As I write this portion of the blog post, I am traveling to the clinic; it is about 9:30 AM. I realized this morning that the days and nights are starting to swim together in my mind. As I sat at the breakfast table this morning those at the table with me were also having trouble retracing where we spent the night as we discussed the week so far. I am attempting to take more accurate notes so I know where I have been and where the clinics were conducted.
Devotions
Each day we start off with about 30 minutes of devotions in one of the rooms. This has been an uplifting and encouraging experience. Ron leads us in a time of worship. Then someone shares a devotional thought. Sam asks different team members the night before to share something for devotions. These times have been very rewarding and a good preparation for ministry. We need to continually stay focused on loving Jesus and loving people. We want to make sure that what we do today flows from our love for Jesus. To love Him intensely first and focus on how awesome He is, who He is and our relationship with Him. From that flows the motivation and ability to love others. This should be 24/7 living!
Riding in the Van
The last two days I chose to ride in the van with the translators. Today I am the only non-Cambodian in the van, this is great. I enjoy getting to know Sophal the van driver and the translators. Sophal was one of the van drivers last year, so I already knew him. We are good friends now and enjoy each other’s company. The translators in the van with me today are Phorn, So Phay (soPIE); Sereiwath (watt); one we call “Lucky” (I do not have his full name yet); Kong, Sophannary (nairy – like “mary”); and Lylim, Pisak (PEEsack). Nairy is female. In Cambodia the surname is first and the given name is last. The translators work very hard. This is stressful work for them. It is the mental strain of constantly translating non-stop the whole time we are active in the clinic that is tiring – not the physical labor of setting up and breaking down camps. I can imagine this is difficult. Most of them are law, economics, and medical students who, as part of their education, learn English. They are not professional translators. So this is a challenge for them and hard work. Some of the translators are believers, but not all. So for those translators who are not believers, this is an opportunity for them to see God at work! You can pray for them that they will enter into a personal relationship with Jesus.
My assignment for today
Sam Hopper has assigned me to serve in the prayer line today, I will not be working much (maybe not at all) in the pharmacy. I will share my experiences tonight when I get back to the room.
I’m back in the room now, it's 8:30 PM, the clinic is done and we've had our supper
Wow what a day! This is the first day that I worked in the prayer line all day. I did not fill out even one prescription. The day went fast. I prayed for many people, I did not count them. Many were healed and several received Christ as their savior. I would like to show you some photos along with my story but I cannot due to the internet speed here at this hotel. I randomly took a photo of a man who was about 75 years old standing outside the clinic just before it started, around 10:30 AM. Around 2:30 or so that afternoon, that same man was sitting in front of me with about 4 other men. There were some occasions when the prayer line got so backed up that we could no longer deal with the individual on a personal basis so we had to pray for them in groups. This was just one of those occasions. I did not like to do that, but there were instances during the day when it was necessary. So, here sit these five men and this 75 year old man is one of them. I explained briefly to all of them, as a group, why we were there. This took about 5 minutes. When the interpreter talked to them, it was obvious immediately that this old man could not hear. He was totally deaf in the right ear and his hearing was so bad in his left ear that the interpreter had to cup his hands around the man’s ear and talk directly into his ear. So due to that, he only got a very little of my 5 minute talk (hardly any). Then I told them that I would pray for them each, one by one. I would just go down the line and hold their head or put my hand on their head and pray for them. After we prayed for that old man he started to talk to the interpreter! Obviously he could hear! The interpreter was not cupping his hands over his ear; rather he was standing about 4 feet in front of him. Then I said to the interpreter, "stand here on his right side and talk to him and see if he can hear out of this ear." He could! Amazing how God touched this old man. God simply healed this man, and he hardly knew what was happening to him. I wanted so much to continue talking to him personally and perhaps lead him to Christ but I was not able to at that moment. I had to tell the group of men that there was a Christian church that met in this village and for them to come to that church to hear more about Jesus. I got a picture of him with me and the interpreter which I really wanted to post on this blog but the internet speed at this hotel will not allow it. So I will have to do it later. There are many other stories; this one will have to suffice for now. God was on the move at this clinic! Later on I want to tell you the story about the teenager that was saved.
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