Monday, October 13, 2008
It was our third attempt at planning this mobile clinic. Two weeks in row it rained so hard Saturday that the roads were too muddy on Sunday to travel, forcing us to cancel our trip. But yesterday morning as we loaded our family and Paraguayan believers into the van we praised God for beautiful weather and a chance to share the Good News in Jakubo, 20km from San Francisco.
Pedro and Juan grew up together in Jakubo. They worked side by side clearing and planting fields. Juan was a Christian and continually modeled Jesus. I am reminded of the scripture in Isaiah – my word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty – because years later Pedro remembered Juan’s testimony and he made a decision to follow Christ. Pedro moved to San Francisco with his family and kept his new found faith silent for years until the Holy Spirit’s pressing became too loud to ignore. Pedro and his wife have recently been baptized and Pedro has turned into an incredible church leader.
In February Jeff approached Pedro and asked where we should have the next mobile clinic. His response was, “Let’s go to my home town. I am ready to tell those I grew up with about Jesus.” We had a wonderful clinic. It was incredible to see Pedro sharing his testimony and praying with “his people”.
Yesterday was our second clinic in Jakubo and it was again a blessed time. After we set up, we formed a circle with the waiting patients. First Juan (who is now a pastor in that town) shared, then Jeff spoke, and then Pedro preached. It was the first time to have a mobile clinic on a Sunday. Pedro’s logic was - everyone works Monday through Saturday so Sunday is the only day the sick can come. There was no shortage of patients – Jeff saw close to 40 people (ranging from heart murmurs to infected feet to UTI’s) and I did countess labs.
While Jeff was seeing patients the believers shared their testimonies. The crowd listened very intently. It has been awesome to see the believers mature in Christ through sharing and teaching others. The spirit of the Lord was present and so I can only believe that people’s lives were changed.
It had been a long day but before we left the town Jeff was asked to do a house call. I was not prepared for what I saw. As we walked up to the wooden house I saw a very thin, pale lady with unkept coarse black hair and a toothless grin sitting on the porch. Around her fingers she had tied string and around her wrist was a chain. As I went to greet her with a kiss on either cheek I had to remind myself not to breath. The pile of human feces next to her was pungent even from a safe distance. On a different part of the porch her brother, wearing a soldier’s hat roamed around muttering and laughing to himself. He too had a chain wrapped around his wrist. The son explained that they are often chained to something because they are prone to get violent and they wonder off and get lost. He said, “We have to work and sleep we cannot be out searching for them every day.” As Jeff tried to get a handle on the situation he explained about the spiritual world and the strong works on satan and the even bigger plan of salvation. In the end, Jeff diagnosed both with schizophrenia and gave them a prescription. It will be interesting to see how they respond. We prayed for the couple left for home.
Jeff said he felt as though we were living in Bible times – lots of animals and agriculture, carts pulled by yoked oxen, attending lepers, and now seeing patients in chains.
Mobile clinic in Jakubo
Pedro sharing from the Word
Jeff sharing at the clinic
patients waiting to see the doctor
No comments:
Post a Comment