clinic day 5

"therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." -Matthew 28:19

friday, august 6th: day 5 at the clinic

after breakfast, we packed up our suitcases and got onto the bus. we said goodbye to our san miguel comfort inn and headed to the clinic.

the line of people wasnt quite as long, which made us feel better since we planned to stop around noon. unfortunately, we still ended up turning people away, starting around 10:00am. eric secrist actually went out and started giving away vitamins and parasite pills to those that were not able to get into the clinic. it was upsetting to think that we had to tell people to leave, but there was not much that we could do with the time frame that we were given. at the end of the week, however, it turned out that we saw more than 1,970 patients! WOW. thats awesome. God is awesome.

oh hey diego.



around 11:00am my tummy was grumbling and conveniently, a little ice cream cart was passing by outside the window. kara wade, cody peck and i got popsicles - called something like tornillos. they were basically orange creamsicles and they were very tasty.

i gave it a big thumbs up!

meanwhile, outside, andrea ward was singing "yo tengo un amigo que te ama" at the top of her lungs.

lucky for andrea, she had the chance to do exactly what i did last year. she put on the same rainbow dress as the lady in charge of the childrens program at the clinic, fixed her hair into pigtails, and added a lot of blush to her cheeks. then she danced around the clinic singing "vamos en el train!" to all the children.

she was awesome and the kids loved her. i especially loved her pigtails.

for lunch we had pupusas again, while others had spaghetti. for dessert: neopolitan ice cream (yes i had dessert three times by the end of the day). after lunch, i wandered around the clinic, taking more pictures of our final day. here is jordan wade holding little baby alicia.

meghan byrne, kara wade, & adrii cruz.

me and my buddy/#1 translator, daniel cornego!

doctor karen estupian with some of her patients.

dr. lamb with assistant, eric secrist, praying over their patients.

meredith bodah, christine birnie and katrina narolis working in the pharmacy.

jordan wade preparing medications.

a local church member teaching some patients about Jesus.

my beautiful friend, marcella, came to visit me in the eye glass clinic!

i am extremely thankful for all of the translators that stayed in eye glasses this week. we all developed incredibly close relationships, and none of that work could have been done without them.

here is the annual eye glass clinic photo. you guys ROCK! (of course)

when every patient had finally been seen, everyone began to clean/pack up their areas and prepare for the final service. the church of san miguel hosted a goodbye ceremony, including worship and a few messages from the pastor jov, dr. lamb, and rene mejia.



they had a lottery for the translators in the clinic - carlos won this cool GHO shirt!

then, one at a time, our entire GHO team was called up to the front to receive a gift from the people of san miguel.



they had hand-made little angels with our names on each of them - it was such a sweet and giving gesture, yet not surprising as these people had been incredibly giving all week long.



at the end of the service, we all began to say our goodbyes. thankfully, we were able to see some of the translators from san salvador the following night at dinner, but it was still a difficult time. everyone from our team felt as if they had gotten extremely close to their translators. many lives were changed this week, and again, it wouldnt have been possible without these amazing helpers.





mi hermanos favorita!

and heres something really cool that happened: as we were all saying goodbye, someone noticed that the sky had just opened up and there was a rainbow showing through the clouds. it was absolutely stunning - just another reminder of God's presence in that clinic.