Last week we had a visit from Bethany Covenant Church in Berlin, CT. We have partnered with them before doing a medical caravan 2 years ago in Quevedo, Ecuador. Last week we partnered to do another caravan in Las Delicias which is about 30 minutes outside of Santo Domingo. It was in fact a triple partnership working with Iglesia Misionera de la Valle in Sangolgui as well as with a church plant they are working with in Las Delicias and Pastor Hugo and his family, Bethany Covenant and The clinic and project in Cayambe. The medical team saw around 111 patients in 2 days. This is an area with very minimal access to quality healthcare. Most of the adult patients, probably 90% had high blood pressure, two patients, high enough to send to the hospital. With no ambulances or emergency medicine (we were in the middle of a plantain plantation) it complicated matters. Annalea (our nurse working with the Santiago Partnership) and I (Kim) also got lost on the 2nd morning of the caravan. We took a wrong turn and were an hour late for the start of the caravan! We got lost in a plantain plantation! That was a first!
We had a pediatrician and psychiatrist with us who were able to care for patients in different ways than a lot of our caravans usually can. We were so thankful that both were busy almost the whole time. Other team members were doing VBS and crafts as well as a pilate/yoga class and educational classes as well. There were many working parts to this team and they embodied what 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians with many parts but one body all working together.
The theme T shirt for this team was “love needs no translation”. They lived this out in each interaction they had with each other and with those they served.
Thank you so much Bethany Covenant for allowing us to partner in your ministry and service and for allowing God to use you. Thank you also for your support and encouragement of our family as well as The Santiago Partnership! We can’t thank you enough!
Check out some pictures from the time we were together this week.
VBS and playing with sidewalk chalk
Dr. Linda (our pediatrician) seeing patients
Fun picture with Merge and Santiago Partnership staff
Sunset
This is what the road looked like when we got lost in the middle of the plantain plantation
Our fearless driver when we got lost
Kim seeing patients
Medical team working together
Educational workshop with those patients waiting to be seen by the providers
Cacao and plantain trees by where we were seeing patients
VBS
The Santiago Partnership