So what do I mean by all this? Well the team of 14 from Bayside church started their first day at The Sanctuary today. When I arrived just after 9am there was a slew of people sitting outside and inside waiting for the medical clinic to begin. Bunthan---our chief medical advisor was no where to be seen---she was starting her first day of English classes with one of the Bayside team members. Ally a nurse and her husband Steve a respiratory technician were sorting through bags of medication they brought trying to figure out how the clinic works. Pastor Chantha's students who usually could help were off doing several other roles---working in the morning with the other Bayside team members for the morning's kid's club, helping out at the Lord's gym and some were also teaching in the morning classes. A quick assessment and I realized there were no spare bodies except for Mickey my tuk tuk driver and me! So guess who had to explain about the medical clinic and how things work! Yep, it was moi! I think God has a funny sense of humor. This was one of those moments for another desperate prayer and that is what we did 'Lord we need your wisdom and discernment, fill us now and give us all that we will need today! :-) We got Mickey to be one of our translators along with Pastor Chantha. So the clinic opened up and the first patient had malaria---great what do we do? Never had one of these situations before and Nurse Ally herself began looking up her medical book that she had brought to figure out what the best medical treatment was.
Suffice to say, I've had the opportunity to be involved in the clinic now for the past couple of weeks and am slowly getting used to the routine. However, given the 60 plus patients that were waiting, we did end up pulling Bunthan out of her English class so she could help. Working in the clinic feels like working in one of those emergency trauma units (not that I would know but it reminds me of the ones I've seen on TV), except the patient is not in trauma---we are the ones with 'mental trauma' as we try to figure out what to do! At one point, Pastor Chantha and I were partnering together during the clinic and we were quite 'efficient' in seeing several patients compared to the rest (not that this is a competition---God forbid that we should treat people like statistics) but we came up with a strategy to treat what the patients had come for and not to keep asking if they had any other medical problems. I can just imagine some medical people rolling their eyes! Thankfully it all worked out. God is so good to us!
But that was only the first hour or so when the group that was doing the kids club didn't know they were suppose to be providing snacks for the 130 kids that were in the morning session and the 170 that were coming in the afternoon. The kids club was about to finish and a mild panic erupted as one of the a Bayside team member asked if the centre had any snacks at least for today. Unfortunately, everything is run very tightly here so 'no' there were no extras. Well, I felt like I was on the show The Amazing Race as off I went with one of the students hunting around the neighborhood for snacks when it quickly became apparent that the quantity we required was not available in Svay Pak. So Plan B materialized as I went sitting on the back of a motorcycle (its okay Mum it was safe, I've done this before in Cambodia) of Ravi, a student to the local market. We did the 'snack run' twice given the quantities we were buying. Then it was running up 3 flights off stairs to give the snacks to the team. I think I lost a few pounds today from all this exercise! Yeah!
Am looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring! Another day, maybe another adrenalin rush! Just like Toronto! Who would have thought! Thank you Jesus that you cause everything to work together for the good of those who love You and are called according to your purposes!
Hi Lisa, thinking of you often. Thanks for your faithful posts. Thought I had joined and realized I hadn't been receiving. Now up to date and following. Continuing to pray re our team. Praying the Lord will continue to keep you sensitive - the insight the Lord gave you as you began the trip. Love Donna
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