¡Hola a todos los amigos y familias del grupo CMMA!
The group was up and at ‘em again before sunrise around 6:00am to worship and spend time in prayer before starting our day. Dr. Brian Shaw, Ivana Smith, and Mary Claire Carlton welcomed Seth Baxter (our newly christened drummer) to the team to lead the group in a time to praise God with our worship. Britton Ethridge (the author of Tuesday’s blog) brought a word from multiple Bible scriptures to remind us that God’s spirit is not only with us at all times but is going before and behind us in all things. The kitchen team (who has been dishing out AMAZING meals all week) served up some Food Network©-worthy breakfast to fuel us up for the day. Students and providers alike then split up to spend time in The Word before packing up the bus to hit the road. The team arrived at John 3:16 Baptist Church in San Pedro and the whirlwind of transforming a church building into a fully-operational multi-disciplinary medical clinic began. At this point in the week, we have all gotten pretty good at throwing suitcases full of supplies, setting up impromptu triage stations, and creating clinic “rooms” like a well-oiled machine, so setup was over before we knew it. As the patients had been lining up outside the church before we even arrived, triage began immediately – with students and providers taking histories, making diagnoses, creating treatment plans, dishing out and filling pharmaceutical scripts, providing comprehensive physical therapy, providing prescription glasses, and most importantly discussing the love, grace, and never-ending mercies of God, Jesus, and the Holy spirit. Due to a lighter clinic load today, every group was able to spend more time evangelizing and praying over every patient. While we may not have seen every patient come to a point where they felt ready to make a decision to follow Christ with their whole heart, we have been so encouraged to be able to be used by God in any way that he has planned. The group has seen spiritual growth and healing in many of the patients that we have been able to minister to, providing much-needed watering to seeds that have been planted into the hearts of many of the local Dominicans. It has been gift to be used for the purpose of furthering God’s kingdom. We have been able to see the curiosity of many people to know and learn more about God and His free gift of eternal life. Sweaty and a little tired, the group started packing up the clinic after the last patient had been seen, and in no more than a half hour, we were headed back to SCORE to devour another incredible meal of pollo fríto (fried chicken!) and enjoy fellowship with one another. We are definitely feeling a little physically fatigued at this point, but our hearts are so, so full. We gathered again to praise the Lord in worship. Singing and reminding ourselves that “His love is enduring!” and “His praise should forever be on our lips.” So many of us have felt led by the Spirit to trust God in taking steps that have initially felt uncomfortable for us – diving into the spiritual lives of others through language and cultural barriers, praying over intimate needs of people who had been complete strangers 20 minutes prior, providing medical care in very early stages of our training, and meeting our patients where they are at in any way we are able to. Tonight after worship, Dr. Bob spoke on Acts 17. He discussed Paul traveling through Athens and witnessing idolatry everywhere he went. This is not a problem of the past, but this is a problem of the heart. It is everywhere. We live in a broken world, and we are broken people, and we are in constant need to remind ourselves of the gospel – that “Jesus and the resurrection” is the foundation of our lives. There are so many things we can make idols in our lives by putting those things above the Lord, but they will fail to satisfy our souls every single time. When we share the gospel with others who are attempting to find peace and security in many different idols, we need to be prepared for all sorts of reactions and responses. Through it all, however, we can have immense peace in the truth that God is constantly working out all things for our good and for His glory. Thank you all for you continued prayers – God is listening, working in the hearts of the local people, preparing a way for us, and answering prayers daily. It has been such a blessing to be a first-hand witness to those answered prayers! Please continue to lift up prayers for the team and those that we will encounter – that God will go forth before us and open up the hearts, minds, eyes, and ears of all those that we will come into contact with. Please also lift up all those that we have ministered to thus far – that God will send workers to water all of the seeds that have been planted! Yours in Christ, The Three L’s of UAB – Lis, LC, and Luke
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