A Day in Pharmacy


Today I had the opportunity to work in the pharmacy area helping get all the medications ready for the patients coming through the clinic.  There are a variety of medicines and some common ones that are sent home with people.  Vitamins, Tylenol & Ibuprofen being some of the basic stuff but also parasite medication and blood pressure meds as well as insulin shots being distributed here and there. Pharmacy is a busy place that does not stop.  Even at lunch we took shifts to make sure that the flow keeps going and everyone gets the medications they need.  Today we saw over 300 patients in the clinic.  It was a busy day!  

Even though it is busy and everyone is tired, people take the time to talk to one another, people are still smiling and having fun.  

Tonight people shared stories of their day and one particular story stood out for me.  It was one of our doctors who was talking about how towards the end of the day when they were so exhausted and the patients just seemed never ending the line, they had an elderly lady who came in to see them with one of her grandchildren.  She has had 15 children over her life time and today only a few are still alive.  Last year she lost 4 of her children due to various reasons.  She was really struggling with this and was obviously depressed.  At that point the doc and translator sat back and realized that they needed to take the time to listen to this women and just be there for her.  It wasn’t about getting through the line and getting her moving along so they could see the next patient, it was about showing her support and love and anything else they could do to try to bring some peace to this women.  They spent time in prayer with her and everyone’s spirits were lifted a little after spending this time together.  

So much of mission work can easily get caught up in the “task” at hand and getting through the numbers and making sure we see all the people we need to see, but that’s not the point of the work we do.  We can’t possibly help everyone out there.  

Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14

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