After 5 days of clinic, 2 of which were half days due to travel, we finished serving the 1414 children that came to see us. The team was incredible. They worked tirelessly, without complaints and giving all that they had. There are many stories that they will come home with, some sad and depressing, some joyous, and all will be remembered for a lifetime. The theme for this week was "Who are you trying to please" using Galatians 1:10. I shared with the team that there are times that we are self-pleasing, people-pleasing and God-pleasing not so much. We talked about life not being fair, humility, realistic expectations, sacrifice and looking in the mirror to see who and what we really are. We explored our motivation for being here, our "why". And after all the talk, I asked the team to consider the question: so what? And challenged all of us to answer the question: now what? Are we ready to God-please first and foremost? Always? Can we be intentional about it? We are fallible no doubt. We are self-driven. But this trip did bring with it an opportunity to experience first hand what it feels like to God-please without thought. We did it. The whole team. Kelly, Paige, Lara, Carol-Lee, Julie, Anne, Barbara, Michelle, Deanna, David P. , Dave J., Beth, Allison, Darlene, Louie, Vic, Michael, Kendra and Fitz.
The children are better off we hope and pray. We put in place first aid at all the projects we went to, taught and left behind a water filtration system, did dental hygiene and examined and treated many. Prayer was abundant, silently and openly. Medical Mercy and OCM serves to be a God-pleaser. This wonderful team were so as well. My prayer for them and me is that we remember what it was like this week, pleasing our God as served, as we had been asked to do, and make it foremost in our hearts and minds as we travel back to the US and back to our crazy lives. If we do so, we validate all that we did here for the children. That we gave and served and showed that it can be done.
In all things give thanks,
David
