My wonderful medical team was so flexible, patient and giving of their time and energy. I never once heard a complaint about sleeping in tents, the cold or the roads. We all made plenty of jokes about being dirty, but that’s what 5 days without a shower will do to you!To get to La Merced, the team flew 8ish hours from the states, rode a bus for 8 hours (after only sleeping for 4 hours), piled into trucks and rode another 3 hours on some very bumpy roads. We felt like a really good tossed salad by the time we got there! We set up camp in the school building with the tents and sleeping bags and headed straight to bed.
When asked what they needed to see the doctor for, the normal answer was for poor vision all over body pain. The Quechua do manual labor from the time they are children until they are well into their 80s. They carry heavy loads on their backs and walk the mountain roads, or heard their sheep, pigs, donkeys, and maybe cows in very steep terrain. It’s understandable that they hurt all over. It was amazing to see their faces light up when we found a pair of glasses that could help them read again! They thought that we’d given them the world with a one-month supply of multi vitamins and 20 Tylenol.
The first or second day in La Merced we found out that two of the bridges on the road to Llanquish (our second town to work in) we gone. The heavy rains had washed them out and the only way to get there was going to be via a 5-hour detour each way. If we took this detour, we might have had 4 or 5 hours to work in Llanquish and an additional 8 hours on the road. We decided the Lord wanted us to stay in La Merced for an extra day. Over the course of 4 days we saw about 350 patients and had 46 professions of faith!!!
An amazing evangelism team came from Huaraz (a large city about 3 hours away) to talk with people who were waiting in line to see the doctor and nurses. These men were such a blessing to our team as they shared their testimonies about how the Lord led them out of alcoholism. They were able to relate to so many of the people who struggled with the same issues. Nemecio, one of the men, is living in La Merced 3 weeks out of the month and had many people open up their home to him to lead Bible Studies.
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. `James 5:16
Our prayers were answered last week and we have 46 new brothers and sisters! Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for the Quechua and us.
Stay tuned! There are more blogs to come!
As we began the clinic the next morning, we saw a lady being pushed up the hill to the clinic in a wheelbarrow! She couldn’t walk anymore, and so they brought her into the clinic and set her on the floor because it was the easiest place for her. In the picture below they are completing a triage form in the lobby instead of moving her more times than necessary.
When asked what they needed to see the doctor for, the normal answer was for poor vision all over body pain. The Quechua do manual labor from the time they are children until they are well into their 80s. They carry heavy loads on their backs and walk the mountain roads, or heard their sheep, pigs, donkeys, and maybe cows in very steep terrain. It’s understandable that they hurt all over. It was amazing to see their faces light up when we found a pair of glasses that could help them read again! They thought that we’d given them the world with a one-month supply of multi vitamins and 20 Tylenol.The first or second day in La Merced we found out that two of the bridges on the road to Llanquish (our second town to work in) we gone. The heavy rains had washed them out and the only way to get there was going to be via a 5-hour detour each way. If we took this detour, we might have had 4 or 5 hours to work in Llanquish and an additional 8 hours on the road. We decided the Lord wanted us to stay in La Merced for an extra day. Over the course of 4 days we saw about 350 patients and had 46 professions of faith!!!
An amazing evangelism team came from Huaraz (a large city about 3 hours away) to talk with people who were waiting in line to see the doctor and nurses. These men were such a blessing to our team as they shared their testimonies about how the Lord led them out of alcoholism. They were able to relate to so many of the people who struggled with the same issues. Nemecio, one of the men, is living in La Merced 3 weeks out of the month and had many people open up their home to him to lead Bible Studies.
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. `James 5:16Our prayers were answered last week and we have 46 new brothers and sisters! Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for the Quechua and us.
Stay tuned! There are more blogs to come!
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