Hello all,

 

Temascalcingo is a small town which is about a three-hour bus ride from where I live in Mexico City.  Magdalena is an even smaller village nearby where we set up the clinic.  It is even higher in the mountains than Mexico City:  nearly 8000 feet elevation.  Many people who live there literally live off the land.  Many people own essentially nothing apart from a small dwelling and a field.   There is a huge medical need and most have no way to pay for a doctor visit.

 

Our mission was a one-day trip.  Many members of my church in Mexico City came to help out.  They teamed with the members of the local church.  Cubicles where set up in the church.  As soon as we arrived, patients were waiting.  I saw 35 patients in five hours and there were two other doctors and a dentist who saw patients.

 

Typical complaints included muscular and arthritic pain, abdominal pain, and respiratory infections because of the cooler weather this time of year.

 

Favorite Patient:  84 year old gentleman.  Completely blind in his left eye.  Mostly blind is his left eye.  Walking with a limp using a hoe for a cane.  Chief complain “I’m not as strong as I used to so I can’t work as much as I used to.”  I probed him and could not get another complaint out of him.  He wouldn’t even confess to being sore in his muscles and joints.  He just wanted some vitamins to make him a little stronger.

 

This is a huge contrast from the patients I see in the U.S.  Many are on chronic narcotics for multiple pains, multiple medications for depression and anxiety, are on medical disability at age thirty, and constantly complain how their medical treatments (all of which are paid for not by them but by our tax dollars) do not fix them.  Something is wrong with Americans.

Most Needy Patient:  70 year old widow.  Lives alone.  Speaks a Native American language and very little Spanish.  Is finding it difficult to walk and do her work because of a five centimeter tumor on the bottom of her left foot.  This was examined by a doctor six months ago who recommend her to see a surgeon to have it removed.  She has yet to come up with the money to travel to the hospital to have this done.  All I could do was to treat her with antibiotics and Motrin.  We are going to attempt to follow up with her to try to get her the help she needs.

 

The Greater Need:  When a medical team or a truckload of gift boxes from Samaritan’s Purse arrives, people flock to the church from miles away.  Unfortunately, when they leave so do the people.  Evangelism has been slow going in this area.  The religious climate is a mixture of corrupt Catholicism, idolatry, superstition, and witchcraft.  Many of these people are severely bound by these.  However, there is a small remnant of Born Again, Spirit-filled Christians which make up the local church.  May God use the medical ministry to reach these people for Christ.  For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

 

Although there is a huge difference between the people of Temascalcingo and Kalamazoo, there is one important similarity: MANY NEED JESUS.

 

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:25).

 

If our “humanitarian effort” does not spread seeds of the gospel and produce the salvation of souls, we are not doing our job.

 

Think about it…

 

Sherwood