Last Clinic Day

Sara Zarnstorff shares her thoughts at the beginning of this day:

Amos 1:1. God calls unlikely people to do His will. Our whole team is healthy. We have all tried new foods and things we thought we could never do. This morning we have a view of the volcanoes with the lake below. We ready to serve God again at the eyeglass clinics after a day of rest.

Today was the last of five clinic days for our team in Guatemala. We saw many children from the church school and orphanage near the Eagle's Nest at Solala. We saw almost two hundred children and a few adults this morning and afternoon. The children did not have the health problems that we had seen in Chajabal. They were quite active and fun for me in my evangelism station. In addition to describing the meanings of the different colors of the beads on the bracelets and knit puppets we handed out: red stands for the saving blood of Christ, shed for our salvation; green stands for our new life in Christ, etc..; I also quizzed them on their knowledge of the English words for the colors. They knew most of them. I used the Evangecube, a teaching device that unfolds in ingenious ways to depict different graphics that help explain the Gospel. For instance, the first side of the cube shows a figure standing against a black background. I said that this represents all humans, you and I, who are separated from God by our sins. The left side showed a glowing light that represents God, who is perfect and sinless. Then the cube would be opened to show Jesus on the cross. I would explain that Jesus died for our sins, taking them to the cross, paying the penalty that we deserved. Then the cube would be opened to show Jesus' tomb, with Roman soldiers guarding it.

I would ask, "What is this?", in Spanish, and the children would tell me. They were very well taught by their teachers and pastor. The school administrator, Job Isaac Fuentes Lopez, helped our team with registration.

By now, our team has become a fairly well-oiled machine. Today we set up our stations around a large fireplace in the dining hall of the Eagle's Nest for our testing and dispensing.

We saw most of those who came to the clinic in the morning. After lunch we saw about twenty more people and then we packed up and got on the road to Antigua.

I got to ride with Victor, one of our drivers, in his truck, instead of the bus.  Victor loves Antigua, his hometown, and he told me a lot of very interesting information about Antigua and other subjects. We followed the bus to Antigua.

We had dinner at the beautiful house of our MOST team Guatemalan coordinator, Nury. After dinner Vicki Sorensen, our team leader, told us what we might expect to feel upon returning to our homes on our return. Many people feel guilty about the materialistic overkill of their personal consumption. Some people get depressed and withdrawn for a while. Some might feel themselves superior to others who have not been on mission trips. We covered these possibilities and a lot of other ways we might react to coming back from this literal and figurative "mountain-top experience." The important thing to remember is that this is not about us, but about serving our Lord and our neighbor, both out of recognition and gratitude for the many gifts we have received in Christ, and also in obedience to His command to serve Him and our neighbor. Vicki emphasized the crucial need for a good debriefing partner and, as always, for prayer.

It has not been easy seeing the things we have seen this last week. Many feel pain that they are not able to help more, or, some, like me, feel anger at the effects of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh, the legacy of Adam and Eve's fall from blessedness: poverty, disease, crime, and the like, all Satan's friends. May this sorrow and anger impel us to work to better the living conditions of our neighbors in need, and not embitter us or blind us to the blessed work of God in the lives of the people we have met this week: their love of God; their strong bonds of familial love through many generations; their faith, nurtured by their pastors and teachers and parents; the joy of receiving good eyesight with glasses that will enable them to see their friends and beloved family members, the beautiful hills and mountains of Guatemala, and the words of Scripture, and in Scripture, the Light of the World, our Savior, Jesus Christ.  And may those who contemplate going on a mission trip like this know that it is a wonderful-- in the true meaning of the word: full of wonder--experience. May God call you to share the joy we have shared, whether it be teaching your children and grandchildren about Jesus, or a domestic or foreign mission trip. The harvest is plentiful! God bless you. Tomorrow: volcanoes, farms, and Antigua.