Signs of Spring

Yesterday the warm, cheery sunshine beckoned me outside. I carefully studied my little garden plot, and look what I found!

The irises already peek from the bed

I found an occasional leaf poking through from the tangled reeds from last year's plant.

Running to the garage, I came back with a trimmer. I clipped and piled up some of the old, dead flower stalks and piled them to the side. As I did so, the sweet fragrance of the dead, dried bee-balm stalks filled the air like a lovely perfume. Underneath the remains of its dried stalks I could see a few little leaves of new, fresh bee-balm plants beginning to poke up from the ground. How amazing think of the many concepts this season illustrates. The concept of old becoming new, death birthing life, and the dead becoming alive (such as Jesus' resurrection celebrated on Easter).

Death.

Life!

In reality, I would not consider myself an avid gardener. I just like to stand back and watch things grow! Perennials give me the most joy since they faithfully come back year after year. Every spring I burst with excitement upon noticing their little heads shoot up from the soil beneath. Despite the cold, harsh winters of the north, they endure the snow and sleet while firmly rooted in the ground, ready and preparing to spring up and flourish when the time is right.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

~Colossians 2:6-7

Let's cling to Him and keep our roots embedded in the nutrients He offers so we can be ready to flourish in the seasons ahead.

Volibol!

At the end of the day the locals would set up a net between two poles on either side of the street and play volleyball. And, of course, the gringos wanted to play too!Whenever a car came they just pulled the net up, and the car would drive right under! Pretty innovative, eh?

This dog always peeked through the balcony to watch all the commotion. From the looks of the wall, the dog has its own perferred spot overlooking the town.

What God Did

How evident God's work was in this trip! Many things occurred not only in the clinic, but also among our team to turn our eyes to Him.

One of the most encouraging things I observed was how God's hand worked in many of the lives of fellow team mates. Dad's roommate, a Jew, had many questions about the Christian faith throughout the week. Despite their weariness from the long, involved days, they would stay up for hours before bed intently discussing matters of faith and the Bible. How neat to observe how God was softening this man's heart and using the week to turn his gaze toward spiritual things. May God continue to work and cause him to see and know the truth of Jesus Christ.

Optical Crew

During our debriefing gathering a team mate who worked in the optical portion of the clinic told us of an interesting occurrence. One of the patients that day needed a certain type of glasses Dave was sure they had run out of. Having looked through the box of glasses several times for this size to no avail, he decided to search again. Amazingly, he immediately found a pair of the specific type they thought were gone. Apparently this did not happen only once, but several times after. In this way, God continually re-filled our jars to provide for the needs of others.

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Also, during a different team gathering another team member told of an instance of God's provision. First, let me give a little background to this. One of the members of the church in Condevilla has a neat testimony through the ministry he has begun by opening up a school in a town an hour or two away. He gave up many of his possessions for the cause of this ministry, showing a neat heart of selfless giving for the sake of others and God's work. One of our team members planned on doing a video recording of this man's testimony in order to distribute here to raise support for his ministry. About to do the interview, he turned on the camera and realized the battery was low. He had forgotten to charge it the night before! Knowing the Lord wanted to use this man's testimony to touch others lives, he prayed for the Lord's provision. Soon after he glanced at the battery and saw it slowly rise to full power! Wow! The interview was successful, and the battery died about five minutes after they had finished.

These few instances mentioned here testify to the powerful work God did in and through the team. What a faith-building experience!

... And More Peru!

As a whole, the four-day clinic facilitated about 1,300 patients. This was the third year the church opened a medical clinic, and clearly God blessed us by giving us a smooth week. Apparently, in the past local gangs had threatened the clinic. This year the clinic hired security, but ironically none of the officers showed up. God protected us!

Gathered with friends at the end of the day!

For the remaining three days of the clinic, I had the pleasure of doing a little translating for my dad and his patients. I watched one of the missionaries do the main translation work and followed along with the patient-doctor conversations, which helped a lot. She also let me jump in and try too, and would help catch the details I missed and bail me out if I got stuck. Most often, though, I worked with a nurse and helped translate questions and find general information about the patient. This helped whittle down the doctor-patient ordeal by helping Dad jump into the problem and not have to dig around as much. I felt most helpful in this position because I would often lose track of things when the patient explained in detail all the ins-and-outs of the problem. Yes, just smile and nod: a very helpful gesture when your Spanish is so limited! When there was a lull in activity it was fun to just talk with a couple of the people waiting for consults. One lady had come all the way from Trujillo--a full eight-hour bus ride from Condevilla!

Dad, Arlene, and I partnered together one day Translating
On the left is Miss Kay, the missionary who translated for us. Damiana (at the right) was a great help in logistics.

Precious children

Nurse Arlene and I were roommates for the week

One of the last patients Dad saw one day had several gallstones and ultimately was in a very serious condition if she did not receive immediate care. Since the nearby clinics were on strike that week, her appointment had been canceled, and she came to our clinic instead. We could only provide her with antibiotics, but she apparently planned to have surgery that Friday at the hospital. Upon Dad's request she came back the following day and reported she felt much better and could now eat a little due to the antibiotics. Dad and I had the special opportunity to pray with her for her upcoming surgery.

Valeria

A Stretching First Day

370 patients were seen on Day 1 of medical clinic

Emily, Kristen, and Aleah

We jumped into clinic-work on Monday. What a day! All of us worked in a large tent-like structure set up over the soccer court (a huge slab of cement) in the middle of the town. The kids were on their last week of summer vacation which made them available to help out a little bit too. The temperature in our cozy tent ranged from a blazing 110-125 degrees throughout the week. Thankfully we had access to water from Manuel's cooler across the street!

Meredith, Kristen, and Emily worked in triage for the day

This "first day" was stretching for me. I helped in the triage station by figuring out patients' general problems and then sending them to the proper physician. It was a challenging position to be in -- trying to make sense of the rapid Spanish chatter, get ages (like sesenta and setenta) straight and not offend people, etc. Not to mention those times when I felt completely clueless . . . which occurred so much more often than not. To dive into this day and realize how limited I was made me frustrated and discouraged at first.

On that same day an older lady came up to me and started telling me how she was thankful we were there. I will never forget the look in her eyes and her sincerity. Although I cannot remember what she said as I was lost in the midst of her trailing Spanish and only able to pick out bits and pieces, it was so touching. She asked for the Lord's blessing on us and seemed very excited about the work we were doing in Condevilla.

Steve spent the week working in the pharmacy corner handing out prescriptions. He and Flor especially made a good team. Despite the fact Steven was intent on learning Spanish, Flor often would try to share her knowledge of the French language with him. Steve and the rest of the pharmacy crew worked the longest out of the team. They had to fill up the last prescriptions and make sure all the patients had received what they needed before closing up shop each day.

Yes, and the pharmacy was where the famous "water-boiling" attempt took place. Apparently some of the team members took a container of water and set it on a black plastic trash bag in the direct sunlight to see if it would boil. From what I heard, it did not work, but it got close.

From the Beginning . . .

One of the things I looked forward to about this trip was using my Spanish much more than I had on the previous medical missions trip we went on last April. How cool to think I had the tools to actually communicate with Peruvian people a little.

From the get-go, Steve and I dove into our Spanish-speaking opportunity. On boarding our flight from Miami to Lima, we found ourselves conversing and getting to know the Peruvian couple seated next to us. Thus, it began. To me, holding a Spanish conversation resembled a giant puzzle: a comprehensive challenge which stretched the mind considerably.

We arrived in Lima at around 1 a.m. on Sunday morning and finally reached the hotel to crash into bed at around 3 a.m. for a few hours of sleep. Later in the morning we gathered for a worship service with the church in Condevilla, the small town we would be holding the clinic from Monday through Thursday. This church—consisting of about twenty five members (just about the size of our actual team!)—hosted the mission. It was a privilege to worship with them, and I was particularly excited to be able to understand the service! Their worship was so lively, joyful, bouncy, fast, and lovely in an unique way.

The church service was held in a tent outside the small church building.

2/22/09 -- Excerpt from journal:
"One of the things which struck me the most in the service is how fervent the people are. As they worship their hearts “visibly” spill over with joy and praise. They seem to truly value the words, not just saying them blankly. . ."

On Sunday I met two little girls, Alison and Nicole, who quickly became like "hermanitas" (little sisters) to me. I tried to explain to them my middle name is also Nicole. Since they thought "Kristen" hard to remember, they insisted on calling me "Nicole" instead. I loved it! I got one of their addresses and have written little notes to both. Julia and Bethany also drew some lovely pictures for them complete with Scripture verses in Spanish. All of these things have been tucked into an envelope ready to send to them. I hope the Lord will guide it safely to its destination -- these girls need so much love and encouragement.

(Above: Nicole is such a beautiful and precious treasure. Later I was told of her heartbreaking situation. Her daddy, often drunk and abusive, left her and her family. One of the team members recounted her saying she wished he was her daddy. Our hearts go out to this little one . . .)

The church literally went out of their way to provide for our needs. Ladies from the church would prepare lunch for the whole team each day of clinics. As I would walk past and peek in the entry of the church's little kitchen, they would look up, smile, and say “hola!” They showed such eagerness to serve us.

They joyfully served us

I plan to post more of the ins-and-outs of our journey and instert pictures along with it. Also, Mom has posted many pictures of our trip on her blog.

Journey's End

Last Saturday we made it back from an amazing journey. So far, we've hit the ground running as we begin life at the homestead once again. Hopefully as things slow down around here I will find a moment to sit down and spill out the whole adventure. But, alas, I need to go and recharge my *personal* battery some more...