LA CLINICA MANOS DE CRISTO

Our elite team of 4 began work in the clinic on Monday morning, September 21, 2015!  

We were unsure how this would work, as we have always had a team of 10 or 12 to conduct a full Medical Caravan.  We delicately reminded Pastor Pablo, who spreads the word through the village churches, the Christian radio station, and banners everywhere, that indeed we were only 4.

  We had fears of being overwhelmed with patients!  However, we had a plethora of workers, people involved in the ministry, friends, family who came to help:  Doc Gerardo, his girlfriend, Patricia, who is a physician, Gerardo's sister who translated,  Juan, a nurse who has worked with us before, Nurse Lidia,  Pablo's sister who cooked for us....etc, etc.

Pastor Pablo and his mom and dad.  His dad has helped translate at every medical caravan.

We helped Cata, Pablo's sister, make tuna salad, an unknown dish for them.

Doc Gerardo and Patricia

 God provided the workers, and the number of patients was equal to our capabilities!
We have seen 600 patients so far with 2 more days to go.  We are whipped at the end of the day, but refreshed by a cold shower, a walk, a nap in the hammock, etc.  We read, talk, blog, devote and debrief.  We visit with the local folks and share music outside with the Bible School students who live where we do.
Here are some pictures of our delightful Tzeltal patients, and some of their maladies.

A man with very bad liver disease.  We paid for some lab tests.  They brought us bananas and tostadas.  

Petrona.  86 years old, she thinks.  Walked to the clinic barefoot.  

Sweet family.  Healthy baby!

Reading glasses are a miracle!  To read the Bible or to sew again..

Caretakers' children with new T Shirts.  They were all treated for worms and parasites, a common, chronic condition.  Mom and dad, Leticia and Cristobal are very happy to have a job at the clinic. 

Girls carrying moms' medicines

Jan and Pablo's son in law, Albert, and grand daughters, Priscilla and Sofie.  Waiting to join mom and wife, Amalia, in the U.S.  

We talk with another family member, Sebastian, who will join the ministry to work with Pablo.

And a few FUN moments!  There are always many of these.  

New Hermanas, Carolina y Maria Jose'

Doctor Bill, another year older!  A face in the cake tradition

NEVER turn down a ride! 

And never turn down a chance to siesta in the hammock!  

Penny and Jomarie in our pad.  ADIOS, until we meet again....

OCOSINGO MORNING

We arrived safe and sound!

We

Mornings in OCOSINGO are like summer mornings at home, fresh, beautiful, God's assurance that life should go on for another day.
The sun rises from behind the mountains, though it is sometimes obscured by the frequent clouds and fog that blow in, blow over, and settle into the valleys.   The city of Ocosingo is in a valley, surrounded by high mountains.  The elevation is about 3,000 feet, just enough to take your breath away when climbing the steep hills of town or the steep stairway heading to the clinic.

Sunrise, sunset.....

And God's promise!  

We were welcomed as usual at the little mission church in town.  It is aptly named Nueva Vida, new life.  We were honored with the warm and familiar "Bienvenido" song over and over with handshakes from every single person.  The sermon was about leaving the old life and starting anew with Jesus.  I understood most of it!  There were prayers for our families and churches at home.

Pablo blessing Armando on his 84th birthday.  

We celebrated with tamales and Mexican pizza!

Always an apt way to start the weeks of service here.   A constant reminder of God's unfailing love, and a time of giving and a time of renewal.  

JOYFUL REUNION!

The Church.   How central it is for those of us who believe.  How it keeps us grounded and uplifted at the same time. It is at the core of what we do in Chiapas. All the projects, the ministries, the reason we are here is because of our faith and  our desire to share that faith with others.  We come to give, to offer our skills, to donate some time and talent, but we leave with oh so much more.  It is hard to explain unless you have been here. 

So on Sunday morning, the first rule of the day, after arriving late the night before, is to attend services at the little mission church in Ocosingo.  It is Pablo and Jan's city church.  Pablo is the full pastor in Sibal at his church in the mountain village, but in Ocosingo this little mission church is home.

So the group treks off down the steep road heading into the town of Ocosongo.  We attract attention, as there are no tourists, no gringos in Ocosingo except us.    Everyone knows we are the medicos from the Christian clinic outside town.  We are witnesses just by walking the streets!  Some of us have been here many times and look forward to worship there and reuniting with friends.  Some who are new, do not know what to expect.  

We clambor inside the little storefront church and decide how to sit..on the men's or women's side?  All together as a group? or mixed in with the locals?  There are hugs and kisses and recognition of each other.  There is such joy in this reunion.  

The service is meaningful to some, but most do not understand much of the prayers, sermon, etc.  The service is decidedly "Presbyterian", so it is easy to recognize the order of worship and the components. This day there were familiar hymns, like "Santo, Santo, Santo" (Holy, Holy, Holy). But It is difficult to stay focused when you do not comprehend much.  We are asked to stand and introduce ourselves, in Spanish.  It is painful for some, but the congregation loves to hear our short stories.  Jim Heneveld did the sermon today, on the meaning of "eternal".   Jim is a long time missionary in CHIAPAS, and helped to translate the Bible into Tzeltal.  He is a board member of Hebron. This day, it was doubly difficult to listen to the sermon, as there was a parade celebrating some saint.  These celebrations get rather elaborate and boisterous.   Down the steep, cobblestone street came throngs of people carrying giant saint forms and flowers, people in giant animal paper mâché costumes, trucks with platforms built to carry bands of tuba, trumpet, drum, and other horn players, and HUNDREDS of caballeros on horseback.  The parade went on for a loooong time, and remember the open doors of the church are right there, on the street.   Poor Jim had to stop numerous times and we all had trouble not watching the spectacle!  

And so, worship ended and we milled around, every one of us, shaking the hand of every one of them. It is impossible not to be touched, figuratively, as well as literally.  

Thank you Lord, for bringing us to this place.  For each of us it may be for a different reason.  That is what we hope to discover.

Peace,      Carolyn

XPUJIL, BELIZE, and other parts unknown....

Well, this is the 3 rd time I am writing this post...   I have been known to be persistent. It WILL get posted!   A beautiful, spirit filled journey was slightly marred, at the beginning with Carolyn missing the Tuxtla connection.  And ending with my IPad being stolen at a bathroom stop on an overnight bus, with much of my hard thought out work being lost.  I had spent lovely, peaceful, thoughtful time writing stories of travels outside Chiapas, and of some thoughts about our presence at church...  Only to have those long descriptive missels lost somewhere in cyber space.  Ah well...   It truly could be worse.  It only cost some money, time, and inconvenience.  

So,  this segment begins with Jan  and I taking off after the grueling 2 medical weeks for a little road trip, a girls' getaway.   We planned to go to Xpujil, and other parts unknown.  Xpujil, Campeche is 2 states away from Chiapas, and is the reason that I ended up working with Pastor Pablo and Jan, and being a part of the clinic development in Chiapas.  We made many trips to Xpujil in the 90's.  We put down missionary roots, and even began to build an out patient clinic to provide sorely needed medical care. In time, permission from the health department was rescinded.  The ministry there this day  is vibrant, with church building, community project development, and cistern construction.

 Todd Luke, our friend from the Village Church is actively involved.  Our high school youth group will make a mission trip there this week.  I had not been back there for many years.  It was really fun to renew old acquaintances,

see the children all grown, and the town enlarged and urbanized!  We stayed on site at the dorm rooms we built,

and attended services at the church we constructed so many years ago.

We observed a new cistern being built in a new village.

We visited with a man who extracts the sap of the chicle trees, which is cooked in a large pot outside until it is thick and gummy.  It is then put into heavy, gummy blocks to be sold to the companies who make gum, as we know it.  It is hard work, but can be lucrative for a subsistence farmer.

  We visited the beautiful ruins of

Becan,

and were again amazed at the nightly exit of millions of bats from caves in the woods outside Xpujil.  

We spent 2 days in Chetumal, and went over the border into Belize for 2 days.

  Again, reminiscencing, both Jan and I.  Her friend, Dorothy, has been a teacher at a Presbyterian school in a little village there, for 35 years.  She and Jan went to high school together.  Ironically, this was the same village and same Presbyterian ministry, which included a clinic, where I also worked several summers, long ago.  One summer I received a desparate plea from the Lacey's (missionaries there), asking if I could possibly come to run the clinic, or it would have to close that year, as no doctors were available. I thought and prayed for about 2 days..., put my new job on hold, and spent the summer there with a med student, manning the clinic.  What could I possibly offer?, but myself.  I grew that summer, learning medicine, learning about myself, and growing by leaps and bounds in my faith.  I never felt God's presence so strongly, as I did that summer. 

Anyway...what a great time we had.

Until we boarded that fateful bus back to Ocosingo!  

Well, we arrived safely home, just in time for me to get ready to come home. As always, the 7 weeks was but a moment in time.  A deep breath, a lot of good byes and when will you be back?   God willing, it will be soon!  

As ever,   

Carolyn

CARAVANA DOS

Exhaustion and exhilaration!

It is the end of 2 very full weeks of medical care for the people of Chiapas, in the Clinica Manos de Cristo.   We had a plethora of providers,  but few translators.  This is a real problem, but a delight when so many medical people answer the call to serve here.  Translators are crucial to our work.  Remember, we need to translate from English to Spanish, and then to Tzeltal.  Some Indigenous people speak Spanish, but most do not.  

The weeks are grueling, but fun and a learning experience for all.  How to introduce American medicine , how to treat patients without testing, medicine, or  treatments being available. The art of touching and diagnosing with only a physical exam and the patient's explanation of his symptoms. Treating patients conservatively, with a minimum, and only the basics of medicine.  A lost art, and challenging. 

We saw more than 1,030 patients in the 2 weeks we were there.

 We saw a lot of sad and serious cases:   A feverish baby with a large abscess at his neck.  He needed more intense care, and we arranged a transfer to "20 Beds".   The mother cried, in concern for her baby, but more so in fear of the hospital.  She never arrived there.  We saw a boy, 17, who looked about 10, who had multiple congenital deformities, club feet, deformed hands, cleft palate affecting his speech.  He was sweet, functioned well, and we tried to get him into the health care system to receive some therapy or surgery.   

We saw many diabetics with severely high blood sugars.  In the US there would be panic and a rush to hospitalize this patient to get his blood sugar down quickly.  Here, we treat actively, but conservatively, as it would be just as dangerous to bring this chronic situation down quickly.  The patients' bodies have adapted, and this is not an immediate medical emergency. 

Older lady with normal aches and pains.  She was very independent and very funny.  

You must brush your teeth more! 

Dr. Bill injects a lady's hand 

It wouldn't happen without this trio

Emily, Karen, Carolina.  

Rick entertaining the crowds.  If you have never heard Amazing Grace on the saw, you are missing an amazing thing!  

We saw a lady with Bell's Palsy,  a guy with a machete cut over his eye from a skirmish in his village, some folks with emotional problems, a young man newly diagnosed with seizures, a little boy who had had a colostomy, and now had severe rectal problems, men needing rectal exams (thanks Dr. Bill!), a lady with a son in the jail, a baby with a necklace to keep away the "evil eye", and on and on!   We checked pregnant ladies, and advised on all sorts of topics.  

We had a nutritionist and an acupuncturist, both utilized greatly.  We saw old and young, taxi drivers, librarians, campesinos .   

A fascinating slice of humanity.  All made in God's image.  The same throughout the world.  

More later.