Medical mission

On aug 3 we went to do some market preaching and medical mission. When we got off the bus we were fired up and singing songs, playing with children and preaching. We had a system. Those who were preaching always had a couple of people in a group praying for them. This was for the strength of the missionaries and the Tanzanian nation.

There was a group of pharmacists who were doing a medical mission. We set up the medications in a straw shack. People from the market began to come. We had one translator for the group, which was difficult because it meant that we could only see one patient at a time. We started off but it was rough. Personally, I found that I did not know the medications as they were different from my country, the people spoke in a language I could not understand and their diseases were very different from what I am used to. I began to listen to their stories of pain. When a person complained of pain due to the weather change I told them the story of Jesus calming the storm, the one who had a skin infection I told them the story of the leper man being healed and lastly the one who had extreme pain in the legs I told them how Jesus healed the paralytic man. But after four stories I was tired and our little clinic was overcrowded and people were pushing to be seen. I could not speak to everyone so I just started to pray for each soul, that God would have mercy, that God would heal them and bring them in some form to the church. I felt weak and I asked another pharmacist to pray with me and together we were able to bring about a sense of peace.

I learned a very valuable lesson today. We need to always constantly pray. Whatever skills we think we have they really amount to nothing. God is the provider and the prayers we offer are like burning incense with a sweet-smelling aroma that reaches our savior in our times of need.