Team Hames: Nicaragua - Medical Mission (March 2011)

On March 20th myself and a team from Celebration Church headed back to Nicaragua for a week long medical mission trip. Words can’t describe the week we had in Nicaragua! It’s an experience that impacts you while you are there in the midst of people and a country that desperately need to be touched by God. When you come home it’s so difficult to adjust back to our culture and way of thinking and doing things. You feel guilty for having what you have and enjoying certain luxuries. While in Nica you modify how you do many things – from drinking water and brushing your teeth, speaking and your body language (to compensate for your lack of Spanish speaking skills you do a lot of hugging) to how you dress and where you go to the bathroom. But most of all you are permanently changed to strive to love people like Jesus.

We arrived safely in Managua (capital city) Sunday, 3/20, and traveled the 2 hours up the mountain to our mission house in Jinotega. Each day began bright and early but with breakfast and COFFEE prepared by Gail Bailey and Martha (our house mom). Gail flew in for the sole purpose of assisting Martha prepare our meals, keep the house tidy and even made our beds each day. She was such a blessing to our team all week!

Let the journey begin! Think for a moment about the bumpiest gravel road you have ever traveled and think worse – much worse. These are the type of roads we conquered each day to reach our clinic location. Some days clinic was 2 hours away while others it was as far away as 3 to 3.5 hours. Clinic flow looked something like this…check-in, triage, see medical or dental, visit pharmacy for recommended meds and then end your visit with prayer/counseling - hearing God's word shared from John 3:16!

Day One – Jinotega

Day one was met with much enthusiasm from the team as we quickly setup and began seeing patients. The most difficult story of the day (maybe even the entire trip) was that of a single homeless woman with 2 boys; a 3 year old and 4 month old. They were filthy dirty and hungry. One of our team members gave the boy some peanut butter crackers and other foods while another made the baby a formula bottle in the only bottle the mom had. We quickly learned that the nipple on this bottle was so large it was causing the baby to choke, covering his clothes in formula. Someone ran to the only store around and purchased a new bottle for the baby, which brought smiles. We watched as she left carrying her infant, her little boy walking beside her, gripping a Wal-Mart bag filled with one can of formula and some peanut butter crackers. She returned to the streets to beg for money, surely wondering where she will find her families next meal. We can only pray that the hand of God surrounds them.

Medical - 77

Dental - 33

Prayer/Salvation - 10

Day Two - Jinotega

We had another successful clinic day serving at Shalom Baptist Church. It was our last day ministering to the community of Jinotega. They will be missed.

Medical - 125

Dental - 42

Prayer/Salvation - 33