LIVING INTO MISSIONS

  

 

There is a phrase that is used in Christian circles currently that talks about “living into something.”  That phrase is used to  mean  that we need to experience something to its fullness or it is more like growing or developing into something to reach its full potential.   

 I want to use that phrase to show  you how living into missions  can change your heart and move you closer to the heart of Jesus in our experience.  I will talk about five areas that we can be living into in order to grow in our walk with Christ. 

First, we have to be

LIVING INTO REALITY

Revelation 21:4  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…

 The reality that John the Apostle talked about in his Revelation has to do with the fact that on this side of heaven those things and illness  will always be present.  One of the most common questions that I get asked by my medical friends after returning from a mission trip is “How many people did you see?” or sometimes from my evangelical friends “How many people came to know Jesus?”  As we read in the book of Numbers,  Moses counted the Israelites a couple of  times.  But King David got into a lot of trouble counting his troops because of pride.   So, we are a little hesitant to focus too much on counting our numbers of patients.  Since we are part of  Medical Ministry International (MMI), we must keep track of statistics because it is a way of showing our impact to donors and participants alike.    

    Our group of thirty-nine individuals from the United States represented six different states and thirteen different cities.  Eleven people came on their first short term international mission but collectively the group together had 259 years of mission experiences.  We were divided into two teams with one going to the hospital to do surgery each day and the other team visiting a different village each day taking general medical, dental and eye care services to the people.  The surgery team had twenty-four members, and the clinic team had fifteen people, and we were supported by a total of 23 Dominicans.

 Our group brought a lot of specific skills and talents together with eleven  doctors, a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist, eleven nurses, three technicians, one pastor and nine general helpers so that we were able to see and care for 682 adults and 150 children.  It is extremely hard to go for one week on a mission project and know in advance that we cannot see everyone or help every patient in this short time.  But we also understand that some will  have to be turned away.  We have to balance what we can do with what we can’t, that is the reality we must live into.

Second, we need to be

LIVING INTO PEOPLES LIVES

1 Peter 4:10  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received, to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

We were able to do 122 surgical procedures, and eleven people made first time commitments for Christ.  But please know that numbers are not the only reason we go. It is because each of us has been called, nudged, or encouraged to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and love our neighbor as ourselves. And it is encouraging to be able to help so many people with the over fifteen hundred prescriptions and the almost one hundred  patients receiving dental services as well as the over two hundred  that had their vision checked. 

                    Cabrera Project January 2026

Clinic Patients Seen	339
Health Education	589
Prescriptions Filled	1555
Eye Exams	234
Dental Patients Seen	99
Major Surgeries	74
Minor Surgeries	48
Surgical Consultations	160
Total Patients Seen	832
Decisions for Christ	11

But it is also about the people that you don’t think about.  Sometimes, it is about the people who were not seen.  You might be thinking that doesn’t make any sense.  But, in the DR coming to the doctor or the dentist or the hospital is a family social event.  And everyone that comes in contact with the medical or surgical clinics sits and waits with their family.  And during that waiting time they all receive health education lectures from a trained health educator in their primary language.  These lectures help to change cultures about both physical and also spiritual health.  One of the lectures that they all hear is on the care of their spiritual heart by an evangelist.  This year, we were blessed to have  an American pastor who faithfully presented the gospel message many  times a day through local Dominican interpreters in the clinic as new patients rotated through the waiting area. During the course of the week two of those young Dominican men who were contracted to be interpreters for our team after translating the good news so many times, came to know Christ as their personal savior.  We had  four patients this year that were scheduled for surgery and when the day of surgery came, they were cancelled because either they didn’t take their blood pressure medicine or their diabetic medicine, not just that day but sometimes for up to a week before.  They didn’t understand how important it is to their long-term health.  One patient forgot to tell us in the clinic that he was on blood thinners.  While it was sad for us not to get to help them with their surgery, it was  important that we were able to reinforce the routine care that they needed for their long-term problems of diabetes or hypertension.  And to be able to show them what God’s love looks like.  So, we lived into the patients and their families and friends as well as our participants, and our Dominican team members.

Thirdly, we have to be

LIVING INTO PRAYER

Psalms 5:3  In  the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.

You might ask, so why wouldn’t we be living into  and anticipating answers to our prayers?  We had already had numerous small and large prayers answered.  Months before the project we had prayed for the right size of team to do the work God had for us.  It is not just to have the right number of people on the project, but it is equally important to have the right number. It is also necessary to have people with the right skills on the project.  Three weeks before leaving for the project, one of our three anesthesiologists called to tell me he had been having  some strange chest pains and saw his doctor and was advised to have a heart scan to make sure he was okay, especially since he would be travelling to a developing country.  But he couldn’t get the scan scheduled until February (which would be after we would get back to the US).  We prayed and sure enough they were able to move the date up, which was great, but it would be only 8 days before we left for project.  But if he were found to have something that required treatment with his heart and he couldn’t go on the trip that would only leave a week to try to find someone to fill his spot on the team.  Without three anesthesiologists would mean that we would have only enough to run two surgery tables and cut back the number of people we could see by a third and also make it so that a third of our skilled people would not have patients to work on while there.  So, we prayed for his health but also for the team and our great God was faithful to take care of both his health and to prepare the team for success.

I wrote a 21-day devotional for our team and distributed it so we could all begin a week before the project and focus on a scripture, and reflection and prayer.  It allowed us to be of one mind and spirit in anticipation of the trip but also during and for the week after.  This helped prepare us spiritually as we physically prepared ourselves as we prayed together.  

We prayed for safety in travel and the transportation of our supplies. 

As you may remember the last weekend of January a terrible storm was heading our way and across the entire southeast United States.  We received 6-8 inches of snow in Wichita that evening and airlines had been sending us text messages suggesting that we might want to change our plans.  My daughter’s  flight out of Tulsa had already been cancelled early Friday morning and she drove to Wichita to fly with us.  So, when we got up and went out Saturday  morning at 3 am to go to the airport we found Wichita streets were  covered with a  beautiful white snow, but we were incredibly nervous because the storm that hit us was heading to Atlanta where we were taking a  connecting flight to the DR.  We prayed and watched as  we were able to make  our tight connection and they even held the next plane for us for over 45 minutes. (That doesn’t happen very often.) Not only did we arrive on time in the DR, but so did our over 1440 pounds of supplies and our checked bags.  God is a way maker, even when we can’t see or imagine the way.

The anxiety of those coming for the first time was another area where I saw God’s answers to prayers with the calming of the nerves that stretched our faith not only in keeping us healthy but also giving all of us reassurance that we were safely in the center of God’s will during that time.  You would think that those answers would have prevented us from having any doubts or concerns. But, we do have to continuously be  living into prayer.

Fourth, (this was a difficult lesson for me), it is necessary for us to be

LIVING INTO THE MIRACULOUS

Psalms 77:14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. 

We were blessed to have a pastor go with us on project this year and I asked him to give our team  a message on the first Sunday morning after we arrived.  After singing some songs and offering our prayers, he did just that.  He challenged each of us by starting his message with “What If…” and then asked us to imagine what if instead of just assuming that this was going to be hard  and bad things were going to happen, what if we chose to be living into the miraculous.  Instead, what if we would believe that God hears our prayers and that God wants the best for us.  And we would pray like we believe that God can and will answer our prayers.  We were all very inspired.

I usually go on the surgical side of the project that doesn’t give me  as much contact with the clinic patients or team members.  But this year, I have to tell you about some of the experiences the clinic team had and how God helped us all to be  living  into the miraculous. 

On Tuesday, in Sánchez, the clinic was in  a school building. There was a small woman there with her two teenage daughters.  They were all being  seen by the Dr’s for checkups.  They then came to the health  education area with other patients and heard the gospel message as they waited for their prescriptions. The mother had pain in her lower back, and it was hard for her to bend over as  she sat rather gingerly in the molded white plastic chair.   The group was asked if any of them had pain in their body or a sickness or disease that we could pray for and she was one of them who wanted prayer. They prayed for that  group and then encouraged them to do something they could not do or had not been able to do without pain and then praise  God for touching them where they had the need for healing. There were several who were able to move body parts with ease and were giving God praise. After the rest of the group had received their prescriptions and were leaving, the lady  and her girls hung around and asked to talk to the pastor and his interpreters.

The two girls spoke English, so they were able to sit and converse as they wanted to talk more about Christ. They were asked about  their mother who had received prayer for her back and inquired how she was feeling.  She said the Lord completely taken her pain away, so the pastor  asked if there was anything she had not been able to do because of the pain, she immediately jumped up and ran to one of the rooms and called all of us over to see, she grabbed a mop and began mopping the floor in the classroom as her daughter, explained she was a custodian there at the school and had not been able to do her job without great pain.  She continued to mop as she sang praises to God! The girls both testified to this fact and were so happy for her.

On Wednesday, in the village of El Factor one of our Dominican doctors  brought a lady and her teenage daughter to the health education station  for the gospel message and asked them to pray and spend time with them.  The mother  had tragically lost her son 8 months ago and could not get past the grief.  This caused her serious health issues and she was very depressed.  The gospel message was presented through the translator to the larger group and then they prayed for the sick and those in pain. Then they  asked the lady  if they  could pray for her and her daughter. She was glad to receive the prayer, and they told them that  they were believers.  They  spent some time together as the Lord was so gracious and loving to them. The Holy Spirit moved on them, her grief broke and she began to dance and praise God for the victory, her entire countenance changed, she came in very downtrodden and heavy looking, but left rejoicing and weeping with new joy, she kept hugging the pastor and his interpreter and thanking Jesus! 

On Thursday, the clinic  was in  a Methodist church in Copelito (I’m not sure if it was united or not). One of the doctors  came and asked the pastor and his translator to come pray for one of her patients.  They found  a middle-aged woman who was having physical problems but was suffering with  severe anxiety and depression. She had recently lost her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law, as  both had died suddenly, very  close together. She was in great fear for her family and was  concerned she was going to die next. She didn’t know why she was so afraid, but fear had a terrible grip on her. She was asked  if she knew Jesus and she said yes but was still in fear. The Holy Spirit revealed to the pastor that  someone had spoken a curse of death over her family during an incantation of witchcraft which is present in some of the villages.  He told her about the love and power of God, and they would pray and break the power of the enemy and that the curse would have no more power over their lives.  They  prayed with her and laid hands on her and God broke the power of the enemy, anxiety, and depression as well as the thoughts of suicide.  She also received great joy and knew Jesus had set her free from fear and the grip of death! She was instructed  to meet with her Pastor there at the church and share with him what God had done in her life. 

Friday at another village called  La Entrada, they preached  the gospel message to the people throughout the day and then would pray for the sick and those in pain. There was one group of patients when asked if anyone needed prayer, they all said pray for all of us!  So, everyone  joined  hands and began to pray and declare God's healing power over all of them. They  didn’t lay hands on any of them. But when they  were done praying, they encouraged them to do three things; first, do something you could not do before, second, give  God praise and third, go tell someone what God did for you and testify to his healing power. There were two ladies specifically that didn’t get out of the room before they began to shout and dance, an older lady had shown them that  she could barely lift her right arm up because of pain in her shoulder and a younger lady in front of her had lower back pain and who had previously sat down very carefully. The older woman was now doing arm circles, shouting Gloria Dios!  The younger woman was bending over touching the floor and standing up, over and over while dancing in a circle.  We as a group had taken the pastors challenge to heart and were living in the miraculous.  We were expecting God to show up and do what only He can do. And He Did!

Lastly, in order to grow our faith, it is essential that we slow down so that we can be

LIVING INTO THE MOMENT

Psalms 118:24  This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

For me,  there are always new lessons that God teaches me or in some cases teaches me again because I forgot the last time.  One refresher that I got during the 12,720 minutes that we were on the mission project (but who is counting?) was the lesson of living  into  the moment.  Living in the moment is simply pausing to enjoy the present.  The joy that I receive by renewing the friendships with people that I have known through these mission projects is special.  But so is meeting the new people with a common mind and heart that joined us on this trip.  Likewise, spending the week with my daughter and my eldest grandson on this project made me savor the trip even more.  It is said that a memory is more securely bound in your brain when multiple senses are associated with the memory.  The sights, the sounds, and the smells on a mission trip certainly  serve to indelibly etch these memories in our  minds and hearts.

As we began the journey back to our hometowns and our country, I was reminded as I looked down at  my passport that I am a citizen of the USA. 

It was comforting to know that we were coming  back home to warm showers and comfort foods. But I was also reminded of the lesson Jesus taught us in Matthew 22:20 when the Pharisees tried to trap him by asking about paying taxes and as you remember He responded by asking whose image was on the coin?.  That got me to thinking, whose image is on “my coin” or my heart?   For us, it is the image of the Creator of the Universe.  That means we have dual citizenship both here and with Him.  We do what we need to do as Americans, but we have to remember that our primary citizenship is still in the heavenly realm?

Certainly, going on a Christian mission trip is beneficial for all those that we go to help.  But it also strangely changes us and warms our hearts.  As a group we had over twenty-one of our  meals together.  We woke early to share a time of devotions and spent time in the scripture at breakfast each morning..  We prayed over each other and with others.  We served everyone with our first fruits.  And for 24 hours a day we were unapologetically Christians.  I finally figured out what was occurring.  

It came to me while I was listening to Bishop Greenwood speak on church history, of all things. He was talking about the Apostolic Age of the church from 33 AD to 315 AD when Christianity was a movement, a minority not a religious institution that Constantine envisioned. And then it hit me, we were living into the church like in Acts 2:42-47. We were focusing on relationships not religion, we were being salt and light, and we were doing it full-time, together, to further the Kingdom one person at a time. That is when the Christ followers in the church in Acts began to multiply exponentially.

Not everyone is called to go on a medical mission trip, I understand that, but we as believers
are all called to follow Him wherever He calls us to go. Sometimes that is internationally but it is also nationally and even locally where everyone needs to feel the love and peace of Jesus. All those projects require participants but they also need support both with prayer and finances. We all have a part to play in service. God can change our hearts if we are open to the Holy Spirit’s leading. I need to ask you. “Are you listening?” I repeat “Are you listening?”

Mission to Cambita 2025

 

Our Plans for Cambita Garabito

January 25- February 2, 2025

 

 I found out that our plans for the project in Cambita hit a snag with a problem with the hospitals credentials on December 13th.  The government said that we couldn't go there so alternate plans were being made to go back to Monte Plata.  Then five days later the problem disappeared, and we were back on track to go to Cambita for the project, but the camp where we are staying can't accommodate us until Sunday afternoon.  So, more quick plans by our Dominican hosts and a new camp for Saturday night has been found for us.  Did I mention that changes make people nervous.  We kept on planning and planning. Saturday January 25^th was our day of transition.  Transition from the normal routine to the new normal for the next week.  

Forty-three of us began early in the morning, but some started earlier that most since they were coming from the airport in Portland Oregon on Friday evening.  We made our trips from the comfortable, spacious homes we enjoy and the families we enjoy thru the airports of the US- Portland, Wichita, Kansas City, St Louis and Boston to come together in the Dominican Republic.  All the participants arrived over a 4-hour period, and we only had one person lost (he actually wasn’t lost but there was a miscommunication of his schedule).  Getting us all together along with almost #1400 of supplies and medications loaded on three vehicles for the hour-long ride to our temporary camp was quite a feat. 

We stayed at a new camp for those of us regulars due to scheduling problems with our regular camp.  After a brief unpacking, we were able to enjoy our first of many meals of beans and rice. An orientation was then done, and we were able to unpack all the supplies and separate them to medical and surgical in nature for use the following day.  The new camp was stuck in the middle of an urban area.  The rooms were very small and set up for 4 people but not for suitcases, so we were cramped.  The bottom birth of the bunk beds had only 24” of clearance so you couldn’t sit on the bed only recline.  Sleep was elusive for me with the bar next door that played loud music until midnight.  When they finally closed, I was able to clearly hear the constant drip of the toilet despite my earplugs.  Needless to say, my sleep was not sound even though we had arisen at 2:30 the previous morning to get to the airport in Kansas to start our day.

We were going to be able to “sleep in” until 7 am, but I gave up and got up at 5:30 to begin my day and have my first cup of Dominican coffee. 

Breakfast was good and we were fortunate to have a pastor in our group this year and he presented an encouraging and uplifting message on the five-fold ministries of the church and how everyone’s gifts and talents contributed to the team as it does to the church.  We reloaded the truck and buses and traveled to Hospital Municipal Cambita Garabito.   We arrived and did the necessary reconnaissance in the hospital determining what rooms we could use and where to put everything, then unloaded the box truck with all our surgical equipment and supplies.  The team went to work with unpacking and setting up a “new” hospital in a hospital.  As that occurred, the doctors began to see roughly 100 patients and began the screening and scheduling of the patients for surgery for the week.  One of our translators was a young man that I have known for almost 20 years as he has served as a high school student who spoke 4 languages and served as a translator.  He is now a physician, having gone to medical school in the DR all the while working with us with MMI. 

Those friendship mean a great deal to me as I return year after year.  The Clinic team left in the afternoon to the main camp to unload and prepare for the clinics for the coming week.  Each day would be to a new location and so we would set up and tear down every day with our supplies.  At the end of the day at the hospital, we were asked to see an emergency room patient with abdominal pain that might have a case of acute appendicitis.  The diagnosis was not definitive, and we suggested admission and repeat exam and lab in the morning.  We put the patient on the schedule for the following morning.  It was almost 7:30 by the time we got home for our evening meal.  After our meal, we were all scurrying to set up our dorm rooms.  Lights out couldn’t come soon enough for most of us.

Monday morning, we began with a praise song in acapella and prayer as we did before each meal.  We then had breakfast together and one of the first-time participants provided our morning devotion.  We were off and running to get to our hospital and the clinic to their site.  The hospital was a 45-minute drive in good weather and the clinic also had a commute to get to their site for setup.  By 10 we were able to begin the first case.  Our patient with the possibility of appendicitis had been transferred to a larger hospital during the night so we began with a “hole” in our schedule.  We did 20 surgical procedures on the first day, while the clinic team saw 150 patients and gave out over 400 prescriptions.  By the end of the day, we were all beginning to relax and get into a routine.

The clinic team returned to camp on time (around 5:30 pm) but surgery was late getting home to camp.  Our 50-minute drive each way to and from the hospital seemed like it got longer as the week continued.  We finished our meal by about 8 pm and then gathered under one of the cabanas for a little more time to become more acquainted with each other.  It was good to hear each of our stories about how we came to join this team.  We finished by 9:30 and then I completed the schedule for surgery for the next day and was in our bunk room to bed by 10:45pm.

My alarm went off at 5:30 am after having a much better night’s sleep.  After a cold plunge (that is what I called my morning shower without hot or even warm water) and a cup of coffee, we all gathered for breakfast at 6:30 of pancakes, sausage and fresh fruit.  Our morning devotion centered on the book of James and its relevance today to control of our tongues.  We were all in our buses and off to a new clinic site and the to the hospital by 7:45.

Our hospital day was very full with 25 cases being done and another 4 procedures being done at the clinic site.  This was the first year that we sent a surgeon and nurse to the clinic site to do minor, local anesthetic procedures. 

It was quite successful, and 46 procedures were done in total, and another 19 consultations were done in the clinic which spared the patient from going to another site to have procedures done.  Each morning, we start with a praise song called Alabara which means I will praise my savior.  It is well known to the citizens of the towns we serve.  We then pray and enter the hospital to begin our day.  The OR crew then readies the rooms, the preop team is checking in the patients for the day.  The surgeons are making rounds to check on the patients that stayed overnight to discharge them to their homes.  Today during our scheduled cases an emergency case came in with a patient that had a miscarriage.  Since we had taken over the OR’s with our equipment and procedures, we made room to add this case on in the GYN room.  This did push our schedule back somewhat and then the last case in that room ended up taking almost 3 and a half hours, finishing at 6:30.   She had low blood pressure, and we stayed at the hospital until 7:30 before driving the hour back to camp.  We ate our dinner after 8:30 and were in contact with the nurse at the hospital until 10:30. During the night, the hospital director came back in and decided to transfer the patient to the capital of the province to a larger hospital.

The following morning, we were told about the transfer and that she had to have blood transfused and reoperated.  This dampened the mood of the OR team in concern for the patient and her family.  Our morning devotional made the comparison of situational awareness at our workplace to the situational awareness that we need to have concerning the things of God.  Wednesday was the heaviest surgical volume scheduled so far and while the OR crew was getting ready for the day and beginning the first cases, the hospital director had me in his office to explain the protocols that we were to follow going forward after the difficult case from the night prior.  This municipal hospital did not have a blood bank, but all major cases, by their definition, had to have 2 pints of blood on site prior to surgery.  This was a protocol that is not currently in place in the United States.  He also stressed that all patients needed to have preop lab work.  Once again, not something that we encountered in the DR before this trip.  The director then cancelled 3 of our cases for the day. The patients left and went to the capital to purchase blood and return the following day.  We also contacted the patient for Thursday and instructed them to do the same.  With our schedule being shortened, we were able to leave in time to return to camp even before the clinic returned.  They had a long day in the clinic today serving in a small village in the main square under a large tent.  A hot long day for them. 

One patient was a 54-year-old man who was very thin and came with family as most patients do.  He told our doctors that he had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer but had not seen a doctor to find out any details or options.  Our doctors were able to determine that he had advanced disease by their exam.  They were able to talk to him about his diagnosis thru the translators and explain the gravity of the diagnosis.   They were able to pray for him and he responded by saying that he didn’t know how long he had left but he would be praising Jesus all the same.

The following day we returned to begin our scheduled cases.  Sure enough, the three major cases we had scheduled showed up with a unit of blood as well as the two from the day before.  We were in communication with the patient sent to the capitol and her husband said she was doing better, and he was appreciative of all that we had done for them.  That was welcome news to everyone.  One of scheduled cases had high blood pressure that had not improved since seeing her in the clinic and she was cancelled and sent to see a cardiologist to obtain clearance before surgery could be done.  So, that allowed us to add one of the cases on from Wednesday.  Then another patient revealed that she was on a blood thinner, something that had not been revealed before to us.  She likewise was cancelled until she could be taken off of the blood thinners for 3 weeks prior to surgery.  And the second patient in waiting was added on to the schedule.  God knows these things.  Further discussion with the hospital director yielded a plan for next year where he, as a physician, will screen all candidates for surgery two weeks prior to our arrival to check them for surgery and obtain any lab or clearance we need.  We were encouraged that they still wanted us to come back next year.  A full day of surgery was completed just late enough for us to have to drive home in heavy rains on winding narrow roads but safely.

Friday was met with mixed emotions.  I was sad that the project was coming to an end but pleased with all we had accomplished.  The plan for the day was to finish the schedule at surgery with a short day since we could not do major overnight cases due to our leaving and not being able to discharge our patients the day after surgery.  One of our highlights today was seeing and doing surgery on a precious 3-year-old named Sonja. 

When I had evaluated her on Sunday for surgery, she was found to have a mass on the inside of her mouth on the lower lip.  She was happy and at the end of the examination, she told me in Spanish that she could speak English.  I said great, talk to me.  She responded by saying in perfect English, “one, two, three, four!” with great satisfaction.  When she came with her mother on Friday, her personality was still as effervescent as before.  She was carried by the anesthesiologist to the OR without hesitation.  When the surgeon prayed over her before surgery as we always do, she joined in with the Amen.  She then joined in singing “Alabara” even providing verses we didn’t know.  All went well with her surgery, leaving smiles on the faces of the team. 

When we finished the last case at 3 pm (a couple of hours later than we had planned), we still had to take down the entire OR and pack it into the white box truck for transportation to the next project.  The clinic team also had to see all their patient and then pack for transporting all the supplies back to the warehouse in Santo Domingo. 

So, by the time we all returned to camp we were all tired but satisfied.  After our evening meal we gathered under the cabana and had a time of sharing and debriefing to be able to look back over the week. 

I enjoy hearing the comments of the participants during this time.  It is so encouraging to see the life-changing insights that come from these experiences.  We were able to share the preliminary statistics that we keep to track our progress.  All were pleased.  Some of the impressions of the team centered around the gratitude they saw from the patients not only for what we could do for them but also just the fact that we came.  The participants were also excided the be part of a cohesive team and the camaraderie that developed so quickly among all team members from repeaters to new timers, doctors to general helpers.  They also became more aware of how fortunate we are to be living in the US today and for all that we have.

Saturday, we got to “sleep in” again since we set breakfast at 7:30 instead of 6:30 am.  We enjoyed our last meal at the camp and then packed all our personal belongings to put into the buses and trailer.  The remaining part of the camp equipment was loaded on the truck, and we were off to the capital, Santo Domingo.  It took over an hour since we were traveling thru the middle of town, and it is always “rush hour” like traffic.  We parked just on the outskirts of the colonial zone and left our buses with the drivers and walked into the square. 

We were all able to visit some of the sites and have lunch before the those who were leaving for home, returned to the large bus and headed to the airport.  Sixteen of the team stayed over until Sunday to return home to be able to enjoy the city before the long trek home.  We stayed at a new hotel for us near the location where the buses waited to take the rest of the team home.  At 3 pm we were able to check into our hotel (along with 30 other folks, and yes, they only had one person to do the checking in (fortunately he spoke English.)  The last husband and wife of our group checked in and to our dismay the last person of our group could not find his passport in order to check in.  He looked through all his bags and his backpack, where he had seen the passport earlier.  He did have a picture of his passport which the front desk person said was okay for him to use.  We all knew that was the least of his problems since he couldn’t fly without the passport.  He was getting ready to drop his bags in his room and run back to where the bus was parked to see if he could find it along the way.  (Yes, I know what you are thinking and that is what I was thinking also.) 

Just then the couple that checked in last came thru the elevator doors excitedly remarking “I found it!”  When they had gotten to their room, she had prayed out loud “Lord, let it be in the backpack.”  When she looked in her backpack, his passport was in the top.  We later pieced together that their backpacks were beside each other in the bus and apparently his passport fell out of his backpack, and someone noticed it and just put it in the nearest backpack, which was hers.  What an answer to prayers, certainly not in the way we expected.

The remainer of our day was restful and uneventful.  We were able to do some sightseeing and enjoy a couple of meals together.  On Sunday at lunchtime, we went to the airport and began our travels home to the cold weather but also to the hot showers.  The flights back home were not nearly as rushed and customs not nearly as tense because we were home.  But the new people we had met and befriended and the lives we had touched were still freshly imprinted on our minds.  And the plans for next year have already begun.  I think that I am beginning to better understand that process of planning.

 

PROVERBS 16:1 (CEV)
WE HUMANS MAKE PLANS,
BUT THE LORD HAS THE FINAL WORD.

Cambita Garabito; It's All About The Plans

 

Jeremiah 29:11 begins with "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord".  The unfortunate thing is that I am pretty sure that I don't know what His plans are when it comes to the mission trips we make.  You would think that I know that by now after 34 trips, but I just keep learning. Take for instance our recent MMI trip to the Dominican Republic on January 29,2024.  

MY PLANS

It takes quite a while to "plan" for a trip like this.  But this is not just me, it involves coordination with a large number of people over a long time.  Sheri and I and Bill and Pat Waswick are involved throughout the year in advance of the trip.  The challenge is that we don't know how many people will go with us, how many people we will take care of, nor what those conditions will be.  So, making plans in and of itself is complicated by any number of erroneous assumptions.  But we have the benefit of experience and a history of doing this kind of thing.  One of the difficulties is in remembering that this is God's plan and not our own.  We make a prediction of how many we will have and what we will do, then go about trying to achieve that goal.

Peoples

It begins with the people who join us.  We know that to set up and run a clinic we need at least 5-10 participants and in surgery we need 15 to 20 to run two to three surgical tables.  The size of the places we go can limit us also.  So, when we had 33 sign up to go, we thought we might have a few too many.  Most people who go, want to be busy.
  Jim Collins, the author, says it's not enough to have the right number of people on the bus, they have to be sitting in the right seats to make an organization productive.  But when one of our participants had to return home for a family emergency and two more came down with COVID, we ended up with the right amount of people and those were sitting in the right places.

Places

This year we were returning to Yaguate where we went last year.  At least we thought we were until we were told around 2 weeks prior to leaving that the hospital in Yaguate was being remodeled and we couldn't go there after all.  A new hospital had been recently opened in Cambita Garabito.  As we found out, so new that the surgery area had not been used at all.  We were scheduled to go to 5 different villages and set up our medical, dental and vision clinic but not until we arrived did we find out that 3 of the villages could not host us. 
Fortunately, the MMI staff in the DR was at work behind the scenes and replacement sites were found.

Products

What we can do is certainly controlled by who and how many we bring, but also what we bring has an impact on what we do, namely the supplies, equipment, and medications.  In the DR, MMI has a warehouse that can hold the big equipment and supplies such as tables, lights, anesthesia machines and sterilizers that we need for a project since we can't count on all of the hospitals to have what we need.  We are able to set up a "MASH" like hospital in almost any facility.  But, the disposable supplies are more of a problem. 

We generally bring 1,000 to 1,500 pounds worth of supplies as our checked luggage (27-gallon Rubbermaid-like tubs).  We collect those supplies year-round and process them here then take with us.  Medications are purchased from a non-for-profit wholesaler.  We know that we usually see around 500 patients in the clinic so we try to bring enough medications to provide for that number.

  Vitamins are commonly given out to each of the patients as they represent a luxury for the people there.  So, I ordered 18 bottles of 1000 each to take only to find out in November that they couldn't supply the order since there had been so many worldwide needs (Ukraine, Tsunamis, Earthquakes).  So I approached our church and a "Vitamin Sunday" was set up for people to bring vitamins to church on December 3.  Together with what was collected and cash donations made, we were able to take almost 13,000 doses of vitamins.  I have to send a list of each bottle and amount to Customs in the DR 6 weeks in advanced so I sent my list only to find on my front porch three days before Christmas a box that had the full 18,000 vitamins that had been backordered.  God provided abundantly and more that we planned.  The abundance provided for future projects that didn't have vitamins with them to also provide for these needs.

HIS PLANS

I have learned that the best way for me to follow His plans is for me to not get to far ahead and be willing to be flexible if I find that I was wrong about what I thought I heard Him say.  These projects certainly prove that.  Being flexible seems to be one of the most valuable skills that one needs to participate in a mission project.  So, with that view thru the rear-view mirror, I can better see how His Plans have unfolded.

Unity

1 Corinthians 12:25-26 So that there will be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  We were able to bring 33 people from the US and work with 11 from the Dominican Republic with such diverse backgrounds to include 2 countries, 10 cities, 5 states, multiple jobs at home, and most of who didn't know each other prior to landing in a foreign country.  It was that common purpose that united us all into a cohesive and productive "body" that we equally suffered and equally rejoiced during the project.

Service

John 13:15  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 

Year of Project	2024
Patients Seen in Clinic	442
Health Education	837
Prescriptions Filled	1,634
Eye Exams	192
Dental Patients	101
Major Surgeries	48
Minor Surgeries	33
Consults	107
Commitments to Christ	10
Project Location	Cambita Garabito

 The wonderful part of going on a mission trip is that everyone who comes does so voluntarily and of their own free will expecting to serve.  Almost every year, I have people share that this type of comradery and environment is why they went into health care in the first place.  Likewise, the responses to us by the patients and families we see is heartwarming.  
Statistics are a poor way of quantifying our impact but still help to underscore the services that we were able to provide to "the least of these" that Jesus talked about.

I received a beautiful hand-written in lovely cursive English from one of our patients that I would love to show you some time as it  hanging on my wall.

  It was interesting that she thanked us not for our medications, our dental work or even our skilled surgical procedures but for our presence.  We just showed up and followed God's plan.  If I stopped my post here, it would be considered just nice heartwarming entertainment.  But there is more.

YOUR PLANS

So now the hard part.  What does this mean for you?  There are many opportunities to serve on mission trips with MMI in over 23 countries annually.  For some, that is not a good option.  For some, going with us to the DR next year around the last week of January may be an option.  Or maybe it's helping with the purchase or packing of the medications and supplies.  And hopefully, it includes praying now for next year.  But the Great Commission, as I read it, doesn't seem to have a "none of the above" option.  So, consider going, giving, praying or maybe all of the above for the least and the lost as we begin to try to figure the Plans He has for us all.