Overcoming Obstacles...

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand there, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace” Ephesians 6:13-15

Today we started our day early packing and sorting through all our medicine for the day. We were told we were going to have a light day to give us a chance to get used to everything…so we went to two orphanages. The first one houses 60 children and is called Bigarouse. The second one houses 70 children and is called “Darivager”. Both locations are Spanish River Church plants.

Both orphanages are located in very remote areas and we had to travel through unpaved and very primitive roads. Our van got stuck on our way to both orphanages, and we had to do a little bit of walking through the mud in order to get to our locations. Pastor Louis showed us a “Voodo Center” that is located near the first orphanage. But we trusted in God’s power to help us overcome these difficulties to be able to do what He called us to do.

Our hearts broke when we learned that there have been 6 failed attempts to dig a well to supply water to the Darivager Orphanage. The closest source of water is 30 minutes away!! The unfortunate news is that there are 7 other orphanages lacking water.

Overall the kids are in good health. Most of them had scabies, especially in the second orphanage. We treated over 130 children between the ages of 3 and 14. Dr. John did about 11 extractions and gave a presentation to all the children of Bigarouse about how to brush their teeth. On our way home, we were blessed to have Eric, a city planter in Boynton Beach, shared his perspective of the city. Some of his interesting observations were the markings of the boundaries of the land with cacti, the drainage runs alongside of the road, there are no paved driveways, or many paved roads for that matter. Hardly any building is greater than two stories, is finished or has power. And an overwhelming majority of the areas we have visited lack running water. Also, there are a lot of “entrepreneurs” run from kiosks alongside the street. Finally, the extreme poverty is overwhelming!

Dr. John put it so well and sums it up so well: “Some of these children don’t even know their birthdays...or names! They have missed out on those very important first years of spiritual, emotional and physical nourishment, and that is so evident in many ways!”
Our day ended with a grateful heart for being able to overcome all the obstacles, and for that we give praise to God!

Of course we ended the day with a good plate of “Chinese” food!