and became engaged—planning to wed later this year. There is much more to the story, but I cannot do it justice here. The pastors and the congregation prayed a special blessing on the couple, encouraging them in Christ and in their union to come.
Summary:
-I have lost words to describe the heat…”the Oven” paints the right picture. Some were calling it “the Sauna” but they were not the ones inside the building.
-lost bags: 0 (found bags: 1)
-church services attended: 3
-days hard labor: 3
-infirmed: 2 (but now recovered. Praise God!)
-Children Carla has selected to take home to NJ: I have truly lost count, but definitely triple digits
-Children Sue is disputing Carla’s claim on: 1 officially, but I think her number is close to Carla’s
-Young boys Pastor Mark has selected to bring home: 9 (at least, he wants to field a baseball team, and might need a bull-pen and bench…)
-local boys watching us on the work site buck naked: 2 (although there were a number of them at the clinic and in the wound care center as well today)
-Local women taught basic sewing: 8 or more…I’ve lost count and Sarah and Mary are giving private lessons too
-Families treated: 150
-Wounds treated: hundreds
-Coming unions blessed: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment