Clinic Day Two

Its about 7:00 AM Tuesday morning. One of my favorite things in Cambodia is the coffee and the fresh French bread. One cup will keep you going all morning and the French bread at this time of day is fresh and warm - and its delicious. I am getting ready for devotions with the team and thinking back on last years trip. One of things that I realized last year, and is still true this year is that the Cambodian people are just like you and me. They want the same things. To raise their children in safety and love, to be loved and to live a long a and full life. While the American version of a full life may include any number of things we take for granted like a shopping mall or a convenience store in the right place the Cambodian version focuses more on having enough to eat as opposed to where to eat, having a roof to sleep under as opposed to the size of the house under the roof, and things that are much closer to survival than most Americans, even the most disadvantaged of Americans will never have to contemplate.


As we begin seeing patients on this trip I am again reminded that while you may think that the health problems would be very different from in the US, there are still conditions of the spirit that affect the body in ways such as anxiety, depression, gastritis and so forth that seem out of place when you also see things like leprosy, goiter, severe infections, TB, malaria, typhoid, dysentery, and diseases that are often only ever seen by most health care professionals in a book

With this in mind I am going to be sharing with the entire team that whether you are one of he doctors, or working in the pharmacy, or manning the prayer room, many of the afflicted we will see are ill for the reason of a lack of love in their life. They do not have the ultimate love that we as Christians all too often may take for granted. Imagine for a moment if you and your spouse where not in love. What would that do to your mental, emotional and physical health? Imagine if you did not have the greatest love of all in your life and had to face each ugly loveless day all by your self, alone and without hope. What do you suppose that would do to your health? Regardless of what we do on this team, our single biggest purpose is to bring Love. The love of a Christ who asked us to give that love through Him by the simple means of providing a cup of cold water in his name!

More after clinic today.

Today we do clinic in a small village where we have not been before. There is a village school and we have the luxury of being able to use class rooms to set up in. Now get rid of that class room picture that comes to mind. These class rooms have no electricity, no heat, no AC no fans, and just about nothing else. So all this luxury gives us is a refuge from any rain and a means of avoiding the direct sun. It is still not and humid, but out here we count our blessings in different ways.

We see about 200 folks today. The usual mix of all kinds of cases. Lots of various pains, lots of parasites, lots of infections, a few goiters, one or two recent stroke victims and an incredible amount of STD!

Our dispensary/pharmacy is working out the kinks of distribution and we all get into the groove and set a good pattern for the rest of the trip.

The prayer team meets a women today, who is a believer and tells them that God spoke to her last night and told her that she would be healed today, and that she should not leave the clinic until that happens. So she stays, until she is clear that she has been healed in full by God at the hands of this small group of Americans. Praise God!

Talk to you soon, time for dinner and then bed!