Missions Blog @ Covenant UMC, Dothan

Covenant’s Home Improvement Ministry (HIM) is building a storage building for the Wiregrass Children’s Home! We are nearing completion. We are thankful to participants in HIM for giving back in this way.  Anyone intersted in participating in future HIM projects may contact Pastor Mike.

View Mission Trip Photos: We just opened a Flickr account in order to share our group photos online. Over the next couple of weeks, all mission team members will be able to upload and share photos from the trip. To view photos (from the first two days of the trip so far), go to www.flickr.com   Search for the group “Panama Mission 2009″ and you can view the photos.

Goodbye from the Church: The Methodist Church in David thanked our mission team for its work in Panama. As a thank-you, the church’s youth group performed traditional Panamanian dance…and several of our group members joined in!

Donna got her groove on!

Bill couldn't just sit there

Dr. Dauphin, with one of the dancers

Team Photos: Our entire team is composed of 34 people from six churches! (Covenant UMC, Dothan First UMC, Enterprise First UMC, Perry Hill UMC in Montgomery, Shiloh Baptist Church in Heartland, and Mt. Carmel UMC in Echo) Amazingly, our whole group bonded very quickly. The trip included various projects, including medical clinic, dental clinic, Vacation Bible School, Photo Station, Eye Glasses Station, and Construction Crew. Below are a few photos of the groups that contributed to our work.

Those who helped in the medical team

Those who helped in the construction crew

Three pastors helped throughout the week: Sterling Boykin (Dothan First UMC), Mike Hoppe (Covenant UMC), Pastor Bonita (Methodist Church in David)

Itinerary: On Saturday, August 8, the team gets the chance to see the sights of Panama City. Some of the sights include, the canal (of course!), colonial Panama, old Panama, and shopping in the open market. We will fly from Panama City to Atlanta early on Sunday morning.

One of our team members, Joan Collins (see the blog “Meet the Missionaries: Part 1″), is helping us to to understand Panamanian life and culture. She lived in Panama City and was actually married in a church here!

We all look forward to seeing our loved-ones again!  (I love you Reed! See you soon! Mike)

Today was a successful day on the mission site. Because we were rained-out yesterday, we had a steady flow of patients all day long. Here are a few photographs to record some of the activities of the day!

Steve painting

Ngobe hanging out around the clinic

Ngobe children chasing us as we leave the clinic

Larry working on the construction crew. They completed digging of the holes for the foundation of the new addition

Catholic Social Services provided a mobile dental clinic today so that we could have the equipment to do fillings

Serving a Ngobe person inside the mobile dental clinic

Dilemma of Crossing the River: On one side of a nearby river is the reservation on which many of the Ngobe live. Just on the other side of the river is our clinic and the elementary school. Many of the Ngobe who attend our clinic, or school, must cross the river. During the rainy season (which is just starting), the river can swell and become dangerous to cross. We saw many women wading across the river, holding their infant children over their heads!

The Rotary Club in Dothan is attempting to generate enough funds ($20,000) to create a footbridge so that the Ngobe will have a safe means by which to cross the river in this location. As a temporary relief, a cable line was placed across the river to help people to cross.

Cable and cage over the river

Update on Samuel: We have been praying for baby Samuel, who was diagnosed with meningitis. His condition remains the same, very critical. The hospital gave his mother, Anita, meal tickets and a place to stay while she stays at the hospital far away from home. Because Samuel is in very critical condition, Anita is permitted to see Samuel only occassionally, but we keep praying for them!

Upcoming Itinerary:Tomorrow (Friday), we will work with the Ngobe until lunch, have our final farewell ceremony, and then come back to the hotel to get cleaned-up. We will fly back to Panama City on Friday night, and on Saturday, we will spend the day seeing the sights (including the canal!). On Sunday morning, we will fly back to the U.S. We will do our best to keep the blog updated in the coming days.

The Medical Clinic: Today was an amazing first day of work! We all traveled to the edge of the Ngobe reservation, where many people walked long distances to attend our medical clinic. Overall, approximately 160 people received medical or dental attention today, and as the word spreads that doctors are in the area, more people will visit the clinic in the coming days. Patients arrived with medical needs including parasites, nausea, infections, and a variety of other illnesses. Many patients have little or no other options for receiving medical care, and short-term missionaries bring the little or only medical attention that they will receive each year.

Pharmacy: After patients see a doctor, they visit our make-shift pharmacy to receive a six-month supply of vitamins

Workers in the pharmacy along the Pablo, the Ngobe interpreter

as well as any other medications needed  to treat their particular illness. Because the Ngobe primarily speak the Ngobere language (very different from Spanish!), we are very careful with our translation! Our doctors write a prescription in English. Joan Collins, one of our missionaries who speaks Spanish, translates the English prescription into Spanish. Then, a native Ngobe speaker, Pablo, translates the Spanish instructions into Ngobere for the patient!

Vacation Bible School: While parents visited the medical clinic, children had the option to attend the VBS. Many chidren attended games, singing, crafts, and Bible stories led by several of our missionaries and local church leaders.The children’s favorite activity today was watching a Focus on the Family cartoon tranlsated into Spanish: They sat with rapt attention throughout the entire video.

Ngobe girl attending VBS with her mother

Ngobe children watching a movie at VBS

Singing at VBS

Construction: On the same site as the medical clinic, several of our missionaries are continuing repairs and construction on a new on-site clinic. We painted the interior and are laying the foundation for an additional room that will be added-on. Our hope is that mission teams from other churches will sense the call to come and provide medical care for the Ngobe in the future, and that a more permanent medical team can help with ongoing care.

Rev. Boykin's stylish hat

The new clinic

Taking Photos at the photo station: Several of our missionaries have a passion for working with children, and they are taking photos of Ngobe. We are taking digital photos and developing them immediately. This is the first time that many people have ever received a picture of themselves or their children. We watched many people, adults and children, walk away, grinning ear to ear at the photo that they received.

Children waiting in line at the photo station