3rd clinic day-- village near Posat

"Praise God from Whom all blessings flow...."  We sang several songs in our devotion time yesterday morning ending on the doxology.  He is to be praised, as without Him we can do nothing.  It is one more reminder of God's great love for each one of us.  He is the reason we are all here to serve in Cambodia.  As I think about my team members, I am humbled and amazed at how God works in us and through us to accomplish His will in our own life as well as in the lives of His children throughout the world.  You must not minimize the EVERY DAY opportunities that He also gives to us.  He uses each one of us in amazing ways every day when we recognize that we are His hands and feet.  We experience joy when we humble ourselves and allow Him to work.  This is the ultimate love of the Father when we serve with the mantra:  "He Must Increase, I Must Decrease." (John 3:30)

It is approximately 3:30am here in Cambodia, and I am ready to be up and about preparing for the day ahead.  After a team devotion and a hearty breakfast, we will be travelling about a 3 hr distance to our next clinic site in Posat referred to as "Srey Oun's village"

Yesterday, we conducted our second medical in a small village about 15 kilometers from Kampong Chhang.  This is a new site--a public primary village school.  We arrived at the site around 10:00 AM, and set up the pharmacy tables and triage centers in two large open air classrooms as well as a third room for the prayer line.  The day seemed to go much smoother.  I believe we saw over 300 come through the clinic in approximately 5 hours of work.  One thing that amazed me was the tenacity of many of the Cambodian people.  Several traveled a great distance leaving as early as 3am to arrive at the clinic.  Another lady very active in spreading the gospel in this area had severe and chronic hip pain, and came with expectation that this would be the day God would heal her.  We gave her the best we had to offer (adjustments where indicated, several powerful meds)--our limited resources, and sent her to the prayer line to experience the ultimate healing of the Great Physician--He has unlimited resources.  We again saw an amazing array of conditions. One man had a partial bicep tear that is now irreparable.  One lady had a goiter the size of a grapefruit.  I'd estimate 90% of the women between 18 and 45 had STD symptoms.  Many had traumatic injuries.  One child, seen by Dr Rick, had been kicked in the abdomen by a cow and has permanent fibrosis (internal bleeding--she's fortunate to be alive). One man had sky high blood pressure, and was post-stroke (huge atlas subluxation was greatly reduced by his first adjustment). One seen by Dr Nelson has the early signs of leprosy (Dr Nelson is an expert in this area, as he runs a clinic in India and cares for thousands of leprosy patients on a regular basis).

QUOTING From Dr Rick's BLOG:  "One of things that I realized last year, and is still true this year is that the Cambodian people are just like you and me. They want the same things. To raise their children in safety and love, to be loved and to live a long a and full life. While the American version of a full life may include any number of things we take for granted like a shopping mall or a convenience store in the right place the Cambodian version focuses more on having enough to eat as opposed to where to eat, having a roof to sleep under as opposed to the size of the house under the roof, and things that are much closer to survival than most Americans, even the most disadvantaged of Americans will never have to contemplate.

As we begin seeing patients on this trip I am again reminded that while you may think that the health problems would be very different from in the US, there are still conditions of the spirit that affect the body in ways such as anxiety, depression, gastritis and so forth that seem out of place when you also see things like leprosy, goiter, severe infections, TB, malaria, typhoid, dysentery, and diseases that are often only ever seen by most health care professionals in a book."

With this in mind I am going to be sharing with the entire team that whether you are one of the doctors, or working in the pharmacy, or manning the prayer room, many of the afflicted we will see are ill for the reason of a lack of love in their life. They do not have the ultimate love that we as Christians all too often may take for granted. Imagine for a moment if you and your spouse where not in love. What would that do to your mental, emotional and physical health? Imagine if you did not have the greatest love of all in your life and had to face each ugly loveless day all by your self, alone and without hope. What do you suppose that would do to your health? Regardless of what we do on this team, our single biggest purpose is to bring Love. The love of a Christ who asked us to give that love through Him by the simple means of providing a cup of cold water in his name!"

Please continue to pray faithfully for the entire team.  We know it is only by God's strength that we are able to continue this mission with good health and safety.