Medical Team to West African nation 23 July-1 Aug 2010 Executive Summary:
- Praise for safety and team harmony
- Praise for all the patients evaluated
- Praise for the children’s ministry
- Praise for the growth of the local church
- Praise for the grace and love of Jesus for us
Dearest Family and Friends, To love God is to glorify Him; to love Jesus is to know Him; to love the Holy Spirit is to obey Him! Our team was privileged to bring glory to God by serving in a war-torn West African nation. Due to the sensitive nature of the region where we worked, this account will be brief and somewhat obscure to protect the church and the people who live there. Because it was my first visit to this country, I helped procure medications and supplies and worked under the primary leadership of Dr. Joe. His family had served in this country for ten years, but were emergently evacuated ten years ago back to the States. For them, this trip was a wonderful reunion with Kingdom family members from over ten years ago. They certainly embraced this very special time together! Many girls they had known are now married and most have children. The boys they knew are now grown men and leaders in their communities and churches. What a testimony to the seeds they planted years ago that have now matured into the present church and fellowship! The team members consisted of Dr. Joe, his wife, a daughter and her husband, and a son. Other participants were a third year medical resident, a second year medical student, a pediatric nurse, a physician assistant who had also served in the country for several years, and me. We were greeted by the rain, heat, and humidity of summertime in Africa, yet, it was actually their coolest time of the year! Unloading medicines, supplies, and a ton of children’s ministry materials, the evenings were very preoccupied with preparing for the events of the next day, including my readying two Gospel balloon presentations for each day! The patients seen did not present huge medical dilemmas for us, though we did see a handful who were quite ill and whom we promptly sent to nearby clinics or hospitals for further testing and treatment. I enjoyed working with Dr. Joe and the resident since they practiced without the use of all the testing equipment I usually use on my teams. It was a refreshing challenge to evaluate, diagnose, and treat using medical skills acquired from years of medical practice. I still had all of my usual equipment and tests, but the choice was to spend the time to do the testing or simply to see, evaluate, and treat the patients. It was nice that we were well supplied with several medical treatment options. Working with Dr. Joe’s family and hearing of their work in this country during years of conflict gave me new appreciation for the sacrifices of those who go abroad long term to share the Gospel message. The cost of following Jesus Christ was made more evident by the testimony of the pastors of the churches in which we worked during the week. Two of the leading pastors of this area were raised as M****ms, and became Christians, much to the detriment of their earthly relationships with families and community. They subsequently had to move into areas that are more tolerant of their conversions. We spent two days each in two of the churches located in poorer communities of the city, and one day in a much more affluent area of town. Our team was not only dedicated to medical care. The children’s ministry was provided by almost half of our team. Dr. Joe’s wife and family were well supplied with ministry and play equipment. The churches where we held the clinics had advertised “Presents for Children!” which led to the evangelism team members being swamped with children who wanted to play and receive presents. Despite government warnings of potentially dangerous conflicts, our team did not encounter anything approaching a violent situation. That is, not until Dr. Joe’s wife pulled out balloons and toys to give away did we witness an onslaught of children rushing toward her! Just like the way Jesus must have received little children onto His lap, these children were truly embraced by Dr. Joe’s wife and her evangelism team. Using a variety of supplies and equipment, including balloons, the Gospel of Jesus’ love for us was definitely presented to hundreds of children and adults who also listened attentively to the numerous presentations. For me, one of the most memorable and precious moments I hold of this trip occurred on the last day of clinic, right below Dr. Joe’s second story patient area. His daughter was surrounded by children and adults as she told stories, including the Gospel story. Dr. Joe said that some of the bubbles she blew during play time were carried up and into his clinic space. Her brother watched part of her Gospel presentation, too. Most of us also heard some of her testimony when she used the Gospel balloon presentation. The opening of the story uses a yellow balloon church representing Heaven, God’s kingdom. The second color piece in this story is a black snake signifying sin. When she used the red sword that symbolizes the saving blood of Jesus, she then loudly stomped on the snake, producing an ear-piercing pop. The noise was audible throughout the building, as well as the squeals of fright mixed with laughter from her audience. This brought a lot of people to hear the rest of the story. She talked about the purity that white represents when Jesus’ death took away the darkness of sin from our lives. With the darkness gone, we are now clean before God, and we can grow in “green” lusciousness to know God’s grace and knowledge through Jesus Christ. The final color stands for royalty and is depicted by a purple balloon crown topped with gems as the Crown of Jesus who is King of kings and Lord of lords. No longer is Jesus bleeding and in pain on the cross, but He is risen as the ruler King in Heaven. This young woman was passionate as her words and open arms demonstrated the enormity of Jesus’ love. It was an appropriate image to remember an inspiring trip. Please keep in prayer the work that is being done around the world to further God’s Kingdom and the return of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Blessings, Doreen
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Medical Missions Team to Southeast Asia 21 Jan-7 Feb 2010
Executive Summary:
--Caring for church members
--Counting our blessings amid difficulties
--Historical perspective
--Special church visit
--Bible as epic love story
Dearest Family and Friends,
Our team has returned safely from Myanmar. On behalf of the team members, I want to thank you for all of your prayers for the church and our safety. We are very excited about the various avenues of ministry that have been opening through the church and the prospects for future outreach into new areas. We are hopeful that our gracious Lord will continue to allow teams to enter and experience these ministry opportunities with the wonderful Christian brothers and sisters of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of *** .
The Medicine
The medical aspect of a mission trip is certainly not more important than the spiritual, but helping preserve the health and lives of the national church leaders and members is one of the ways that a medical team can assist in the church’s outreach ministry.
We’ve not had a medical generalist on the team since I started supplying an entire year’s worth of medicines to those with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension. On this team, we were blessed with the knowledge and expertise of Butch for consultation on the treatment of these disease entities. It was reassuring for both Kim and me to have a Family Practice doctor. Butch knows the nuances of particular medications, and helped with incremental adjustments to optimize treatment regimens.
We held our clinics at a government-run hotel. Interestingly, some of the new church members who helped at triage are government workers, which seemed to add more legitimacy to our clinics in the eyes of the public, as well as grant approval to our obviously Christian clinics. We were able to add to our list of people with chronic medical conditions, several of whom we treated in years past, and witness again to them of God’s love through these clinics.
On these repeat visits, we saw several patients whom we’ve seen before. Of note, we met again a young 24 year old man who has a very serious congenital heart problem. Our encounter with this young man two years ago yielded many prayers from our team as we thought his heart condition would be quickly terminal. We did not think he’d live this long. Yet, on this visit, he was miraculously able to climb the stairs to the second story of the clinic area and tell us that since our last visit, he has gotten married! Zoe remembered that he had asked two years ago if he would be able to get married. Objectively, his pulse ox was 77% on room air, and his hemoglobin was 22 (measuring a hematocrit of about 66)! He was visibly short of breath at rest with blue-tinged cyanotic lips, and his fingernails demonstrated the most severe case of “clubbing” that I had ever seen. Yet, he appeared less ill than his numbers indicated, and was obviously thankful to have made it to our clinic again. Though we were unable to give him any medical assistance, our prayers for healing will have to suffice. Above all this, we know that he is a believer in Jesus as his Savior. Though his present body will not last much longer, his eternal life in Christ is promised with a new and everlasting body with which to worship God.
In another town, our team saw a 10 year old male who was hardly recognizable from last year. When he was seen last year, we delivered him to the hospital near death. Since recovery, this young man has come to realize his eternal need for Jesus Christ as his Savior and has asked Jesus into his life, having his sins forgiven before God. He appeared quite happy to be with us, and has been a powerful witness to his family.
When procuring meds for these medical teams, invariably, there may be some supplies or meds that we may be missing or run short of. This year, a package containing topicals for scabies did not make it to a team member. Though there is a cheap and effective concoction of Vaseline and sulfur that can be easily made which would serve the purpose, we were without any such meds on hand. Some years, as Kim and I noted, our team has been inundated with patients, especially children, with scabies, seeing almost every other patient with an itchy skin rash. This year, amazingly enough, we did not have one single case of scabies! Unbelievable. I realized this wonderful situation midway into our trip, but “held my breath,” not mentioning it until the very last day. Indeed, God was gracious in this respect, providing perfectly, and withholding perfectly as well!
We were blessed again with being able to witness God’s many gifts to us, demonstrating the merciful love of Christ even as we gave gifts of medications to those who came to our clinics. It is a great way to minister in this capacity.
The Ministry
Step back and take a look with me at the development of this ministry. In fact, look back ten years to January 2001 on our group’s first medical team to this country. Dr. Tammy and Nurse Mary, both on that very first team, held clinics in the hotel where they stayed in downtown because the government would not allow them to go beyond a 4-km radius from the hotel. The following year, 2002, was my first year. We were allowed to fly to a town which is an area where persecution against Christians is particularly heavy, and again, we were restricted to a 4-km radius from the hotel where we stayed. By January 2003 we were a team of three doctors, I was on my first experience as a team leader heading back to town with considerably fewer restrictions on travel, though the governing authorities were still very aware of our whereabouts and doings. Besides being watched, even to the present day, our in-country hosts are required to provide a daily report of what we’ve done, where we’ve gone, and who we’ve been in contact with during our time there. In 2007, handing in eleven passports for visas to the Washington, D.C.-based embassy visa office never produced their authorization for our entry and the trip was cancelled two days before departure---we’ll probably never know the various reasons why we did not get them, but we also never need state that we were denied visas, either.
In the intervening years, our teams have been privileged to continue providing medical care for church members, especially those who have particularly poor access to health care because of poverty, but also because Christians face targeted persecution from the government; we minister to a lot of Christians. Hundreds of non-churched people, persecuted non-Christian groups, and villagers who have never heard of or understood who Jesus Christ, the King of all kings, is have attended our medical clinics to learn of our loving God and accept love, grace, and blessings through these clinics. We’ve been able to minister in a suburb whose population is predominantly Buddhist. A major city and township lie along the “Buddhist belt” (versus the “Bible belt” in the southern U.S.) and has one of the heaviest Buddhist concentrations in the country, apparently a bastion of the Buddhist religion. There are now at least five churches in there, where once upon a time, there were none.
Since 2006, we’ve had the consistent participation of Zoe as a Gospel presenter, basic healthcare teacher, and Bible storyteller---our “entertainment division.” These teams and, therefore, patients are particularly blessed to have someone dedicated to this most important area of ministry---presentation of God’s Word and telling of the marvelous things He has done for us through the ages using so many people. Zoe brings a beautiful set of accordion-like folding pictures, called a parabaik, to tell about Joseph’s adventures (of which copies are being produced for churches); carries another huge story book (based on friend’s, storybook) with flip-pages; and employs a multi-colored “flame” book relating events in which God has used fire to communicate and direct His people. Small healthcare handbooks are also being distributed.
This year we resumed our travel and ministry to the same places where we’ve been in the past, with the addition of one extraordinary place of worship, for me, at least. I’ve not participated on three teams to Southeast Asia over the past ten years---wasn’t part of the organization on the first trip, took off a year for language classes, and didn’t get a visa another year. During the latter two trips that I missed, the teams were able to enter and worship in a church. Year after year, I’d travel and not be able to enter because of government travel restrictions, nor have I been able to go to this church. It felt like being nominated for an award and never winning! This place apparently has very restricted entry by foreigners. How did we get in? We paid the fee to hold clinics, a hefty $50 by local standards, and our in-country host offered our free medical care to the officials. They graciously thanked us, and perhaps that allowed them to look the other way when we went for Sunday worship. Other groups, we heard, were not granted entry. A prior year’s team had made it there for worship and, in my absence, accepted a chicken for me given by some former patients! This year, I was given a chicken in person---finally got my chicken! When Butch gave the message the last Sunday, he was presented with a chicken, too. We’d never seen a bigger smile on his face!
On a somewhat related topic, Frank had preached on our first Sunday. His sermon title was “Irrespective of Circumstances, God is Always with You,” which was very apropos for this trip. Whereas Butch would have nothing to do with wearing the traditional men’s outfit, FRank received one, wore it, and even modeled the equivalent of a long wrap skirt for men. We’re just all grateful that it never fell off, as FRank had “skirted” wearing a safety pair of pants underneath in case he couldn’t keep it held up in its proper place!
Thank you for blessing my life.
Doreen
- Executive Summary:
- Safe arrival of all personnel, meds, and most supplies. PTL!
- “Executive Dinner” reaches out to medical community and “influential” of medicine in Phnom Penh
- Village clinics minister to the very poor
- Multi-level medical ministry in Phnom Penh
- Dearest Family and Friends,
I am so grateful for your committed prayers and petitions for safe travels and effective ministries. I am delighted to report that your prayers have been answered and have prepared the way for much more extensive ministries than I could have imagined—we had a very blessed trip. From the outset, we were very pleased that despite not having obtained prior customs clearance for our cargo, all of the luggage containing the precious medications and supplies arrived intact and we passed through customs without any confiscation or hassles.
Prior to starting any of the clinics we do a Gospel presentation. I was quite pleased that the field missionaries wanted to use the Gospel Balloon presentation each day of clinic. I could only wish that some of the nationals on the field would have the desire to learn this balloon presentation (hint, hint)—I’d be so delighted to teach them! Following the presentation, the interpreters would deliver short health teaching courses. By the way, most of our interpreters are medical students under the tutelage of Eda, Dale, and Christina. Eda had recruited about 12 interpreters for the week. Some of the students are Christians, but several were not, and so this week was another opportunity for our medical personnel to teach some medicine, show how American-trained physicians practice, as well as demonstrate how Christian doctors deliver the message of eternal healing through faith in Jesus.
To summarize: This Cambodia field is a multi-tiered, multi-dimensional ministry, especially from the medical perspective. Opportunities abound to evangelize and teach young medical students and exchange medical expertise with private practice physicians and professors in the academic arena. In outlying villages, ministry can come from direct patient care and outreach as well as relying on the nationals to deliver in-depth teaching and instruction when ministering to patients. We need to be encouraged by other Christians, and to be encouragers ourselves to others upon whom the Lord has given us opportunities for ministry. As we consider all the possibilities for ministry, it is so exciting to know that the foundation of all that we do has been ordained by an omniscient and omnipotent God who allowed us to do some of His work in Cambodia for His glory. Hallelujah!
- Exerpts from Doreen's latest mission report
- With a very grateful heart, I want to thank you for your generous prayers as this medical missions team served in the interior lands of a west African nation. Souls were blessed in many ways by your prayers and gifts in sending our team on this mission-the Lord be praised and glorified as I attempt to relate some of what transpired during this trip. As I've said before, and now say again, "This has to be 'one of the best all-around' missions experiences," and it was phenomenal! Many circumstances and people, including our supporters, helped produce this unique situation and experience. Thank you for your contribution.
The Ministry
The major thrust of our medical clinics is not just to respond to the medical needs of the community, but also to assist the church in local outreach, and to attract those we care for to the source of our generosity, Jesus Christ. We hope to convey kindness, compassion, and love in what we say and do as part of our message that we serve a most loving and merciful Father, who loves us more than we can imagine.
While the church on this particular mission preferred that we do mostly medical work, and that they would do most of the evangelism and ministry, the providers did offer prayer for each patient seen and several of us, via our translator, also presented the Gospel. Through the course of this week, approximately 25 people came to accept Jesus Christ as their living Savior and now proclaim Him to be their source and reason for eternal life beyond this existence. Essentially, with 25 new believers, this could be a new church plant in this community! What a glorious product of these medical clinics!
Community Health
Several of us made a visit to the local hospital to meet one of the two doctors in this area of over 100,000 people! We were quite impressed with some of the information that he shared with us on the country's community health programs. On our medical teams, we routinely give albendazole, a good general parasitic worm medicine, but he said that most of the villagers had already been treated about three months earlier. Apparently the community workers go door-to-door to distribute the medication. Treatment for worms is especially important for children. De-worming at least every six months has been shown to improve cognitive function and learning, since, obviously, reducing the worm burden shifts the nutrient supply to the growing human brain instead of increasing the worm size. Administrating Vitamin A is also an important community health project. With routine dosing of Vitamin A, many of the childhood respiratory and gastrointestinal maladies can be reduced.
One important aspect of our visit was to learn that providing or offering any type of birth control or family planning from our clinics would have been a huge mistake in relationship building! We had ordered some birth control pills, but instead received a huge shipment that could have caused a dip in their community census! Thankfully we received a lesson on cultural appropriateness prior to committing any offense!
The Medical Patients
We had an impressive array of diseases. After all, we were in Africa! Particularly terrible were some of the skin diseases and infections, exacerbated by the recent onset of rains raising the population of biting insects (including malaria-carrying mosquitoes) and therefore more opportunities for infections.
Along with many other cases, we saw schistosomiasis (parasites that invade the bladder; found mostly in young boys who have played in infested fresh water; causes severe anemia; contributes to the development of bladder cancer); H. pylori (major contributor and cause of gastritis/ulcers); osteogenesis imperfecta (an inherited disease which causes bones to be very brittle and break easily); HIV/AIDS; and more malaria (Julie's translator was diagnosed with malaria, but stoically continued to work as her interpreter!)-I've jotted down about forty different disease entities and medical conditions that we encountered during that one week.
Daily, our clinic saw some pretty impressive skin diseases. Though we were not sure of the diagnoses in several cases, they were, sadly, grotesque enough to be textbook worthy.
Numerous children had scalp fungal infections that were invariably secondarily infected with bacteria. Some had head coverings or wraps to hide not just the hair loss around these lesions but to keep the flies out and prevent them from feeding on the wounds.
Conclusion
Did I mention that this was a fabulous, fabulous team and trip? Perhaps the hardships of this trip may not be for everyone, but the challenges, plus the attitudes and commitment of the team members to share in a God-ordained ministry all contributed to making this a "perfect" medical missions experience.
As team leader for this remarkable trip, I've felt very blessed that the Lord allowed me to bring this team into this area. He certainly prepared the way in all ways with the members, the meds and supplies, the details from the field via Liz and John-we could all see His provision for us every day.
However, my perspective as a frequent member of medical teams abroad compels me to mention some points for consideration. As elated as we all were with the miraculous recoveries and healings, and not to dampen any of the amazement of how quickly the meds and supplies improved the health of our patients, but the reality exists that many of these problems will continue to exist or return. How many of the children with skin infections will get them again, especially without the regular use of simple soap and water? How long before SooHo's baby patient will crawl again on sandy ground infected with dog hookworm and probably have another tunneling skin lesion? How long before the children with eye infections get recurrences? Julie's translator will contract malaria again from another mosquito bite without proper protection. Physical illnesses will recur. These are predictable occurrences because we live in a world still infected with evil that produces pain and illness. The deepest and most important medicine we can deliver is one that penetrates and heals the soul, and gives more permanence to health than the use of medications and supplies which are all too transient in their effects. The message of saving love and healing grace, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the real crux of our medical ministry, and provides the assurance of an eternal healing.
Instead of the sprinkle of medicines for temporary comfort, we should strive to be bathed in the righteousness of Christ. In heaven we will enjoy life without pain, hearts at peace, bodies without illness-it will be eternal health and rest in Christ. But, wait, what we long for, Christ has already done for us because of his love! Through His life given up for us on the cross, we are already perfect and healed before God because Christ stands in our stead and presents us as the perfection that God had intended. What a relief that we can already be assured of this in faith! You can read all about it in God's Word, the Holy Bible! Hallelujah!
In a recent visit to China to visit fellow Christians, Y.R. and T.S., we took a trip to Xi'an, the city of the famous terra cotta warriors from 2000 years ago. We had a wonderful time touring, but the most memorable and spiritual experience for all of us was the following story:
It was our last day in Xi'an prior to departure back to Shanghai. We decided to lunch in the hotel restaurant. It was the day of the new moon, the New Harvest Moon Festival. After another very fine Chinese meal, we were given slices of different types of mooncake. They were so delicious, we were debating about buying some more to take on the plane trip. The waitresses overheard us and freely gave us an extra courtesy plate. We were so delighted and grateful that T.S. and Y.R. and I decided to make some balloon flowers to show our appreciation for their generosity. (T.S. had been practicing making various balloons as part of the Gospel Balloon presentation. If you haven't seen it, please see the Live Presentation accessible on the Home page.). Before too long, we had an audience watching us practice and make balloon flowers for all the waitresses and attendants in the restaurant. T.S. was inspired to ask if there was a church in Xi'an. No, there wasn't. Y.R. asked if they knew who Jesus is. Many did not know Jesus. Y.R. started fervently sharing the Gospel story with them, as did T.S., while I was feverishly making the balloon structures for the Gospel Balloon presentation so that they could use these pieces in their witnessing. One of the waiters told us he is a Christian brother, but didn't live in Xi'an. A customer came over to our table and told us he is a believer. Two ladies wanted to know more about Jesus and later accepted Him as their Savior. Prepared with her Bible, Y.R. copied off passages and pages, as well as hymnal song sheets that she carries with her! A short time later, more of the workers listened to the Gospel message and proclaimed Christ as their Lord, claiming their eternal heavenly home. On the bus ride to the airport, Y.R. witnessed to the eager woman sitting next to her, who also came to ask Jesus into her life. All together, fifteen people became part of God's heavenly Kingdom that afternoon! Back in Shanghai, over the next two days, Y.R. had a friend purchase Bibles for her. She mailed fifteen Bibles to the people in Xi'an who had professed Christ as their Lord that New Harvest Moon day, October 5th--new moon, new spiritual birth!
Later that week, T.S. referred back to that wonderful experience of sharing the Gospel, and how the balloons sparked the conversations, witness, and the working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and souls of these people who accepted Christ into their lives that day. T.S. mentioned again in "amazement" how we "happened" to be carrying all those balloons with us, were giving balloons away in gratefulness for a kind gesture (the mooncakes), then seized the opportunity to preach the Gospel when the time came. This all makes me think: what do I/we carry with us, or have with us, that we can use to draw others to us and give us an opportunity to share Christ, and how much would we dare to share?
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Stories
