Last clinic day

Whoa. I've wondered what we're all going to tell our families, friends, supporters and churches when they ask how the trip was. Amazing? Indescribable? Unforgettable? Such a Christ centered experience of sharing His love for another people? Even as I run through the events of the day I become overwhelmed at the plethora of experiences we've all had.

This morning we gathered for worship then dispersed for personal devotional time. Some of us stepped out of the hotel into the cool, fresh morning air to catch a view of the mountains and pray. Our devotional has focused on Christ as our anchor and how He uses us to serve. Afterwards we congregated for our daily breakfast of eggs and bread then set out for our walk to the clinic.

 We each went to the assigned rooms with our respective providers; these ranged from pharmacy to pediatrics to physical therapy. Travis, Ben and I served together and were able to share the gospel and pray with each patient. Once clinic was wrapped up, the tent disassembled, the medicine packed away and supplies loaded into the bus we strolled back to the hotel wandering through their open air market gawking at the displays of meat, poultry (including the feet!), sacks of vegetables and quinoa. 

Sharing the gospel with our patients and praying with them  has transformed how I, and I think we, will treat our future patients. We're not meant just to provide treatments for  their physical ailments but to offer healing for their greatest need. The purpose of the mission trip is an obvious one: provide medical care and share the gospel. However, we have all grown in our faith, bonded together and planned for how we will continue this growth upon returning to the states.

Today we finally got to learn a little more about the 5 missionary families serving in Cusco.  We started the day at La Fuente Clinic where we each worked with different providers or in triage. Individuals pay 5 soles to go to the clinic and there are many more services provided there than we had in Quenko. I personally spent the day in the pharmacy at the clinic, where I was able to interact with the pharmacist and also some of the children of the missionaries. It was a great opportunity to slow down and reflect on the changes the families would have to make in order to move from Georgia to Cusco. Their dedication to their mission showed through and through as we ate lunch at the Wilson's home and received a personal tour around the city. After visiting landmarks such as Incan ruins and Cristo Blanco, we made a trip to the market for some shopping where we were able to embrace some of the culture along the way. We are excited for more work tomorrow at La Fuente and are becoming stronger as a group each day. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow in my faith while being surrounded by great people and a beautiful landscape. As we go into our last day full day in Peru tomorrow, we are excited about all of the things that we will learn and serving all of those who we come into contact with.

-Sarah

Day 3 of mission trip to Peru.
Today was great! We started off the day with breakfast, about an hour bus ride to the train station, and a three hour train ride through some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen. We had views of the country side, mountains, and raging waters. After getting off of the train we took an additional bus ride to the entrance of Machu Picchu (all of the travel was worth the wonderous views of the Andes Mountains and Machu Picchu itself). The sights seen were awe inspiring, and no words I could use to describe could possibly come close to God's creation.
Several of us on the trip tried some new foods while in Machu Picchu including Guinea Pig, Alpaca, and Empanadas. The foods were all great and the guinea pig, in my opinion, tasted like chicken.
After spending four hours trekking through Machu Picchu and trying some new foods, we headed home. The train ride was full of people singing, playing games, having conversations, and more-or-less building stronger relationships with each other.
Tomorrow we go to La Fuente clinic here in Cusco. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us the next couple of days we are here.

-Amanda

Day two of. Clinic in Peru:
Today was our teams's second and final day in clinic in the small village of Quenca, and It was nothing short of life changing! We made the early morning drive again, up the mountain, full of hope to what the day would bring. We all filled new positions today and knew we would be stretched to our limits.
I was placed in the Women's health room, and I will admit I was scared because of my lack of experience in this area. I prayed this morning for the Holy Spirit to guide me and for the Lord to strengthen me; and the way He showed up in the Women's unit was indescribable. Many of our patients required examinations and tests, that in the united states we believe to be normal in a women's clinic, but in this culture were uncomfortable and not commonly talked about. Along with the treatment and examination, I was given the opportunity to talk to patients and ask about their symptoms , their lifestyle, and intimate details of their lives. This level of vulnerability opened the door for the discussion about knowing Christ. More importantly, knowing Him as a Savior and healer. My heart went out to each woman seen today from 17 to 70 years old. Many spoke through tears as they described their pain and physical ailments, and their faces longed for help. At the end of each examination they were full of gratitude and excited to begin the treatment we had prescribed. More importantly though, all of them said they knew Jesus and were receptive to prayer with us. We were able to pray as sisters in Christ and ask for healing in His name. I walked away today full of clinical knowledge but so changed spiritually. I feel that today changed the way I see myself as a health  care provider. I may have been reluctant to enter into women's health, but the vulnerability and opportunity within this was amazing. These women have been handed a burden much heavier than most to carry, but they serve the Lord and remain thankful, seeking God's face for comfort in their time of need.
We left the clinic to have a "chocolatada" celebration with the children of the village we brought Christmas gifts for. They innocence and joy was so contagious to our team. We all drank hot chocolate and gave gifts while discussing the birth of Jesus. Overall, today was one I will never forget. God is doing big things in this place and I am so blessed to be a part of it.

-mailande

Today was the day we came here for, all the obstacles we have overcome, the hours of traveling, and the prayers from family and friends brought us to this point. This would be our first day of clinic to serve the people Quenko, Peru, giving them medical care and sharing the faith and love of our Lord with these people. After a great night of much needed sleep we all gathered for worship together to start our journey, we shared a prayer and a few songs of worship to put everyone in that mindset that today we would be able to share the love of God. After a great breakfast we were given some time alone to just reflect on our day ahead and allow us to think about the reasons that brought us here. Regardless of where each one of us are in our spiritual faith, I can probably guarentee that each one of us felt as if this is where we were supposed to be and that we were called to be here. With an overwhelming energy and a great vibe the whole team loaded up and filled three tour buses with our bags and enough medical supplies to provide care to a decent size village ten times over. Our journey to this little village brought us from the asphalt paved roads to dirt roads barely large enough for one vehicle, around twisting and turning roads, and further and further up in altitude. We hit our first obstacle in a tiny village about halfway to Quenko. A small creek decided to make its new home across the road we needed to drive three tour buses and two trucks through. This creek in our way can be seen as any other obstacle put in our path as maybe a challenge by God to see if his people, his followers, his children are willing to overcome and still reach the goal of  sharing his word. So without missing a beat everyone jumped out and immediately started tossing rocks into this creek to provide that path needed to cross. After a line of team members stacking rocks and even all coming together and pushing these giant buses, we were able to cross. We finally arrived at the village we would serve, the excitement of the villagers to see us was so heartwarming and embracing. The village president spoke to us and just thanked us for coming and providing help to his community. Several readings were read in Spanish and they shared some of their worship songs with us and thanking us over and over for just being there. Our four room concrete floor and wall clinic that doubled as I'm sure several other things was set up as our pharmacy, two pediatric rooms, two adult medicine rooms, a women's clinic, and our triage area outside on the front steps. We all had so many different experiences in the areas we were helping out in but one experince we all had in common, we all had such satisfaction in what we were here doing and what we were providing these people. We were able to treat and diagnose patients but that was only a small reason what brought us there, we shared with them the love and faith of Jesus Christ. It was encouraging to see that from the pediatric patients to some of the elderly we saw, they knew that Jesus died for them and with the love and faith in God that this would lead them to an eternal life with God. As we all saw today our bodies will begin to breakdown but with that faith we will all be renewed one day. "For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands." 2 Corinthians 5:1. It was such a breath of fresh air to see our team serving God and providing these people with aid physically and spiritually. Everyone did such a great job from the ones in triage assessing what was wrong and faced with the task of getting vital signs in a loud hectic atmosphere, to the ones in the patient rooms making diagnoses of these people's health problems (which going through sometimes two translators for two different languages just to ask 'how they are doing today', is a challenge we never thought we would ever encounter) , and finally to the ones challenged with providing these people with medications needed to help them get better (and you think it's tough understanding medications in English, they had to dispense medications in Spanish). So far this has been such an amazing experience and really has changed my perceptions of life and has brought me personally closer to God. Reading a book earlier today I found something that really related to how I personally felt about today "don't accumulate possessions; accumulate experiences". I know we are all really looking forward to the remainder of this trip and the path in our faith it is taking us.

-Ryan

Hola from the Peru team!

 What a crazy 24 hours we have had on our journey to Peru. We had our fair share of hiccups on our way, but the Lord is good and took care of everything without having any major changes of plan. After sitting in Miami on the tarmac for 2 hours without any air conditioning, we finally made it to Lima and had to change some flight times, but we all made it to Cusco this afternoon and were able to get some rest to prepare for the week ahead of us. It has been so easy to meet and blend in with the group from Augusta and we have met the 5 families that are living here and serving the people of Peru full time. Tonight we had a wonderful Peruvian dinner and are all headed to bed early because of the strenuous 24 hours of travel we had. Our group is so excited to go out into the community tomorrow and get our faith dirty while serving the physical and spiritual needs of the people we encounter. Sorry if this does not make much sense, I'm realizing that my lack of sleep isn't conducive to writing. We will update tomorrow after our day is finished. 

-Travis