Let's do a medical camp.

Sorry about the delay in posting, we had a few days of no internet service and some long days. To catch you up quickly, our flight from Delhi to Bangalore was scheduled for 8:45 pm, took off at 12:30 am.

Now, this would not be a problem IF we weren't meeting the rest of the team in Bangalore. We were to arrive 2 hours before them, our best case scenario now was to arrive 2 hours after them, making 19 people wait for us. About that time we got a call from the Kearney team, they had experienced a delay and would arrive late as well, actually arriving an hour after us.

It did put us late arriving in Mysore, so we missed the church service, but headed out for orientation. Most of us had been up or traveling for around 36 hours at this point, so not sure we got much out of the meeting.

Monday morning was supposed to be the first day of school physicals. That would have occurred, IF there had been school, but it was a national holiday. Therefore, it was decided last week to put on a medical camp in a village nearby. This village is predominately Muslim, and was an outreach for a new church planted there.

We had no idea how many to expect, it could be 5 or 150. When we got there, we started right up with people seeing the medical staff. It was a mix of Hindu and Muslim, lots of kids and their moms, whole families, mostly women but quite a few men.

One of the girls we saw had her whole family come into the exam booth with her (Dad, Mom(s), sister). Their complaint: their 14 year old girl was getting "too big" in a couple of areas, and they were concerned that she would not find a husband....and also, they did not let her wear glasses, because, again, that would make her look ugly and she would not get a husband. This girl was absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous. Stunning. But her value was only in getting a rich husband to take care of her. One of the saddest stories of the day.

As "doorkeeper", I got to meet all the people. Very few spoke English, but they were so grateful for what we were doing for them. As is my habit, especially with the younger girls, I tried to pronounce their names. And I did try, usually butchering it the first couple of times (once you get beyond 4 syllables I can't remember anymore), but eventually getting it, especially if I cheated and looked at their registration card. And usually a comment, such as how pretty there were or how pretty their dress was. You could sense how little of this they normally received. Big smiles!!

The camp was supposed to run from 10 am till 1 pm, so we had time to tear down and set up at the school for tomorrow. At about 12:30, after 2 1/2 hours of non-stop work by 5 medical people, we still had well over 100 patients standing outside. We went into warp speed with the medical people, shut down registration, and told people coming that we would not be able to see them. We finally got the last patients out after 3:00.

The registration sheet totaled 1,030 names.

We didn't see 1,030 people, many obviously left before being seen, but that is how many showed up. In an area that this had never been done before. For a bunch of Christians serving Muslims and Hindus. Because someone would greet them, listen to them, try to help them, even if only a little. We were His hands and feet, and those hands touched a lot of people today.

Tomorrow we begin the school physicals. These are the same kids we saw last year, and I'm excited to see them again. Several of the kids have been asking the school leaders if "the big doctor" is coming back. John does leave an impression!!!

Till tomorrow...

Stan