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!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Today we went to a local Baptist church, Iglesia Bautista Biblica Betel, and set up a clinic for this church family and their guests.  Before we left the hotel, however, I walked around the outside to see the plants and vegetation.  There were two trees with fruit of some kind, so I took pictures and then went inside to ask the staff what they were called. The one was yellow, and it looked like it had been cut in half before it finished growing.  The trunk of that tree had thorny spikes all over it.  The staff told me this fruit was called ‘corona de Cristo’, the crown of Christ.  I call it fruit for lack of a better term, but they said it was inedible.  The other fruit they called ‘nuney’ fruit – of course, I haven’t a clue if I’m spelling that right or not.  This fruit is said to help with arthritis and rashes.  If that’s the case they need to be making a lot of nuney cream for all the rashes we saw!  I’m not really sure how to describe this fruit, other than it was green, about the size of a mango, and it had black dots all over it.  Not anything like I’ve ever seen.

It always amazes me how we can turn the oddest of locations into a clinic.  The church sanctuary was very adequate for triage and evangelism, and three of the four classrooms were well lit and adequate for provider areas and the pharmacy, but one room posed a challenge to make it useful.  There was only one light bulb hanging from the center of the room and no windows, but it had a sink and toilet – obviously a great place to have the lab and procedure area since most of our lab is collecting urine samples, and most of our procedures involve washing out ears.  We could see that outside the wall of the room was another wall on which there were more lights, so I thought I’d climb up on a chair to see if I could reach those lights.  As I said, it was kind of dark in there, and my eyes hadn’t quite adjusted, so I just about fell off the wall and the chair when a dog came lunging at me barking his fool head off!  Good night, I thought I would have a heart attack!  I must have looked like that was going through my head, too, because everyone got a good laugh out of that.  At that point, Charity said she could work with things just as they were, and I went to set up my station.  We were supposed to stay at the church all day, but by the afternoon it was evident we had seen everyone that intended to come – only 46.  But, PTL, eight of these made professions of faith! 

After the clinic we ate lunch at McDonald’s – really not something I would do in the States if given a choice – but I have to say it wasn’t bad.  I think for Ashley it was a relief to eat something familiar. Ashley helped me figure out that I had downloaded the wrong Skype app for my phone, so once I got the right app I was able to call back to the States for just two cents a minute via internet vs. my phone service provider.  Yippee!  That’s a lot of help for budget minded people J We finished counting meds, and thankfully our trunk of meds that had been left in Ohio caught up with us. 

Bed time ~ 11pm.  Have I mentioned that I prefer to go to bed early??

Friday, August 3, 2012

The hotel had quite a nice breakfast, and we were able to watch some of the Olympics while we ate.  I’m not a news hound, but I do like to keep up with the overall news in the world, so it was fun through the week to keep a medal count. 

We loaded our luggage and medical trunks in one van, and the team went in another van.  The couple that met us at the airport drove the luggage van to David, our destination for the weekend, and Pastor Willis drove us to the airport.  It was my turn to be the problem child – I forgot that I would need my passport to fly from Panama City (PC) to David, so I had left it in my luggage.  PTL, Pastor Willis was able to contact the couple, who then had to quickly get to the airport before our flight left so I could dig my luggage out of the very over stuffed van and find my passport. Ugh!  I felt like such a goof!  We decided after a few more goofy things I did that I needed a responsible adult to watch over me; Brittany got the job! 

Coming in last night, it was too dark to see the city.  This morning on the way to the airport I was amazed at how PC looked like a major US city – beautiful skyline, great roads and orderly traffic pattern, American fast food, etc.  The wealth, more than likely from tourism, was very evident here.  This was not the same airport into which we flew last night, but both airports were very modern.  The one from last night had lots of shops and restaurants – very nice! 

From PC to David we flew over beautiful countryside – lots and lots of mountains.  In the midst of these mountains we could see villages but no obvious roads.  A couple of us asked aloud how those folks will hear the gospel, but there was no one to answer.  

As soon as we arrived in David we were met by other missionaries and our team was divided into four – three to a team, and each team going with one of the missionaries to the four feeding centers operated by the church.  Feeding centers are places where children can come to get a hot meal at least twice a day.  I’m not sure how they qualify to come, but they must bring their own eating utensil and bowl.  These children and their families are also provided with transportation to church, if they wish to come. My team consisted of Ashley, Daniel and myself.  Daniel is a student at PCC, getting his masters of divinity.  He would like to work as a youth pastor, and this is his second trip with MMO; earlier this year he went to Kenya.  While Daniel acted as gate keeper – keeping the children in line and releasing one at a time to see either Ashley or myself – Jeff Jones acted as interpreter for us both.  Now there’s a job – asking medical questions for two nurses simultaneously. Good thing I’m starting to pick up a little Spanish so that I could ask a few questions myself.  Actually, when I was in college I worked on a bus route of primarily Mexican families, so that is where I learned whatever little bit of Spanish I know.  From what I gathered, each team saw about 50-60 patients at the feeding centers, so multiply that by four and already that’s over 200 patients.  None of these kids seemed too bad off – just some skin and ear issues and colds.  Jeff drove us around the neighborhood to see the housing conditions – very poor, open shacks with corrugated steel roofs and animals running in and out.  Seems like the wealth ends where the tourism stops. 

We then drove to our new hotel, Gran Hotel Nacional, to wash up and get some lunch.  Again, this was very nice hotel with absolutely delicious breakfasts each morning.  There was hot water, A/C and very comfortable beds with high thread count linens. We had pizza for lunch and everyone was amazed how good truly fresh pineapple tastes on a Hawaiian pizza! 

After lunch we all headed to the orphanage where about 20 children live with caretakers.  Again, I’m not sure how the kids qualify to come, but there are even teen mothers with their babies that don’t have a place to go.  The tiniest baby was a little boy that was born four months ago, but gestationally was only a month old, meaning that he was born three months early.  The caretakers, the best that I could tell, are volunteers that agree to live there for varying lengths of time.  One is an older lady from the States that is here for three months; another is Sarah, my interpreter for the week.  I guess that I’ll be a little transparent here, but it was difficult for me to want to love on these kids.  First off, I’m not a real ‘kid’ person – children just aren’t naturally drawn to me and vice versa.  But secondly, the kids had a lot of rashes and were dirty from playing outside.  This is one of those times I just have to ask the Lord for grace, and these little kids seemed like they were starving for affection.

We formed an assembly line with the kids – one provider looking for skin problems, another looking in ears, nose and throat, another listening to lungs and heart.  If we saw a concern we sent the child to the doc for an evaluation and scripts as needed.  It was actually a pretty efficient system!  All of these kids come to church, too, so we were able to send the needed medicines for all the children (from the feeding centers and the orphanage) to the church on Sunday. 

Back to the hotel, an hour break and now it’s time to start counting and packaging vitamins, ibuprofen and Tylenol.  We did this for almost three hours – with a smaller group it takes longer.  We interrupted that task with dinner at the hotel.  We ate on an open patio with tiki torches and a beautiful tropical ambience.  The food was all cooked over an open flame, and the service was top notch.  I had fish filet and a very tasty pasta salad with goat cheese – yum!  A hot shower, a cool room and the freshest smelling linens – wow - is this really a mission trip???

Panama, August 2-11, 2012

Medical Missions Outreach

Panama, August 2-11, 2012

Team Members: The ‘dirty dozen’, plus field missionaries – 1 medical doctor, his wife and son (Greg, Linda and Tim), 1 pastor (Bradley Edmondson), 6 nurses (Brittany, Hope, Charity, Ashley, Becky, Tammy), 1 teacher (Diane), and 1 Pensacola Christian College student (Daniel), plus 4 missionaries (Byron Willis, Jeff Jones, Buzz McQuerry, Juan Robles), interpreters and soul winners from the church in David. 

My interpreter was Sarah, a Honduran young lady that is in the Bible institute led by missionary Byron Willis.  She also works at the orphanage the church operates. 

Missionary Willis’ parents moved to Panama when he was 7 years old, so he is a second-generation missionary, is married to a Panamanian woman, has 3 kids and has taken in a 2 year old Panamanian girl.  It is more than obvious he is well beloved in his host country.  His father died a number of years ago, but his mother remains on the field supporting her husband’s former ministry.   Currently his church (which is not his father’s church – that is pastored by a national pastor) runs, among other things, four feeding centers and an orphanage.  They are raising money to build a home that would operate as both an orphanage and feeding center.  The land has been purchased and cleared.  This ministry is in David, Panama.  While we assisted at these ministries, the clinic was set up in Changuinola – a city about 5 hours drive to the northeast, across a mountain range and very near the Caribbean Sea and Costa Rican border.  The major industry is the Chiquita Banana plantations.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

My flight to Panama originated in Harrisburg, PA, then to Newark, NJ, then to Panama City.  I was the only one on the team flying out of this general area, so while the rest of the team met in Atlanta and took a Delta flight to Panama, I flew ‘solo’ and my flight arrived about an hour after them.  In Newark I had an extended layover, so I got dinner there and was surprised to find that the clerk was Haitian.  We were able to talk briefly in French, and she willingly accepted a French tract.  I’m starting to collect quite a variety of languages in my tract holder! 

From Newark to PC, I was seated next to a young couple from Toronto, Canada.  Actually, she has a Muslim background from Trinidad, and he has a United Church/Scandinavian background.  They were planning to hike through Panama, but neither of them spoke Spanish.  I like the hiking idea but not too sure about doing it in a country where I can’t speak the language!  Anyhow, the Lord opened a door to witness to them and give the gospel, for which I’m very thankful, but it was not an easy conversation.  They had lots of questions, especially about the ‘natives in the jungles’, but in the end they accepted tracts and we talked some more about where they hoped to visit.  Maybe I planted, maybe I watered – I can only pray that the Lord will allow someone else the opportunity to harvest.

When I met the team I realized I already knew half of them from other trips.  That to me is a good testimony of how well these trips are run – the fact that a lot of team members are ‘repeaters’.  Found out one of the medical trunks had been left in OH, but praise the Lord, it was delivered to us a couple days later before we really needed its contents.  We met Byron Willis and a couple from his church at the airport, and they drove us to our hotel for the night – Country Inn and Suites.  I never cease to be amazed at the American influence I see in these other countries!  After we dropped off our luggage at the hotel they offered to take us to eat, but I wasn’t hungry enough at that hour to trade food for sleep!  It was about 11pm, CST.  For some reason the bathroom door was locked, so I had to call for a maintenance man to jimmy the lock, but otherwise it was a very nice hotel, and I was even able to send an email that I had arrived. 

My roommate for the entire week was Ashley, a nurse from TN.  In fact, when she told me where she was from I recognized the name of the church and town.  Come to find out, some of the folks from the Nicaragua trip attend her church as well.  Small world!  Ashley is due to graduate in December as a nurse practitioner.  She was a great roommate, and I think the match was perfect!  While I prefer the early hours and can sleep through a lot, she prefers the evening hours and can also sleep through a lot.  To my knowledge, neither of us ever disturbed the other the entire trip.  I was very impressed that although she labeled herself as a ‘picky eater’, she never once complained about food and was willing to try new stuff – including yucca fries.  I believe they are made from yucca plants, and they kind of remind me of fried cheese sticks, but with a potato texture.  Very good!

Saturday, June 23, Travel Day

It was an early morning for everyone, but two team members were running a little late!  We no longer had the bus to take us to the airport, but we had a hotel shuttle that would seat about 15 people.  Bradley and some of the other men left at 4:30 am with all the luggage, then those who were 25 or younger were to take the 5:00 am shuttle, and everyone older than 25 the 5:30 shuttle.  Bradley left Corey to be in charge of making sure all the people made it to the airport, and at 5:30, there were still two young ladies unaccounted.  Fortunately, another lady knew their room number and knocked on the door while everyone loaded on the shuttle.  Those poor girls!  They had set the room alarm clock, asked for a wake up call and set their own clock and all three failed!  The desk clerk never called, the hotel alarm clock didn’t work, and something else happened to their clock.  They grabbed everything as was, threw some clothes over their pajamas and got on the van.  Wow – what an exciting morning for them!

The line at the airport was looonnnggg, but Bradley has so many frequent flyer miles with the airlines that he can bump people up, which he is very generous to do.  Several folks were having GI issues, and he kindly bumped them to Business Class, allowing them to be able to rest very comfortably back to Atlanta.  On the leg of the flight from Managua to Atlanta we met our friends again from the flight down, plus a mess of other Baptist folks that were ministering in Nicaragua.  Several folks from different groups had things in common so it was pretty chatty back in Economy Class.  Bradley bumped me to Economy Plus, for which I was very grateful!  The chatter kind of spilled over to the flight crew and the atmosphere on the flight was fun.  That isn’t always the case, but these guys from GA were jokingly giving this petite little flight attendant from Detroit fits for giving them pretzels instead of cookies, esp. when the male attendant found cookies for them.  The next thing you know the female attendant walked to the front of our section and announced that she only gave ‘wings’ to her favorite passengers – and then proceeded to pass them out to everyone but these guys.  What a hoot! 

When we got to Atlanta, we gathered our luggage and got through customs.  Then it was time to say goodbye and time for everyone to catch their flights to their respective homes.  It was sad saying goodbye, but at the same time I have new friends all over the country and there’s no telling when the Lord will allow our paths to cross again.  My flight out of Atlanta was delayed for a couple hours, but I got to pass out the remainder of my tracts (except the French tracts) and I got to meet a couple soldiers and their dogs heading to Afghanistan.  The one guy, Michael, is a pastor’s son, and I promised I’d pray for him and his dog Rambo.  The other soldier is Rudolpho and his dog Sid.  If you think of it, please pray for these two young men to come home safely to their families, and that Michael would be a godly example to his fellow soldiers.  He gave me the impression that he’s a godly young man.  Praise the Lord for our soldiers – I would buy everyone of them a meal if I had the money. 

Next trip… Honduras, July 20-28.  Please pray!  

Friday, June 22, Tourist Day

The morning for me started out the same as every other morning this week – birds singing, getting up early and spending some time in prayer.  But somewhere toward the end of my prayer time I heard a not so good sound outside of our cabin and a little smell of smoke.  The power went out – but hey, no big deal, I kind of got use to that in Africa – so I just simply thanked the Lord (a habit I got into in Africa when the power went out so that I didn’t complain or groan) and continued praying.  But then the sounds of people running and hollering in Spanish made me decide maybe I should look out the window and see what was happening. Evidently a fuse box, or something similar, caught on fire and they were busy putting it out.  PTL the itinerary was to leave this morning, although the power did come back within an hour or so.

Bradley always tries to give the team one day of sightseeing and souvenir shopping, so today was that day.  After breakfast, we all piled into the bus and headed to Managua – about 2.5 hours.  Along the way we heard some more not so good sounds but kept driving.  When we arrived at the hotel, we unloaded our luggage and prepared to go to Granada, where we would go boating.  When we came back out to the bus I was surprised to see people under it – evidently that noise we heard had something to do with the tire or suspension or something important under there.  So instead, there was a mall next door and we walked over there.  I was quite surprised how nice it was – pretty much like a mall in the States, with a huge food court.  There were probably 25 different restaurants – American places like Burger King as well as local places that sold Hispanic food like tacos and burritos.  Myself and 3 others passed out tracts while we were waiting for our food, and I don’t think one person turned us down.  I brought 100 with me and gave them all away.  Rats – I should have brought 200! 

After lunch, the bus was ready for travel again so we all loaded up for another hour drive.  Bradley arranged for our group to go out on 3 tour boats to ride through some waterways where there are a bunch of privately owned islands – around 360.  The boats are open with about a dozen seats each and a guy in the back that controlled the rudder.  He told us about the different islands, but in particular we went to Monkey Island – a very small island with about 4 mango trees and a half-dozen or so white-faced monkeys.  While in their natural environment they would eat mangos, it’s obvious they are quite accustomed to eating tourist food because I thought they were fixing to jump in the boats with us.  That was a lot of fun, and I found myself telling the Lord thanks.  In all my life I would have never guessed that I’d ever be riding around in a boat in Central America looking at monkeys.  Especially with 3 boat loads of new friends!  There certainly are a lot of blessings in serving the Lord.

From there we did some souvenir shopping, and near the shops was a caldera.  I didn’t know it, but many of the islands of Nicaragua were formed by erupting volcanoes and here was another volcano that had erupted, leaving only this caldera.  If you’ve ever seen Crater Lake this looked a lot like that, only it didn’t have the beautiful blue water that Crater Lake has.  I’m not much of a shopper, but I wanted to get coffee for some good friends of mine, so after I got the coffee I went back to the bus.  I enjoyed a few minutes with the Lord, just thankful for all that He’s allowed me to do. 

At the hotel I shared the room with Lydia, a young lady from one of my supporting churches, and Sandra, a nursing student at Bob Jones University and MK (missionary kid) from Costa Rica.  Both are delightful young ladies with good spirits and servants hearts.  They spent most of the evening with other team members while I enjoyed a hot shower and some time alone.  This hotel had air conditioning, which was much appreciated, in that we were no longer in the mountains.  Praise the Lord for safe travels and good people with whom I may share these activities!

Thursday, June 21, Day Four

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!