Missions Blog @ Covenant UMC, Dothan

Today was great!  Our team had the opportunity to cross the river into the Ngobe Reservation. The cage, suspended by a steel cord tied to two trees on either side of the river, is the only way that the Ngobe people have to cross. In order to get to school every day, the Ngobe children must either swim or use the heavy metal cage. We discovered that using the cage is not as easy as it looks, but its a lot of fun. Someone on the other side of the river pulls a rope in order to pull the cage to the other side.

Richard and Larry

Maria and Heather

We were surprised at how rustic the Ngobe homes are!  Just like walking through a museum of prehistoric peoples, the Ngobe live in bamboo shacks, have outdoor kitchens that use wood as fuel, and have a subsistence farming lifestyle that is very tied to the land.

A hen sitting on her eggs inside the home

Standing next to the Ngobe outdoor kitchen

Ngobe man uses a hand-powered sewing machine to make a dress. The $10 dress takes 3 days to make

We had a great time in our ministries today also.  The clinic saw many patients.  One man received a shot to relieve pain from carpal tunnel.  His pain is the result of many years of picking rice in the fields.  In our children’s ministry, the children watched the movie, Finding Nemo. Over 50 kids (and their parents!) watched with rapt attention at the Disney movie (in Spanish, of course!)  For people who have never lived with electricity, watching a movie is a new adventure!

Man receiving carpal tunnel injection

Watching Finding Nemo

Heather Hall: Heather joined the mission team to serve in both the medical and children’s stations. Heather was born in Germany into a military family. Later, as her family lived in the United States, she remembers as a little girl watching television shows that featured the great needs in faraway places such as Africa. She always wanted to go on a mission trip to help the neediest around the world but she never found the opportunity to serve the Lord in that way. However, several years ago, after she came to Covenant, she learned of the church’s work in Panama. She noted that her friend, Maria, and she had talked about going on the Panama trip this year, and when an announcement in the church bulletin advertised the need for missionaries to serve on the team this year, she was excited that she and Maria might have the opportunity to serve together.

Heather is a respiratory therapist at Mike’s Southside Pharmacy and Equipment. With her medical experience, Heather adds much to the team, where she is serving in the triage station. Also, as a mother of two, she feels right at home working with the Ngobe children. She noted, “Every day that I am here, I pray that people will see Jesus in me. Coming here and serving is what Jesus would do.” Even though this mission experience is Heather’s first, she is looking forward the possibility of returning in the future. “I have much more respect for Covenant and what it does by seeing this mission that we have,” she said. Heather wants her husband, Scott, and her kids, Maddie and Allie that she misses them and loves them very much.

Naaman Strength: Naaman joins our mission this year as the team’s dentist. Naaman has worked at Dixieland Dental for the past nine years, and this trip is the first time that he has been able to use his dental experience on the mission

Naaman and Angie

field. One of the greatest opportunities that Naaman has experienced on this trip is the ability to serve alongside his wife, Angie.  Angie is serving as his dental assistant every day.

“At first, I didn’t think I could handle (the experience),” Naaman said about the mission trip to Panama. But the experience has proved worthwhile. He first considered going on the trip when the pastors asked him to consider using his gifts on the mission field. Then, he recalls, Hays McKay preached a sermon about the importance of making a drastic change in your life for the glory of God, and at that moment, “I knew that I was supposed to go to Panama.”  One of the most difficult aspects of going to the mission field was leaving behind their two children, Gabriel and Saylor, for the week. “When we talked on the phone last night, we were all in tears,” he said. But overall, Naaman shared that the experience has been extremely humbling, a great reminder of the blessings from God that we all have, and a chance to see firsthand the love of God. If Naaman had only one thing to say on this blog, it would be, “Go Gators!”  (He said not to print that, but I did).

Today was a very eventful day. Since the river level is down, more people were able to cross the river and come to the clinic. Our doctors worked nonstop all day. We took another group of our missionaries down the steep muddy pathway

Elderly Ngobe woman selling her homemade wares

to the river, and we watched the Ngobe struggle to pull the old rusty cage across the river. Experiencing this scene has been one of the most profound sights for our missionaries…it gives us the chance to really appreciate the types of challenges that the Ngobe must face daily. Tomorrow, some of us will have a chance to cross the river in the cage ourselves!  Across the river is the Ngobe reservation, and it will be an amazing opportunity to see some of the homes of the people we are serving. I look forward to giving you an update about that!

Clinic: The doctors today saw a one week-old baby was suffering from scabies. We gave the baby treatment, which we give to almost all of the patients that come through the clinic.  All patients also receive lice and parasite treatment, which are rampant among the Ngobe population. We are also receiving many people interested in receiving eyeglasses. (Thanks to everyone who donated them!) It is priceless to see the look on their face when they can “see” what they had been missing!  The dentist saw 23 patients today, and because Dr. Naaman does not have the facilities required to fill cavities, he had to pull teeth from nearly all of these patients.  Some of these patients had extremely severe cavities that needed to be pulled.

Larry, Ben, and others helping to make concrete

Children: The children’s department discovered that the Ngobe children LOVE bubbles!  Kids of all ages spend most of today blowing bubbles. The pastor of the church came and told stories about Jesus to the children. We had purchased Christian children’s books in the US, and we read some of the stories to them today…the kids listened very attentively to the stories.

Construction: Last week, prior to our arrival, the Methodist Church in Auburn had made great improvements to the new building on the site. The new site will be used as a dental clinic so that we can do more advanced dental procedures in the future. Today, a couple of our team members, Larry and Ben, were filling cement in a walkway that leads to the new building.

Prayers: We thank God that our team has great chemistry…we are all getting along great, and everyone is in great health. We are expecting tomorrow to be the biggest attendance of the week. We are also thankful that the Harrells, our team members from Louisiana, were able to visit the orphanage today where they adopted a little Ngobe girl a few years ago.

Feel free to leave comments!  I’ll pass on your comments to the team.

Time (the Pharmacist) Quote of the day: "I've finally found a chair as hard as my head!"

Susan takes photos of children and families as gifts

Dr. Cal, our team member from Ohio, sees a young patient

Dr. Naaman and Angie work in the dental clinic

Susan takes photos of children and families as gifts

Tim McNeely: Tim joined the team this year to serve as the Pharmacist for the medical clinic. Watching Tim work in the pharmacy for a few moments, I noticed how he took time from the job of filling prescriptions to draw pictures on the plastic containers to help the illiterate patients understand dosage instructions. What most people don’t know about Tim is that, not only is he a Pathologist at Flowers Hospital, but that he is also a registered pharmacist. That combination of medical experience and education was a perfect fit for this medical team.

Except for one short vacation, Tim has never been on a trip outside of the United States.  Also, he has never been on a mission trip of any kind. He wanted to join the team this year because of his belief that he can use his gifts and talents to help others who are less fortunate.  He noted that there are great needs in the Dothan area, such as helping at the soup kitchen or with Habitat for Humanity, and there are also great needs in Panama. “They are all important,” he said. But he also noted, “Some of these people (on the Ngobe Indian reservation) are desperately poor and they don’t know it because it is all they’ve ever known.” Tim and his family have attended Covenant for five years, and although they are not yet members, Tim believed that this trip could also help him connect to others in the church. Throughout this week’s mission, his greatest desire is to “provide health care to these people, share the love of God, and think seriously about going on the mission trip next year.”

Emily Speigner: Emily is working with children, and assisting in other stations, on this year’s Panama mission.  Emily was excited about going on this mission trip for several reasons. In addition to the fact that this is Emily’s first trip outside of the United States, as a self-described extrovert, she said that she loves to meet new people and talk a lot (which I can attest is the truth!) But most importantly, her interest in going on this year’s trip comes as a result of her mother’s passing one year ago. Throughout her mother’s long illness, Emily stood next to her mother and supported her through the entire experience. And afterwards, her Stephen Minister, Martha Doty, recommended that Emily take the time to focus her energies on helping others through a mission trip. Emily is glad that she said yes to Martha’s advice. “Its so beautiful here,” she said.

Emily noted that there are so many interesting things to learn on a trip like this. One of the most startling cultural differences, she noted was, “seeing mothers breastfeed openly in public, even in the church worship service! We just don’t do that in America!” Overall, Emily knows that this was exactly the right time in her life to go on a mission trip. In December, she will graduate from Troy University with a degree in business administration. In April, she will be married to her fiancé, A.J. With so many changes in her life in the near future, she understood that now was the time to fulfill her dream to go on a mission trip. In the future, she would love find opportunities to go on mission trips with her new husband.

Kelly Hyde: Kelly joins our team this year to work in the medical clinic.  As an anesthesiologist at Southeast Medical Center, Kelly hoped to use his medical experience to give back to others. Kelly has previously served on a mission trip to the country of Belarus, where he worked with children who had been affected by the Chernobyl accident.

Kelly thanks his wife for taking care of his two wonderful children while he serves the Lord in Panama. “She has been very supportive,” he described of his wife, who understands Kelly’s desire to serve. Kelly has been a member at Covenant UMC for two years, and during that time he has also assisted in Habitat for Humanity projects.  Kelly’s first impression of the Ngobe people was the pride that they take for their own cleanliness. In spite of the mud and the heat, they keep very clean. And regarding their personalities, he noticed that the Ngobe are very stoic and reserved. Overall, Kelly is excited to be joining the mission team. Not only does the experience make a great difference in the lives of the people we are serving, he noted that the experience will make a big difference in our lives as well.

Today we set-up our medical clinic next to the Ngobe reservation in NW Panama. The heavy rains during the past couple of days has caused the river to swell higher than normal.  Usually, the clinic sees around 250 people daily. However, because people were unable to cross the raging river (there is no bridge), our clinic saw around only 100 people.

Children crossing the San Juan River

In order that people may cross the river, the river has a cable that extends between two trees.  A cage is tethered to thecable, and people ride the cage across the river by pulling on a rope.  When several of our team members walked down to the river today, we noticed a couple of Ngobe mothers trying to pull their children across the river in the cage.  The cage was so heavy that the mothers could not pull it, and so their children were stuck, hanging above the river. We came just in time to help the mothers pull their children safely across.

Clinic: The doctors and nurses in the clinic treated people for such things as infections, scabies, lice, headaches, and high blood pressure. The age of our patients ranged from several weeks old to senior citizens. The dental clinic extracted teeth from several people.

Children: Many of the children who come to the clinic with their mothers often wait around for long periods of time.

Maria playing with children at the clinic

Several of our missionaries came prepared to play games, read stories, and sing songs to the children. Other children received photographs that we took, and in some cases, the photographs that they received were the first photographs of themselves that they have ever had.

Construction: A couple of our people continued work on a building that is located on-site.

Prayer Concerns: We are blessed that no one is sick, and we are all bonding very well as a team. Last night, our suitcases arrived very late (after midnight) because a severe car accident occurred in front of our luggage bus.  Seven people were killed in the accident. Fortunately, the church members in our luggage bus were safe, but we were sorry to hear about those who were in the accident.

Tyler and Yevette treating a patient

Angie at the Dental Station

Nurse Heather and her new friend

Larry sends greetings

Sunday night dinner

Joan gives prescription instructions in Spanish

We have arrived safely at our hotel in David!  We had a great trip from Dothan, to Atlanta, to Panama City, to David. Here is a photo of our crew from Dothan!

We have a great team of 22 people this year.  Most of us are from Covenant, though we have other people joining us from the Dothan area, as well as people from Ohio and Louisiana. Once we replaced the battery on the church bus  (thanks Scott and Paul, and Jim Whaley Tires for your quick last-minute help!) we headed out on Saturday morning to the Atlanta airport.

We are so thankful that Joan Collins is able to join us this year.  Joan was in a recent auto accident outside the church last week, and even though her car was totaled, she still decided that she is healthy enough to join us. Joan speaks fluent Spanish and has been our translator throughout the trip so far. We are thankful to God that she is healthy and was able to join us.

Tomorrow, Monday, we begin our work.  For now, here are some shots of our adventure so far…

At the church in David Sunday morning.

Mike, Tyler, Yevette, Richard, and Sheree overlooking the valley in Boquette

Tim and Ben outside the Methodist Church in David

Susan, Joan, and Ben are drenched. The downpour cut short our fun day touring Boquette, near the Costa Rican border.

Maria, Heather, Erica, and Jesse acting goofy at the Botanical Gardens