Healing hands and warm hearts While the medical team from North Way Christian Community Church performed checkups (bottom and top left, page 52), prescribed physical therapy and dispensed medication (top right, page 53), the ministry team played games and sang songs with the children (top right, page 52) and distributed food staples to the community (top left, page 53).
programming and noted how different their conditions and complaints were from what the team was expecting. “Our medical team was sort of joking that with clients of the Family
Hope Center, we were seeing ‘fi rst world problems’ – complaints of low back pain, and the types of things I see in my offi ce back home on a daily basis,” said Andrew Adams, the lead doctor for the trip. Mario Ordones, a 53-year-old man with a wiry frame who com- plained of pain in his neck and shoulders, was typical of the patients who are current clients of the Hope Center. As a construction worker, Mario spends his days hoisting sacks of concrete in the heat and humidity. Back injuries come along with the territory. But when he heard that a team of doctors was coming from the United States to pro- vide free medical care, he took a precious day off work to seek relief. After the fi rst two days, the clinic was opened to the general community and the team soon noted a stark difference in the types of medical complaints they began hearing from those who had not been in case management with the Hope Center.
“On our third day I saw a mom and four small children who were not clients of the Family Hope Center,” Andrew said. “The fi rst two children I spoke with were too small to tell me any kind of history that would let me make a diagnosis – just that they had belly pain. “I thought maybe they had parasites, which are really common,
and they probably did have parasites, but it wasn’t until the third child came through, and she was 9, that she was able to express to me that her belly hurt when they didn’t have food at home. So they were hungry, and that was what was causing the pain more than anything else. It was really striking to me, to see how much work has already been done here in this community among families who are in case management with the Family Hope Center.”
While the medical team worked tirelessly each day to see as many patients as possible at the Hope Center and the two orphanages they visited, the ministry team spent their week meeting spiritual needs. The team helped distribute 110 buckets of food in the Las Brisas community, taught Bible stories to children at Vacation Bible School, rocked babies to sleep at Hogar Nueva Esperanza, led kids in games and singing Spanish praise songs, prayed with families who were waiting to be seen by a doctor and ensured that everyone they met knew that someone cared and loved them.
“I think medical missions are a great way to try to meet the physical needs of the people,” said Andrew. “But I think it works best when it’s combined with a way to meet their spiritual needs as well, to try and develop and grow relationships.” n To learn more about how you can serve through Buckner on a medical mission trip, visit
www.buckner.org/medical.
WINTER 2015 ISSUE • Buckner Today 53
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