Good Evening! I'll try to write a few lines before our "campaña" tonight. What is it? A Latin style Prayer and Revival meeting. Our church is hosting it and I went Monday through Wednesday nights. We had 40 to 75 people attend with several people giving their lives to the Lord. Last night I was with the work team and missed the "campaña". It was reported many came and about half of the crowd went up for various prayer needs. I can hear the youth setting up the sound equipment now. We are expecting a large crowd for these next three nights. Saturday night will be designed for teenagers and Sunday night will be a special closing program.

The reason the "campaña" was scheduled for this week was for it to be in conjunction with the Noblesville Indiana work team helping with the Mobile Medical Clinic in our barrio. The team was scheduled to arrive on Saturday but due to flight connections, they did not arrive until Sunday. They had a lay over in San Paolo and was able to rest which was a good thing because once they got here they hit the ground running seeing over 700 hundred patients and by last night when we closed up the clinic everyone was exhausted.

Before the team arrived every morning, Mark (if not needed to help transport the team members), Jo and I were busy working with members of the church registering people, taking blood pressures, working on school business, construction, and setting up the different areas for the doctor, pediatrician, two dentists, and the Oculist. Mark was "the man of the week". He received training to be an "oculist" and so he is able to exam eyes and prescribe glasses. With eye glasses costing any where from 150 to 400 mil guaranies or sometimes the equivalent of half to all of a person's pay for a month (if they even have a job), we can understand why everyone wants an appointment where they only have to pay 1 mil for an exam and a pair of used eyeglasses. (By the way the majority of the eyeglasses are donated. People send the glasses to "Samaritan Hands" in TN.) The first day there were close to hundred people who wanted an appointment with Mark. Normally he can only do 20 to 25 people a day. The ladies helping to register set up appointments for Mark for the whole week but many got turned away and then every day we had more and more people wanting eyeglasses.

Thus it was really difficult for us because EVERYONE suddenly became our best friend begging for special consideration… "Susana, Sue, Susan, and even many Susies". The majority wanted an eye appointment or others wanted to get "fichas"…record/paper for an appointment. One day I got up from taking blood pressures and had 5 people stop me before I could walk just a few steps into the church. During past clinic campaigns I used the excuse "no comprendo" because I did not understand everything but this time I had to deal with the constant bombardments and I had to keep praying for God to give me more patience because by Wednesday and Thursday the crowds had gotten bigger and many could not get appointments. It was hard closing every night often finishing around 6 PM and the last night took until 7 PM because we had to pack everything away.

As I mentioned it was hard turning people away so we often the doctors would say lets see a few more so then we tried to take took those really in need with fevers and such. The last day one elderly lady kept begging to see the dentist. During the afternoon she kept peeking in the window trying to get everyone's attention. Finally after we had turned everyone away and she still persisted, the dental team asked me to check if it was a real emergency. I found out she wanted us to see a young girl, Cynthia, who couldn't talk and appeared to be mentally retarded. We learned Cynthia had two front teeth that were decayed and hurting. She was a 13 years old orphan and lived with the lady and her extended family. The girl was really scared so we prayed with her and Dentist Doug was quickly able to remove the two teeth. For all of us, she touched our hearts and her family was so thankful. As we were cleaning up the lady's family all pitched in to help us move benches, pick up trash, and so forth. I was reminded of the story where the widow kept going to the judge until he finally heard her case. I admire the lady's persistence. Also, hopefully I learned a valuable lesson, in the midst of all the confusion; I need to be sure to take a minute to listen to the facts before making a decision.

By the way, I dubbed this work team the "MASH Unit" based on the TV show MASH. They had lots of heart, were willing to work long hours, often did not have the materials or equipment needed in the make shift dental clinic in the church and they even had many, many corny jokes that kept us laughing. The dentists, Doctor Doug and our Pastor Andres (a dentist in training) only did extractions often pulling two or more teeth from each patient. One person had 8 out and another had 11 teeth pulled. It was a super group to work with and a real testimony to the people of our barrio as this team reflected the love of Jesus. Praise God for them.

One of my major roles in helping with the clinic was translating. Usually I worked with the dental team but for almost two days, I was working between two areas also translating for them and the pediatrician. I much preferred working with the kids as opposed to watching people get shots and teeth extracted. Doctor Alli, saw lots of kids with colds and allergy problems. This past week we experienced a variety of temperatures with dropping in one 24-hour period of over fifty degrees. No wonder so many kids were so sick. Also, many mothers said their children had "worms". Why worms? Some actually saw them or described the usual symptoms but then we heard many other reasons. It is believed a child has worms if he or she has temper tantrums, doesn't sleep, doesn't eat regular food (even though he or she eats snacks and sweets), has spots on their skin, etc. Alli was a very warm and caring doctor but she could bring out the best in some children if they thought she was going to give a shot, which was not the case except in one situation. We learned some kids in Paraguay have good lungs for screaming and crying and one child could kick really hard as he caught my knee. AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The members of this work team are from a church that sponsors two of the children in the school plus Larry and Sue the coordinators of the trip sponsor a child. On Thursday, we took the children with their parents and our Paraguayan helpers to McDonalds for lunch. Three of the children challenged the adults at our table as to who knew the others language best with counting, days of the week, and such. Our kids did superb and I was so pleased when they used their English to thank their sponsors.

Speaking of the kids, I only got to teach English on Friday and was greeted with many hugs. Friday afternoon, I had to go to the monthly Bible Institute meeting for the Bible students, pastors and missionaries. The President of the Paraguayan churches announced to the entire group that he had visited the school earlier in the week with women from around the world who had been attending the Women's conference. I only met the ladies for a second because I was helping with the clinic so Pastor Pablo took them to the school. Many of the ladies were from English speaking countries like Australia, etc. Pastor Pablo reported when the children realized the people spoke English they spontaneously greeted the ladies in English and then gave them a mini songfest of songs in English, Spanish, and Guarani. The children continue to amaze me and it is such a blessing to work with them. Just a side note, many of the children have brought their parents to the campaña this week.

One young teenager, from a non-believing family, is in our computer classes has made a dramatic change. He used to be quite "mouthy" and disrespectful to his family. Through the classes, the teacher shared about Jesus. He gave his life to the Lord and has made a 180 degree change. He is now helping to teach our computer classes for the children and attending the church youth programs. One day, his father shared with Pastor Andres about the change in His son and wanted to know how we did it. Monday night that Dad was at the campaña, Wednesday night the mother and three siblings were there, and last night the entire family was there. Praise God how the children and youth are bringing their families to learn about Jesus.

Sorry this is so long but it has been a busy, exciting week. We had rain one day and that night as I was helping to transport the work team, we had all the windows open in the car. Suddenly a large vehicle passed us and we all got drenched from water in a giant puddle. I shared that with Felicia and she laughed that going with me was always an adventure. Well, Felicia is now required to study English in her High School program and I hear every day how she is suffering through it. Friday, we were reviewing her new words in the car as we were running errands. As I was quizzing her she couldn't remember what "dangerous" meant. When I told her the Spanish word, she thought for a moment and formed a sentence in English. "It is dangerous in a car with Susana." We laughed until we almost cried.

Love,
Sue