The picture said it all.
I spent the evening of the first night of our medical mission trip looking over the photos we had taken earlier in the day and came across one that stood out. It was of a dad holding his little girl, laughing as he was waiting in line to get vitamins, a de-worming tablet and prescriptions filled for his little girl who had just been seen by a doctor – probably for the first time in her life.
I thought about my own children all the way back home and how hopeless I would be if I didn’t have a way to get them to the doctor…and could never even hope to buy medicine even if I could make it to one.
But then our medical mission team showed up in this remote village of El Timal, Nicaragua. We brought three nurses, four doctors, a P.A. and a few others who helped with translation and logistics and set up a clinic in the makeshift Nazarene church building made out of sticks, misprinted milk carton wrappers and corrugated metal roofing.
And now the dad was laughing.
The medical trip was our second project with the community of El Timal as we sought to establish a partnership with the church in the community there. An unlikely combination maybe, a small young church plant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S., and a rural church plant in Nicaragua. But it’s been special already.
The first project was a well project. Villa Japon, the little community of displaced refugees in El Timal, had been in limbo for over 10 years, waiting on the government to re-parcel out land. It’s one of the poorest places on the planet. And when we heard they were looking for a church to help them raise funds for a clean water well, God moved us to join in on the project.
Over Advent of 2009, people in our congregation re-direct family members to give towards the well project instead of giving them presents. Children as young as 2 years old willingly gave up presents so that children they’d never met could drink clean water. Family members and neighbors who had never been to our church heard about the project and contributed. We ended up raising well over the amount for the project.
It was the best Christmas I ever had.
And now we were actually there, meeting the people, embracing them, praying with them and sharing in ministry.
One night of the trip was particularly special for me. I sat there with five Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters from the El Timal church, Bob, who translated, and Sid, our Nazarene Missions International (NMI) president. There we were, out in the middle of nowhere, sitting under the sticks and corrugated metal structure, brainstorming a vision for this church and this desperate community into the hours of the night and searching for God’s direction on how to minister to them.
We left that evening with plans established for the well we funded earlier, an action plan for creating access to clean water in the interim that was put into place the next day, hopes for future projects (i.e. gardening development, a community health center, etc.) and a sense that the Holy Spirit was creating something special.
Over the course of the trip, our team saw more than 600 patients with medical needs. We handed out $2,000 worth of prescriptions, vitamins, de-worming and pain-relief medications. We played soccer, preached, worshipped, prayed, did puppets and crafts and met as many needs as we could.
And we handed out bananas.
There’s nothing like seeing a child who might not get a chance to eat that day being handed a banana.
Over the course of the trip I watched as one of our team members sat in the middle of the makeshift church structure handing them to each person after they were admitted to the clinic. The children savored each one, unwrapping it slowly, taking tiny bites, chewing each one for a long time and eventually licking the peels.
Work like this is an expression of the gospel. But it’s also a way to pave the way for the message of the gospel to be heard.
The final day we were there was a Sunday. We considered the week prior a paving the way of sorts for the gospel, planting seeds so that the harvest would be plentiful. During the service one man named Jose, who had come to Jesus two years back, stood up and testified. He said, “Some of you remember how I was before I met Jesus. Drugs, alcohol, etc… In fact, some of you standing out there looking in the windows are still locked up in that lifestyle.” He pointed at a couple of them in particular.
It was a slightly awkward moment.
Later on in the service I preached on Jesus’ words to the paralytic in Luke 5, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” That morning when I asked people to raise their hands to receive the forgiveness that God offers them in Jesus, 15 or 20 did just that.
And sure enough, one of the men who had been pointed out by Jose just a half-hour earlier, lifted up his hand and became a child of God that morning.
That’s the power of God at work.
Through the trip, I’ve been reminded again and again that when we pay attention to the needs of people, their hearts open up to the message of the love of God that we have to share.
The work we do to express the gospel and pave the way for the message that powers it could be as simple as giving out some vitamins, digging a well, seeing a patient…
…or handing out a banana.