El Salvador!

Last week, we had the great blessing of getting to head down to El Salvador to serve people on a medical mission trip through our church. Ten of us (3 nurses, 1 doctor and rest with a multitude of talents). We did 4 clinics throughout the week at different locations... saw over 500 people... and saw 69 people accept Christ. Though it was only a week long trip, it was an amazing time of caring for people medically in order to bring them in to be encouraged and drawn to Jesus. Each person on the team used their unique gifts to welcome people, care for people, and pray over people. I was impressed by how, though the team is different than the one last year, it was perfectly formed for this year. I also loved the fact that Chet and I finally had the chance to both use our skills as nurses on a trip like this... together!!! I look forward to more opportunities like this as we are both certainly drawn to doing this again in the future. I love how relationships grow when people (or spouses) serve together! Oh... and it would have been pretty hard to come home and be able to adequately explain the experience.

We went down through an Assemblies of God organization called King's Castle... quite the amazing campus where Master's Commission students (post high school age kids with a desire to learn in order to go into missions), mission teams, and other people are passionately serving the people of El Salvador. Of course, being a country with lots of gang involvement, there is a nice secure wall and guards keeping us safe... as is common in many places in El Salvador. We stayed in dormitory style rooms for the week (boys and girls separate) and enjoyed the beautiful grounds. Apparently it was a "cold spell" while we were there... it was in the upper 60s and windy at time despite the sun shining the whole time!

One of the resident monkeys.

Laura, Chet, myself and Mary down by the lake... soon after we got there.

The gate into the King's Castle compound.

View up toward the boy's dorm... and the hills.

Horses roam around... literally roam, eating garbage and chasing folks!

Myself and Leyra, one of our Master's Commission students for the week.

After a weekend of sorting pills, going to church and settling in, we took off on Monday for our first clinic. It was at a small church, up a winding road. Mira Flores seemed to be a caring community and we saw about 125 people that day. Chet quickly became the official giver of the injections (mostly vitamin B12 for the elderly) and I got to learn about seeing patients. First day I did more collaborating with Dr. Ed (since I didn't have an interpreter) and then, the rest of the week, I did get to see some patients each day. I think total Chet gave about 75 shots... all the little old ladies told him "God bless" and what a nice job he did after. I have a talented hubby!

The pharmacy... with Ed and Chet.

One sweet little boy who was sick and wouldn't wake up at first... we were a bit worried and then he started to look fine. Adorable, eh?

The next day, we did a clinic at King's Castle... to see people who live in the area. There is a weekly clinic for those with chronic health issues as well as some more acute issues, but the larger clinics are an opportunity for more people to be seen. Lots medicines we take for granted like Tylenol, Motrin, vitamins and more are in high demand as well as antibiotics and chronic medications. Emily, the 12 year old daughter of the missionaries we were working with (Tim and Pam), interpreted for me... she is a rock star!

After seeing patients, we decided to "swing" down to the lake... and fly off the trapeze into the water! I did it twice and it was great! I thought it would be much more scary than it was... and the water was actually quite warm despite how deep it was! Chet also went off once (though I was a bit paranoid since I didn't want any foreign lake water to go up his broken sinus and cause a weird infection).


The following day, we packed up the bus again and headed to the tent church... after a pit stop for a photo shoot at a view point. :)

Josh, Dr. Boris and Santos looking pretty cool...

At the tent church, a 16 year old boy with a septic hip who couldn't walk and was in intense pain received care and prayer. Pray for Kevin's healing as his family can't afford any other medical care...

I saw patients all day this day! It was great! Maybe I really can be a PNP!

The final day of clinics was in a poorer area called Las Delicias. We saw 151 people that day... including a huge amount of children! What a busy day but I know that some of the kids were very blessed by the care provided by each part of the team.

Ed drew pictures for all the kids...

I saw patients for the morning...

This was the appearance of the village as we walked to the church.

Our last day was actually a free day where we experienced a bit of culture and explored a bit.

We went to some Maya ruins where we discovered that historical site tour guides are similar in any culture or language...

Very old Mayan ruins...

Ate lunch at a little shop with a beautiful back garden... best surprise of the trip! Both our meals together cost $2.23... and it was very tasty!

Everyone decided we found the best place to eat that day...

Chet got his second $0.50 coconut of the day... he loves coconut water!

Lychee and coconut... yum...

Then we drove through the hills and the coffee plants on our way back... did you know that people only get paid $1 for 20-25 pounds of coffee? It is important to know where your coffee comes from!

Beautiful scenery....

That night at the farewell, we posed with both of our Master's Commission students... Leyra and Obed. They are both wonderful and such blessings to our whole team!

We loved our time with Tim and Pam, our missionary hosts; Dr. Boris, the most amazing doctor ever; Leyra and Obed, our Master's Commission students; and our whole team from All Saints. What amazing people of God and I know that we learned something from each and every one of them. We had great depth of conversations, fun and laughter and many memories... the only disappointment was that the trip wasn't longer!