Tuesday, May 22nd

Tuesday, May 22nd:

Hi guys, it’s Shawna! Today was our first day of surgery! Three surgeries were scheduled for today, but unfortunately two people did not go through with the surgeries.  The one surgery that was done was for a little girl that is served by Compassion International supported by Hope Ministries because they have no money. 

Surgery was very new to most of the members here which was exciting. Today, we learned how to scrub in, in order to scrub in  you have to do it 3 times before beginning surgery. Carol scrubbed in to observe and assist Dr. Mark while the rest of the members observed. Over here, they call an OR a theatre, which was crazy for us to remember.  Reflecting back on the day, we were shocked on how little surgical equipment that have available or how out-dated it was.  However, we were grateful for the experience and to learn how to make do with little equipment. 

Meanwhile, Sydney and I went on more hospice visits to provide food. This was an eye opening experience for us and very emotional. One family had five children and both the parents were HIV positive and had no other relatives around to provide support. The parents are unable to work because of their illness,therefore, they are unable to provide for their family.  It is difficult to provide services to these patients because of the lack of resources available. However, our purpose today was to provide spiritual and psychosocial support to the hospice and palliative care patients. We used active listening to provide empathy and emotional support, we sang with them, and prayed over them. 

Shawna

What a day it has been.  We are continually reminded how we need to remain flexible and be patient.  As the team discussed the day and had our devotional, they all expressed how they can’t believe how these people express so much love for God and have so little.  They talked about how we need to be so appreciate of the things we have.  They also struggle with how come we have so much and they have so little.  We continue to be humbled by these people and we know that God brought us here for a purpose  and we need to trust in him.  Thank you God for your love and strength as we continue with our journey here.

Gayle