After two weeks of rest, we feel as if we have just barely recovered from the busyness of our week of medical campaigns. We were extremely impressed by the energy and skills that the Lipscomb medical team brought to the Ulpan Valley. Thanks to the organizational skills and many hours of hard work of Steve and Magda Sherman, Kristin Baese, Kris, and many others, the clinics turned out to be a huge success! We'll admit that we were a bit uncertain as to how things would go since we were trying to implement a new model of medical missions.
With the presence of a full-time doctor in the Valley, we decided to assist him in forming a medical baseline study that would help him figure out what types of preventative measures should be taken for the future. So, in addition to just having doctors available for consult and the prescription of meds, we included a women's clinic (offering pap smears and all!), a lab for testing diabetes, HIV, H-Pilori, and other diseases, and a nutritional study station (manned by women from Guatemala's Department of Health) for weighing and measuring babies to help determine the percentage of malnourished children in the Valley. Also, with the recent initiation of training of health promoters in each village, we decided to include them in our clinics, using their knowledge of Q'eqchi' for translation purposes and offering to them invaluable experience working with professional doctors and other health professionals. On top of all of those changes, this was our first year to charge patients for their meds, in order to reinforce our current system with Doctor Misael and the health promoters (previously patients had just payed a flat fee to see the doctor and then received their meds for free). Out of more than 400 patients, only about 30 were unable to pay and signed a contract for future payments.
We had a dental clinic each of the four days, as well, and were able to see more than 120 patients. This was also the first year we set up a fluoride station at each of the dental clinics and painted fluoride on a total of about 400 children's teeth.
After four days of clinics, we had a much-needed day to organize and review all of our patient forms to determine the most prevalent diagnoses, meds prescribed, etc., to help us determine community needs and how to better plan for next year (thanks to Michael Bradfield for leading this analysis!).
We ended our long week of medical campaigns with a night of rest in both Coban and Antigua, but even during this time several students from Lipscomb were pushing us to continue conversations about how they could stay involved with the objectives of Project Ulpan. They were also excited about the prospect of the people of the Ulpan Valley becoming less and less dependent upon outside American groups coming in to meet medical needs. Thus, our new model of missions- of empowering communities to help themselves so that we are no longer needed- is catching on with a new generation... and we are excited to see what God will do with these seeds that have been planted. To Him be the glory!
On another note, life in the Valley has continued as "normal" for the past week and a half. We got back into the schools, teaching how to brush teeth and giving each classroom a toothbrush holder and toothbrushing chart. We also made regular trips down to the Saquiquib bridge site (straight down and straight up again and again... let's just say our "buns" are getting in shape!) as concrete began to be poured to make preparations for the Lipscomb engineering bridge team to come in May. We are extremely thankful to Luke Burris, Chris Gwaltney, and the rest of their team, as well as our Guatemalan foremen Edgar and Francisco, for their diligent work on this project!
We are currently enjoying a week of "vacation" in Antigua, spending time with the Link family from Otter Creek, and looking forward to being a part of Holy Week activities. Although this week in particular turns our eyes to the cross and the empty grave, our prayer is that we would ALWAYS be focused on living the life of our resurrected King!
Update: We posted some more pics from our week in Antigua on Kris's Facebook page... you can check them out at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.397911916900569.96655.100000452935799. Enjoy!
