Too many patients and children

29/06/2012

Today was another busy day for some of the team as Andy, Heather, Stephanie, Lucy and Pete Nadin traveled to Bushara to meet Pastor Lucian and Leah (a family supported through the Support a Pastor program) and the health centre located there. The team of 5 had a very bumpy ride for up to an hour to get there in a very fancy 4x4 with a banner across the windscreen saying ‘God is all’, the 4x4 was driven by a cool young lad playing rap music throughout the whole journey; we arrived at Pastor Lucian’s house to be greeted with our second breakfast of the morning!

The next step on the journey was the health centre where we met Projene, the 25 year old director of the centre. After having a chat the team split as Andy went back to visit the church leaders, whilst Doctor Stephanie and Nurse Hazel was shown around the very established health centre (Pete and Lucy just tagged along doing bits of filming). Our own Doctor and Nurse learnt many lessons and suggested many helpful insights as they discussed with Projene the differences in cultural hospital aid. One of these differences is that the health centre in Bushara has over 16,000 patients and only 9 nurses (with no Doctors)! After walking around the complex and seeing two beautiful 1 day old twins, Lucy and Pete headed back to meet Andy; whereas Heather and Stephanie were able to get involved with the work that Projene had planned for the day and saw a total of 6 patients.

Lucy and Pete joined Andy towards the end of a meeting with the church leaders and engaged in discussing with the group different aspects of what the Damascus Trust team could do to help the church there in Bushara (with many positive potential outcomes)! Next up was an interview with Pastor Lucian and Leah as Pastor Thadae helped with translating; the purpose of this interview was to inform the partners of the Pastor and his family the progress that has occurred in Pastor Lucian’s families life, but also the struggles that he is experiencing, relating mostly to his work with the 8 churches that he visits (some taking 4 hours to get to).

The team then had lunch with the Pastors before they visited the local school that had over 800 children, but only 14 teachers! A few of us introduced ourselves to some excited children before they sang an English song to send us on our way. The cool 4x4 then picked us up as we had another very bumpy ride back to the guesthouse. Hazel and Pete Ellis had a nice relaxing day getting stuck in God’s Word, and so all the team were reunited for the evening to spend team time together before going to visit Pastor Juvenal’s house for tea. Looking forward to what God has planned for tomorrow!