On Friday we had our first clinic in Mactzul II. This church has an interesting story as one day while at clinic in a neighboring village, about 9 men ranging in ages from 20 to 60 years old came to visit with the specific purpose of asking for a clinic in their church. They had heard about the clinics in some of the other churches and were very ready start this type of ministry in their community and they already had men selected to serve as volunteers. We had heard some good things and some not so good things about the church, but these were all second hand. Nonetheless, we were a little apprehensive about having clinic there.
Well, God blessed us on Friday with a great experience in this village and church of Mactzul II. The brothers and sisters of the church came out in full force and what I thought was going to be a small church was a very sizable church membership wise. The church has 70 adult members plus children and visitors, so probably in the range of 150-200 people each Sunday. We also found out that the church started in the 1970's, so it was one of the first churches in the area.
As noted, the church came out in full force and I would bet many of the members were there, some hanging around, some cooking lunch for us and some coming to see us as a patient. We ended up with 52 patients after going through a few stages of "there is just one more patient".
We started the day with just Dr. Josefina Lux, but quickly realized when we arrived that we would need some help. So we called Sheri and Dr. Rugel Sowell who were seeing patients in Choacaman, about 45 minutes away, to come to our rescue after they had seen their patients. Luckily they only had around 11 patients and they were able to join us around lunch time.
After lunch the quite a few kids started arriving after school and they had some fun with Sheri's camera.
During the day we had 2-3 brothers from the church praying with patients and one helping me with registration and talking with the patients. We ended the day with a brief meeting and the church volunteered to host a larger medical / dental team on November 1 which is a national holiday here. We talked about whether they though we would have patients being a national holiday and they seemed to think with a good announcement people would attend as there is a great need in the area.
This day they basically announced only to the church and some close neighbors to avoid a crowd to large. We ended up with a mix of patients of about 60% from the church and 40% outside the church.
Here are some pictures I had to steal from Sheri's website as I did not have my camera.
Kemmel, Connie Sowell, Dr. Rugel Sowell and Health Promoter Manuel.
Health promoters Tomas, Juan and Gaspar and Dr. Josefina Lux. It was nice to all come together as a team. We asked the church before the extras showed up if there was enough for lunch and the answer was an overwhelming yes! I think they fed everyone there that day, patients, visitors, etc.
Well, God blessed us on Friday with a great experience in this village and church of Mactzul II. The brothers and sisters of the church came out in full force and what I thought was going to be a small church was a very sizable church membership wise. The church has 70 adult members plus children and visitors, so probably in the range of 150-200 people each Sunday. We also found out that the church started in the 1970's, so it was one of the first churches in the area.
As noted, the church came out in full force and I would bet many of the members were there, some hanging around, some cooking lunch for us and some coming to see us as a patient. We ended up with 52 patients after going through a few stages of "there is just one more patient".
We started the day with just Dr. Josefina Lux, but quickly realized when we arrived that we would need some help. So we called Sheri and Dr. Rugel Sowell who were seeing patients in Choacaman, about 45 minutes away, to come to our rescue after they had seen their patients. Luckily they only had around 11 patients and they were able to join us around lunch time.
After lunch the quite a few kids started arriving after school and they had some fun with Sheri's camera.
During the day we had 2-3 brothers from the church praying with patients and one helping me with registration and talking with the patients. We ended the day with a brief meeting and the church volunteered to host a larger medical / dental team on November 1 which is a national holiday here. We talked about whether they though we would have patients being a national holiday and they seemed to think with a good announcement people would attend as there is a great need in the area.
This day they basically announced only to the church and some close neighbors to avoid a crowd to large. We ended up with a mix of patients of about 60% from the church and 40% outside the church.
Here are some pictures I had to steal from Sheri's website as I did not have my camera.
Kemmel, Connie Sowell, Dr. Rugel Sowell and Health Promoter Manuel.Health promoters Tomas, Juan and Gaspar and Dr. Josefina Lux. It was nice to all come together as a team. We asked the church before the extras showed up if there was enough for lunch and the answer was an overwhelming yes! I think they fed everyone there that day, patients, visitors, etc.That was a great lunch. God bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment