Brian was assigned to Evangelism. Ben was assigned to Children's and I was assigned to Pharmacy. Here is me and my friend, Jenny, who was also assigned to "la farmacia".
All the meds are in trunks and the trunks are categorized and labeled by medicine groups. For example, Trunk number one had vitamins for adults and children, Iron, Prenatal, Calcium, Multivitamins, etc ... Trunk number two had pain relievers ... Trunk number three had antibiotics for children and so on.
People would come in to the Medical Area and be seated in the "waiting area". Each "family" was given a basket and when they were seen by the doctor or medical team, their information would be completed on a form that also listed what they were being prescribed. Then one of the church workers would escort them from "Medical" to the "Pharmacy Waiting Area" and one of our team would be given the basket and we would collect the prescribed meds.
The three people (who are Honduran and work for WGO) would check the meds and give them to the "patients". In addition, each person would be given an anti-parasite medicine and this was given at the table.
Working in Pharmacy was really interesting and very educational! We were given some basic instructions but, as was the case with a lot that we experienced on this mission trip, much was learned "on the fly", which is potentially more beneficial and allows for greater understanding of the whole process, I think. For example, everyone who came through was to be given multivitamins, even though the form didn't necessarily have it marked. After the staff asked us several times for vitamins, we asked about this and we were told, "oh, everyone gets vitamins". In addition, several times when we had grabbed multivitamins for an adult female, they were put back (by the staff member) and prenatal vitamins were taken instead. On some sheets, a staff member actually noted that the female was nursing. In other cases, we would merely make the deduction as they were holding onto a child less than a year old. So, because Jenny and I were paying attention, we just started retrieving prenatal vitamins instead of the regular multivitamin and this made the process move along a bit more efficiently.
We saw this woman come through Medical; we first spotted her when she was in the waiting area to be seen. She had three children with her and it was apparent that she was pregnant as well. She seemed very frustrated and she looked tired. Her children appeared a bit afraid and one may have been ill because she was crying and obviously very upset. It was difficult to watch because her mother seemed to lack compassion and she seemed only to get more irritated. After being seen in Medical, she was sent to Pharmacy where we filled her prescriptions. The woman's name is Ingrid and she is only 22 years old. We can only hope and pray that one of our team members was able to communicate the love, peace and grace of our Lord Jesus to her and that she was encouraged and carried unto Salvation.
I was able to catch a few glimpses of Brian in Evangelism throughout the day; it appeared that he was really engaged and enjoying talking with the people that God placed before him. If I remember him correctly, I think he met with 45 people and about 15 of them either were already saved by Jesus while the rest either recommitted themselves or accepted Him for the first time, which he felt was amazing! That is fantastic to me since on my day in Evangelism, I spoke with 25 people.
This man had been in a gang and Brian was showing him the "Flip Book" that he created to explain the Gospel using Romans 6:23. If you missed it, you can see the post about Brian's flip book here: http://fromwisconsintohonduras.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-verse-evangelism-brians-flip-book.html
This was the Evangelism area (in its entirety) - it was very close quarters. Nobody seemed to mind! :-)
The little boy sat down in a chair nearby. He looked pitiful with his mouth full of gauze as he had to sit there waiting so I took out my trusty mini-Magna Doodle and went over to him. We played together for a bit, taking turns drawing pictures and showing one another our creations.
This must have caught the attention of the boy's sister because she came over and wanted a turn as well.
After a little while longer, they had to use the bathroom and as their mother was still being worked on, I decided that I would take them. The bathroom was upstairs so off we went. Upstairs was also the location of the Children's Ministry, where Ben was working. He saw me and came over to see what I was doing so I shared the story about the two children. Then all of a sudden a little girl came over, very confidently, as if to inquire what was going on. Ben pointed to me and said, "mi Madre". She gave me the 'once-over' with her eyes and only half-smiled at me. I said, "si, my hijo," pointing to Ben. And she, matter-of-factly, replied something to me, that I was unsure of, other than she clearly said the name "BEN" and then she went and stood right next to him! It was hilarious! She wasn't too sure of me ... but she sure did know Ben and that was all that mattered to her! So, of course, I had to take a photo of them!
The difficult part about being in Pharmacy was that some of the people were clearly very ill; some of the children were crying. Nearly every woman who was seen in Medical was prescribed vaginal cream for yeast infection or vaginitis and we ran out of our stock of this ointment before lunch. Towards the end of the day, we ran out of Ibuprofin; thankfully, we were able to substitute Naproxin but we also ran out of both adult and children's Benadryl and antihistimine and we had no substitutes. There were a few other things that we ran out of as well and if we didn't have it, they didn't get it.
There were some really great things about working in Pharmacy too! One was that we had a really good view of most of the areas of ministry (with the exception of Children's and Concrete). We could see all the people, church workers, staff and team members.
Children were really happy when they received their vitamins!
We could look into all the faces of the waiting people, make eye contact, use friendly gestures and, of course, SMILE at them and PRAY for them!
But, selfishly, one of the things we just might have liked best was getting to hold BABIES!!!
Here's Jenny with a little cutie-patutie!!
This little dumpling was so wide-eyed!
BUT THIS LITTLE DARLING ... OH, HOW SHE STOLE MY HEART!!!
I just wanted to smother her with kisses and hold her forever!
She just kept patting her hands to my face and looked directly into my eyes; it was amazing! She was so soft and she smelled so good ~ fresh and clean and sweet!
Jenny and I noticed that about this church ... most of the children who came through seemed to be made to look their best, especially the babies. They all looked and smelled as though they had been bathed or cleaned up really well and it was a noticeable difference from the first church. Ahh ... I know what some of you are thinking ... and, no, I had to leave her with her very capable mother but I was definitely crazy (and still am) about that little pumpkin!
No comments:
Post a Comment