Friday, July 14, 2023
We began the week with a reflection about ministry. Jim Branch wrote, “The older I get the more I’ve come to believe that ministry is much less about what we do and much more about who we are…and being who and what God has made me to be.” So we set out to be who we are. The medical team, Miriam McAtee, Joi Lenczowski, Kathy Oleson, Kim Southam-Gerow, and JL Roop, pooled their knowledge and skills with each other to confirm certain diagnoses and then with the Honduran people as they did consultations and prescribed medications. This also happened in the dental clinic Drs. Ondina and Claire Kaugars working together.
Jane Tucker, our translator, was engaged in conversation with lots of our patients and 2 particularly cute girls introduced her to a new Spanish term, prima amigas, first cousins and best friends! The prima amigas were friends with the whole team too. Kelley Lane, a believer in lead by example, transformed deworming by giving the parents the deworming medication first so that all the children could watch them swallow the pills and then oldest to youngest child. It worked!
The pharmacy became a smooth running machine with the organizational minds of Robin Phillips and Elizabeth Sjovold as they saw the needs of the of the healthcare team before demand hit and prepackaged many needed medicines. Anna Felton, team photographer, outdid any Nat Geo photographer in energy and creativity as she sought to know her subjects.
Ace Rogers and Maddie Carpenter worked many stations with flexibility and so easily and naturally made friends with their Honduran teammates. Sarah Sanchez measured heights and weights with great exacting, but she shined while chatting in Spanish with the children while they played. JL found friends during lunch, had a proud Honduran mother watch her son recite his colors in English by looking at JL’s nail polish, and accepted a pole climbing challenge from a little buddy at the end of clinic today. Both contestants won a rousing round of applause from the Hondurans and FOBF team witnessing the contest.
Tonight we pack up our belongings and our sweet memories and hopes for the Honduran people we met and conclude with “Hasta la luego!”
~Dr. Claire Kaugers
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