Being stationed in the pharmacy, the experience Darcy and I had of the mission trip was different than what most of the team experiences. Unlike the others, we see EVERYONE who passes through clinic--not just a portion. We see each patient seen by all the other team members combined (the many physical therapists, the eye glass folks, and four to five primary care providers)...which means we have far less TIME with each person and far less chance to interact individually with any one person. In fact, our interaction primarily consists of filling the prescriptions they bring in. This trip, David, our interpreter, gave the instructions on how to take the medications to nearly everyone as the rest of us in the pharmacy scurried to gather the medications together. That is why, I don't see as much of what God is doing through the clinic at the time that it is happening. I don't generally have the one on one conversations with individuals (through a translator) that the most of the team has during the normal course of their day. Running the pharmacy is more a support position than a front line position. I get a more accurate sense of what God has been doing through us later on, as I hear storied from our fellow team members.
We are so fortunate to have such a large number of nationals who partner with us in this endeavor. Pastor Jimmie (the youth pastor of Gethsamani Baptist--son of the Pastor Renee) did much of the organization of this trip. There were many workers from the local churches in El Salvador and surrounding areas working with us throughout the clinic. I counted local workers from at least four different Baptist Churches and one Assembly of God Church. Everyone who came through the clinic was registered for future follow-up by whichever church is nearest their home. 375 people accepted Christ as their Savior while being seen at the clinic. I have seen enough of our sister churches in El Salvador to feel confident that those 375 people will be supported, loved, and discipled long term. The work in their lives has just begun.
In a country that has so much poverty, the simplest of things make a profound difference in people's lives...glasses to see with, a walker to be able to walk again... The medicines we are able to provide are just a band-aid because they are limited in quantity. Even bringing in 700 pounds of medications (as we did), still it is so little to distribute among so many. But the man who had not been able to walk for two years, since having a stroke, who now can walk on his own with his new walker--that is a life changing difference! The child who receives glasses and can finally see clearly again--that is a life changing difference! Dr. Brian Neely told me about a 14 year old girl he saw in clinic Tuesday (the day we were at Ayutuxtepeque). She came in by herself and explained through the translators that she wanted to be seen by a doctor because she had passed out three time in the past year. Dr. Neely examined her and found that she had a mass pressing on her carotid artery. This explained the times she had lost consciousness, as the pressure on that artery was sometimes depriving her brain of needed blood flow. Left untreated, she was at very high risk for having a massive stroke in the near future. Dr. Neely asked the child to go home and get her mother and bring her mother in to talk with him. When the mother came, she said she had taken her child to a doctor when she had passed out, but that they had not found anything wrong with her. Dr. Neely wrote out in detail what the local doctors needed to look for (what he had found was fairly subtle and could have been easily missed during previous exams) and wrote down his personal cell phone number, asking the doctor to call him if he had any questions. He gave this to the child's mom, and stressed the importance to her of having her child followed up with local doctors immediately. The mother asked many questions and appeared to comprehend the severity of the situation. That child's contact with our simple medical clinic may have saved her life....though we will probably never know the final outcome.
We are there so briefly. What we can do is so limited...yet, for some of the people we see, it will be their only chance ever to see a doctor. The clinic draws the crowds. Then the local church members do the real work...speaking one on one with each person as they wait in the lines...telling them about Jesus and giving them the chance to ask questions.
We saw a total of 1,994 people during the four days we held clinic. 375 of those accepted Christ as their Savior.
I want to thank each one of you who shared with us in this ministry, by making it possible for us to purchase our ticket to El Salvador. Thank you.
(Darcy riding to the airport in style...in the backseat of a police truck!)
(Jacob, Carlos, and David--David was our translator in the pharmacy!)
(Juan and Darcy)
Taty, Jacob, Darcy, and Karla.
(This last picture was copied from Karla Villatoro's facebook photo album.)
Our translators always become such good friends...it is heartbreaking to leave.
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