Health Ministry Boat Trip

post by~Brin 

Six weeks ago when I left Altamira, I had tender goodbye lunch with Pastor Clenildo and Angelita's family. Clenildo must have been feeling a little nostalgic as he commenced telling his earliest memory of me. Which would have been sweet had I not been such a brat. The details are foggy but as he remembered it we were on the Jari River on our way home from a 10 day survey trip when a swarm of famished mosquitoes descended upon our unsuspecting boat. Mostly unsuspecting, because as it turns out Clenildo was using his hammock that had a sewed-in mosquito net. I swatted and sprayed and said who knows what kind of words under my breath. The boy scouts of the group put up their ever-prepared nets and returned to sleep. I continued swatting and shifting noisily in my hammock until I was exhausted. And finally I started to cry quietly to myself. And that is how it became Clenildo's earliest memory. He took pity and insisted I take his hammock. The safety and comfort of his hammock felt what I would think a night at the White House would feel like.

So whether I like it or not, that was Clenildo's first significant memory of me. I pondered that this past week as I stepped on the Asas boat for the first time, acutely aware that I was making some "first time" memories. Here I was with my new teammates, I being an unplanned addition since the original RN backed out only days prior. With the exception of an hour long orientation I was given the day before, I knew little about the health ministry portion of Asas since Josh is involved with the aviation side. I was, however, pleased to be included and ready to learn. And I did. Here is the sort of stuff we did: we set up clinic with one MD, two dentists, two RN's and one nutritionist. One RN was learning to run the whole clinic and the other, that one being me,  relegated to the makeshift pharmacy. We gave talks on nutrition, breast cancer, and worms to the adults, and on dental hygiene to the elementary kids. A straightforward and heartfelt talk on human sexuality and STD's  was given to about 50 teens at the local school. After the sex talk, Sara (the other RN) told them, "I am gonna be here until tomorrow, come see me if you have a question about what we said or just want to talk." Sure enough a girl made a beeline for her after the talk. We dispensed meds, advice, and prayer prolifically. And for the majority of that stuff, by "we" I mean I watched and learned as my amazing teammates did what the love of Jesus compels them to do, and that is in-turn love other people.

I learned such much, I listened intently as my teammates encouraged a young, skinny, breastfeeding mom (and by young I mean 15) to manage her own health as they taught her the importance of calcium. "Find some egg shells, clean them, dry them on a rock, crush them into a powder with your mortar and pestle and then sprinkle a teaspoon on your beans every day," she was matter-of-factly informed. Other patients were given anti-inflammatory meds to manage chronic joint pain, and others were reminded to use leaves from a certain plant as tea that had the same effects. Another teen mom was encouraged to wait some time before having her next baby so she could gain weight and take care of her current child. This mom had gotten "married" at age 14. Two women showed up at the pharmacy after seeing the doctor, visibly emotional, and they just started sharing their own tragedies. We talked, advised and prayed and loved. I am not sure, but I wonder if being able to spend precious, unrushed minutes with a caring doctor primed those women to be able to share their deepest wounds.

I was honored to be apart of the team. I was honored that God chose to get me involved, since I was planning on sitting tight to help Josh get through these next few years of aviation training. And mostly I was just humbled to be guided by our father to show love to His other children. Looking at all the needs in this particular place, would get easily overwhelming, paralyzing even. It comforts me hugely to know God sees it all too, and directs me to meet even just a tiniest portion of that need.

 Asas' was invited to visit the schools and give various health related lectures.

The is the pharmacy I " built" and where I spent the vast majority of my 3 days. The plastic bags are various meds, which are transported in the blue bins. The bins were designed to also fit in the floats of the airplanes. The microscope was not mine, but the coconut was :)

The dentists saw the least amount of patients but were the busiest. By far the most difficult thing is to turn away people wanting desperately to get their teeth pulled but there just isn't enough time.

 

The Asas de Socorro ministry boat.

I haven't mentioned this yet but also traveling on the boat were 3 guys from Central Illinois! Brad, Marty and Chad are seen in this picture bringing down sheet metal for the church that they, along with the rest of the crew, built while the health team ran the clinic. Part II of this blog post will show pictures of the church and explain how teams from North American churches are involved in ministry alongside Asas missionaries.