Monday, February 21, 2011

Go where you are sent

Eye work today was supposed to be in a new community...but God had other plans. We ended up at the last minute (well...late last night) changing plans to La Venta.

I was praying for God to direct us...but being honest, we were not anticipating seeing hardly anyone, and had a backup plan including seeing Talanga, and souvenirs in the afternoon.

We did not even unpack the truck with the glasses. After all, for just a few people, we could dispense from the bed.

Yeah...96 patients later, we got back in time for a tour and supper.

96 patients? But surely they were all routine. Yeah...not so much. There was the 102 year old man who had no glasses, but already had lost an eye to a wood chopping accident involving an ax. A young 20 year old the group diagnosed with keratoconus. The woman we chatted all day with that was from the Church...she had 17 children, and not one of them supported her but for her 30 something year old daughter...who is blind and helps her clean the house. Despite all her personal/familial troubles...her biggest concern was building a newChurch building there.

This little boy though just about had me in tears.
I was just the guy at the front of the line taking down the chief complaint. I was not really looking at him, but listening to his mother tell me that he had congenital cataracts, and that the public hospital did not do his surgery until he was 5. I saw he had his school uniform on and asked his mother how he was doing in school...thankfully his motivation and intelligence was not held back by his vision problems...and with a good teacher (which is the subject for another post...why he was not in school that day to begin with...and the not-so-good educational battle Honduras seems to constantly endure) he does very well and seems well adjusted.

I looked up at him, asked to see his glasses, and then asked him to look at me....which you see here above. He had nystagmus, he was not using his central vision to look, and the glasses he was given were frosted in his "bad" eye. Now, I don't know much...but I just knew...we could not help him, not the way he really needed.

We ended up giving him something high powered for distance vision...he said it helped.

But...I was still wrong. We could pray for him...be there for him...be honest and forthcoming and just care for him. Sometimes you may not be where you think you should be, but you have to do what you are given to do where you are.

We went to leave and some of the sisters in the Church fired up their mobile little microphone system and started shouting out some thanks...to us, to God for sending us, the glasses, the drops...for the help the community received in general. They wanted to know when we would be back. The woman seated in the picture is the one with 17 children...singing praises to God.

Thanks be to God to have this forum to shout out some praises to Him as well. A day overall reminding me just how important is to constantly remember how worthy He is of all praise, and honor, and glory...forever.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMEN y AMEN!!!

Mark

Anisha said...

Esa bien. Amen!

Anisha