Another day of trials, another day of blessings

Our weather here has been very pleasant to work in. The heat or humidity has not been a problem at all.

The construction team is able to stop for lunch and walk up the hill to the hospital to obtain their food, so we have not had any problems with eating our food while hungry children watch. When lunch is finished they all walk the 5 minutes back to the sight and finish the day’s work. Ralph and Art have been very busy putting in water meters that were lacking between the several houses and hospital here. This way it will be easy to tell who owes what on the water bill. We have always left the area where we stay in a better condition than when we arrived. Even though that is not the part of the mission we come for, we want everything we touch to be blessed as much as is in our power to do so. We have donated a new printer to the hospital that we brought from the states. It is up and running now and we used it this morning.

Tom was busy in the kitchen today making bread and rolls, he had been baking all day and the results were a pleasant aroma. Mary and Eileen were both in there working away also. Daisy who is in charge of the hospital kitchen makes certain that everyone in there wears a hair cap, face mask and gloves. It is a very clean and orderly kitchen.

Pastor Torres whom we worked with in Yusguare has come to help us wherever we need him. He was at the medical clinic today and in charge of crowd control. There were over 100- people lined up waiting to be seen before the staff even arrived this morning. It was a record day so far with 418-patients. One particular case was especially sad. An 18-year-old girl came in with an extremely deformed and infected leg from the knee down. It was severely pitted and scarred with infections that have been going on for 8 years. She received a bite from a poisonous snake local to here when she was 8-years old and she has never been able to recover from it. Dr. Roy cleaned out some of the infection and removed lots of dead skin and bandaged her up and asked her to come back on Thursday. Our doctors are going to recommend she have the leg amputated. The poor girl has been in severe pain for half of her life because of this bite and the look of the leg is so repulsive that she would certainly find a prosthetic leg to both look and feel more favorable to her.

The medical clinic is being held in an Adventist church about 10 minutes by bus from here and is fitting our building needs perfectly. Walking in to through the front door brings you to Bob W. who is taking registration and doing triage along Delores K. Next to them is where they go to receive the eye exam and glasses. Behind that area is the dental clinic where Dr. Mark and Dr. Ky are busy pulling teeth with the help of Carol and one of our visiting missionaries. That is all in the main part of the church. In the next room, which would be the Sabbath – schoolrooms are set up to be 3 private exam rooms. Then farther on down the aisle is the pharmacy where Melissa hands out the medicine, talking in Spanish as if it were her native tongue. I have mentioned each year how the Lord has given the gift of tongues to her and she has no problem understanding or speaking the language right from the start! Tresa Y, Treden R. and Lynn P. were in there assisting her.

After picking up the medical team tonight we pulled into the hospital parking lot and found Julie washing things in a bucket and crying. She was trying to hold back the tears and fighting the compulsion to scream. She was so incredibly upset. We were finally able to find out what the problem was. She had gone down to the orphanage to cut the children’s hair. Every one of them was infested with lice and at each stroke and parting by the comb these lice would scurry across the child’s head by the hundreds. Each and every child were just crawling with bugs and it was a revolting situation, so too was watching the children picking bugs off of each others heads. Knowing that she was exposing herself to this and that so many of us had held these helpless little children so close to our bodies was enough to upset anyone. When she told the woman in charge that all the children had lice the woman just responded by nodding her head and saying se. There really isn’t much they can do under these circumstances I suppose, with so many children in close quarters. Most likely they don’t even have hot water to wash the bedding with. By the time you were to finish washing the lice off the last child and their bedding it would have started all over again. This reminds me so much of how we really are. Crawling with the sin of the world, and because some of us are better off financially we are able to wash and spray and color and perfume so as nothing on the outside looks or smells of the sin that infects us all. Because we are able to hide it with lotions and oils we think we are okay, or that some are better than others. But in reality it is only a cover up. Take these things away and we are all the same… infested with sin. But no amount of filth can keep the one who loves us, from holding out His arms and pulling us to his bosom. Disinfecting us with the water that has flowed freely from his side. To each one of us He offers that cleansing stream and all we have to do is let Him hold us to His side. We are never too dirty for Him to want us there.

Today the medical clinic saw 418 patients

Dental clinic saw 73 patients and extracted more than 100 teeth

The number of patients receiving cleanings were 24

The optical clinic passed out 150 pair of glasses.

The construction team put down 380 bricks and 3 columns.

Our adult evangelism started tonight with Pastor Gary leading out, 101 people attended it. The sermon was excellent.

The children’s program also started and was attended by 65 children. The puppets went over big time, just as expected. A great program that the children enjoyed.

May your heart be at peace and may you always sit tucked under the arm of Jesus who has always loved you best. Be of good courage and faint not, we are almost home.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5

Smiles from a friend,

Jennifer Young

Mission reporter