Pastor Ruben and his church know what they are doing! They are organized and prepared for each day we arrive, no matter what the activity. Yesterday was a day full of activity in every inch of this church property.
We arrived in the early morning and many of the young people at the church were already on site, getting things ready for our medical clinic. There was a section set up with a speaker and a microphone so that as people entered, they could hear a salvation message. Next, there was a waiting area where they would wait for their turn to be called for treatment. There was a small triage table, a table to give away reading glasses and do a short vision test, a waiting area inside one of the buildings, a place for the dentist to see patients and two rooms for medical treatment.
We divided the Lakeshore team in half and Jim, Pastor Gil, Pastor Robert, Carson, Robbie, and Derek went to the work site area of the church to continue working on the building project. It was a big day full of cement and more cement. They worked for hours, mixing and pouring and mixing and pouring cement. When I walked back there at the end of the day to see them, Pastor Gil looked like someone had thrown a bucket of cement all over him. He loved every minute of it and said he stood in the splash zone too long so he was absolutely covered! The men were picking up huge buckets of rocks, sand, water and cement to put into the cement mixer. These buckets are heavy and we have learned from years past that if you don’t protect your forearms as you are lifting buckets, that you will end up black and blue from your wrist to your elbow as you rest the buckets on your forearm to get leverage to pour them into the cement mixer several feet off the ground. Last year both Jim and Pastor Gil were completely purple over their arms. This year they got smart and they taped pieces of broken plastic to their forearms so that as they lifted the heavy buckets of materials, their forearms weren’t carrying the weight of those buckets but it was distributed over the plastic instead. What a difference that made! They were still a little bruised but it was nothing like last year!
The other half of the team worked the medical side. As people entered into the church grounds, they first went to the listening area and were given a word from the Lord. One of the young adult leaders spoke to each one with a microphone and a large speaker so that everyone could hear the salvation message. From there they went to the waiting and triage area where Karina worked to take their pulse and their blood pressure. They were handed a piece of paper and one by one they filtered through to Ann who was in the waiting area. She wrote down all of our records and made sure each patient was recorded and ready to go. From there, the patients went to either Elsie and Mark, Elsie translating and working with patients as Mark worked in checking each one or to Genelle and Dana, Genelle translating and Dana doctoring. The doctors decided on a course of treatment, whatever medicine we had purchased in advance and had on hand was distributed, and then they were sent out. Once they left the exam rooms, they went and saw the dentist and the doctors dictated to Ann the course of treatment while Elsie and Genelle took in the next patients. If they needed reading glasses, they went outside and were outfitted with a pair before they left by another young adult from the church. We went on like that for almost seven hours with a short break for lunch but not any other rests for many, many hours straight. It was busy and we moved lightening fast and were able to see all of the patients that walked into the church yesterday, a total of eighty patients in one day. It was amazing to be a part of!
All of the medical portion was punctuated by wheelbarrows passing through carrying more sand and more rock to the work site. The young adults from the church jumped in and and helped with organization, spreading the message of Christ to the people, helping to note blood pressure and the pulse of each patient. Maribel and her assistant were in the kitchen working on our lunch so we could take a break to eat mid-day. Others brought us a quick cup of cafe con leche to warm us up. Kisha was all over the place, taking photos and videos and catching moments so that they could be shared with you. It was a picture of how the Kingdom here on Earth is supposed to function. Every person has their part to play. If any one person had decided they didn’t want to do their job or fulfill their calling, nothing would have gone as smoothly as it did. It was only as each person operated in their calling for the day that we were able to accomplish what God had for us to accomplish. Looking back, we can see how God had orchestrated each moment of the day, each person’s assignment and each moment we spent in our own area of ministry.
During the devotion time, Dana shared Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” God really spoke to Dana about this verse and she shared a revelation with us all. The feet were the beautiful things…not the mouth. Sometimes we think that the only way we can bring good news is with our mouths. That’s not the case. It’s the beautiful feet, not the mouths that the verse speaks of. The feet are being used by each person in each job. They may not be speaking, they may be using their hands more than their mouths, they may be praying in the background, but they all have feet that have brought them to where they are supposed to be and where they are supposed to go. It’s the beautiful feet that bring the good news in whatever capacity God has called them to serve. Yesterday, those beautiful feet came in the form of cooks, laborers, doctors, interpreters, photographers and preachers. Yesterday each person working as they were called to work were able to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all of those people. Isn’t God a master architect? Even in our callings, he perfectly designs us for what He needs to accomplish. We only need to be obedient to what He has called us to do and He will bring about the harvest as only He can.
What a beautiful day we had yesterday that was designed by a beautiful savior. God’s fingerprints are all over our moments and our days here in this country. We walk into so many situations without knowing what we will encounter…but our God knows and He doesn’t leave out one-minute detail. He is faithful and we can trust Him to order our days as we are obedient to Him.