Saturday, August 11, 2012 Panama

Early morning trip to the airport where I said goodbye to the team.  Just like when we came, I flew home ‘solo’ – not really because the Lord is always with me.  Their flight left first, and I left about 1.5 hours later, giving me plenty of time to walk around the airport, get breakfast and see the shops.  It still amazes me when I see an airport like this in a country where there are still unreached people groups in the mountains.  From Panama City to Newark, the seat beside me was empty, so I was able to stretch and get a little sleep.  There was a man from Colombia next to the window, but he didn’t speak much English, but he did take a tract.  He was on his way to Germany, and he speaks German.  Things that make you go humph!  Delayed again in Newark, but eventually I safely arrived in Harrisburg.  Praise the Lord for all the travel mercies! 

Next stop … the Philippines!

Friday, August 10, 2012 Panama

I slept absolutely wonderful and woke up around 4:30 am to a thunderstorm.  I didn’t want to get out of that cushy bed – it was so, so comfortable!  But as I denied the bed and my flesh and spent time with the Lord, it seemed especially sweet as I thanked Him for His special blessings. 

It was still raining when I went to breakfast.  The food was scrumptious!  Fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, pancakes and hot tea!  Wow – you’d think I was the daughter of a King – oh yeah, I am!  The views from the dining area were beautiful – lots and lots of ocean.  The plan is to go on a boat ride to see dolphins and go snorkeling.  Unfortunately, Bradley had to stay behind to care for some details for the next trip.  Personally, I think he just wanted to stay in that cushy bed of his (only kidding). 

The rain quit and we headed out to see the dolphins, but that was a bust – no dolphins today.  Then we went to another area to snorkel.  The guy only had facemasks and snorkel tubes but no fins, and the current was too strong to snorkel without fins, so we didn’t stay there long.  He then took us to another location where we had lunch.  The water was so clear you could see to the bottom.  I found a sand dollar the size of a dessert plate – it was shocking to see one that big.  So from the colors of the fish in the water to the colors of the macaws in the trees, I was praising the Lord for His amazing creativity and imagination.  What a God we have that His glory is proclaimed from the skies to under the oceans!  Lunch was a wonderful seafood mixture with rice – I’m so glad I like seafood. 

When we left the hotel this morning the guys put all their luggage in one room and the girls luggage in another, and the hotel let us keep these rooms into the afternoon.  So, when we got back from boating, the 3 guys went to their room and showered while the 9 women went to their room to shower.  Nine women, one bathroom, one hour… and we did it!  I think it had to be some kind of world record.  I went last and I still didn’t feel rushed.  From the hotel to the airport, only to be delayed once more.  This time it was a bit disappointing because it caused us to arrive in PC after dark, and I was hoping we would get to see the Panama Canal from the air.  Alas, to be seen another day.  We did, however, go this incredibly huge shopping mall to buy souvenirs and to have dinner.  Our final dinner together was steak, banana chips, fried plantain, and strawberry milkshakes, all for less than $10 a plate.  This trip was such a dramatic fluctuation in living conditions in such a short time – from ‘middle class’ to very basic (rustic, I think some people would call it) to luxury in just a matter of a few hours and days.  From the mall we returned to the same hotel where everything began – was it really just a week ago?? 

Wednesday, August 8, 2012 Panama

What a difference today – I was very aware of God’s grace all day from the moment I got up till I laid back down.  When we got to the ‘clinic’, chairs and tables had already been set up, including some plastic ones Bradley had purchased, and somehow they procured some benches.  Some men had come and scrubbed the walls where the urine smelled so terribly, so now we could smell the fresh soap they used.  The patients were waiting in an orderly line, and Bradley had found and purchased some new scales. 

Sara, my interpreter, and I both found ourselves laughing and enjoying the patients more.  We treat almost all the patients with Albendazole, a medicine used to treat intestinal parasites, and the kind we had is to be chewed, not swallowed whole.  Thus the moms were trying to get the kids to take the pill, and they would tell them it was candy.  Then the moms would pop the medicine in their own mouth and start chewing to demonstrate to the child that it was good – only it wasn’t – it tastes terrible!  The moms were making these hilarious faces as they tried to control the contortion of their mouth, and Sara and I laughed and laughed.  I stopped more often to take pictures of/with the folks and teased with the children.  I met a doc on the trip to Nicaragua and was impressed that he made a great effort to make each patient feel special, and I wanted to emulate this. When I would look up to see the line getting longer (we saw a little over 300 patients each day) I would remind myself of last nights lessons – I don’t have to have all the answers or see all the patients or bear all their burdens.  There was such a difference in my thinking and response today. 

In my Bible reading this morning I read Jeremiah 31:16, Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord.  In my prayer time I had prayed and cried over these sick kids, and now they were coming back, and it was obvious they were getting better.  What a wonderful reward to see them smiling and hearing the improvement in their lungs! 

We were finished and back to the hotel around 5 pm, in time to take a shower, eat and head to night church.  I was surprised that we were going to church because I didn’t think there was a church in this area, but this one was a little bit of a drive.  Pastor Robles preached, and although most of it was in Spanish, I was so thankful to hear more of his testimony. 

What an amazing difference between yesterday and today. Thank you so much, Lord, for these lessons You are consistently reinforcing to me!  

Thursday, August 9, 2012 Panama

As I mentioned before, the border to Costa Rica is only about 20 minutes from our hotel.  Evidently, Costa Rica has such stringent laws regarding bringing meds into the country that it is not likely the MMO will ever be able to go there, so Bradley wanted to cross the border to get his passport stamped.  He figured he would never have another opportunity to go.  So, rather than our normal 7:30 am departure time, we left around 6:30.  When we got there we realized we couldn’t drive across, but we could walk.  We started to walk over but were met by a Panamanian soldier who made us walk around a small building, which only put us back in the same place, but obviously that was important for some reason.  We had to cross a bridge that spanned a river, and it was in terrible shape – missing planks, rusted out supports, and lots of things over which one could trip and fall.  But it was still kind of exciting and fun.   On the other side we met a Costa Rican soldier who said he could not stamp our passports because the border wasn’t open yet – it didn’t open until 8:30 am and Costa Rica is one hour behind Panama!  What a disappointment!  The soldier agreed to let us watch as he raised the flag and then to take pictures with us.  The Panamanian soldiers also let us take pictures with them, and thankfully, I had tracts to give to the soldiers on both sides of the border. 

After the picture taking we walked back to Panama, got in our van and went back to the hotel to grab our stuff and go to the clinic.  The lady that ran the restaurant next to the hotel (where we ate our breakfast each morning) came to us to thank us for coming and for patronizing her business.  Very gracious woman.  She would give me two cups every morning – one for my yogurt and granola, and another of hot water for my tea.  When I tried to pay, she refused.  On the way to the clinic we stopped at the banana factory (for lack of a better term) and got some pics with the bananas hanging from the hooks on the conveyor belt.  I’m sure the workers thought we were a little crazy to want to take pictures with bananas! 

Once again, when we arrived at the clinic Pastor Robles and Mariela had the clinic set up – chairs and tables out and everyone was in an orderly line.  We knew we couldn’t stay as long today as the other days because we were due to fly out in the afternoon to return to Panama City.  All morning we saw patients, mostly people that wanted their blood pressure and blood sugar checked.  I got to recheck the last of my sick kids, a little girl about 6-years-old. She was happy and bubbly, and her lungs sounded better.  I reinforced the importance of giving all the antibiotics and then teased and tickled the girl and took pictures. What a relief to see them all doing better!  Bradley had to make a hard decision; I know it’s his heart to see everyone and not turn anyone away, but the line was simply too long.  We quit with enough time to let the pharmacy complete all the scripts, and Bradley gave all those we couldn’t see baggies of vitamins and baggies of Tylenol.  Pastor Robles wanted to host our team for lunch at his house (the medical team and the team of soul winners from David, approx. 20 people total), so we all walked across the street to eat. To my knowledge this family is surviving on ~$600 per month, so I haven’t a clue how he was able to afford food for all of us.   Nevertheless, it was a good chicken, rice and yucca meal with great fellowship. 

Bradley takes a collection from each team to purchase something for the missionary with whom we are working.  Our donations are strictly voluntary, but it’s a great way to say thanks to the folks who labored beside us all week.  This time we were able to give the Robles’ the plastic chairs we used for the clinic (which they will use for their church services), and we were able to get them a small PA system for the new church.  They were so excited – they had been praying for a PA system.  It was hard to say goodbye.  Please don’t get me wrong – missionaries go to the field to work and be used of God, but it’s hard to have such an intense week of laboring together, and then suddenly saying goodbye.  I was not the one staying behind, but I thought about what it will be like for the Robles’ as we leave and go on our merry way, but they stay behind, maybe feeling a little lonely and forsaken.  These are the times you draw just a little closer to the Lord and remind yourself that He never leaves nor forsakes His own. 

We went back to the hotel to shower, pack and go to the airport.  We said goodbye to the church members going back to David, and Jeff Jones drove us to the airport and dropped us off.  He and Buzz would drive both vans back to David with all the church members, about 5 hours.  Jeff is a missionary, but Buzz is not. He is more like a missionary helper.  He doesn’t know Spanish enough to translate, but he acted as crowd and animal control (in every clinic there are always stray dogs coming in to check out what’s going on), entertainer (he often did these silly little mimes to make people laugh), evangelist (in that he was distributing tracts to everyone and holding up signs with verses printed on them), and all around servant (he was always helping out in some form or fashion).  When we got to the airport then came the glitch…  Bradley and Byron Willis went to the counter to check us in and found out someone had purchased the tickets for Friday afternoon instead of Thursday.  As Bradley put it, now was the time to be fluid.  They very calmly starting making phone calls, and voila! – the Lord did some amazing work on our behalf.  The hotel chain at which we were to stay in PC had hotels on this resort island, Boco del Toro, not far from where we were currently located.  They were willing to give us rooms at this luxury hotel for the same rate we would pay in PC.  This same island had an airport, and the airline was willing to allow us to fly out of that airport instead of the one in Chanquinola.  So, Jeff and returned to the airport for us and drove us about an hour to a dock where we took a 40-minute boat ride to Boco del Toro in the middle of the Caribbean!  This was amazing!  In all my life, I would never have guessed that I would spend time on an island in the Caribbean.

I was amazed how they loaded that boat!  We were able to send our medical trunks to PC from Chanquinola on their afternoon flight, so we only had our personal luggage, but there was still 13 of us, plus the other passengers.  Two of the passengers even had bicycles.  I sat next to a lady that lives on the island and commutes on the boat to her government job.  She was interesting to talk with, and she willingly took a tract.  As is so often the case, when I gave it to her she immediately started reading it and afterward told me it was beautiful – she wanted to share it with her co-workers.  So, I gave her four more to give to her co-workers! 

When we got to the island it was obvious that most folks were tourists.  We toted our luggage a little way before we got a taxi van and pickup to take us to the hotel where we were greeted by bellhops that took care of our bags and gave us ice-cold bottles of water before escorting us to our rooms.  Wow!  The rooms were beautiful with very tall, cushy beds and pillows and a view that overlooked the ocean.  Of course when you’re on an island it’s hard not to have an ocean view!  The bathroom was all glass, tile and mirrors – it even had a bidet.  I took a nice, long, hot shower before going to bed.  The Lord is so, so gracious! 

For dinner we all went into town and ate at a restaurant with which Brother Willis was familiar.  They had a fire dancer – a guy that juggled flaming torches.  Dinner took so long to serve that we didn’t have much time afterward to see the shops, but we were able to get a few souvenirs.  The shuttle got us back to the hotel and those cushy beds! 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 Panama

I was able to get 7 hours of sleep last night – PTL!  I know I’ve mentioned it before in other posts, but I really prefer to go to bed early and get up early, but when traveling I must adjust.  The part I hate is that I struggle then in my prayer time if I’m too sleepy – my thoughts are not clear and my eyes want to close!  Breakfast was granola and yogurt and Earl Grey tea – happy camper.

We got to the ‘clinic’ and set up like yesterday.  One of the things very different about this situation seems like a small thing, but I guess it’s a mental game.  Normally, we don’t see the patients waiting in line – we see them one at a time.  But here, there was no waiting area other than right in front of us, so I was constantly noting that the line was getting longer and longer.  That was hard at times – the times I was tired and wanted to be through for the day.  And today just seemed chaotic.  Our scale wasn’t working correctly, which isn’t a big deal for adults, but is very important for the children.  All of the antibiotics are weight based, so it was important to be accurate.  While the other clinic was open they let us use their scale, but this just added to the confusion to walk patients over there and back while new patients were arriving.  Men’s hearts are the same everywhere when it comes to the ‘me first’ mentality, and this was no exception.  It was hard to keep everyone in the order in which they came. 

Bradley had to go out and find more of a certain antibiotic because we were seeing so many patients with impetigo, and we had used up our stock of that medicine.  A lot of the kids had Chinese powders applied to these infections – I guess a contribution from the local Chinese herb doctor.  Again, I was seeing more children with junky sounding lungs, even after breathing treatments.  All I could think of was how these kids would be treated if they were in an ER in the States, and there was no way we could do that for these kids.  These parents couldn’t afford radiology and blood studies, let alone inpatient care with IV antibiotics, nor did we have the capacity to provide these services.  The effect on me was cumulative, and the case that pushed me over the edge was a little two-year-old boy with boils all over his head and trunk. One of the boils on his head needed incised and drained, but while holding his head for the doc to do this, my hands caused others of them to rupture and there was purulent drainage coming from each of them.  The little guy was wailing and my stomach was churning; not from the drainage but from his pitiful condition.  Yes, we could give antibiotics for the boils but he obviously needed proper nutrition and hygiene as well.  I had to excuse myself at this point to have a good cry.  It took me a few minutes to regain my composure and start again.   We finished around 4:30, but because there is no way to secure the supplies we had to set up and tear down each day, so we didn’t get back to the hotel until around 6 pm.  While the pharmacy was finishing filling scripts I visited the school next door.  They were having what seemed to be a marching band practice – hard to imagine the need of a marching band in this area, but they sounded good.  I met a teacher and brought him over to see the clinic.  Pastor Willis witnessed to him, but he didn’t get saved.  He did, however, hear the gospel and take a tract.  PTL for some watering and sowing!

When we got back to the hotel I took a shower and chose to skip dinner.  Instead I spent some time with the Lord, trying to get the right perspective on things.  Again, I am being rather transparent, but most of my life I’ve had the idea that I had to be strong and handle whatever came my way without asking for help, and that I had to do everything perfectly.  It’s truly just been this year that I realized two things: 1) that the Lord never intended for me to handle life alone – He wants me to lean on Him, and 2) He never expected perfection of me – I can never be perfect while in this mortal body.  After crying and praying for these kids and my weakness, I was comforted by the reminder that I don’t have to know everything, I don’t have to take care of everyone, and I certainly don’t have to bear all of the needs of these people on my shoulders - only the Lord can do that.  I went to bed early, which I knew would help me, too.  One of my teachers from college used to say, “Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is go to bed!”  Amen to that!

Monday, August 6, 2012 Panama

This was certainly a day of ups and downs!  The clinic where we are to work this week is about 30 minutes down the road, past the Chiquita Banana plantations.  It’s interesting to see the bananas being conveyed from the farms to the processing area.  The conveyor belts run alongside the road, and it’s all motorized. The stalks of bananas (still pretty green) are suspended from hooks and brought to an area where they are broken off the stalk and placed in washbasins.  We didn’t get to see what happens after the washbasins, so I’m not sure what else is done to them, but they told us they find lots of tarantulas among the bunches of bananas.  Yuck!

So today, we arrived at the clinic only to find that the clinic is already occupied with workers and patients.  At first we tried to set up in this facility but realized quickly that this wasn’t going to work – two separate teams trying to see patients in the same space; one team charging a fee and the other team not. Evidently the expectation was that the clinic would not be operational this week, as in the regular staff had the week off and we could use the facility.  Obviously a mix up somewhere, but as Bradley tells us ahead of time – be fluid; flexible is too rigid.  So, after the great excitement of thinking that we were going to work in actual exam rooms with air conditioning came the great let down that we were going to be working under a corrugated steel roof with a cement floor – and that’s it.  There was a stage type area with a wall, but otherwise it was totally open.  And the wall, unfortunately, was being used as a public urinal, which made for some strong odors in that heat and humidity.  Sorry if that grosses some of you out – not the intention at all, but it is reality.

I’m not in on the ‘what do we do next’ talks, but the next thing I saw was that people were arriving with chairs, and specifically, real furniture like a couch and upholstered chairs.  We had met a lady last night at the hotel, and I didn’t have a clue who she was or why she was meeting us, but it turns out she is a pastor’s wife.  Her name is Mariela (that’s a phonetic spelling), and she was raised in Changuinola.  I don’t know how she got saved, but for the last 14 years she has been praying that the Lord would provide for a church to be started here.  In her eyes we were a part of the answer to her prayers.  The other part came three months ago when the Lord brought Juan Robles and his family here as missionaries.  From what I understood, Pastor Robles is a Mexican national that somehow got to Oakland, CA as a kid.  He got involved in the gangs, with all the tattoos to show it, and did something that landed him in prison for 2.5 years.  When he got out he was deported back to Mexico and stripped of his US citizenship, but somewhere in there the Lord opened his eyes to the gospel.  After getting saved he attended a Bible institute in Mexico, and the Lord called him as a missionary to Panama.  I was very impressed at his humility and yet his boldness in witnessing.  Mariela’s prayer was that the Lord would use us to bring contacts for Pastor Robles to follow up and build the church.  That’s our prayer, too!  Mariela’s husband pastors a church in the mountains of Costa Rica, the border being about 20 minutes from our hotel.  He was gone all week at meetings at his church, so we didn’t get to meet him, but Mariela labored with us, acting as soul winner and children’s worker.  It was from her house that most of the furniture came. 

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, but many of the patients we saw had infectious skin diseases that, generally speaking, are a result of poor hygiene.  Many were coming from the surrounding mountains – indigenous folks from the Nobe Indian people group.  As in all cultures, there is type casting, and these folks are reputed as being lazy and ungrateful, yet Mariela showed absolutely no disdain for these patients.  I was incredibly humbled and honored to be in the presence of this woman that would offer her own furniture for clinic use.  She was absolutely thrilled each day to see this all coming to fruition.   

We needed more seating areas, so we pulled the seats out of one of the vans to use as provider benches, then parked the vans near the ‘stage’ where we could use this space for the pharmacy.  A couple of tables appeared and then patients started drifting in.  Voila – a clinic! 

It was obvious that this was a very needy area.  We saw some of the sickest kids I’ve seen on any of these trips so far.  I heard that a 26 day old baby was sent to the local hospital in respiratory distress, and I know I saw two children of whom I was convinced that they had pneumonia (at least as convinced as can be without a chest x-ray).  We provided them with oral antibiotics, but until we were able to find some 110 electrical current, we weren’t able to use our nebulizer machine.  I could only pray their moms would bring them back for rechecks later in the week.  The church in David sent some of their members down for the week to act as soul winners, and it was a joy to see their fervor. I believe we saw about 300 patients that first day, not sure how many were saved.  Great team spirit – I don’t remember hearing one complaint!

We closed up shop around 5 pm, went back to the hotel to take showers and then had Chinese for dinner.  Never thought about having Chinese food in Central America, but I remember having it in Uganda several years ago and found it to be delicious!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

This morning we attended the church pastored by Pastor Willis.  The congregation is so large that they have 2 Sunday school services and 2 preaching services in the morning.  I chose to go to the earlier services.  Pastor Bradley preached, so I was able to understand the message, and the words to the songs were projected on the wall, so I was able to follow the music.  Their church is also known for their strumming guitars.  From what I’ve heard they even made a CD, but we didn’t get to hear them today.  I was a little disappointed, but enjoyed the music nonetheless.  For me, the hard part of going to church in these other countries is that I don’t understand the messages and then my mind wanders all over.  I do have an iPod with over 400 sermons loaded on it, so I can at least listen to preaching after the church services.  PTL for technology!

We visited the nursery briefly, and I thought it quite clever that they string small hammocks across the cribs so that they can swing two babies per crib instead of just having the baby lying in a crib.  Wow – there was some volume coming out of those lungs!  If they can train those voices they’re going to have quite the choir in the next 15 years or so.

I also noticed that they have three mission boards on the wall listing all the missionaries whom they support (not just in Panama but all around the world), and a faith-promise commitment poster.  The Lord’s plan for getting out the gospel is so effective!  I love seeing it applied all over the world.

After church I went back to the hotel and packed, and also helped pack meds for the feeding centers. We loaded everything up for our long drive to Chanquinola this afternoon.  I’m not sure it was supposed to be as long as it was, but it took us about 5.5 hours to get there.  Along the way we stopped at a little coffee house and got drinks, made a couple of bathroom breaks.  One break was at a bus station where we had the opportunity to pass out tracts.  Our route went over a mountain range, which cooled things down considerably, and the roads had lots of curves.  We had been warned to prepare for carsickness, but thankfully that wasn’t an issue for anyone. 

It was about 8:30 pm when we unloaded the vans at the hotel, which was located in a strip mall.  There was also a Pio Pio (a fast food chicken restaurant), a Chinese and an Italian restaurant, and an incredibly modern grocery store.  When I say modern, I mean much nicer than many of the stores in the States; the size of a large warehouse, a bakery, a deli, a meat market, open 24/7 and all very clean.  And the prices were great! I’d walk over to the grocery store each morning to get yogurt for breakfast and water for the day.  Panama uses the US dollar for their currency, so that made things even easier.

The hotel was definitely more along the lines of what I would expect for a mission trip.  It was clean and sometimes had hot water, had A/C, and the beds were mattresses on a simple frame.  Of course, it’s always a bonus to have Internet, too.  J  The proprietor is Chinese, and she informed us there is a large Chinese population in that area.  Who would’ve thought? 

Ashley was still stuck with me, but it sure seemed a good match in my opinion!