More reflections from the Medical Mercy team in India. Although the internet is too intermittant to allow for many pictures, we are grateful to nurse Anne Braudt for the word-pictures she paints. Here are a few haunting glimpses into the clinics and the surrounding environs.

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A new update from the medical team in Orissa, India, who are seeing just why one child matters.

Expect the unexpected. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. It’s never what we think. And that is what the day was like. Not the flow of the clinic, nor the attitude of the team, or the dynamics of seeing another 300 patients today, but it was the patients.

Smaller in stature than yesterday, a little sicker, and their stories that were far from the norm. There were a lot of wonderful ones, children being seen, hugged, sung to and with, prayed with, and played with. That was the majority. The evidence of compassion and love for the children we saw was everywhere.

But like it or not, it is the occasional unexpected encounter or worst case scenario that puts the whole day into perspective. That things happened and whether we like it or not, we are faced with it to deal with. Three children stood out:

One child whose only complaint was that he was depressed. He lives in boarding house for children who are single or double orphans (one or both parents having died). He received news in the manner of a letter addressed to him that his father died recently.

Another child had with him a picture of his parents taken a while back. He was 10 years old. He showed me the picture and asked me if I had seen them or knew anything about them. He hadn’t seen them in 5 years. He woke up one day and they were both gone. He lived in the street until he found a home in the village that we were in. He was taken in by a kind family. I looked at the picture and couldn’t find the words to speak. I simply shook my head no. He shook his head as well as he silently cried. I hugged him and prayed with him. He left, the picture still clutched in his hand.

And the third child 6 years old. I asked her if I could take her picture and if I could show others to witness to her that she was as much a child to be valued and recognized by all. She was hesitant at first, but then said yes. Burned by falling into a pot of boiling water at the age of 3, she survived as you see her here. She told me that she won’t look in the mirror. She is the daughter of a fisherman and his wife, the lowest class of a caste system in this region. Poorer than poor.

She was not a Mission of Mercy sponsored child, but one of the children in the village who came to us for medical care. I realized that if she wasn’t embraced and surrounded by a loving community, she would be lost to the world. Never marrying, being ridiculed, and maybe even worse -- being taken advantage of, or even taking her own life later on.

Mission of Mercy has a vision and mission to care for those children who are less than fortunate, to prove that one child matters. This child is one of them. She is now a Mission of Mercy child, and sponsored. I am humbled to be able to be part of her life from now on.

In all things give thanks,

David

Another update from Dr. Beyda on Medical Mercy's first day of clinics in India:

Sometimes we’re focused on the big picture…and lose sight of the details.

The big picture: 300 patients today, day one of clinic. Due to the incredible pre-planning of the India support staff, we set in motion a medical clinic with both old and new members getting into the swing of things very quickly.

Dental hygiene, water filtration, first aid education on one tract, nutritional assessment in another. Medical exams in a third tract, and pharmacy dispensing meds in their tract. A total of 50 people making this happen. The US team, Indian support team, interpreters, teachers, and helpers all working together to see 300 children. That was the big picture.

Now focus. Stunting affects over 60 million children India. Stunting is when the child’s height does not match the age. Short, small, little growth, and nutritionally depleted. In this picture you see Jeremy on the right, a healthy 13-year-old US boy. The Indian boy next to him is also 13. He is one of 60 million children in India who are stunted. Can we help? Not in the sense of getting him to grow anymore, but we can simply assure him that despite his size, he is as valuable a member of the community as anybody else. We did that. He smiled, became animated and we focused. On him.

Polio is still prevalent in India despite the availability of vaccines. Poor compliance and a lack of awareness and education yields what we see here. A brace, old style, bulky, uncomfortable, worn for life. No physical therapy. She asks if there is a way to make her leg stronger. The hard answer is no. What we can do is make her life more comfortable by getting here a new brace, one that is light weight, comfortable and less obtrusive. We’re working on that.

Focus. We did alright for the first day. The big picture is clear. There are a lot of children here who need to be cared for. Mission of Mercy is doing that. It is the details of the picture, the areas of the picture that are difficult to see that Medical Mercy is focusing on. The individual child, their needs, and how they live as it relates to their health care.

We’ll stay focused the rest of the week and look closely at those who we come to serve. Our eyes will be strained as a result, but our hearts will be filled.

In all things give thanks,
David

Medical Mercy is starting the new year right where they left off: bringing hope and health to children in our projects around the world. Dr. Beyda is asking for prayer for this trip. Here are the details:

Tomorrow we leave for India. A team of 18, medicines, equipment and excitement.

We’ll be in the southern part of India along the coast off the Bay of Bengal based in a small town called Puri, population 150,000. Puri is well known as a pilgrimage site for Hindus with their many gods. That will tell you something.

We’ll be going to 4 projects seeing the children and the villagers, expecting about 500 patients a day, diseases and illnesses common to the areas in an underdeveloped country.

We’ll be running simultaneous “tracts of care” in each: nutritional assessments, first aid training, implementing a water filtration system, medical examinations and treatment, and vitamins and de-worming medicines for all. It’s amazing to see the tracts running in parallel, patients moving from one tract to the another, and finally exiting with an opportunity for spiritual counseling.
 
We all know the saying “what are we bringing to the table?” when we talk about negotiations and relationships. What is it that we “bring” that will be valuable to the other person? In this case, it’s obvious. Medical care, pure water, vitamins, first aid kits, and prayer.

But here’s where I like to go a little off the path. I am always aware of “what we bring,” but I am more acutely aware of “what we leave behind.” It is the memories, the interactions, the changed lives, the improvement of what sometimes is just an existence for those we meet.

It is the power of prayer, the introduction to a God who is singular in His reign, and at times the new believer that we leave behind. And so it begins tomorrow. We’re bringing much…I’m excited to see what we leave behind. Be with us.
 
In all things give thanks,
 
David

When we are in a country that has values different from what we believe in, we need to begin to understand our purpose: to serve, to be humble and to be compassionate. To all. Regardless.

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How bad does it have to get for us before we throw in the towel?

When people have so little, how do you know if you made a difference? Is it in the first aid training, the water filter, the medications? Or is it something else entirely?

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Today was a sucessful day for the medical team in Bangladesh. The medicines finally arrived and what's even better is that they were able to get them into the country without paying any fees! Isn't it amazing how God always comes through for his people?

The internet is slow and inconsistent, but Dr. Beyda was able to send us a short update on how today's clinics went.

Six vehicles, 30 people, one and a half hour ride and a river crossing by ferry, is how we started the day today. Chalna is an isolated community that hasn't seen medical care in over 15 years. The children were malnourished, some sickly, but all were laughing and smiling nonetheless. Prayer was the order for the children. 

It was for us as well. A Hindu woman came to Christ, others heard, and wondered if we really were who we said we were. Servants. And we served. 200 medical patients, 19 dental patients (it takes a while to extract teeth; Dr. Bob and Diane were at it constantly). Public health education, dental hygiene, water filtration system training, first aid training, nutritional assessments, medical examinations, and dental work were all being done simultaneously with the team taking on all facets of health intervention and training in a distant remote village in the southern part of Bangladesh. A ballet of sorts, one continuous act, and an encore.

We came to a village and within 6 hours left them with a chance for a better life. A bold, ambitious undertaking, and perhaps a little glorified, but it worked. There is nothing better than the see the smile after something is given freely and taken freely as well, no strings attached. Unconditional love I believe it's called.

In all things give thanks,

David

 Thank you for your prayers for the team so far- keep them coming!

Please keep the Medical Mercy team in your prayers! They are having a very rough start as they begin their work in Bangladesh this week. Dr Beyda shared the following on his blog:

So much for blogging good news. This will be short just to give you an idea of what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. Short synopsis: we left Phoenix for Chicago, picked up the rest of the team, left Chicago for Abu Dhabi, drained the fuel tanks on the plane there due to head winds, stopped in Kuwait to refuel, got to Abu Dhabi late, missed our connecting flight to Dhaka, got a flight to Karachi, Pakistan in order to catch another flight to Dhaka, (or we could of stayed in Kuwait overnight...who wanted to do that-not!), got to Karachi, connecting flight to from Karachi to Dhaka delayed, spent 10 hrs in a transit area in Karachi, finally getting to Dhaka after leaving Phoenix 42 hours earlier, and got all our luggage but none of the 15 boxes of meds and supplies (almost 800 lbs of needed stuff). That's it. Done. Nothing we can do about it.

The team spent the night in Dhaka and left early this morning for a 6 hour drive to the first clinic with the dental stuff, public health education stuff, nutritional assessment stuff, a few pills here and there that team members had in their personal belongings and stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs. They are going to run a clinic as best they can. I on the other hand am still in Dhaka waiting to go back to the airport this afternoon to see if the meds come in on the next flight. If they do, I make an 8 hour drive to the south of Bangladesh to catch up with the team sometime very late tonight. If the meds don't arrive....well, I don't really know what I'm going to do. The troubles we've seen. The anxiety of it all. The unexpected. The not knowing. It is what it is. And with all that I still say, in all things give thanks. 
David 

Child sponsorship can help alleviate the difficult choices some parents feel they have to make... but for some children, intervention must occur much earlier.

To learn more about how Mission of Mercy helps even the smallest children in need, you can visit baby Elaine in the New Life Home.

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In one of the most remote areas that Mission of Mercy works, a man’s name is given new meaning as God equips him for service. How one man became a healer of a different sort, and what that means for the people of Turkana...

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What difference does sponsorship make? Dr. Beyda shares another post about Medical Mercy's time in the Weliso area, about the visible difference between sponsored children and others int he community, and how a family welcomed them into their home.

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Another short update from Dr. Beyda as the Medical Mercy team wraps up its clinics in Ethiopia. Just how good are the newly trained Health Care Workers?

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Medical Mercy continues to serve the children in several of our Ethiopia projects through their clinics this week.

For a glimpse of a clinic, here are some images from their time in the community of Zeway.

With several clinics in Weliso and Addis Ababa ahead of them, the team continues to ask for prayer. Thank you for joining us in lifting them up to our God who cares so deeply for His children! 

A short text update from Dr. Beyda:

Zeway Day 2 of clinic: Still no internet or phone data service. Maybe we'll have service tomorrow as we head north thru Addis Ababa towards Weliso.

Today was a little different. Children and adult patients, and many were HIV positive. Sickness prevailed, hope scarce. The Health Care Workers did well, seeing the limits of what we could do and what should be done. More to come once we have internet, but for now all is as expected and the team is doing well.

David

Medical Mercy's efforts in Zeway are much needed. A major highway cuts through this community; the high rate of HIV infections makes it plain that more than marketable goods travel this route.

Please pray for this community, that those who were treated today can know that God cares deeply for them, that a physical and emotional healing is realized through the work of the clinic and the child development center staff. Please continue to pray for the Medical Mercy team as they travel to Weliso, another city south of Addis Ababa.

Dr. Beyda was able to send a small post this evening (morning in Ethiopia) about their time so far:

It's about 4:30 am here in the small community of Zeway. Sleep is elusive. I can't help thinking of the 150 children we saw yesterday, many of whom were orphans, some with TB, more with suspected HIV, a few malnourished, and all living in poverty. But all were smiling. Big smiles. Happy to be alive.

I am envious of their attitude, their acceptance of the life they live and the hope they have. I wonder how we would be if we lived their life? With the earthquake in Japan, we are awakened once again to our vulnerability. With what we are seeing here in Ethiopia, we are awakened once again to the blessings we've been given. In a few hours we'll be back in clinic giving of ourselves, thankful for the chance, but realizing how vulnerable we are as well.

In all things give thanks,

David

We hope to post another update from the team soon. In the meantime, know that your support plays a large role in bringing smiles to those little faces. Thank you!

Cell phone and internet service is limited where Medical Mercy is serving in Ethiopia, but Dr. Beyda and the team have texted us about the first day of clinics. God is faithful!

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On Thursday we asked for prayer regarding our Medical Mercy team and a last-minute change in visa requirements. Dr. Beyda gives us an update on their arrival and how much of their medical supplies got through customs...

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Urgent prayer needed for the Medical Mercy team that leaves for Ethiopia tomorrow. Dr. Beyda spells out the situation with several specific (time-sensitive) requests. Will you pray with us?

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The needs of Haiti may seem overwhelming, but we are strengthened when we see how God has worked through you and your prayers. Click the link below to get a better idea of all that we've done in Haiti, and don't miss the video message from Haiti at the end!

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As the Medical Mercy team wraps up its final days in Haiti, we look at the program as a whole. Did you know that Medical Mercy provides more than health clinics?

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