Well, where do I begin? Justin & I had decided that I would go to this medical clinic because the people were supposedly more sick than the night before. So our departure time was to be at 10:30, the earliest I have seen a departure yet. So, what does that mean? The village is a distance away and the roads are not good. By the way, 3 of the bridges were washed away in the tropical storm Agatha, and have been fixed enough for us to drive over them one vehical at a time.
I rode with Estuardo, the Guatemalan that scouts out the villages. At on point Estuardo stops the van and asks Dan if he wants to proceed down this road with the 2 wheel drive van or if he wants us all to pile in the other 2 4x4 vans becasue the next part of the road is particullary ruff. Dan said, awe we can take all three. Estuardo said OKay and when we turned the corner to go down the two track path Estuardo sighs and says Okay. I take this response as okay here's our next adventure. After much bumping and attempting to miss the holes in the dirt road we arrive at the 'school' and set up shop.
At first glance these people are dressed really well and look clean. Then I remind myself that they are wearing their best clothes and have all just taken a bath. They are attempting to present us with their best. We begin to see patients in the clinic as others are playing with the kids in the court yard. The patients are spending lots of time with Dan and YoJana which means they have lots of illness. At one point YoJana asks me to examine a young man's throat. It was extremely swollen and red. I tell Dan so he can translate for me. Dan smirks and says are you going to do surgery and take them out. I said no but they should come out. So we prescribed him some antibiotics and on this family goes. Then Dan has another situation and he asks me if I want to do exploratory surgery on an older gentleman that has 12 or so soft tissue deposits under his skin. Again I say no way, Dan quit asking me to do surgery. I take a few more blood pressures and listen to a 7 month in utero babies heart beat. I never get sick of hearing a neonates heart beat.
Then Dan shows me a beautiful women who has a lesion on the left side of her face. And says do you want to do surgery. I said this time let me go get the Doctor. A team member, Julie, is a Physicians Assistant. She says you bet, if we have the right tools we can defiently help this women. Guess what, I had packed all of that equipment right before the team had come. So we got to do a minor proceedure in the middle of a small village on a beautiful women. We pray that it doesn't get infected and that she has positive results from our human hands. The clinic saw patientes all of the way through the Jesus film and through testemonies. There was a harvest of souls on this medical clinic night. One adorable young couple came to know Christ. This couple is dealing with some medical issues and we will be following up with them in a month to see if our treatment is successful.
Our pack up and departure went really smooth. nothing was left behind that we can see. We all said a prayer and sang one song under the starry sky. God had held back the rains to allow us dryer roads and a possibility of actually getting all 3 vans out of this village. We drove for about 15 minutes and our van could not make it up the mountain. So we had to rearrange the road, move rocks, scrap off the mud and rearrange some more rocks. We also had to put chains on the vans. (Glen ~ the chains worked amazing!) After many team members getting frustrated and people not wanting to follow through, we regrouped and explained what had to happen, spirits were lifted. I realized in the middle of the dark with 35 people around me that in stressful situations the Lord fills me with a calm spirit and lets me lead by example. With much to do around us we kept plugging away and 1 hour 30 minutes later the first two vans were up the mountain. So, the team began to climb to get to the top. Half way up Dan is walking down and says, we need 15 people to come down to put weight in the van. So, back down the mountain we go. Then that van climbs right out without incident. Mind you my body is not so in shape but this night I climbed and descended that mountain a few times and yet I was not out of breath. Thank you Lord for breathing air in my lungs.
We, the 2 wheel van, did need the assist of the 4x4 one more time, but that went relitivly easily. Shortly after we were back on paved roads and on our way home. Our arrival time was 2:30 am. Safe and a great story share.
After much reflection, I realize that the souls that were brought to Christ were well worth our time and energy, even if it meant our late arrival home and sweat to get our vans up the mountain. The Great Physician can heal physical aliments and spiritual even in the already saved. The village members and I turned our eyes on Jesus!
Vicki
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