Peru. in words.

Peru Medical Team 
June 4-13, 2010

This trip brought a lot of firsts:

 • It was our first medical trip to Peru

• It was our first medical trip including dentists
• It was the first time we were able to bring a father-daughter team. The Dad was a pediatrician and his Latin American studies grad daughter was able to serve as his translator.
• It was our first time to treat animals as well as people as we had a vet student who dewormed over 100 calves and sheep in a community devastated by a flood a few months earlier.
• It was our first high altitude trek. The missionaries we served with, John and Sonia Grady are the IMB’s highest paid missionaries (i.e. they serve at a higher altitude than any other IMBers in the world!)
• It was our first opportunity to serve alongside IMB missionaries who are “products” of GA BCM.
• It was our first opportunity to serve alongside other Send Me Now teams who would be serving long term in the areas where we had clinics.

All of those firsts made for an amazing trek into sharing Christ through meeting physical needs. Our team included: 1 pediatrician, 3 nurses, 2 dentists, 2 pharmacy students, 1 dental student, 2 med students, 1 nursing student, 1 vet student, 1 amazing translator, and 1 exercise physiology student who made a great “optometrist” on the trip!

We worked in two areas in the far western area of the country (at elevations that only llamas enjoy!) with IMB missionaries, John and Sonia Grady. The Gradys have served among the Aymara people of Peru for the past four years. In the provinces of Huancane and Moho, where they serve, there are over 80,000 Aymara people and there are around 50 evangelical churches, most of which are dying out. In the town of Moho, where we had our first clinics, there is no growing evangelical church. We also served in the town of Patascachi, about 15 minutes from the Gradys’ home in Huancane. In the spring, Patascachi was covered in water with over 500 families losing everything. John was able to meet immediate needs by helping the town purchase grazing areas for their animals. Even now, three months later, many families are living in government supplied tents while the tin roofs from their homes sit on the ground where their adobe walls washed out from underneath. It was obvious in our two days of clinics there that they need were great and the wounds and devastation from the flood still fresh. The Gradys will be relocating to a new area of Peru in the fall. The work we were able to do in these villages was critical to helping them solidify their work amongst the Aymara before they leave. The other Send Me Now students serving with the Gradys this summer will now have opportunites to followup on relationships begun in our work there.

In our five days of clincs:
* We saw almost 2000 patients (in medical, dental, and eye clinics)
* We filled over 2000 prescriptions
* We gave out about 1200 pairs of glasses
* We pulled about 100 teeth
* We gave out about 800 toothbrushes and toothpaste … many to children from the local schools who came to the American clinic
* Our resident vet treated about 100 animals in flood affected areas of Patascachi

The real work was not done in the medical care we provided. The medical care brought people in, brought comfort for temporary conditions and opened hearts and lives to share need. It demonstrated in real and tangible ways the love God has for His people. The real work was done as our team cared for people:

* it was praying with the woman whose husband had a stroke and she was overwhelmed with caring for him,
* it was loving the ten year old boy who brought himself to the clinic to see the doctor and burst into tears, overwhelmed with need
* it was cleaning the wound of a man whose face was eaten away by skin cancer
* it was hugging the woman stressed and saddened that her husband was living with another woman in Lima,
* it was sharing the gospel with the man who had suffered a stroke
* it was loving on the clinic staff in Moho so that the head doctor commented that he wanted to do what we do!
* it was lovingly telling a family that their child, blind from birth, would never see … but that he could have an amazing life
* it was listening to their stories and seeing their hearts
* it was a pastor finding glasses that would let him see again to read him Bible and hugging the team, in tears, that they had met a need
* it was our “pharmacists” sharing “we do this because of Christ”
* it was our pediatrician going class to class talking about “being healthy” … and being asked to share scripture as well
* it was five grown men in the dental clinic singing “Twinkle, twinkle little star” to the crying baby of a patient

Here are some of the ways lives were changed on our team:
I knew from the beginning of our trip to Peru that God was going to be teaching me things throughout our trip. Before we left, we were asked to try to gather up some supplies like toothpaste, toothbrushes, eye glasses, etc. One Sunday, I got up in front of my church and asked the church to help me gather supplies. As soon as I got back to my seat, I had a homeless lady come up and give me some shampoo and a blush brush. She said that she knew that it wasn’t much, but it was what she had to give. I told her that it was perfect. God humbled me that morning, and he has been continuing to humble me since. My favorite memory from our trip occurred on the first day of our clinic. We had seen several people come through already, and we were getting into the grove of things when I had an older gentleman lead into the room. As he started tearing up, he told me that he wasn’t able to see which is why he was lead into the room. I went and got the strongest pair of glasses that we had, and when I put them on his face, he immediately light up. He looked up at me and said that he could see again. Then he got up, hugged me, and started calling me his God son. He was then able to walk himself out of the room. I’m always amazed at how God uses medical trips to further his kingdom. God still accepts the widows mite, and he still heals the blind!

– Justin “Catfish” Peterson, Mercer Med student

I think one of the biggest things God taught me is a lesson I have learned over and over again. The lesson is that it's not all about me but about God. Seeing those people in the villages made me want to help them with more medicine and I felt bad at first that we couldn't do more. However, God showed me that it is our duty to go because it brings Him glory and not because he just wants us to do something. I'm a very active go-getter type person so it is hard for me to let go of the end results sometimes. Every time I learn this lesson I let a little bit of that go which brings me to the peace that Christ offers us. – Josh Bell, MCG medical student

One of my favorite memories this week was seeing a man who was badly hurt from skin cancer on his face. I keep thinking of his face when one of the girls was irrigating and debriding his facial wound that had completely eaten away his nare and most of his right cheek. I was in pain watching and I cannot imagine the pain he was feeling. We told him that there was nothing we could do that would reverse the process, but we were able to share the story of Christ with this elderly man. His face lit up afterwards and he stated that he had been baptized and wanted a Bible to read if that was possible. I am so glad we were able to share and pray with him.

Before coming on this trip, I was frustrated with my frequent flyer ICU patients who do not take care of themselves and felt I needed a break to recenter my focus on God. This trip did that and more. We were able to have five days of clinic and see so many patients. Most everyone was so grateful. The last day, several of the patients that came the day before returned for more free medicine. It was so hard for me because I felt I was being taken advantage of; however, I stepped away for a few minutes and was able to refocus on what really mattered. I had to see it through their eyes. Some just wanted more medicine for when they ran out, but others just wanted to see the Americans. I am definitely taking this frame of mind back to work with me. I need to try to understand the reason people keep coming back to the ICU and be bold by sharing my story with them.  - Kristen Lane, RN

One of my favorite moments of the entire trip was sitting down outside to clinic to teach a 4 and 5 year old class how to brush their teeth. The clinic was overrun with school classes, and we just couldn't see that many children without parents, so we decided to do dental hygiene education by class. I came on the trip as a translator with no medical or medical missions experience. I struggled part of the week to embrace the new form of missions based not on relationship but on meeting needs. However, God knows my heart so well and provided an opportunity for me to use my talents and passions on this trip. My love is teaching preschool to kindergarten age kids, especially in Spanish, and God provided that exact opportunity. While I was only with the class for 10-15 minutes, it was amazing to see God provide the exact encouragement I needed to feel used by Him on the trip. - Cassie Johnson, translator

Physically Exhausting- Personally Rewarding- Spiritually Refreshing- a strange combination, it’s true, but these phrases are all apt descriptions of our recent experience in medical ministry to the Aymara and Quechua peoples of Moho and Patascachi, Peru.

As I look back on the trip and begin to assess its impact, I see so many ways God used it to further His Kingdom in our lives and in the lives of the people we met. The most obvious and direct result was seen in the lives of the people we cared for; one example is a young father who brought his son to see me for a minor problem that we were able to treat easily and completely. Later the same day, the same gentleman returned, requesting to see me himself. Conditions were such that there was very little privacy available (our clinic that day was set up in a school classroom, with 2 adult medicine providers, my own pediatric clinic, and 2 dentists sharing the same space.) Though noticeably uncomfortable with the lack of privacy, the trust and rapport we had established in caring for his son allowed this man to tell us his story, which included a childhood accident requiring chest surgery at age 8, followed by a reopening of the wound in 2007, with painful and embarrassing complications ever since. Though the problem was far too chronic and complicated for us to resolve it completely (it would require another surgery which this man could ill afford even if it were available), we were able to clean and dress his wound in Jesus’ name and give him antibiotics to help control the longstanding infection. The young man left somewhat disappointed that we could not “cure” his problem, but he was still so grateful that he returned to our clinic in the same village the next day to thank us again and see us off as we packed and left. Countless other such encounters occurred through the week, allowing each of us the privilege of ministering in the name of our Lord.

Finally, God used this time to intervene in my life directly through the power of His Holy Spirit. As I was, quite literally, removed from many of the distractions of my day to day life and at the same time given the chance be Jesus’ hands and feet as a physician to some of his children in great need and as a mentor to some younger believers, the Lord touched my heart and began to reorder my priorities in ways that will, I’m sure, continue long into the future. I am grateful to Him for the way He used this experience to glorify His name and to draw me to Himself. – Dr.Kevin Johnson, pediatrician and father of two Send Me Now summer missionaries

On a side note: Dr. Johnson was also able to help our missionaries by treating their young children and to do a minor surgical procedure on a summer missionary serving with the teams who would not have had access to that healthcare any other way.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to go to Peru for medical missions. One of the most impactful happenings of this week on my personal life was during a clinic day near the end of the week. I had been taking blood pressures on the patients in triage outside. While they were waiting in line, I handed out a card we had made up before the clinic. On the card was a picture of me, my name, and a brief synopsis of how I came to know Christ, how He has changed my life, and a short prayer for the people of Peru. On the reverse side was a gospel presentation with the plan of salvation and Bible scriptures. Most people would read the card while waiting in line, so they felt like they "knew" me once they sat down to be assessed. One particular lady slipped through the line to someone else to get her blood pressure. A few moments later, I heard my name being called from inside the clinic, so I went in and sat down at one of the consultation areas with the interpreter and the nurse taking care of this lady. The lady was wearing an obviously new pair of glasses from the eyeglass clinic we were providing at the same location. The interpreter explained that the Peruvian woman wanted to meet me. The lady began reading my story to me from the card, slow and steady. We sat in silence, letting her finish, unaware of the bustling noises or hot air around us. Time and the long line of patients waiting out of the door didn't matter for this one period of time. Because our team had come and brought her a pair of $1 glasses, she was able to see and read the plan of salvation for her life, maybe for the first time. Listening to this newfound hope that the woman could now read about for herself, I knew that the purpose of medical missions had been accomplished. Thank you for the opportunity to provide medical aid, just as Jesus did. He could have come down to the cross and saved the world in one day, but instead He provided a model for us to follow as He spent His years before Calvary healing the sick, raising the dead, and building relationships with the poor and the needy. – Kim Roe, RN

The team on this trip was as big a blessing as the ministry. We all got along so well, worked together well, and really encouraged each other. There are actually two moments that stand out to me in regards to the team:
1) Driving from one town of ministry to the next, we traveled by bus. In the back of the bus one of our in country translators, Jeremy, played his guitar, and we all just worshiped together. As we drove through the mountains of Peru, we sang "My Savior, He can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save. Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave. Shine your light and let the whole world see we're singing for the glory of our risen King, King Jesus." It was such an awesome moment of worship in a beautiful setting with amazing brothers and sisters in Christ.
2) That same night we met together as a team, but instead of debriefing our day, we spent time sharing prayer requests from our lives outside of trip. Then, instead of assigning someone to pray for all the requests or whatnot, we were prompted to sporadically pray for the request that really struck us personally. In the time that followed, every request was prayed for by another member of the team, but each prayer came from a very genuine place. Many were prayed from a place of true understanding of the request of the other, often due to having lived a similar experience. It was an amazing time of seeing the body of Christ encourage and carry each other through hard things going on at home while on the mission field.
– Cassie Johnson, State Missions Chair for GA Baptist Collegiate Ministries

Our eye glasses team was able to use Spanish tracts, gospels, and testimonies in the dispensing of eyeglasses:
My favorite memory from last week was being able to see the joy in peoples eyes when they were able to see the words on the page of the track that we had them read, and to hear them read in their native tongue about salvation. There were so many people who read the words of life about our Savior Jesus Christ for the first time ever because we were able to bless them with glasses donated by those who supported us in this. It is such a great thing to have the support of the body of Christ and to see people changed and lives intersected. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, whether they speak English, Spanish, Aymara, or Quechua will meet again even if it's not here on the earth and I hope and pray to see some of the people I saw last week when we get to Heaven!    – Greta Clements, exercise physiology student

My week in Peru was unforgettable. I went into the week with certain expectations, but the Lord far exceeded anything I could have imagined. My favorite moment from the trip occurred late one night after we had finished our last day of clinic in the town of Moho. During our team meeting right before we went to bed, the missionary who was hosting us, John Grady, shared a conversation that he had with the head doctor from Moho earlier that day. Dr. Denis had told John, "I want to do what you all do," and he went on to ask John about starting a church in Moho. To hear that we had made such an impact on the clinic staff with which we worked was beyond amazing. Our team went into the trip knowing that it was imperative that we show Christ's love in a huge way to this clinic staff, because a medical mission team had never served in Moho before us. Hearing Dr. Denis's words was such a great reminder of Christ's power in us. Knowing that I was privileged enough to take part in something that might have sparked the establishment of an evangelical church in the town of Moho was such a blessing.    – Leigh Ann Bramlett, UGA pharmacy student

Pray for Dr. Denis, head of the hospital in Moho, that God would use him to start a “simple” church in Moho, use his influence in the community to draw people to Christ, and use his medical skills with future medical outreaches to surrounding communities.

Pray for Pastor Reuben and his family as they lead the house churches in the Huancane area. Pray for continued discipleship and training opportunities for Reuben.

Pray for the Gradys as they being to closure their work with the Aymara and prepare to transition to their new assignment which includes mentoring seven other familes ministering in a new part of Peru to yet, unreached peoples.