Monday November 14
This post was all written and ready to go last night and was lost during an Android tablet glitch. We had a wonderful first day's clinic, everyone was in bed and I had put in an extra hour telling the story of our day. This is my second attempt and I am now using a different method which has frequent automatic saves to prevent a recurrence of last night's disaster. I couldn't even use a phone right last night, my Skype calls to Adrienne and even cell phone calls all had problems, so I finally gave up and went to bed, comforted that at least Adrienne knew I had tried.
Back to Monday. Because it was the first day of the clinic, we needed to be breakfasted, have our daily devotion done and be on the bus by 6:30am. I did one of my favorite devotions from Oswald Chambers called "What is a Missionary" which has a main point of keeping the primary focus on the One who sent us, rather than the overwhelming needs and suffering of the people. This lesson is always valuable, particularly for new team members. I use this devotion at the start of every mission I am involved with. Upon arrival, our goal was to have the vision clinic setup, devotions done and up and running by 8:30. We hoped for a 9am start at the dental clinic and came close. As usual, it seemed like mass chaos for the first couple of hours of both clinics, which would have been true to the untrained eye. At all of our previous clinics, it took nearly a full day to get things tweaked out, especially with many new team members. Well before noon, things were starting to go very smoothly. On the dental side, I asked Dan and Mark to help figure out a better physical layout that would be more conducive to "second touches". They really came through. They turned the tent backwards and they had a banner hung that would shield waiting patients from seeing the clinic's outside aspects. The sight of patients getting numbed up and of surgeries and extractions being performed on the open porch had made it difficult for Pastor Kevin and I the previous year to keep clinic goer's minds on the Gospel message we were sharing. Dan and Mark have continued tweaking traffic control and the process and have been praying over each and every patient, along with occasional help from Josh, Risa and Pastor Dave. This is a first for any dental clinic I have been involved with and I am sure it will have eternal consequences for some who came today. We ended the day with 409 vision clinic patients treated and around 160 dental procedures performed
This post was all written and ready to go last night and was lost during an Android tablet glitch. We had a wonderful first day's clinic, everyone was in bed and I had put in an extra hour telling the story of our day. This is my second attempt and I am now using a different method which has frequent automatic saves to prevent a recurrence of last night's disaster. I couldn't even use a phone right last night, my Skype calls to Adrienne and even cell phone calls all had problems, so I finally gave up and went to bed, comforted that at least Adrienne knew I had tried.
Back to Monday. Because it was the first day of the clinic, we needed to be breakfasted, have our daily devotion done and be on the bus by 6:30am. I did one of my favorite devotions from Oswald Chambers called "What is a Missionary" which has a main point of keeping the primary focus on the One who sent us, rather than the overwhelming needs and suffering of the people. This lesson is always valuable, particularly for new team members. I use this devotion at the start of every mission I am involved with. Upon arrival, our goal was to have the vision clinic setup, devotions done and up and running by 8:30. We hoped for a 9am start at the dental clinic and came close. As usual, it seemed like mass chaos for the first couple of hours of both clinics, which would have been true to the untrained eye. At all of our previous clinics, it took nearly a full day to get things tweaked out, especially with many new team members. Well before noon, things were starting to go very smoothly. On the dental side, I asked Dan and Mark to help figure out a better physical layout that would be more conducive to "second touches". They really came through. They turned the tent backwards and they had a banner hung that would shield waiting patients from seeing the clinic's outside aspects. The sight of patients getting numbed up and of surgeries and extractions being performed on the open porch had made it difficult for Pastor Kevin and I the previous year to keep clinic goer's minds on the Gospel message we were sharing. Dan and Mark have continued tweaking traffic control and the process and have been praying over each and every patient, along with occasional help from Josh, Risa and Pastor Dave. This is a first for any dental clinic I have been involved with and I am sure it will have eternal consequences for some who came today. We ended the day with 409 vision clinic patients treated and around 160 dental procedures performed
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