Dominican Republic - August 2007

The thoughts expressed herein are from my heart and if anything offends you, please don't hesitate to send me an email at medicaldimensions@hotmail.com. God bless you!

Introduction

I just got back from a medical missions trip to the Dominican Republic. I left Friday morning, August 3rd, and returned Saturday, August 11th. I guess that's about 8 days. We had a great time.

Setting Out - At The Airport – FRIDAY morning, August 3rd

I met the rest of the team at the JFK airport Friday morning. I got there early, about 7:30am. They arrived a little after 8am. There were two vans—one with people, one with luggage. Check-in was very smooth. Two members of our team worked their magic at the check-in counter. Suddenly all our tubs were being processed. So the rest of us checked in at the kiosks and we were all set. So when another member of our team found parking, we all proceeded through security, and went to the gate area to wait. So, throughout this entire experience, we got to know each other a little.

Landing


When we arrived in Santo Domingo, everyone worked together as a team to get all the tubs and two suitcases off of the luggage conveyer belt. We transported all the tubs through customs in one long line of 16 individuals. When we got through customs, a few members of the Episcopalian church we partnered with were already waiting for us. So there we met Father Samuel and another gentleman—our driver—and Ellen Snow. We all loaded onto the bus—luggage first, then people went on. Ellen Snow prayed for our entire week and the service we were going to provide. She prayed for God’s anointing over our work, our service. So we were off! We drove along the Malecón through Santo Domingo to San Pedro de Macoris, where we arrived at the Conference Center hosted by the Episcopalian church. Lovely hues of tan and green. We were informed of our assigned rooms. Each room had 3 – 4 beds, a ceiling fan, and a fan on the wall, I believe, along with a bathroom. Our walls were a shade of green. The dining area also served as our living room. That’s where we met, where we entertained each other. It was our rendezvous point when we were going out. Friday night, we were given an introduction to our homestay and a rundown for the activities the next day.

Setting Out - Our First Day - SATURDAY, August 4th


Saturday, we went out to a couple of Bateyes after breakfast. We handed out food—rice and beans—as well as hygiene items—soaps, rags, toothbrushes, that sort of thing. We also had flip-flop slippers, little children’s clothing and stuffed toys. The pediatrician lined up all the kids and gave them a general check-over. The internist saw any adults that had major complaints, and I made sure that from the very first person I interacted with who we were serving as a team, I made sure that from the very first person to the very last person I said “God bless you!” in English, Spanish, French, Creole—whatever it took to have the person understand me and respond accordingly. So, for the Spanish version it’s “Dios te bendiga” and for the French version, “Dieu te benu (sp???)” and for the Creole version, I think it’s “Bonais Benu (sp???)”. I dunno, I could be wrong. It’s a little hard to remember all three! I learned the Spanish version from a missions trip last summer. I learned the French one easily, but the Creole one was harder for me, because I couldn’t understand which word meant God. But I told that to everyone, and everyone responded with “Amen” or “Gracias” or “Igual” (‘you too!). It was really beautiful. We handed out the stuff and then whatever leftovers we had we took to another Batey and handed them out there, then we kept moving. That was Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, we went to the beach for a couple of hours, on our way back to the conference center.

Coming Back to the Base - Saturday Night, August 4th


Saturday night, we met Father Samuel. He gave us an introduction to the Episcopalian church we were working with. Father Sandino had met us when we arrived at the Conference Center the night before. He lives on the premises. Father Samuel had met us at the airport and he is our direct link to the service in the Dominican Republic. He gave us an introduction that night to the communities we would be serving and he kept telling us that it was a lot of hard work ahead of us. Some of us thought, “Oh, today was so much fun!” We couldn’t imagine what the week ahead would be like. For me, once you’re serving people and having fun serving, hard work just seems like… fun! So, we got an update on the next day’s activities.

A Dominican Church Experience - SUNDAY Morning, August 5th

Sunday morning, we went to Father Samuel’s church and he gave a wonderful sermon. He taught on two main scriptures. In the first scripture he referred to, a man was storing up all his gifts, all his riches in a shed, in a barn. Jesus told the man, you will die tonight! Where will everything that you have stored up go? What’s going to happen to all the gifts and riches that the man stored up in the barn? [Luke 12:16-21] In the second scripture Father Samuel referred to, Jesus was prophesying about his return and what he will say to His sheep, those who He called and who responded to His call: “When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink.” The people listening to Jesus said, “When did we do these things? When did we see you and feed you, and clothe you and offer you something to drink?” Jesus basically responded, “Look at the people around you. Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” [Matthew 25:35-40] The main point of Father Samuel’s sermon was that we should use the gifts and riches God has given us to help others. We should not just store them up inside of us. Each of us has been blessed with different gifts. Some of us with similar gifts, but we should all use our gifts to help others, to serve others. It was very beautiful. He used it also as a segway to introduce our team to the church community and let them know where we would be stationed each day.

Plan For The Week - Setting Up The Pharmacy - Sunday Afternoon, August 5th


The first two days, we were in Monte Coca. Wednesday, we were in Alta Gracia. Thursday and Friday, we were in Consuelo, the location of Father Samuel’s Episcopalian church. It was a great experience. Sunday after church, we set the pharmacy up in Monte Coca, and one of the young men helping us from Father Samuel’s church was wearing a t-shirt in celebration of 85 years of the church’s presence in the community. The back of the t-shirt said “Aqui estoy yo. Envíame a mi.” It’s from a scripture in Isaiah. It means “Here I am. Send me.” It was just so great to me. I said to the two people I was talking to that that is what I say to the Lord. That is my attitude of service and worship to the Lord. And it was so beautiful to me. I told them that whenever I go on a missions trip, I sing a song for the church I am at to bless everyone, to bless me, and to bless the Lord. I told them that the song is called “Lord, I am available to You!” It basically says, “You gave me my hands, my eyes, my ears, my feet—all these—to show men the way, Your way. To wipe away the tears of those crying. Lord, I am going to give all of this back to You. I am giving you my hands, my eyes, my lips, my ears, so that you, Lord, can use them as You please." That is basically what the scripture says: “Here I am, Lord, send me!” So that really touched me. That was Sunday.

Divine Preparation - Sunday Night, August 5th

Sunday night, I opened a book my mom gave to me when I was in high school, “Bilingual vocabulary for the medical profession”. I was just looking through the medical scenarios to see if I could pick up a couple of words that could be useful on Monday, because I had not really reviewed any medical Spanish for a long time. The two words I read Sunday night were “desmayo” and “mareo”. “Desmayo” means “fainting”, and “mareo” means “dizziness”. Would you believe that the moment Monday came, almost every single patient had dizziness—“mareo”. Occasional patients had “desmayo”. It was such a pervasive word and I never knew that word until Sunday night! So it was such a blessing to me that I wanted to learn a couple of words and the two words the book taught me that I didn’t know were going to be so pervasive. I definitely do not think it was an accident or a coincidence that those two specific words that I learned was so pervasive in this community. One theory is that because a lot of the individuals are malnutritioned, they do not have a lot of glucose in them and they’re out in the sun a lot all day everyday, they’re dehydrated and malnutritioned, so that may cause them to feel dizzy when they are hungry. So that’s a theory. But it’s only a theory, who knows. Some of the children had been diagnosed previously with anemia.

Seeing The Patients - Monte Coca - MONDAY & TUESDAY, August 6th & 7th


All in all, it was a very great experience. On Monday, we saw about 127 patients in Monte Coca. We were in the community center and we had a chance to meet the “Cooperedad de Salud” (sp???) of the community. In fact, later on that week, we learned that she had been trained as a Nurse’s Aide—as an ‘Enfermera Auxiliar’. Her name is Patria. She was extremely helpful to us the entire time we were there in Monte Coca, on Monday and Tuesday. She then came to Consuelo to help us on Thursday and Friday. I retrained her on using the stethoscope, taking blood pressures with the sphygmomometer, checking patients’ pulses. The way she takes a pulse is by listening for a whole minute. I taught her how to listen for 15 seconds, but she does not know how to multiply by 4. So then I wrote down on a sheet of paper all the way from ’15 x 4 ‘ to ’40 x 4’. So that if she listened for 15s, she could look across the line on the sheet of paper, and figure out how much would be in a minutes. She said she was going to secure it in plastic and keep it. That meant a lot to me too. She enjoyed the gift enough that she would put it plastic although it was just written crudely with a pen on lined or ruled paper.

The BRIDGE - Journey to Alta Gracia - WEDNESDAY, August 8th


On Wednesday, we went to Alta Gracia. For both Monte Coca and Alta Gracia, we had to cross a bridge. The top of the bridge consists of long, horizontal wooden or metal planks of varying lengths, shapes, and sizes. There was probably a gap somewhere as well. A few members of the team were a little uneasy about that, especially one person in particular, who prayed heartily before we crossed the bridge. We crossed the bridge eight times over the course of Sunday through Wednesday. She was a good sport. On Wednesday, I believe, it rained. So the really long path back from Alta Gracia was kind of flooded. So it made the journey from Alta Gracia even more interesting.

Striking Shots - Non-Citizenship Dilemma


Something that struck me is that as we passed through communities and passed by fields and passed by people, many of those scenes reminded me so much of a lot of the shots I saw online. Before I went on the missions trip, I did a lot of research into the communities, the conditions of the communities, service to the communities. The pictures I saw online were so striking. Several times on my missions trip, as I looked out through the bus window, my mind’s eye would capture a shot of what I seeing. It would be just like an image on the web. So perfectly clear. It was just so beautiful to me to know that those same communities I read about are practically the same ones I was serving. Even if I read about ‘Batey #6’, we went to ‘Batey AB6’. The conditions are similar in most of the Bateyes. See, the thing is, the people who live in the Bateyes are Haitian descendants. Either first generation, second, third, or fourth generation. Some of them are Dominicans from intermarrying. So a lot are half Haitian, half Dominican. So you often find that a lot of the older ones speak Creole and the younger ones speak both Creole and Spanish, but that is not always the case. The second, third, fourth generations… If both their parents’ are Haitian and they’re born on the sugar plantation, in the Batey, they are generally not considered Dominican by the Dominican government. Because they are not born in Haiti, they are generally not considered Haitian. So they do not really politically ‘belong’ anywhere, in terms of documented citizenship. And that’s hard. Because it means they do not have official rights under any law. They do not seem to have rights under Dominican law or under Haitian law. They do not have a right to basic health care. The children do not have a right to education. Oftentimes, the children do not get to go to school.

A Light In The Dark - Building A School for Children in a Batey





Father Samuel is building a school in another community. He got permission from the government, from owners of the Batey to use the space to build a school. He has completed two rooms. Completed meaning that the walls made from concrete blocks are in place, and the roof seems to be in place. He has completed two rooms, one for small children and one for big children. He also wants to build a third room for a small pediatric clinic. The kids in that Batey usually have to go really far to go to school, so he wanted to build a school that is right in the Batey, so that they would not have to struggle to go all the way to school. I believe that in this school they may also get a chance to learn about the Lord. That is a great work that God is doing through Father Samuel.

Waiting Room - Alta Gracia - Wednesday, August 8th


On Wednesday we had an interesting day at Alta Gracia. A lot of the women and men were waiting to be seen in what seemed like a pile of people by the door. I did not have much privacy with my patients each time, so I asked everyone to stand outside the door. But oftentimes, some women were pushing and came right next to my patient. A patient would be telling me about an infection in her private areas and other patients would be leaning in to listen to the interview with the patient. I just could not handle it. So I got up myself and told them to stay behind the door. I told them to get down because the door was a little higher than the ground. I told them that I was not going to see anyone unless it was orderly and quiet, and unless they were all behind the door and on the ground. So then I went back to working and the guard came back. While I was working with the next patient, I happened to glance towards the door and I saw a woman’s foot up and over the edge. Her foot was inside the door. My eyes went slowly from her foot up to her face. She took her foot back. I smiled broadly and gave her a thumbs up! This was Wednesday.

"God bless you!" & Prayer

From Monday to Wednesday, every single day, I would tell every patient “God bless you!” The patient would always respond with “Amen” or “Thank you!” or “God bless you, too!” Occasionally, a patient would say, “I am a Christian! I go to church!” The first day it happened twice, and each time I took the opportunity to offer to pray with that patient. They would respond, “Oh yeah. That would be great!” One was a woman and one was a man, that first day. When I prayed with each person, the presence of the Lord was so tangible. At the end of the prayer, there would be smiling faces, theirs and mine, and they would go on to their next station. I noticed that when I prayed with the men, they all had their hats off by the end of the prayer.

Serving In A Church - Alta Gracia - Wednesday, August 8th


On Wednesday, I prayed with a couple of women who just seemed tormented. I had Father Samuel’s daughter translating for me at one point between Spanish and Creole. I asked her to ask the patient why she was tormented. At first she looked at me weird and I said, “Yeah, ask her why she’s tormented”. She asked her what was wrong with her, which is not what I said. The patient responded about the pain in her belly, the pain in her side, she had pain here, pain there. I then said, “Ask her why she is tormented in her spirit.” The young woman went ahead and asked her the question and the woman said because of all the problems in her life. So I asked, “Can I pray for you?” and the woman responded, “Sure.” We bowed our heads and I prayed for the troubles in the woman’s life. As I prayed, I heard a male voice agreeing in prayer. When I looked up at the end, it was a gentleman who had been helping us set up the building for the clinic. He said he was so happy that I had just prayed. He took out his card and showed me that he was the Pastor of the church in whose building we sat. He was so proud to be the pastor of the church and I was so blessed to have him there in the prayer with us. So I prayed again for another lady.

Praying For The Children - Wednesday, August 8th




Later on that day, I was standing with the pastor and some children. I said to the pastor, can I pray with you for the children and he said, “Sure”. All the children closed their eyes and I prayed for them, for their health, and for their growth into young men and women who know the Lord, into powerful young men and women in their community. That was really nice. About 20 minutes later, after some children had received toothbrushes and the like, they were asking me for more and I said, “I don’t have toothbrushes, all I have is more prayers,” and they responded eagerly, “Ok!” So I asked, “Do you want more prayers?” and they said, “Yeah!” I responded, “Really?! You just had prayer. Why do you want more prayer?” A little boy replied, “Because God is good. (Porque Dios es bueno.)” I was so moved by it. They weren’t just here to see the doctor—the pediatrician, they weren’t just here to get free stuff, they were here even to recognize God’s goodness and get some prayer. I said, “Ok. What do you want me to pray for this time? Your health? Your mom?” A little boy said, “My mom!” So I asked him, “Is your mom sick” And he said, “Yes! She has high blood sugar.” So I took him over to sit with me. He closed his eyes and I prayed that God would heal his mom and make her feel better. I then asked who was next and a little boy said, “Me!” I asked him, “What do you want me to pray for?” and he said, “My mom!” I said, “Is your mom sick” He said, “Yeah!” I asked, “What is she sick with?” and he said, “High blood sugar.” So I sat him down and I prayed for his mom that God would heal her and make her feel better. For each one, I prayed that God would heal the spirit as well as the body. So then, after that, a third boy pushed his way to the front, came in, sat down, and closed his eyes. I asked him what he wanted me to pray for and he said, “My mom.” So I prayed for his mom too. Then I was called by our internist, who had taken the community Nurse's Aid under his wings, to give her two of our glucometers and a bunch of glucometer strips. So I gave her those as well as lancets and everything she would need to check individuals’ blood sugar over a long period of time. It was interesting because I don’t think the internist necessarily knew I was praying for these children’s mom’s blood sugar, to heal the moms, to heal their bodies and their spirits. Blood sugar testing and care is a real need in the communities. So that was Wednesday.

Consuelo - Good Report! - THURSDAY & FRIDAY, August 9th & 10th

Thursday and Friday we were in Consuelo. That was very interesting. There was a gentleman who came to us on Friday. Apparently, he was from St. Martin. His dad is from St. Martin and his mom is from St. Kitts. Both are English-speaking countries, so he speaks both English and Spanish. He said he came to us because his wife had come to us on Thursday, and she went home and told him that we here at the clinic, we treated people so well that he should come to us to talk to us. He came to get a second opinion for a problem that he had gone to a doctor for the day before. Here he was. He waited in line to come and spend some time with us, because he heard that we treated people well. That was a wonderful thing for us to hear as well.

Each day, we saw on average 130 – 160 patients. So from Monday to Friday, that would give us a total of more than 700 patients!

Party - Bachata - Testimony - Friday Night, August 10th


Friday night, Father Samuel threw us a party. It was wonderful. We had dancing, bachata, and lots of food. Father Samuel thanked us for our week’s service. He exhorted us in the Lord, and God used him to really answer a prayer of mine, which to me is a gorgeous testimony. You may remember that towards the beginning I mentioned that the church was celebrating it’s 85th year of existence in the community and that there was a t-shirt the young man was wearing and the back of it said, “Here I am. Send me.” During the course of the week, I wore my English Christian t-shirts when I had the opportunity. I remember thinking, “How great would it be if I also had Christian t-shirts in Spanish!” That night, Father Samuel gave every single member of our team one of the t-shirts, “Here I am. Send me.” To me, it was God answering my prayer, just like that. I was not the only one on the team desiring a t-shirt. We had planned to purchase them, but we had not gotten around to it. And there God answered all our prayers and just gave them to us! That is something I will never forget. When I wear this t-shirt, whenever I see this t-shirt, I will think of them, the wonderful spirit of Father Samuel and his family, and the amazing love that God has for these people and for the great work that God was able to do in us and through us throughout the week.

Fulfilled Prophesies - God's Authority - Serving Servers

One remarkable thing about the trip is that I knew the Lord was sending me to physically and spiritually serve the patients, but also to spiritually serve those who were serving. I knew that I would be instrumental in some way in the spiritual aspect of the lives of the servers throughout this week, the team members. In fact, in church, there were some wonderful prophesies the Sunday before I left. I sang a song “Lord, I’m Available To You”, then the pastors prayed for me and there were prophesies. One of the prophesies was that I was going in God’s authority. Another prophesy was that I should not be hesitant, because yes, I was going in God’s authority and I was going with God’s anointing. The moment I stepped off the plane, God’s anointing would be upon me, and my feet would be as lamps. That people would look to me for guidance on the trip. That I had the gift of healing, that people would experience not only physical healing, but also spiritual healing. Those were amazing pieces of knowledge to keep in my pocket as I went on the trip. And it is true. The moment I stepped off the plane, I did have the Lord’s anointing and I have had it ever since. There was just a wonderful peace throughout the trip.

The Missing Element

The only thing I didn’t have peace about was the lack of a spiritual overtone. There was no discussion of the spiritual and biblical motivation for what we were doing. The team seemed to consist of individuals who were catholic, Episcopalian, and agnostics. There was no mention of God outside of Father Samuel’s church or the lady who prayed for our entire week, while on the bus from the airport. Not a single mention of God amongst the team members. That struck me as quite unusual and I was not comfortable with it.

Spiritual Implosion

One night, as some of us were sitting around talking as we had done for a few nights in a row, I had the same familiar feeling that we were just talking about nothing. The conversation was meaningful to them perhaps, but to me we were just talking about nothing. We didn't put any kind of energy or discussion into the spiritual aspect of our service, not even once during the week. The rest of the conversations were about vacationing and visiting other countries and stories about college and in light of the spiritual void I felt, these stories meant nothing significant to me. No offense to my fellow team members, but I just wanted more. One night, the Da Vinci code came up, and the lady sitting next to me—a team member—was talking about her views on it. I was saying, I don’t believe that’s what’s really said in the Bible, in response to something she said. She said, “It’s in Matthew”. I said, “It doesn’t actually say that.” She replied saying it didn’t quite say that, but… and the guy next to me was yawning audibly and making sounds that made us have to stop the conversation. I said, “Finally a conversation I actually want to have and we can’t have it!!!” Someone said, “Well it’s not polite conversation.” I said, “You guys aren’t polite! Let’s not kid ourselves here,” which led to a fit of laughter from all of us. The group I was sitting with was definitely not polite. Later that night, in my room, I was lamenting to my roommate, a nurse. I said to her: “You know it’s so frustrating to me that on all of the missions trips that I have been on before, we have worship together in the morning, we come together and talk about the day’s experiences at night. And the spiritual aspect of it is what motivates everyone on the trip! It just frustrates me that no one on this entire trip is interested in talking about God or the spiritual aspects of what we are doing”. She said, “Well, I have been thinking about that. I am interested in that too.” I said, “Ok. But in general, no one is really saying anything about it.” She said, “Well, you and I could sit down and talk about it and I am sure if we approach the leader we could do something.” I said, “If we tell the leader tomorrow night that we are going to get together and discuss the spiritual aspects and debrief, talk about what struck us during the day, and people who are interested can feel free to join us, will you support me in that?” She said, “Yes, definitely. And even if it’s just the two of us, it only takes two." So the next day, in the morning, she asked the group leader if she would be ok with that, and she was.

Spiritual Infusion


That night, we were so tired that we did not announce it at dinner. But during dinner, I did ask one lady if her husband and she would be interested in joining us. After dinner, a few people were just sitting around as usual, and my roommate wanted me to go get a verse to read. So I went to get my Bible and journal. As I was looking through my journal for a verse, I came upon one that was very fitting for a lady in our group. It is in Isaiah, and it says, “I will be with you when you go through the waters, when you go through the river, the waters will not overwhelm you. When you go through the fire, the flames will not consume you, for I am the Lord your God.” [Isaiah 43:2,3a] It was for the lady who was scared by the bridge. I think she, as well as everyone else, enjoyed the verse. I offered to pray for everyone there at the time and they said, “Sure.” I prayed for how great the week had gone so far and I thanked the Lord for the opportunities we had had. I asked Him to guide us and protect us and lead us through the rest of the week. Some people left because they had been waiting for someone to go out on the town for the evening. About seven of us remained. We talked about our experiences. I talked about praying for the kids. I talked about praying for the women and men. Other persons talked about what moved them, and at the end of it, I was saying it was so great to do what we did, because I really wanted that. I really desired that and I was happy that there were other people willing to take part in that and that everyone could get something out of it. I read another verse; it was a verse on peace. That’s what my journal was mostly about. It’s called the Serenity Journal. Then I prayed for us again and we all went to bed. That was really wonderful. That meant a lot to me. I had been looking forward to it all week, and I knew that part of why the Lord had me there was to help guide the servers spiritually and to serve them myself. So, I was glad that Wednesday I got something out of it and I know that others did too. The goal was to repeat that Thursday night and Friday night, but because of the scheduling of what we ended up doing, including going shopping for souvenirs, and Father Samuel’s party, we did not quite get to repeat it. But that one time was significant. That one time meant a lot to a lot of people on the trip. It also helped me to grow. The prophesies really were instrumental in my stepping out boldly on this trip. The prophesies inspired and encouraged me not to be hesitant, to know that I was going with God’s authority. To know that I had his anointing, that my feet were lit with his lamps, that I was to bring spiritual guidance to the team and that I was to serve the team spiritually as well as our patients spiritually. I knew that was what I had to do. All those prophesies empowered me and gave me the boldness—the holy boldness and divine confidence—I needed to do what I was meant to do.

Back Home - Akin Desires - SATURDAY, August 11th

Saturday morning, we got on the plane and we came back. When we got to our team leader’s home, from there I was given a ride to my home by one of the gentlemen on the trip and that man is Haitian himself. He has been going to visit the Bateyes in the Dominican Republic for the past 15 years, twice a year. Once a year, he just goes and brings them lots of things and just fellowships with them. Another time during the year, he goes on missions trips with other individuals and takes them into the Bateyes too. On a bus ride to the Bateyes one day, I had told him that I prayed with patients the day before, the way I pray with patients in Hartford. On the drive home in Connecticut, he told me he thought it was great that I had shared my faith with patients in the Bateyes. He was saying that he is used to missions trips that are more spiritual in their focus and their motivation. He was used to getting up in the mornings, having devotions together, then in the evenings having some kind of debriefing about the day. I told him I was used to that too. That is why Wednesday evening some of us sat around and did that. He asked, “Why didn’t you come and get me??” I told him that I had no idea who was interested! I told him, “NO one said anything, no one mentioned anything, it was impossible to know who cared about that stuff.” He said he would have loved to come. Then we talked about the fact that nobody is going to know what’s going on unless the leader sets the tone. The leader of the trip has to set the tone.

Possible Return - Planting Of A Seed - Continuity

I told him that if I am called to return next year, then I will return next year, and before we go we can let people know that we are going to have ‘spiritual debriefing’ in the evenings. People are welcome to join us. That also was a blessing to me, that he endorsed the idea. I feel that in the same way that they view their work in the Dominican Republic as the start of something bigger, greater, and more longitudinal and having more continuity, I also felt that the work the Lord started through me, in terms of the spiritual aspect, was going to increase. It was planting a seed that He would water, that would become a glorious flower. So that this trip would become like several others where even though it’s a mixture of believers and non-believers, at least a couple of believers will lead the others in thinking about the spiritual implications of what they are doing, and the spiritual motivation behind what they are doing. And the sad thing was that several people who identified as specific religions or denominations seemed to consider themselves as being on the trip for humanitarian purposes, and not specifically to share God’s love and His good news. Rather, to help people because it’s the humanitarian thing to do. Yet, you never know what is really in people’s hearts, so we cannot assume. We cannot judge. We can only serve, pray for, and love the servers, as well as those we serve.

Resolution - Saturday, August 11th

On Saturday, we got to the airport safely. We got through security smoothly. We arrived very safely once again at JFK, and we were transported by bus back to Connecticut. Thank you very much to our trip coordinator’s friend and co-worker. We arrived safely at our trip coordinator’s home and it was a good journey. I would do it again. Once I know that I’ll have the Lord’s authority. I would definitely embrace prophesies again before I go, because I just want to walk in His will. I prayed for healing, individually, for so many people, and I believe with all my heart that the anointing flowed through me, through my hands, into them, through prayer. And that healing will come. Physical healing will come, spiritual healing will come. That the words I spoke into those children’s lives will not return to me void. That the words I spoke into those adults’ lives will not return to me void. They were words spoken by the authority of Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit’s leading. And I believe that those words will really transform their hearts, their lives, their spirits. I don’t believe that anything could be taken for granted. Glory be to God. I believe His will was done. Glory to His name.