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.