Rx's

I've been seeing a lot of familiar faces, smelling familiar smells, hearing familiar sounds, feeling familiar feelings. Its been an nostalgic circus for me today. Its hard to believe that I was here only a year ago.

I was awakened by all sorts of animal sounds this morning. First it was pig, then a rooster, then a cow, then more rooster, then a goat (lots of goat noise, I think it was being tortured by the rooster), more rooster, some kind of really obnoxious tropical bird, and (you guessed it) more rooster.

I felt remarkably refreshed when I woke up and made some instant coffee and studied my Bible in the cool tropical morning mist for about an hour. By 7:30 I was ready to really get the day started. After having breakfast with Dr. Sorg, the next person I ran into was Johnny, a Haitian national, translator from our last trip, and a spiritual dynamo. We smiled and shook hands and it was clear simultaneously to both of us that the hand shake wasn't enough and had a good (very manly) hug with 3 hard slaps on the back and everything.

The church service started at probably somewhere around sunrise, but I joined our Haitian hosts in the chapel for some amazing chorals and "chants" lead by none-other than another one of our translators and friend, Fedner. Seeing that guy felt really good. We spent a lot of time together when I was here a year ago and hardly a week has gone by when I didn't think of something funny that guy said (often unintentionally) and his admirable sense of humour and candid honesty.

The service was loud and long. No church in my town would have more than just the half dozen most devout attendees if the service ran that long in Modesto. It was glorious though and I'll post some videos of the singing as soon as I return home.

The sermon was on 1 Cor 5:19-23 and was in Creole. Between Dr. Sorg, Darla and myself, we were able to collectively piece together the sermon message afterwards and chuckled at our inadequacies for a bit.

I tried to sing along with the Hymns (also in Creole) but got lost easily while reading them from my little program (which now has the blood of two or more dead mosquitos on it).

After a lunch of left over casserole, Tee took Abby and Darla for a tour of the mission hospital and came back for me shortly after. We hiked around the campus and explored some of it with Dr. Sorg who has obviously paid attention on his previous tours of the mission.

Afterwards we hiked down the ravine, took the wrong trail and ended up taking a longer but much more treacherous route through the jungle to a village previously un encountered by any of us. We stopped just short of the first home and took some photos then, realising that we were out longer than the amount of time allotted to us by our busy schedule, had to turn around as access to our destination seemed to either be over grown by the jungle or we just chose the wrong trail.

Getting back was even more of an adventure because, being the one who lead on the way down, I should have lead the way back, but I was so enthralled by the wildlife that I got distracted and let us get on the wrong trail again. Eventually I had our intrepid team sit in one place while I scrambled up the terraces long reclaimed by the jungle to get our bearings.

I couldn't believe my eyes but we had managed to find our way back to an area right below our dorms (down a series of 6 foot tall terraces). Not too bad for not being able to see more than 20 feet in any direction, right?

Sweaty, covered in seeds, dirt, leaves and bug bites, the ladies went for a shower and we started what will be our nightly ritual of sitting around a tiny table counting out Rx medications and discussions on medical and cultural issues we are likely to encounter in the field tomorrow morning.

I lost track of how many Rx's the 5 of us prepared, but I'm sure its more than we need for our 100+ patients we'll be seeing tomorrow.

We took a short break for a Bible study taught by Pastor Rob Baker who runs the mission with all of the other Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) full-time missionaries. We went over Luke 15 and talked a lot about the lost and the found and the key to salvation and why "the heavens rejoice" when a lost un-saved person is "born-again," the joys of the prodigal returning home and the dreadfulness of the self-righteous.

Afterwards, we returned to our dorm and continued in our assembling of tomorrow's formulary, discussed each members' duties and responsibilities tomorrow and more tropical medicine orientation.

I said a couple of days ago that I no longer wanted but instead needed to go to Haiti. I know this was true because I feel like I've received the prescription I've needed for the last few months. If only the people I'm about to go help could know how much they help me. I really love this place, but I especially love Whose service I am in.

I want to leave you with a hymn we sang at Bible study this evening (along with about a half dozen Christmas Carols):

At Calvary
1. Years I spent in vanity and pride,Caring not my Lord was crucified,Knowing not it was for me He die dOn Calvary. ◦

Refrain:Mercy there was great, and grace was free;Pardon there was multiplied to me;There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary.

2. By God's Word at last my sin I learned;Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned,Till my guilty soul imploring turned To Calvary.

3. Now I've giv'n to Jesus everything,Now I gladly own Him as my King,Now my raptured soul can only sing Of Calvary!

4. Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span At Caaaal-vaaaaryyyy!

Pastor Stuart, at my church, loves this hymns and I could hear him voice singing the "AT CAAAAALVAAAARYYYYY" part at the top of hos lungs. The whole time.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T