Clinics, laughter and gratitude

 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.