Dia Tres

Hola Missions Prayer Team!

Its 10:00am, we have been working since around 8:15. We have seen around 12 people so far in the vision clinic. It is cooler today because it is cloudy and raining. There was a line of around 50 people waiting on us when we arrived at the church this morning. We have had one profession of faith this morning and prayed with many. I will update you later on how things are going throughout the rest of the clinic.
12:15 pm. The morning is wrapping up. Lunch is at 1. Yay! I'm so hungry! We have seen around 25 patients now. There are about 5 women waiting to see the doctors that are spinning yarn and string from wool by hand! It is so amazing! So many of the women are dressed in the traditional clothing. They look so beautiful.
Its now 8:30. We just finished with dinner. Its shower time then bed time! Woohoo! My tired legs like bed time. The totals for today are 66 vision, 155 medical, and most importantly, 40 salvations! Wow our God is awesome!

For dinner we had rice, creamed greens, chicken, and our drink was made out of fruit and oats and served warm. The food here has been really good. With the exception of white rice with every meal, excluding breakfast, the menu has been fairly diverse. Chicken is the meat of most meals, but it is always fixed slightly differently.
After dinner we had our nightly meeting. The ecuadorian obgyn shared a story about a woman she saw today. She was in her 60's and had had a hystarectamy (pardon the spelling) about ten years ago. She had a bump on her head and some other injuries from her husband beating her. He wanted to have intercourse, but due to her surgery it was painful. When she turned down his advances he beat her. This of course was not the first time and she was also very beaten down in spirit. She said she was catholic, but the doctor asked her about her relationship with Jesus. After some time and prayer she accepted Jesus in her heart! After this she said she felt much better. She felt loved. How terrible it must be to live your life without the love of Jesus.

Another story was of a woman who had come through the clinic yesterday. She was very depressed. She came back today and said that the doctor had asked her to come back today. The nurses could not figure out what the doctor wanted her to come back for. Finally she explained to them that yesterday she was depressed and in pain, but the doctor had prayed for her and today she was feeling great! She just came back to report how well she was doing, and to see if she could help out. All the medicine in the world fails in comparison to a loving Father!

Dr. Moore from Abilene, TX told us something he had learned from a recent trip to Honduras. He said that when we die and stand before God it won't be the bad things we did that we will regret, but the opportunities we missed. That is so painfully true. How many times have you missed an opportunity and knew it was from God? I know I miss a bunch. Sometimes I realize it while it is happening and sometimes it hits me after it is too late. Either way you wish you had seized the moment. Most of the time that opportunity is long gone and can never be replaced. Don't find yourself regretting missed opportunities. Seize what God gives you.

I have a small confession to make. This is the first trip Eddie has been able to go on. I always have stories of how tiny the church is, how bad the food is, and just generally how poor the conditions are. Well, the church is huge. The sanctuary itself is as large as most of the churches I have worked in. This church has multiple rooms. Real rooms with doors and electricity. The church also owns another building nearby that they use as a missionary house/fellowship hall. I have found myself at times thinking about how Eddie was not experiencing how mission trips should be. Uncomfortable, crowded, hot, and things like that. I completely missed how amazing it was that God had blessed this church with so much room to grow and so many sources to minister. It's crazy how badly you can miss the point sometimes.

Eddie and I are getting better at assembling the glasses. Today Randy Moore screened all the patients and treated the ones who needed reading glasses. This sped up the process some, but also gave more opportunity to talk to people about their faith. Its so easy to look at numbers to evaluate how well you are doing, but its important to remember the real reason we came. Everyone that comes through the clinic is there for a reason. It may be for their benefit, our it may be for ours, but either way God has his hand in it and we should look for the reason. This often means spending more time with them which means lower numbers, but its not about numbers, its about people.

I am so blessed to be a part of this trip and this team. It is very easy to get complacent at home. To forget the great commission and just focus on everyday life. I challenge you to get out of your box. Foreign missions is not ever ones calling, though I highly recommend it, but missions can be going across the street. Get out and experience other peoples lives. Think back, or look through the bible for all the people Jesus associated with. He rarely ministered to those like him. He got so "out of his box" that his own people killed him. Just remember, we are all his children, and he died for us all equally.

Hasta Manana,
Heather
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