Caravana de Amor

Wow. There's really not a better overused word to describe this week. This week was about exactly what I had in mind when I imagined medical missions almost a year ago. It's been like a short-term missions trip, except ten times better. First of all, we were spared the upfront cost of a short-term missions trip. Normally it costs quite a bit to actually get to the area, but this time, we were already in the country. All we had to do was drive for 4 hours. Secondly, it was better because we weren't just extra hands there to do free labor. Rather, we were skilled laborers, doing what we do best.

We had 3 doctors, a dentist, a pharmacist and a nurse practitioner who acted as our two pharmacists; another who took weights, heights, and counted pills, the organizer of the caravan who also assisted the dentist, a pastor who spoke Spanish and Quichua, and someone to take vitals and motive of consultation (me). The people from the community first took the biographical information for the people who arrived, took their $1 consult fee, and gave them a number. I then called the numbers and took their vitals and motive and reason for coming. I was working at just slightly faster than 3 times the speed of the doctors, which was perfect because we had 3 doctors. Once patients were being seen, there was hardly any backup anywhere. The patients would be seen by a doctor, where they were better able to explain their many ailments. They then were sent out with their diagnosis and any prescriptions from the docs. We had loads of medicine, much of which was free, and the rest of which we sold for pennies. The patient would normally leave with several different types of medicine, and their wallets would be only about a dollar fifty or so lighter. It was wonderful. From Tuesday to Thursday, we saw around 200 patients. We were a well-oiled machine.

All 3 nights, we had a meeting in the communities nearby. Tuesday and Wednesday, we showed the last hour of "The Jesus Film" in Quichua, stopping it in the middle for some praise and worship and a message by Manuel. It was quite fun to hear him speak. He mixed Quichua and Spanish. There were about 80 or so people these two nights. This is in spite of the rain we had on Tuesday (an outside meeting) and freezing temperatures. I had on a t-shirt, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and a fleece, and I was still cold (and yes, I was only about 100 miles from the Ecuador). On Wednesday, praise the Lord, 4 people came forward to receive Jesus as their savior!

One of the difficulties we faced while there was strong opposition by the local Catholic Church. In Punin, there is currently no Evangelical church. There is an Evangelical church central office, which is where we had our clinic, but there is no church. I'm going to try to explain this as delicately as I can, but I'm still afraid it won't come out right. It's rather disappointing, many times, to see the state of the Catholic Church here in Ecuador. It is far from what it could be. I am sad to see such strong opposition, because I know many correctly practicing Catholics who I look forward to seeing in Heaven one day. Sadly, much of what I see here is disappointing. The Catholicism practiced here has fallen much in the way of superstition. Catholicism is basically the national religion, if not officially, at least in practice. Every city has its patron saint, and Christian-type writing is everywhere from sides of houses to backs of trucks. However, much of what I see is superstition. In some ways, the statues and crosses I see around here remind me of Sri Lanka with its idols everywhere. It's sad to see people so steeped in tradition and superstition that they forget to follow the very teachings found in the Bible. I feel Isaiah 44:19 describes the general Ecuadorian pretty well: "No one stops to think," (read it in context to find out exactly what it's saying).

Punin is almost entirely Catholic, and strongly opposed to the Protestants or Evangelicals. I guess the Catholic Church tried to boycot our caravana (It apparently didn't work very well, though, because I also heard that about 90% of the people who came were from Punin). As we were returning from our service one night, we saw a cross on a corner with candles burning in front of it, signs from the Catholic Church seeming to say, "We're still here, and we've been praying against you." As I understand it, the candles are supposed to repeat the prayer for as long as the candle is burning. Thursday night, when we had a really big meeting of several Evangelical churches, the Catholic Church also decided to have a Mass. No, they don't normally have Mass on Thursday, but this day was different.

We certainly had to fight Satan on this trip. He did NOT want us there. One of the greatest examples of his presence was on Thursday night. I briefly mentioned above that we were having a meeting of several Evangelical churches from the area. It was a very large event that we had outside in the town square, which also just happens to be next to the Catholic church. We had a fairly large sound system, and were having a wonderful meeting for a while. There were several musical numbers, and some praise and worship, none of which I understood because it was all in Quichua. Then Miguel, our pastor, got up to speak. He started, and he started strong, like he always does. However, just a couple minutes in or less, I saw sparks fly from a nearby transformer box, and all the power in the block went out. This was at night, and the crowd was big enough that he needed the microphone to really be heard well. Manuel continued in his booming voice, but it was still hard to hear. He gave an invitation during all this, but it was so hard to hear and so confusing when the power went out, that I don't know how well it was received or how well he was heard. As far as I saw, no one came forward. A little bit later, we drove our caravan truck over and used the generator that's in the main truck to power the rest of the night (albeit with a bit less volume), but damage had already been done.

We finished the evening with what was apparently some sort of women's choir musical competition. They were all in their traditional clothes, and each group performed about a minute-long song.

One of the highlights of this trip was, for me, the kids. There were several little kids around who I was able to befriend and just love on the whole week. On Tuesday, we didn't have as many patients as the other two days, so we finished a little early and I got to play Frisbee with a couple of the kids. These kids also came to all our events and were basically just with us the whole week. Probably some of my favorite times were when I just got to stand their with my arm around one of them watching "The Jesus Film" or the speaker for the meeting or something else. One of the little boys, Jonathan, was about 6 years old and was the perfect size for my arms to wrap well around him. It certainly made me miss my little sisters all the more. It was wonderful to be there for the whole week so we could actually make friends with the people and really show them love.

I feel like there's so much more I could say about this little mini-trip. This week was incredible. I was once again reminded of the need in this country. It was wonderful to be able to help so many people and especially to be able to use my skills. I have to admit, my ears do hurt a bit after taking 200 vitals. It was kinda fun, though, to be one of the better Spanish speakers on the trip. Praise the Lord for how much He has helped me in that area. I made some new friends, volunteered my time and skills, shared some great experiences, and had a great adventure.