Can You Help My Friend?

Good Morning from Jamaica!

In this post are a few pictures that I've taken this morning, both of the Jamaican sunrise and of where I'm sitting as I write to you today.

We had a really awesome day yesterday. We were at the Enfield clinic, and it went really well. Dr. Kent and I are not seeing the volume of patients that we have on previous trips, but the quality of the interaction between us and our patients has gone up immensely because of it. I've had time to both treat thoroughly, and to just open up and chat with patients as they're on my table. To ask about their lives. To get to know them. To let them know that we care about them. It's been really rewarding to hear so many inspiring stories.

One gentleman that I talked to, Lester, was in a bad bus crash, and injured his foot many years ago. He's had foot pain ever since, so he was seeing the foot specialist that we have along on our team this trip. She sent him to us to help him further with rehab exercises, etc. In talking to him, I learned that he's a mechanical engineer, but there's no work for him here. He's also really interested in service and in mission work and has been researching various international mission trips. And so, I asked him if he'd ever been on a mission trip. And he quickly replied, "That takes money." Silly Jen. It's just sad to see someone who's highly trained and willing to work, but who is limited severely by his poverty. Then, as we were about to leave and were just loading the last things on our truck, this gentlemen came hurrying up to me, "Jennifer, can you help my friend?" He had his friend with him who had just been poked in the eye with a stick, and who now couldn't see out of his eye. It was a pretty serious injury. Long story summed up, Dr. Guy stepped in, gave him a seat on our bus, dropped him at the local hospital, spoke to the eye specialist in Kingston, and handed him cab fare to get to the eye hospital there, as there are few to no ambulances in Jamaica. We've laid many prayers over him since.

Today, we're in for a different sort of day than we're used to. We're going to hold a clinic at the 'Poor House'. It's sure to be transformational for everyone in the team.