DR 2019
Yes, I'm a story teller at heart, but honestly only by writing a book is how I could possibly get to all the details I would like to share, but hey let's be real, I'm not a book writer...
Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? SO, I will do my best to give you a glimpse of our week in the Dominican Republic this past July 2019.
A few months ago our friends Justin and Jacqueline invited my husband and I to join them in a Medical mission trip to Hato Mayor Dominican Republic, the town where Jacque was born. We initially thought we wouldn't bring much help to the team as we are not in the medical field, however their passion was so contagious that after some prayer, we gladly accepted the invitation.
Almost a hundred people were involved in getting it all together; by praying, organizing fundraising, raising funds, donating supplies, baseball equipment, scrubs, you name it! All hands on deck raised thousands of dollars in cash and materials.
Then on July 3 at 3:45 am a team of 12 of us departed to the beautiful island of Dominican Republic.
We arrived at the MGM facilities. To say this place is awesome is an understatement, you can feel God's presence in this place. The leadership and staff are truly amazing!
We met two other wonderful helpers Christa from Pennsylvania, and Paige from NY.
We called our team the DMV = Dental, Medical, Vision
The first 2 days we setup our clinics at a local hospital, here is where we saw most patients. In vision for example, we planned to see 45 patients one day, ended up seeing 125. We barely had time for breaks or for lunch, and I didn’t take many pictures these two days, it was an organized chaos... but God reveled himself through it all!
Days 3 and 4 we setup our clinics at local churches in two different villages. One room for 3 different clinics, team work made it all work!
Day 5 we setup the dental clinic at Jacque's dental office in Hato Mayor, and a sweet lady (a retired doctor) who lives across from the dental office offered her house for us to setup the Medical, and Vision clinics.
We traveled everywhere in the camión. No AC, no seatbelt, just pure joy!
In the Dental team we had Doctors Sangita, Jacque, and Jose traveling from Texas and Doctors Anderson, Gireidy, Flomar, and Rudy joining us at Hato Mayo as well as several dental assistants and Cesar, the technician. This amazing team saw hundreds of patients, they did cleanings, fillings, extractions, root canals, and even a jaw emergency surgery performed by Dr. Anderson, maxillofacial surgeon.
The team truly love what they do, and they serve each patient with incredible compassion! Way to go Dental team!
Dr. Lee Brock lead our medical team, he had Dr Priscila and Olga from Hato Mayor helping him as nurses, Rosanny was his translator, Paige was the pharmacist, Rosa and Christa helped with the triage process.
Dr. Brock is a man of charisma, he compassionately took the time to speak with each patient about their wellbeing, all while also sharing about the greatest Healer and the need we all have for Him to heal our hearts.
On Day 4 some of the Medical team visited a couple houses to see a few patients who were unable to come to the clinics. They treated two sisters suffering with some sort of palsy, but overflowing with joy. As Dr. Brock said "this visit was the highlight of my day!"
Kuddos to the Medical team!
In the vision team we really didn't have any doctors, we were a group of volunteers willing to serve the people who needed reading glasses, lubricant eye drops, and provisional distant glasses. The need was overwhelming, as well as the smiles and hugs we received once our patients found out they could finally read clearly whether close or at a distance.
Hanna & Hyan lead the reading glasses area, Leo was their Creole translator. Eduardo and Neal were in charge of testing patients with a focometer and Roman built their distance glasses. I was in charge of the triage process for vision, as well as re-testing with the focometer when the boys didn't quite get the numbers, I loved serving in this team, I’ll be honest - the thought of starting a new career in eye care so I could better serve this beautiful people crossed my mind a few times!
Rosa, Justin, and I were also pretty much the "fix this, fix that" team as well as crowd control, and making sure the team kept hydrated. We had a joy doing all that.
I'm not going to lie though, my greatest joy was to see my son serve others in a selfless way.
Although at times he would sneak out and take breaks to just be a kid, I found him often playing with the puppy Estrella, using the camión as monkey bars, or catching a baseball or dominoes games with the local kiddos.
Is it worth it to spend thousands of dollars traveling to another country and provide "some help" for a short week? ABSOLUTELY!
Isn't it better to just send the money so locals can do more than a team of 12 can do in that short week? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
The needs we meet, the relationships we build, the encouragement we give AND receive both to/from locals and full-term missionaries, the way God touches our hearts, the way He changes our minds, and the many, many lives that are impacted make it all WORTH it.
We are INVESTING in what is not seen... the eternal.
For those of you who like numbers
During the 5-day clinics we saw a little over 1000 patients in all three clinics.
We received several donations of materials:
- From Christ Fellowship we received sunglasses, reading glasses, and distant glasses. We ran out of everything except reading glasses, which we brought back for the next mission trip.
- From Mission Regan we received ≈ $1,000 in medical and dental supplies, we used everything!
- From Darby Dental Supply we received ≈$300 in Dental supplies, all gone.
- From Alcon we received ≈$3000 in eye drops, we gave away every single one and wish we had more!
- From Twin Creeks Dentistry we received ≈$1,000 in Dental supplies, used most and donated some to the local hospital in Hato Mayor.
- From 21 Century Dental & Neo Dental Lab we received ≈2,000 in dental anesthesia and other supplies, used most and donated some to the local hospital in Hato Mayor.
- From Brock Pain Medicine we received ≈2,000 in cash, medicine, and supplies; we used everything!
I returned changed and challenged.
Doing what God has called us to do - LOVING our neighbors as ourselves - is not always and easy task.
At the end of the day by loving and serving others is how we point them towards Christ, and towards our Loving Heavenly Father.
THANK YOU for helping us make it happen, may God multiply your blessings a thousand fold!
