After 24 hours of flying, we arrived in New Delhi to start 5 days of clinics in 3 poverty stricken slums.
We’re expecting to see about 300 patients a day, perhaps more, mostly children from MoM projects that are centered in the slums. Landing at 6:15am, we were met by Satya our country director for MoM, and his 2 staff, Kevin and Mark. They had travelled 18 hours by train from Calcutta, bringing with them 300 kilograms, over 600 pounds, of medicines that we had asked for to run the clinics.
Checked in to the hotel, a 2 hour break to shower, then up to a conference room to package and label over 10,000 doses of medicines.
That’s 10,000 prescriptions that we’ll prescribed in 5 days.
And we’ll probably run out of medicines before the 5 days are up, and will be running back to the pharmacy for more…it happens every time. The reason being is that as we move into the week, more and more people hear that we are here, and the clinics swell, and we see more patients. We can never predict just how much medicine we’ll need. But…and here is the real important but…what we can predict, is that the most important thing we bring never runs out. And that is grace and compassion. For the most important tool we bring, the most powerful medicine we bring to the clinic and for those we serve, is ourselves. Holding a hand, praying, hugging, laughing, and simply showing and telling those who come to see us that we care about them, is sometimes all the medicine they need. Between us all, the 13 members of the team: Greg, Erica, Amy, Jessie, Cammie, Heather, Sarah, Kelly, Ashley, Grant, Gretchen, Anne, and myself, we’ll bring all that we can through our actions, our smiles, and our touch. And His love. It begins tomorrow. May we be prepared. Let it be so.
In all things give thanks,
David
