Saturday, July 23, 2005

“Triage is ready. Your first two patients are right here.” And so start the clinics at San Fernando on Saturday morning. The preparation of weeks, months, indeed, a year, all come to this moment as the medical team, the prayer team, and the support teams are ready. The prayers of the people preceded them to Ecuador , and there is a confidence in the team that reflects their trust in God .

The ICMO team move into action in an organized manner, the result of several years of practice and a great deal of planning. In the triage tent, the first point of contact for the villagers is the nursing corps. Peggy Miller, Nichole Welch, and Lala McMullen are assisted by Keith Owens; John Paul Monge, from the church, serves as their translator. Both Peggy and Lala have served on medical mission trips before, and Nichole Welch came from California to serve on the ICMO Ecuador team. Nichole's dedication to the Lord and her desire to serve is perhaps best exemplified by her willingness to join the Ecuador trip just weeks after her honeymoon!

In triage, the nurses organize the patients by giving them numbers; as the patients come to the triage tent, the nurses interview them and check their vital signs. In the midst of a constant stream of distractions, the nurses work with composure and compassion. During the day, their tent is a prime location for several dogs that come seeking the shade. They try to send the dogs off, but the battle is never won. Peggy works with an glucometer that is in need of new batteries. Keith serves as the runner and general gopher for any needs of the nurses. As Lala informs a woman that her blood sugar is normal and not elevated as the she had feared, Lala is rewarded with a quick hug and kiss of gratitude. A little boy with a Sponge Bob Square Pants t-shirt comes for evaluation. He has broken his right arm several years ago, and it has not healed as hoped. Lala works with him as he shows his movement. Before the morning is over, he has passed through the prayer tent where Annetta reports that he left swinging his arm, running off to tell his friends. Meanwhile, John Paul is moving back and forth so quickly between two nurses and two patients that he starts translating English into English and Spanish into Spanish!

Truly, the triage unit is the front line of the mission; their work sets the tone for the care that the patients will receive. And by the end of the first day, the nurses and their translators are still performing their duties with loving patience.

From triage, the patients move to the clinic, a make-shift affair set up in the village school. The long classroom, perhaps 24x48 feet, is transformed into three doctor stations. Dr. Stephen Kerley is stationed against the far wall, and sits amid equipment—a cot and a sonogram machine. Dr. Jonathan Kerley is positioned at the door with his translator and welcomes whole families into his diagnostic circle. “Stephen,” Jonathan calls, “Have you ever heard of putting breast milk in a child's ear to clear up an infection?” “Never heard of it,” Stephen replies. Dr. Jonathan's patient reports that her friend, a wet nurse, uses the remedy frequently. At the third station, Dr. Julia Richards holds a crying baby. The baby's parents, a handsome couple, provide information to Miguel, the translator, about their child. Miguel, the son-in-law of Denise and Michael Mills, our hosting missionaries (and soon-to-be a father himself), is only a bit frustrated as he struggles to clarify the breast-feeding practices of the mother to Dr. Julia.

The villagers come in family groups, and are grateful to see the medical team. While they wait in lines, their children play with the youth on the mission team. Connie Brown, a middle school teacher, plays endless rounds of counting and running games with the children.

After the patients leave the clinic, they are ushered to the center where the prayer team intercedes on their behalf. CarolMarie Smith, Gary and Penny Skeen, Annetta Crawford, Michael Shrum, and Dennis Tolar comprise the core team, but as the day progresses, they are joined by Julia Morrison, Jeremy French, Melvin and Margarita Colon, and others. Through the combined efforts of the medical team and the prayer team, the lives of many villagers are changed. We saw vision cleared up, hearing restored, and pain eliminated.  Many visitors to the prayer center also gave their hearts to Christ for the first time.  Members of the church were positioned to get their names and addresses in order to begin planting the seeds for a new church in the area.

But there was one family in particular that received blessings many times over.

A middle-aged woman in a bright turquoise shirt came into the clinic with her 81 year-old mother. The mother was bent over so badly that when she sat in a chair, her chest was on her lap. After the medical team ministered to her, the prayer team came into the clinic and prayed for her. As they prayed, they felt a sense of bondage surrounding the woman. They asked if the woman had been related to witchcraft in any way, and her daughter said that both her mother and father had been subjected to a curse. It was after the curse was pronounced that both of her parents fell into ill health. As the prayer team continued to pray with the bent woman, she renounced the power of witchcraft in her life and invited Jesus into her life. The woman expressed the desire to walk around, and as she was raised to a standing position, she was able partially straighten up and walk about the room with assistance until she tired. CarolMarie Smith felt God telling her to “soak” the woman “in love.” As she placed her hands on the woman, Lois Snow spoke to the woman and said, “When she is touching you, she is filling you with the love of Jesus Christ which will help heal you.”

Meanwhile, the woman's husband was in triage, and when he had made his way through the clinic and to the prayer tent, he too expressed the desire to yield his life to Christ. But the family's transformation was not yet complete.

On her way to the pharmacy to get her mother's medicine, the daughter stopped in the prayer center. She had recently had surgery for thyroid cancer and is scheduled to return to her surgeon on August 15. As Penny Skeen placed her hands on the daughter, Penny felt a surge of anointing power. Penny said later, “I just know that when I put my hand on her, I felt the power of God and that she is healed. I think she knows the power of God healed her.” Melvin Colon joined the circle of prayer and asked that God might provide a witness to His power through the testimony of the doctors when the daughter returns for her checkup in August. The daughter prayed with the group and invited Christ into her life. Melvin says that the woman left the tent with a sense of peace about the event.

There was much rejoicing amongst the ministry teams as they witnessed the transformation of the woman and her aged parents.

The prayer team turned to one of their own when a young man of the church who accompanied the mission team to the village was delivered from the powers of sin that were encircling him. Alejandro was praying with the prayer team for a young man who was struggling with some of the same problems that he himself had struggled with before recommitting his life to Christ just one year ago. As he prayed, he felt a pressure come upon him, a hindrance to his intercession for the other young man. He felt unworthy to intercede for someone else when his own life had previously been devoted to the same sins. As he succumbed to doubt, the prayer team quickly saw that they needed to pray for Alejandro as well. Melvin prayed against the fear that had overtaken Alejandro and reminded him that God had delivered him to walk in strength and to overcome what had tempted him before. “These giants you see today, you will see no more,” he told Alejandro.

Those who have known Alejandro feel certain that God has a great work planned for him, and as Alejandro conquered another hurdle today no one doubted that God will be faithful to guard him as he continues in his journey to spiritual maturity and a life of service.

Following the clinic, members for the church came and held a worship service for those in the area.

Their praise band played, their youth drama team performed and they even brought an ethnic dance team to entertain us. 

Tomorrow we have church in the morning and then its off for a bit of shopping.