The last day of clinic – woohoo! Don’t get me wrong – I have loved meeting these folks and serving them, but I am flat wore out. Everyone has been so expressive of their gratitude, which just makes it even more enjoyable to serve them. Again, we had folks waiting when we arrived this morning, but thankfully not like yesterday. The morning went by fast, but not at a grueling pace.
At lunch time it seemed the whole place cleared out
today. In fact, we weren’t even breaking
in shifts – we were just told to head for lunch when it was convenient. The provider room cleared out for the most
part, and Nola and I stood up to go get our lunches when Nola stopped me. She told me she just kept thinking about what
I had told her about being saved and that she wasn’t sure that she had ever put
her trust in Christ to pay her sin debt.
She wanted to know if I would help her get this settled. GLORY!!!
I was thrilled to sit down with her, go over the plan of salvation
again, let her ask any questions and then invite her to pray to accept Christ
as Savior. What an incredible joy! God is so very faithful! Here is an American lady that left her
country to live in another, and while living there the Lord gives her
understanding of her need and she gets saved in her host country. What an awesome God I get to serve!
The rest of the day went smoothly. Most of the illnesses we treat are not that
complicated but reveal a lack of knowledge or a lack of funds for
medicines. Arthritis, back pain,
parasites, dehydration, upper respiratory infections and ear infections –
typical stuff that would be seen at a doctor’s office. Sometimes it’s a new mom that isn’t sure how
to keep their baby healthy, or isn’t sure what’s normal for a baby. Not that I’m all that skilled in baby stuff,
but it’s fun to hold the newborns (I saw several babies less than a month old),
and I’m actually pretty good at getting them to quit crying. One of the kids I saw is a little girl about
four years old that was born with cleft lip and palate. Her face is quite disfigured, but definitely
not her personality. She likes getting
her picture taken, and she poses without any coaching. I’m not sure that she’s afraid of anyone, but
ran from team member to team member to give hugs. Nola told me that her cleft lip was repaired
by another medical team from the States, Operation Smile, but the palate
remained open, meaning that much of the roof of her mouth was missing and open
to her nasal cavities. Her teeth were
all rotted, and her mom was bringing her because of teeth pain. I wish I could have helped, but could only
tell her she needed to see a dentist.
Nola and I also saw several deaf students. Of course, they all know her from the school,
so they knew to come to our station. I
know very little sign, but I had a friend who was deaf, and my home church has
a deaf ministry, so I’ve been around it a little, at least enough to recognize
what I consider to be ‘beautiful sign’ – sign that is so clear and articulate
(if I can use that word about an unspoken language) even a hearing person can
understand. Nola’s sign was very good, but we treated a young deaf man that had
absolutely beautiful sign. I recorded
Pastor Henderson as he talked with Enoch through Nola about salvation. Enoch gave a testimony of having been saved
2.5 years ago and was wearing a ‘salvation colors’ bracelet. I’ve gone back a couple times to watch that
video and show it to others just because Enoch’s sign was so impressive.
After treating every one that came (they don’t turn away
anyone), we cleaned up our stations and prepared for evening services. Pastor Henderson, who in my opinion has a
tremendous voice, led the English speakers in singing hymns of praise in
gratitude for what the Lord had done this week.
I love singing, and I love praising the Lord! We sang several very familiar songs and then
set up the chairs for church services. I
was blessed when the song services started and the Spanish speaking folks sang
the very songs we had just finished singing. I can’t wait until we sing His
praises together in Heaven in a tongue that we all understand. What a thought!
During the service, I sat next to Megan, a pharmacist from
OH, who informed me I was old enough to be her mom. Really?
I’m old enough to have, not just grown children, but children that have
professions and marriages and children of their own?? So the person doing the preaching does not
speak English and one of the bi-lingual team members was going to interpret for
him. Unfortunately, the poor guy got
really nervous and he couldn’t think straight in both languages. Bradley decided to just let the guy preach in
Spanish and those of us that didn’t understand would just have to sit there and
pretend we understood. The fact of the
matter is that I was quite surprised at just how much I did understand. I find the French and the Spanish to have a
lot of similarities. But at that point,
it didn’t matter if I understood. As if
the confusion with the interpreting wasn’t enough, Megan and I were distracted
when we heard a very distinctive ‘splat’ coming from the center aisle. When we looked over, there sits a gecko about
7 inches long that had fallen from the ceiling joists, about 12 feet above
us. He wasn’t at all dead as we thought,
but instead went on the move toward the right side of the auditorium. Megan and I were sitting on the fourth row
from the front on the left, and unfortunately, the gecko was heading for the
second row on the right, where another team member – Melissa – happened to be
sitting, totally engrossed in the sermon.
Many thoughts were going through my head: What should I do? If I don’t do anything, what will the gecko
do? What will Melissa do if the gecko
runs across her foot? What would be more
disturbing to the service – me jumping up and grabbing the gecko or Melissa
jumping up screaming? Or perhaps she’ll
faint. As all these thoughts are flying
through my head in mere seconds, Megan starts punching me in the leg and
whispering/screaming at me to go get it.
I was torn about what to do when the next thing I know, the little guy
has climbed on Melissa’s shoe – front feet on her sock heading north, and back
feet on her shoe, looking like he’s about to launch himself up her leg and, by
default, up her skirt. I couldn’t wait
any longer – I jumped up without word or warning, stumbled over the person
sitting on my right, took three long strides and a swing at the gecko. Well, you can imagine Melissa’s response at
being attacked without provocation, and then the reaction of the people behind
her as the gecko went flying a couple rows back! Without saying a word, I turned around and
sat back down in my seat, and heaved
silently with laughter. I finally got
myself under control, but there was no way I could even look at Megan or anyone
else. After the service, everyone wanted
to know what that was about, and Pastor Henderson told me it was a ‘fine piece
of snake handling’. I really felt for
that poor man trying to do the preaching!
It was a much more relaxed atmosphere at the hotel, and I
think several folks stayed up late playing games and talking to their families
back in the States. The proprietor had a
Magic Jack line, so we could call the States for free – nice perk! I took a shower and went to bed, and this
time my roomies asked if they could take my picture with my eye covers on. I thought they were kidding, but I told them
it was fine with me. Sure enough, the
next morning they showed me the pic and now I’m afraid I’m going to see it
posted on Face Book or something!
No comments:
Post a Comment