Teeth, Tears, Triage, Bubbles

First day of clinics was a success with over 250 patients between medical, dental, and vision! I probably got to see a third of those in triage today, which was crazy at times but so good. At one point I had eight people sitting at my table at one time!! They were all great but it was utter chaos trying to wrangle that many kids and papers and two of the little girls were wearing the same outfit which made it extra hard!!

Like I’ve probably said a hundred times, these clinics are always so good and so heartbreaking. We had a few kids who were there for wellness checks, but many more had really difficult or complicated medical issues, some of which were treatable but many were not.

As you would expect from refugees, we had several who were dealing with cardiac issues, insomnia, and trauma from the war. One man said he knew that his blood pressure was bad because he was so worried about the war.

Another woman was doused in boiling water and had third degree burns all over her body which healed wrong and limited her mobility.

Still another got hit by missile shrapnel which shattered her shoulder and bruised her ribs. Those injuries also healed wrong.

We had kids with worms, and adults with high blood pressure, and someone who definitely had angina and a woman who had Bell’s palsy. Some cases were a simple fix, and the satisfaction of seeing a mom’s eyes light up when the solution was one tablet of albendazol (de-wormer) was so rewarding!

At the same time, the heartbreak of knowing the issues they are facing aren’t really curable can be crushing. In those moments, you just have to remember that their issues don’t belong to us, it’s not our burden to carry. We do what we can and leave the rest to God.

This can be especially difficult in a Muslim country because there’s a bigger concern that they won’t ever turn to Jesus or will face even more hardship if they do turn to Him.

But in the midst of all these feelings, we had two salvations today!! A mother and a little boy (from different families) both gave their lives to Christ for the first time! Praise God!! And the church here is well set up to support them throughout their walk!!

While the day started out with grueling stories, heartbreak, chaos, and illness, my day wrapped up as many do: crowd control.

Triage typically finishes first, and late in the day kiddos start to get squirrely waiting for their parents. So out come the stickers, bubbles, and facepaint! My favorite!! Me and a couple of the other team members who had finished spent the last bit of the day entertaining kids (and ourselves, to be honest) with some joy.

I absolutely LOVED this little sibling group I acquired while mom was getting teeth pulled. There were four of them and so we all took turns blowing bubbles. Now, when you can’t yap away because of the language barrier, the only thing left to do is crazy reactions, obviously! So at one point, they blew bubbles in my direction so I started to “eat” them. And apparently I am the funniest person alive because one of the littler ones literally fell over from laughing so hard and one of the older ones gave herself hiccups (which was also terribly funny to everyone as she tried to blow bubbles)

At the end of the day, I got to lead a devotion about the armor of God and we had a lovely dinner. Then the team surprised me with a cake for my birthday topped with the biggest candles I’ve ever seen in my life!! At first I was shocked they didn’t set the fire alarms off but then I remembered everyone smokes indoors so they probably don’t have any detectors…

I tried to blow them out and almost burnt the eyebrows off of one of my teammates across the table ;) delicious cake though! I feel so loved and grateful I get to spend my time serving in clinics like these (even if I wish my loved ones could be here with me)