Friday – Day 5

Today was the last day. This is a picture of our gatekeepers and me today : )

First awesome story:

We saw a lady in line today with her children. However, we remembered this lady from yesterday! Yesterday, she had stood in line for hours, but we were unable to see her and her family. We simply were running out of medicine and eye glasses. And so we rejoiced when we saw her today. We told her how sorry we were that we were unable to treat her yesterday, but how excited we were that she was here today (different clinic site) and we were able to treat her and her family.

One of the most difficult parts of banding and triaging patients is discerning when people are speaking the truth and lying about their illnesses…and yes, they lie. : (   But today, this lady’s perseverance proved her genuine need for medical attention. Although her perseverance didn’t get her any medicine sooner, it was a good reflection of an inward desire.

Second awesome story:

Our bus driver was from the Ecuador military and two of our interpreters had been talking with him about his faith all week. He has a wife with two kids (1 newborn) and is working and providing for his family. His belief in God is vague if at all. Like everybody else in Ecuador, he was raised Catholic. Granted, there are Catholics who are sincerely Christians just like there are Baptists who are sincerely Christians. However, if there is no desire to grow closer to God, love in your heart based on the love of God displayed at the cross, and no submission to Jesus as King, then you probably are not a Christian even though you claim to be Baptist, Catholic, or Pentecostal.

But our driver did not claim Christ at all. So all week, two of our interpreters were growing relationally and spiritually with our driver.

This morning, I presented our driver with a financial offering that our medical team had raised for him. We wanted to show him our appreciation for his time spent with us and our appreciation for him being a man and stepping up to provide and be a presence for his family. We wanted to love him just like God has loved us…by giving. After we prayed with him, he went around and hugged each of our necks and thanked us for our gift. I have been to Ecuador for 10 years now and have never seen a driver react this way toward the financial gift at the end of the week. His appreciation was so genuine…and it gets better…

Tonight, our driver showed up at the Crusade looking for one of the interpreters who had befriended him all week! Our entire missionary team (180 ppl) blocks off a street in one of the communities we have been ministering in and basically have a huge outdoor church service where Jesus is exalted and the gospel is preached.Between 500 and 1,000 people show up. And tonight, our driver was there! Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the interpreter that he was looking for, but we received some contact info to pass off to our interpreter.

We are praying for our driver’s salvation and for Jesus’ Kingdom to spread to one more heart.

 

Thursday – Day 4

Haha, this is a candid shot w/ my dear friend and pharmacy student Chris.

My job at the clinic entails banding the patients outside in line with purple and gray hospital bands. The rest of my day, I am running between stations at the clinic ensuring that all of my team is satisfied and guarding traffic flow at the main gate.

This is unfortunate because I rarely get to see the end product of our clinic: satisfied and happy patients who have just received medical and spiritual care.

However, today we were banding people and a man arrived at the back of the line. He insisted that he did not want to see a doctor (purple band) and only wanted eye glasses (gray band). So, we gave him a gray band and let him go ahead in the clinic in front of all the people because all he needed were glasses whereas they all needed to see a doctor.

Only about fifteen minutes later, he came out in his greased up coveralls smiling from ear to ear and telling us, “Gracias” for the glasses. Then he crossed the street, caught a bus, and headed off to work.

It got me REALLY excited to be able to immediately see how we had helped this man. Normally, people wait in line and don’t leave the clinic until several hours later. This man, however, was able to receive the care he needed in only about 15 minutes and was still able to go to work today.

Gloria Dios!

Wednesday – Day 3

Today we were in Triniteria.

Today had a different feel to it than the previous two days. On Monday, we were forced to run a short clinic so we didn’t see as many people as we’d like to. On Tuesday, we were trying to make up for Monday’s short day by working extremely hard on very little sleep. And then came today; Wednesday.

I had spoken to several people on my team on separate occasions about the lack of a spiritual attitude in our clinic. Sure we were seeing more people than we had planned on and that was great, but were we pushing back darkness?

So today, now that we are somewhat rested, and our numbers were back on track, we wanted to slow down our pace and pray for the people we treated. We made it a point to pray for every patient that we saw. Patients were prayed for by the doctor, nurse, translator, pharmacist, and eye tech’s. We wanted to push back darkness with the Light of Christ. And the strangest thing happened…

Philippians 1 is correct when it says that multiple people laboring diligently in the gospel begin to work in a unity of mind and spirit that is supernatural. Our team grew today. We didn’t grow in number, we grew in depth. When we wanted to focus on praying over our patients, it was truly for their good – not ours. However, Philippians 1 IS true! As we prayed and labored in our clinic today, we began to form and mesh into not a team of 20 individuals but to one team with one mind, one spirit, and one purpose: showing and proclaiming the gospel to those in need.

I am stoked to see what God allows us to be a part of tomorrow!

Tuesday – Day 2

Today, we went to a place called Karolina. Our clinic was in the small hut you see in the picture.

Past

Last year, one of our mobile clinics went to Karolina for two of the days. When they arrived, Karolina had not received a single drop of water for seven days. Also, it was a tent city. There were about 1,000 patients awaiting their arrival. The medical team leader’s heart broke as she knew that she could not see all of the people who were in so desperate need. Out of the 1,000 patients, only about 500 were seen.

In Karolina was one small church led by a pastor who sought out our missionary team for help.

Present

Today, all three of our mobile clinics traveled to Karolina. All three of our buses stopped at a dirt road crossroads. Me, and the other two team leaders left our buses and were met by the pastor of the church who first sought our help a year ago. However, today would be vastly different than last year.

Today, the pastor introduced us each to our guides. Our guides then took each team to their separate locations in Karolina. We were led to the three churches of this pastor in various parts of Karolina! The pastor told us how he had been training his church members for a month so that they could help us help their community most efficiently.

Today, we treated over 1200 patients between eye glasses, dental, and general medicine! The pastor of this large community was tear filled as he thanked us for our work there today.

Future

The future of Karolina looks bright, in every sense of the word. The Light of the world (Jesus) is pushing back the darkness in that community and He is doing it through His Bride, the Church. The Church, theologians will tell you, includes every believer to have ever lived and  ever will live, where as the church (little, “c”) is the local expression of the larger Church (big, “C”). All are the body of Christ. *Deep, I know…it’s a mystery (Ephesians).

It was neat today because I was a part of the little, “c” church temporarily expanding to the big, “C” Church to point a community towards King Jesus.

The future of Karolina is Hopeful because Jesus loves Karolina. We know this because God the Father sent his Son,Jesus, to earth to die for the sins of the people of Karolina so that they may know and love the One True God. We also know this because Jesus and the Spirit have sent a pastor and church planter to Karolina to be His body as King Jesus pushes back darkness and as Dr. Jesus heals people’s broken and sinful hearts.  We also know this because God is sovereign and allowed us (medical missionaries) to partner with Karolina and the local church(es) there to see their city look a little more like Heaven until Jesus brings Heaven to earth and makes His Kingdom a physical reality.

Questions:

What is your past? Does it include Jesus and your distance from Him?

What is your present? Does it include Jesus and your oneness with Him (you’re never, “kinda married”)?

What is your future? Does it include worshiping Jesus as Loving King or suffering under Jesus as Righteous Judge?

 

 

Monday – Day 1

Today was our first day at our mobile medical clinic. However, today was special. Today was special because we were escorted by the Marines, transported by the Coast Guard, and all this was organized by the Navy.  We went, with the Ecuador military, to an island in desperate need of medical care and the gospel. Two of our teams went (my team being one of them).

We rode on the Coast Guard’s Cutter (not our actual boat in picture above – haven’t uploaded pic’s yet). Once we got near the island, they sent us off in smaller boats to shore…then we walked.

The most rewarding part of my day today was at the very end. We were wrapping up and I had put a band on the Principal of the school that was hosting us to be seen by the doctor. He came to me and asked if his wife could be seen as well and I had to tell him, “No” because we were simply running out of time.

Shortly after that, he came to me with his wife and asked if his wife could have his medical band so that she could see the doctor and he would simply do without. Dang; he got me! The gospel SCREAMED from his attitude and heart.

1 Corinthians talks about how Jesus was perfect. Jesus is Holy, Jesus is Perfect, Jesus is Sinless, Jesus is Righteous and Good. But, at the cross, Jesus traded all of His perfection for all of our sin. Jesus became our sin so that we would become His righteousness.

Just as the Principal gave up his health for the sake of his wife, Jesus gave up everything at the cross for the sake of His bride, the Church.

Overcome with what Jesus has done for me, I gave the Principal an additional band so that he AND his wife could be seen.

Who is reminding you of the gospel?

Who are you reminding of the gospel?

First Harmony Family Service!

Just wanted to offer a recap of the first Harmony Family service (at least the kids’ portion).

At Harmony, we want to partner with parents and equip them to disciple their kids. During our Sunday service, we separate kids from parents and teach the kids the same thing that the pastor is teaching their parents.

This morning, we taught from Habakkuk (tough book). However, some GREAT things came from this morning.

1) the Gospel was preached.

2) 5 kids and 3 babies

3) plethora of volunteers

4) one girl raised her hand and told us how she prayed for her cat to feel better and God heard her prayer just like He heard Habakkuk’s prayer.

5) one boy told us during craft that he wasn’t a Christian. After everything he told me about how much fun he had and how he’s excited about coming back next week!

2 Ways to Sin

I’m going through Psalms right now in my personal time and first half of Psalm 106 jumped out at me.

The first thing to note is that David sings about how sinful we really are earlier in Psalm 51. Later, in Romans, Paul addresses how we don’t sin because we don’t know the Truth, but we do sin because we do know the Truth and reject Him. Our first and, “natural” default is to reject God.

This leads to the question of,

If we will always choose sin and reject God, then how do we ever choose God reject sin?

Answer: Grace. Jesus answers this in John 15 when He says that you choose God because I (Jesus) choose God and I live in you.

And finally, we come back to Psalm 106. David says that Israel sinned against God stemming from 2 sources. [Their sin actually stemmed from their evil hearts but it expressed itself through 2 "doorways"]

1. They Forgot the Past

²¹They forgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,

They forgot how God had saved them. It is almost funny to me at how Paul, when writing to the christian churches, constantly reminds them of the Gospel. Before Paul gives them ANY practical advise or comment, He always begins with the Gospel – their past and ours.

How often do you forget the Gospel? I forget that Jesus, God, came to earth and lived the perfect life. Jesus fulfilled EVERY command where I had failed miserably. Then, at the cross, Jesus exchanged His perfection for my sinfulness. He exchanged His wholeness for my brokenness. And finally, Jesus rose from the grave, defeating death, so that I never had to be separated from the love of God as He was on the cross. How often I forget this powerful Truth.

When we forget the Gospel, we become self righteous as we try to earn favor with God. Or, we become hopelessly lonely as we forget how near and how much the love of God is for us. This opens the door for our hearts to reject God and lead us to sin.

2. They denied their future

²⁴Then they despised the pleasant land,
having no faith in his promise.

They did not believe that God was a good and loving God. And it is easy not to believe that when you forget how Good and Loving He was at the cross. But anyway, Paul addresses OUR future in Ephesians 1.

When I sin, it is partly because I do not believe in my inheritance that Christ has purchased for me at the cross. I do not believe that God is good and loving and wants my joy to be complete. However, my joy will ONLY be complete once it is founded in Christ. God knows this and I short myself whenever I settle for anything less than Christ for my joy.

So, I encourage you to:

Remember your past & believe your future!