Journal 6
Today we started with a delicious breakfast of Virginia’s homemade caramel frosted doughnuts!
After breakfast, Shirley’s devotional was about how God has equipped us to feed each other intellectually, emotionally and spiritually and we should all be volunteers in God's Feeding Program.
We went to El Cerron, a community with 105 families in 98 houses with inside toilets, electricity and access to a water fountain near the community. They still cook on wood stoves. Jessica enjoyed riding on the bus with a different team member every day.
We saw 234 people with 13 referrals. Yolanda saw one family that had 2 sets of twins and another family where the mother had 1 child with a heart murmur (already in the Extended Care Program) and another child in the hospital requiring hemodialysis. Shirley referred a patient who had a large abdominal mass; Shirley gave the lady her cross. Dale saw large families spread across multiple households within the community. Sharon was thankful to be able to work with Carlos as her translator all week.
Machismo is prevalent in Hispanic culture so it was unusual to see a single father care for his child; Carlos gave this courageous young man his cross. Beverly gave her cross away to an elderly man who Michelle helped. This man had a stroke six years ago with residual weakness in the right arm. He had been supporting his paralyzed right arm for six years. Michelle and Shirley were able to get him a sling which freed up his good arm.
Peggy worked in the pharmacy and was able to clean 3 sets of ears and supervise 1 child getting her nebulizer. Nareesa was happy that she actually finished on time and didn’t delay the team for the first time all week! Larry gave his cross away to a little girl wearing a black and white dress who reminded him of his granddaughter.
Dr. Arita, Susan and Jay were busy in the dental clinic with 26 patients and 34 extractions. Jay gave his cross away to a little girl who was terrified during her extractions. Susan was impressed with Jay’s ability to comfort to scared patients.
Evelyn and Marco worked together in the eye clinic to see 32 patients. Evelyn felt the eye clinic went very smoothly today. The oldest patient they saw was 82 years old!
We saw 108 patients, dispensed 170 vitamin packets, gave 1 Vitamin A capsule, and 27 fluoride treatments. Donnie and Barrett enjoyed watching Tariq paint nails of all comers including a group of young teenage boys who all got their pinky fingernails painted bright pink! Barrett also enjoyed watching all the kids smiles.
After another great tilapia dinner, we had Shirley’s devotional about lightning bugs. A man stumbled into a lightning bug convention with a message to relax, enjoy those around you and let your light shine. We need to let our light shine so others will see God in us.
