Child like faith

 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. Matthew 18:1-5

Today our challenge was to become child like, be like the children, have the faith of a child.  There were many opportunities where this came naturally for most of the group.  From VBS playing games and laughing with kids, playing ball outside, goofing off with some of the kids in the clinic, etc. Lots of fun around the mission today with the people coming through.  

Today, I spent most of my day in the optical clinic and it was very busy.  We saw over 80 patients!  Most of the receiving a prescription of some sort.  All of them very grateful and thankful for the ministry.  I found out how expensive even just readers are here in Tocoa, and it made me realize just how important this ministry is.  The local media showed up to do a story on the mission so that was kind of fun. I love that they spent time to capture all aspects of it and spent time talking to people.  I was interviewed about our ministry and it was later aired on tv live.  Just about all of our team ended up in the video so that was a fun thing.  

The hardest part of today was when I met a 27 year old lady who came in the clinic.  She had been told she had cataracts and thats is why she was nearly blind.  The moment I saw her eyes I knew that was not the case, but I didn’t really know much else about her.  I spent time talking with her and her mother.  I asked her how long she had been blind and her mother said around 10 months. I asked her if she was sick or had an injury or something to make her like this.  Her mother told me it happened when her sugars were too high and the last time she was tested they were around 600.  I immediately knew that she was diabetic and found out that she was not able to get the insulin she needed.  Her blindness could have been prevented altogether if she had been under a good regimen of diabetic medications.  There was very little I could do for in this case and we took her information and telephone number so we could try to find a way to help her.  We have been doing this with patients that have come in with cataracts, so we can try to set them up with eye surgeons in the near future.  I had a very emotional moment with her and her mother and my translator Franklin.  We hugged and prayed and said we would be in touch.  I then went to talk to Milton and Lorena to see if we could come up with a plan to help her.  We are working on getting her tested at the hospital to confirm her diabetes and then hopefully come up with a treatment plan for her.  I am hopeful that we can get her insulin at least for the next 4 months until we come back out.  We can then get her set up with the medical team to receive insulin regularly.  Lots of prayers for this situation.  Her blood sugar levels are very dangerous and she could slip into a coma.  Please keep her in your prayers.  

It is moments like these that make it hard to maintain that child like faith because it seem so unfair and unjust. But when they both exclaim that they have faith in God and that he will take care of them, its a good reminder and encouraging moment to maintain that childlike faith.  

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful in optical, just lots of patients coming through.  My volunteers were getting a little slap happy and having some goofy time in optical. It was nice to see.  

One of our missioners had the opportunity to spend some time in prayer and conversation with a group of moms.  This is something she is passionate about and it clearly made her day.  I was glad that she had that opportunity to do this.  

One group got to spend the afternoon doing home visits and even had a beautiful walk among the palm trees.  

It was a truly blessed day.  Its so hard to believe that our mission work has its last day tomorrow.  Its been an amazing time filled with friendship and love.  

Evening was spent together in devotion and song and sharing.  Great way to end the day! 

Blessings,

Shelley

Sue trying out the optical equipment

Shelley being interviewed by media



Our thousands of prescription glasses

Matt with translator Bessy doing the initial screening 

Shelley with Irma after getting her some glasses
Team at home visits

Playing soccer with a little boy on a home visit

Walking up the hill through the palm forest to a home visit

The home visit group 

At home visit

At home visit 





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