Where's the comments?

We are falling into bad habits friends and family. I may have lost my satirical wit in recent writing, but you shouldn't take it out on my blog... what did it ever do to you? - besides waste your time with ranting and raving. It's kinda like asking someone how their day was; everyone wants to be asked. Only your not really asking about my day, but commenting on how cool my blog is and my sweet man-beard.

To catch you up to date... this past Wednesday was another clinic day across the line. We saw 80 patients in the span of 5 hours! It was the usual setup where the patient gets registered, then triaged, seen by a doc, sit with the pastor, and then finally to the pharmacy. At the end of the day, the pastor of the church where we were working said 24 people received Christ! Its not a numbers game, but God is working in their hearts. I've been trying to not focus on how many actually receive Christ, but looking at it from the perspective that 80 people we prayed with and will be followed up with by that Church.


Yesterday was another door-t0-door session in Tx. Everyone on the team was so tired all morning and honestly didn't really feel like going out. I guess I can't speak for everyone (even though others told me that), but that is certainly how I felt. God is so good though, because as we gathered our materials, got in our groups, and prayed for our time going door-to-door we all felt renewed and refreshed. God gave us the energy. It is a great reminder that it is God's work and we are only the means by which he works. I had the opportunity to speak with one gentleman at the first house Jess, Sunna, and I stopped. First, we did his BP and BS. So far at SMI, he had the highest BS reading at 562. For those who aren't sure if that is high or not... thats REALLY high. We are doing random BS testing - as opposed to fasting BS testing - so we want the number to be below 200. He said he really wasn't feeling that poorly, but noted some blurry vision, frequent urination, and unsatiable thirst (all symptoms of high BS). When someone's BS is this high and they are unable to rehydrate themselves appropriately, the concern is that they may go into Diabetic Ketoacidosis or Hyperosmolar Non-Ketoacidosis, either of which can be fatal. After we addressed the medical needs - told him to follow-up with a doctor in 24hrs and if he feels worse to go to the ER - we started talking about his faith. I had the opportunity to share the gospel with him and he understood some of it, but didn't really understand the big picture of our needing Jesus' death on the cross. I didn't really know where else to take the conversation and by God's awesome grace, the translator working with us - Jorge - started his own conversation with the man and left me out of it. I was happy to sit back and let him handle it. As a quick aside, I am so thankful for the translators. They are so gracious in giving up their time (they are all volunteers) and helping us. I might know a little big about medicine, but it is all for not because I can't communicate that with anyone who speaks spanish. They are definitely a huge asset. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of listening to a conversation between Jorge and the guy, not understanding anything other than 'Se' (yes), Jorge turns to me and says, "He wants to be sure he goes to heaven today and accept Christ." So we prayed together and set up a time a pastor from the church we were working with could come back to visit.

Despite being physically worn down, God is giving us the strength to carry on. He is doing a great work down here. Please continue to pray for both of these things. This weekend we head to South Padre Island for 'return training.' Pretty much we have workshops and conferences on how to take what we have experienced and learned back to our campuses. Please also pray for continued unity on the team. Thank the Lord there haven't been any large dissensions or fights - as far as I know - but this is only by God's grace. We are all seeing the sin in each of our lives as more days pass and we grow more weary.