Prayers answered

Yesterday marked exactly 30 days since I returned from Christmas holiday. It's been a fairly busy 30 days with getting readjusted, welcoming my first guest to the island, and figuring out my revised schedule since the changes in the mobile clinic.   As I thought about this last month, I am extremely grateful for the many prayers answered.  Hopefully, many of you received my Christmas update letter that provided updates on my Praises and Prayer Needs. In case you don't remember, here it is below. 

So, let me testify about some of the prayers that have been answered already! Forming friendships when you are living outside of your home country is challenging for many reasons that are varied and complex. About 3 weeks ago, a lady stopped by the house and introduced herself. She was looking for someone to practice English with and I guess the word on the street was that the ladies who live in the corner house speak English. Small community, word travels I guess. Well, Melanie who is the superb English teacher extraordinaire is extremely busy, so this nice lady was introduced to me. Maybe Jewel can help. We chatted and exchanged some basic information and made a plan to meet. We have met together just 2 times so far, but our times of conversation have really been a blessing. My new friend is named Carola. She is a sweet Christian woman who happens to live just down the street. Our 2nd meeting/English lesson was really more of a devotion time. We read the Our Daily Bread devotion (www.odb.com) in English and discussed how it applied to our lives. Carola is also helping me with my Spanish so we are spending about half the time chatting in English and the other half chatting in Spanish. I count that as 2 prayers answered with one stone.

Another prayer need was the suspension of the medical clinic. Unfortunately the clinic has not yet been restarted, so please continue to pray. However, I'm thankful that one of the 3 staff members has found another employment, which means he and his family can stay in the country a while longer! He is super thankful to be working again in the medical field. This is temporary work, so please pray that a permanent opening will become available. For me, it's been really difficult not having a health focus as part of my ministry here. This week there has been a short term medical trip less than a quarter mile up the street from the school. The team is mostly Nurse Practitioners, Physicians and Dentist from Indiana Purdue University. I had the pleasure of working with them for 2 days this week. Oh the joy of doing patient care again! They were so surprised to find a FNP here and I was so grateful to God for sending them my way!

Thank you for partnering with me in prayer! I read once that we should make more of a habit of writing our prayer requests down so we can clearly see how God is answering our prayers. Try keeping a journal record of your prayer requests, like a prayer log, and start crossing off the many prayers that God is answering.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16 NIV

Stuck

Today marks 8 weeks since I arrived here in Santiago. I think it has all crashed down today and my shoulders feel heavy with the weight of it all. It's that moment when you are totally and utterly overwhelmed and you are at a loss of what to do next. That's exactly the point where I don't want to be, but yet here I am.  stuck. You know, unable to move, shut down, stagnant, at a dead end, helpless and just plain stuck.

Our mobile clinic has grown, yet you reach that point where you have to look at quantity and quality. We want to be able to serve people well. When Jesus fed the multitude they were well taken care of. He attended to not only their spiritual needs but their physical hunger as well. We want to care for our patients well...  there are those days that you meet patients who need specialty care, lab tests, imaging, etc, you don't have the right medicines or enough of the medicine and you just feel helpless.  How I wish for the IRIS system in Chicago to refer patients to the County Hospital. Yep, there was a LONG wait, but at least they were on the list, and at some point you knew their name would be called. Here, there is no list, there is no computerized referral system, no comprehensive referral network, there's NOTHING. So, what do you do with the patient who whispers that she is HIV positive, or the 18 year old with the history of thalassemia with a grade 4 systolic murmur that she says was never heard previously, or the 10 year old little girl who has a "ganglion cyst" with atypical symptoms like edema, decreased range of motion and pain. Let me not forget the many, many pregnant moms, who have no prenatal care, many of whom will deliver at home by themselves. You just feel stuck. What to do?

You pray. And pray. And pray. I'm starting to work on a resource list. Easier said than done, but I know there has to be other health ministries on the island. It's time to start looking for connections, people who will help and partner with us in providing care to our patients. It gets a little complicated by race relations on this lovely island. A large percentage of our patients are Haitian, and sometimes that feels like a bad word. I have a student who hides out in the other classrooms because the neighborhood kids pick on her that she has a Haitian teacher.  So, she doesn't want to be in my room anymore. yes, I know I'm not Haitian, but the bullies don't know that and that's all that matters to this 5 yr old. Besides, it shouldn't even matter!!!  Yes, Haitian can feel like a bad word to a kid and to many adults. .. There's also the kid who has a Haitian mom and a Dominican father. He decided last week that he was going to be Korean because he is tired of the teasing, and at least he would know "what" he is and can help people like our Korean pastors help people. This teasing at the school yard level has its root in the prevailing attitude towards the Haitian immigrant here. So, even though I'm looking for connections, you know, people who are on the ground already doing health ministry, yet, we have to make sure they are willing to see our patients, regardless of race.

At this moment, it feels like a big task, but I serve an even bigger God, who can give direction, vision, insight and provide what we need. Ministry here in the DR has been a blessing, but I have to be honest that today is one of those tough days. That's when I come to you, my friends, so, you can unite with me in prayer. The persistent prayer of the righteous will be effective. Here are some specific requests:

1. Pray for referral specialists who will collaborate with us and love our patients regardless of race.
2. Pray for laboratory services-- We desperately need access to some basic point of care testing and some simple hematology and chemistry panels, urinalysis, rapid HIV testing and follow-up. I'm praying for a Christian lab owner who will give our patients a discounted pricing and for increased financial resources to cover the costs of some in clinic testing.
3. Pray for strategic planning and vision for the mobile clinic.
4. Pray for race relations on the island.
5. Pray for financial resources. Pray about how God may use you to support one of these projects.
6. Pray that we will demonstrate Christ's love to all patients who trust us with their health needs.

I've been missing you.....

I have a weird confession to make..... I had a little internal leap of joy when I saw the medicines at the mobile clinic. Weird, I know. After 3 weeks of being away from LCHC and not doing anything healthcare related, I think I missed it. I didn't realize it, but as I was helping Dr Tony to unpack the meds for the mobile clinic, I found myself holding each box of Ranitidina and Nifedipina just a little too long. It was like my long lost toys had been found. I told you it was weird.....

Now, that I've confessed let's move on to the serious stuff.  One of my big prayer requests is figuring out how to get integrated into the mobile clinic. The role of Nurse Practitioner is not widely understood outside of the US, so I probably will not be doing direct patient care, at least not right away. I think my initial role will be in some education projects as patients are waiting to be seen. I need fun, interactive ways to get people involved and to cross the French-Spanish-Creole language barrier. I'm thinking that some of my activities from Centering Pregnancy can be modified to work for other educational topics. Please pray for innovative ideas that will work in this setting and an extra dose of creativity!!

Another idea is to integrate community health projects with the students in our school. I observed one day that the kids were washing their hands BEFORE going to the bathroom and not afterwards. Interesting I thought... so I inquired a little more about this practice.  I learned that many of our kids have parents who work in the landfills all day sifting through trash looking for anything that can be recycled, reused or sold for a few pesos. I really can't even imagine as my own brief peek into our trash barrell was frightening enough, let alone working in a landfill. Anyway, after being in the landfill all day the parents usually wash their hands before touching their body or going to the bathroom. Now that I understand the practice, it's figuring out how to tactfully work with our kids on this area of hand hygiene and to teach in a way that is practical and appropriate for kids going home to houses that don't have running water.