love wins

June 8 2015

The signature smell of a developing country lingers in the warm air this eve; a mixture of burning wood over which pots of food cook and burning garbage. We trudged back to our super digs at hotel Ticomo after a full day of seeing patients and meeting beautiful people. But how did the day go, you ask?

It started with coffee, beans, rice, eggs, toast and fruit; once again reminding us we are far from starving on this venture. With lunches packed and nerves running high with breathless anticipation we lurched over what remains of a cement road now washed out and ruts well formed in the underlying mud. The gates at House of Hope had opened long before we arrived and lines, rather gatherings, of women were already well formed. We quickly dispersed to our respective stations and the work began with little fanfare.

To give you a taste of the mayhem: the medicine clinic sent a woman likely experiencing a heart attack to the hospital while my first gynecology patient had a prolapsing fibroid. An infertile woman for the past 6 years discovered she was blessed with her first pregnancy today. Mixed in between these extremes were loads of common medical and dental disease presentations over which all group members puzzled and treated including 29 teeth pulled. We have a first year medical student with us who stuck close to our 5^th year general surgery resident and found himself challenged and engaged to use what he has already learned and add to his scaffolding of knowledge while the surgery resident enjoyed teaching him pathophysiology and diagnostic differentials. The pharmacy team gave out hundreds of medications and the optometry clinic handed out its fair share of glasses; making small miracles with the gift of sight.

And among the connections we made today with the women and children, 6 children received Christ, 14 of the women we met and prayed over at the brothels the day prior presented to the clinics; one of which requested to leave her life of prostitution and live at House of Hope: seeking a better life and finding her way to the best blessing.

At lunch we heard from a women who participates in the Tuesday Morning Program at House of Hope – it’s a time where women from the surrounding area come to make goods they sell. However, prior to the work they do, they listen to April (the founder of House of Hope) preach the Good News. She shared of leaving home at 14 for a boy who later left her. She subsequently had 3 children with three different men, all of whom left her, and she turned to sexual commerce in order to feed her children. As the years passed she found her way to Christ and eventually found a refuge at House of Hope. She now endeavors to go to Honduras as a missionary, planting a place like House of Hope; a refuge for women seeking freedom from the sin that so easily enslaves. What struck me most about her, and really about most women, is their drive to sacrifice themselves to provide for their children. Like the woman who is part of the House of Hope community, she lost her arm and suffered facial deformity by a machete swung by the john when she refused to continue to let him profit off her and her 13 year old daughter.  It reminds me of my selfishness on a daily basis.

It is an understatement to say the day was good. Perhaps the only description is the blessing we found in the work we did to stand in the gap with hands open giving of that which has been poured out to us. Jesus wins. Love wins.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine on you – Numbers 6