From Thighland to Thailand

February 27, 2017

Happy Birthday to Lynnelle and Lynnette! Since we have gotten to know Lynette, it has been double the pleasure! Happy Birthday to my sister Sandy as well, and I hope you had a great party!

Today we return to the medical health clinic near the Huisan Village, which has been the most modern looking facility. We worked side by side the existing clinic obligations and they were very accommodating. The eye clinic was, as Lena put it “women united” as the male team members had other duties. The eye clinic set up shop inside right next to the surgical suite where Leo got to take off a few lesions including a gigantic sebaceous cyst so he got one too. Leo also took off a calcified tumor off a lady’s forehead in the shape of a heart so she wanted to take it home. Leo was in the groove as he was in his element and as a newbie he jumped right into anything and everything. It’s great to have him aboard.   Zina, our surgical nurse has been fantastic organizing and making the surgeries flow smoothly since she can anticipate So far we are managing on what we were able to find from storage, finding supplies at the medical clinic, and buying supplies locally.  Since we are rationing suture material, we have to be innovative so Leo used superglue, yes, superglue to close the wounds of his three patients.  The benefit is that no sutures will need to be removed.  No problem.

A lot of patients had repetitive stress injuries and just wanted to feel better so that they can go back to work. Many steroid injections were given in hopes of alleviating some inflammation that they experience day to day. Some were repeat customers from years past and some patients with chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s disease or chronic fractures or dislocations that weren’t repair could not be helped much.

As I had mentioned in an earlier blog, there was a strong earthquake that rocked Thailand with the epicenter near the AYDC compound. There was a medical clinic attached to the old sanctuary, which was demolished and then resurrected on the site of the old sanctuary. The clinic was built not too long ago and needed to be painted inside and out. Fortunately, God tapped the team’s talents of brain and brawn and Mark Patton’s general contracting experience to picked supplies the day before. The Lowe boys used a pocketknife to take apart shutters off the windows to paint. So under General Patton’s direction, Andy, Lynnelle, Larry, Lester, Mark, and Pastor Jack baked under the hot sun painting with rollers and brushes in awkward positions straining neck and arms, tirelessly, first priming the surface followed by another coat of paint. They came away with paint on their face, body, and clothes like a two-year old playing with finger paint but by the end of the day it was a first class job. One benefit was that the gang has really nice Hawaiian Tropic tans.

We had a little celebration for the twins with a birthday cake and drinks and gathered around singing praise songs with Kane leading on his guitar.   He’s a really talented guy. One of my favorite tunes is “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” whose lyrics I find appropriate for our cause:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

And we pray that our unity will one day be restored

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love

Yeah they’ll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side

We will work with each other, we will work side by side

And we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love by our love

Yeah they’ll know we are Christians by our love

May God continue to bless our time with these wonderful people of Thailand and grow together in Christ.

Mark