We leave in 24 hours for India. A team of 18, medicines, equipment and excitement. We’ll be in the southern part of India along the coast off the Bay of Bengal based in a small town called Puri, population 150,000. Puri is well known as a pilgrimage site for Hindus with their many gods. That will tell you something. We’ll be going to 4 projects seeing the children and the villagers, expecting about 500 patients a day, diseases and illnesses common to the areas in an underdeveloped country. We’ll be running simultaneous “tracts of care” in each: nutritional assessments, first aid training, implementing a water filtration system, medical examinations and treatment, and vitamins and de-worming medicines for all. It’s amazing to see the “tracts” running in parallel, patients moving from one tract to the another, and finally exiting with an opportunity for spiritual counseling.
We all know the saying “what are we bringing to the table” when we talk about negotiations and relationships. What is it that we “bring” that will be valuable to the other person. In this case, it’s obvious. Medical care, pure water, vitamins, first aid kits, and prayer. But here’s where I like to go a little off the path. I am always aware of “what we bring”, but I am more acutely aware of “what we leave behind.” It is the memories, the interactions, the changed lives, the improvement of what sometimes is just an existence for those we meet. It is the power of prayer, the introduction to a God who is singular in His reign, and at times the new believer that we leave behind. And so it begins tomorrow. We’re bringing much….I’m excited to see what we leave behind. Be with us.
In all things give thanks,
David
