Sometimes I worry
that my writing makes it sound as though life here is all intense feelings all
the time. While I do have a lot of feelings, most days here are good days,
filled with laughter and learning. Yesterday was one of those days.
In the morning we visited
a clinic in the next town over from us. We have been looking for a trustworthy place to
refer people who need more medical care than my backpack full of supplies can provide
and had heard good things about this clinic. When we arrived the women who
worked at the clinic graciously showed us around the facilities and shared
about how they operate, even though they were busy with patients. They let me
assist with wound care and the Haitian nurse answered some of my questions
about disease processes I am still learning about. I surprised myself with how
excited I was to be in a medical atmosphere again.
So often I hear of
missionaries from different organizations, working in the same country
absolutely tearing one another down, unwilling to help each other work with the
people they all claim to love. The ladies at the clinic we visited were so different from that norm. I expected that they would at best set a later time for us to
come and meet with them. Instead they took time out of their day to talk to us
and answer my questions, though we had not met before. Maybe these sound like small things, but their graciousness held enormous meaning for someone
like me who is learning so much every day about life here.
On our way back from the clinic we visited a neighborhood. I had been to this neighborhood before
visiting a Saturday morning kid’s club (like VBS but weekly), but I had not had
a chance to go to people’s homes and visit with them there. We laughed and sang
with the kids we were visiting and generally made ourselves ridiculous. in other words, that part proceeded like normal. One of the sweeter things we witnessed was a
dad with his sick daughter. I had treated her for malaria and for a while he sat and held her. Dads loving kids is a rare sight in this country, and is
therefore especially precious.
So friends,
will you join with me in prayers of thanks for these moments of grace
throughout the day? I am so grateful to have them and to be given the grace to
see them in the midst of all the things that flood my senses. I do not want to lose sight of gratitude for the good moments even when life is challenging.
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