Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Dumbfounded (02/20/25)
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TITLE: Mission Trip | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gloria Pierre Dean
02/26/25 -
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The people had left their war-torn homeland and ran to the neighbors across their border.
Up popped her hand and two interviews later, she was part of the team.
Doctors, nurses, and administrators made up a team of twelve.
The team were professionals from different parts of the country and they met and stayed in a guest house for a long weekend doing an intense preparation course for the mission trip through talks and videos. Each of them spent time alone with a counselor, and as a group getting to know each other and had the opportunity to ask questions.
Catherina proceeded to resign from her nursing job, informed her parents and friends, and got the necessaries that she needed for the trip. They coped with the long flights, but nothing could prepare them for the reality of living in mud huts, drinking only filtered water, avoiding the midday sun, and staying safe and cool in a desert land with daily temperatures above 100 degrees.
Ministering to people who spoke a different language to them had challenges but there were translators. The refugees were from a neighboring nation and when war broke out, they fled. Women and children were in the majority.
The group had daily devotionals just before the mid-morning breakfast.
The food was different from what they were used to. The refugees were also fed each morning and night. Some food basics and clean well water were supplied to them.
Medical needs included assisting Dr Eyre with difficult birth deliveries since she had been trained as a midwife. The thing that dumbfounded her the most was helping in the mini hospital set up for the cholera outbreak that involved intravenous hydration and management of hygiene needs. Frantic hardworking weeks of the medics saw the demise of the cholera.
Surprisingly, letters from home did reach the group, and the small package from her mum, with a fruit cake was a pleasure to share with everyone. Despite the many hardships, they were happy to have given time to help others. ‘
‘Being constant in prayer’ (Romans 12:12) was a boost to their faith.
Helping the refugees in that ‘third world’ countries opened their eyes to what some people had to live with. Extreme poverty and homelessness because of war made them flee, not knowing what the future held for them and their children. There was no mention of husbands.
Catherina believed that The Lord led them to do the mission.
Psalm 139:10 says “Even there,(in that North African desert country) Your Hand will lead us and Your right hand will lay hold me”.
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