Time moves so incredibly fast!! We have been home a week already. It was so strange to walk into my house that had been harboring tools and supplies and excitement for over a month…only to find it clean. And silent. Just like that. It is all a memory.
Just some final thoughts and pictures that I wanted to share from my time on the ground in El Salvador.
Teamwork…
A concept created and ordained by God. He talked about it often in the Bible.
Our team met for a one hour zoom meeting a few weeks before we left. We knew what our skill sets were and what we could bring to the table. When we showed up, we all had a common goal…to serve the people in El Salvador. It’s crazy how seamlessly it all fell into place. It also never ceases to amaze me at how quickly and easily it is to embrace and befriend people when you are on the same team, each working in their gift for a common purpose.
But the team didn’t consist of only the people in the pictures…the team also consisted of those who answered the call to provide supplies, hand over cash and checks, and those that were faithful to pray over the team, the work being done, and the souls we encountered. God orchestrated His church to function like this as well!! In the capital C Church, we are working together on a team full of people that we haven’t met yet…as well as serving with team members that we know and love. We all have different jobs to do…but our goal is the same…to serve others in the name of Jesus and to make His name and His promise known.
First world problems.
I find that each time I return from El Salvador…or even from inner city Dallas…it takes me time to reintegrate into medicine and cultural life. For 8 days I have not been able to flush my toilet paper. Paper towels aren’t a thing. I can’t rinse my mouth or my toothbrush from the faucet. And you don’t dare forget that for even an instant. Air conditioning in a tropical area isn’t normal. Health care is difficult to get. And medications, tho there are pharmacies on every block, aren’t easily attained by most of the people we care for.
So it often takes me a few days to resume being a compassionate human when people are complaining about trivial health problems, having access to care and medicine but choosing not to desire any changes other than adding another pill to a long list of chronic daily meds, or complaining about social and cultural woes that most of the rest of humanity knows nothing of.
I’m always schooled in REAL joy..like the joy of a little girl and a pretty dress…or an otherwise forgotten inmate having undivided attention for 5 minutes. I’m schooled in REAL problems…like no access to clean water and losing your children to gangs. I’m schooled in REAL world poverty and suffering. And I’m completely schooled in the fact that WE have sooooo much…and THEY have so little…reminded that we use our money to pour upon frivolous things around us that won’t last (thinking the latest fashions, proms and graduation parties-both of which are coming up in my world, and a million other first world things). One statement that has gained a permanent place in my soul is this…7-8 year old chatty boy that I was talking with. I asked him if he rides his bike to school. DUMB. Innocent eyes furrow a moment. He cocked his head and looked at me a little sideways…”Bicicleta? Yo no tengo,” and continued to answer my question. But I didn’t hear the answer. Because all I could think was BICYCLE…he doesn’t have one!!! Of course he didn’t. Neither did any of the other little ones. Not where we were. It didn’t phase him though.
He was just stating the facts. To the crazy curly headed gringa who, for a moment, automatically returned to first world economy. No bicycles, but they were stoked about the new sunglasses…
And a frisbee that they didn’t have to leave at the school.
I think about this precious servant of Christ that works every day seeing patients in an un air conditioned office in a tough part of town…economically and physically. He has no back up help. If he wants to be gone he closes his clinic. He has a small supply of medications to dispense from his office that are provided by generous donors from somewhere else. He provides it for very low cost. He has some testing…but very few can actually afford the $5-20 it might take to get the lab. Same things I would order for $900 here in our country. Unfortunately, I can’t even imagine not being able to do diabetes testing on the regular. Or any type of testing to tease out what type of problem we are treating. Crippling in some cases. But it’s what he knows. And it’s what he is used to. And he shows up every day to care for the bodies and souls of those people that seek him out for help. God reminded him this week that he is doing good work. That He sees him there. And that He supplied people to help ease his burden a little bit last week.
Hear me say this. I don’t believe that it is wrong to enjoy the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. BUUUT…I believe there are things that we can do better to alleviate the hardships incurred by others. We are in a crisis of people coming to our country illegally…but when nations see how frivolously we live…is it any wonder that they might dream about it for their families. Is it?
My heart is always left longing for the day when Jesus makes all things new. When there is no corruption in leadership and government. When there is no oppression of the poor by the rich (and by rich…I also mean each of us right here right now…are we using our assets and resources to lend to real world needs (not wants like uniformes or cookies). I long for the day when there are no more tears, no more sickness, no more death…and the day when we will eat only the food God provides that will truly nurture our bodies. But until then, the question is, how can we help today? I’m certain there are many ways we can.
The reality is…
I feel the sting of my perceived injustice of it all…but, just as I have done in the past, I will slowly fall back to sleep again too. Lulled to lethargy by my own desires for stuff, comforts, and my own selfish way…until the next time that God jolts me awake. My plea is that I would continue to be rocked by the realities in a way that would keep me motivated and mindful to be intentionally working to do my part to do the things Jesus has tasked me to do.
It’s one of the reasons that I won’t rest my burning eyes each night as I journal the day. Sleep is all I want…but I know that with each hour that passes, and each circumstance that stacks on top of the one before…I am more likely to miss the moments that God needs me to sit with. I want to see and understand what He is doing. And I believe that I have also been tasked by God…to soak it up, process it, and put it into words for whoever reads along. WE ARE the TEAM!! God has blessed you as well…to do something. I don’t know what that looks like. But my prayer is that you will. That each one would ask God what He needs from your experience with our story here. How can we make a difference?
Simplicity.
Medicine in a third world country is also more simple. My office in the balcony of the treetops was pretty refreshing. All the tools I had fit in that red bag. My charting system was a quarter piece of scrap paper. My medication choices were limited to a two sided page of listed options.
I’m the queen of making things harder than they have to be. But for a work week, the simplicity of the system was refreshing. Looking out my office window this week left me longing for falling mangoes, sweat rolling between my shoulder blades (I know what you THOUGHT I was gong to say), and longhorn bulls meandering between the pharmacy table and an exam station. Only in Gods world could simplicity be such a paradox of emotion…simplicity makes medicine harder but easier all at the same time. Maybe it’s because the priority is caring for and loving people…and when I can get beyond the details and the unknowns, I can care on a different level!
I’m so very humbled and glad that God has offered me opportunities to serve in a capacity such as this…and I want to steward the opportunity for the glorification of what He is doing in me…through me…and in those people that I serve, and serve with!!
Gods economy.
At the end of the day, God has created our bodies to heal. He has given us ways to exercise our bodies, ways to rest our bodies, ways to feed our bodies, and ways to nurture our bodies. Sickness is rampant across the world. Why? Because we have left the protection of the umbrella that God sheltered us with. We have decided that frozen pizzas have to be consumed because we don’t have time to cook…that Oreos and Cheetos are better nourishment than oranges and celery…that water “doesn’t taste good” (in your best whiny voice) because it doesn’t taste like Pepsi or chocolate milk or apple juice.
We don’t exercise because we don’t have time, and many of us have jobs that require us to move one finger on the mouse all day long, and little else moves.
Furthermore, we are ingesting toxins on the regular from our food, from the new carpet in our house, from the traffic in our streets and the chemicals flying through our air.
And if that isn’t enough, our bodies are chronically in fight or flight mode 24/7…not knowing that we aren’t running to avoid becoming dinner for a lion…we are just running 15 minutes late for the next appointment on our obscenely overpacked schedules.
It’s. Too. MUCH.
But in Gods economy, He doesn’t force us. Choices are ours. Satan is the master crafter of adulterated food, distracting schedules, and our 50,000 reasons we can’t care for our bodies. For those of us that have accepted Christ as our savior, these bodies are NOT ours. We are borrowing them for a lifetime of service to the One who owns them. When we are sick. When we are distracted. When we are spiritually lethargic…Satan is winning. He helps us get our eyes focused on ourselves…and that takes them off of Jesus and the things He created us to do.
In a world that is becoming more and more complicated, the answers are surprisingly simple. Our health…the health of our country…the health of the world around us…could all be improved with the awareness of the danger we are in…and the mindfulness that the choice is ours. The choice of health in many cases is OURS!! We just don’t choose well. And in some cases, we aren’t in a position to choose well.
But more than anything else from this trip…
I know that THAT God…the One who designed color palates like this…the One who tells the ocean how far it can go…the One who tells the sun when to come up. That God wants to use me…and He wants to use YOU for things waaaay bigger than ourselves. Will you seek His face for those answers? Will you obey when He says to pack your bag, cook a meal, make eye contact and speak, or write a check?
God doesn’t need you to go across the world to answer this question. He just needs each of us to listen in our here and now.
Again, I appreciate so much the way God has used many of you in my life…for the financial support, the prayer support, the kind words spoken to me and the interest shown in our trip. Thanks for following along as I used this space to process out loud what God showed me through my week in El Salvador.
I know that this isn’t the rest of my story…nor is the rest of your story. May God use my observations and personal lessons and journaling to spark an awareness in your mind, that will ignite a fire in your soul. One that opens your eyes and your mind to what God might be calling you to do or be part of!! And if He does, I do hope you will share your story with me!! Until next time!! God bless!
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