VOLUNTEERS EXPRESS CARING IN MEDICINE AND MORTAR
A raw Chicago-like wind chilled the Rio
Grande Valley on the morning of October 9, as a medical team sponsored
by St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Barrington, located the home in
San Francisco, Mexico, which would serve as their clinic for the
day. They were welcomed into a two-room house, built of mostly scavenged
materials.
By the time the team had unpacked their supplies,
people from this shanty town on the eastern perimeter of Juarez
were lining up to see the team's two nurses. By week's end, more
than 230 patients had been served. Their medical complaints ranged
from upper respiratory infections to chronic diabetes.
Because diabetes is a major health concern in
Mexico, a blood glucose screening was done for each adult that visited
the clinic. The nurses provided health education materials and urged
a number of their patients to seek a doctor's help.
Infant care education was an important aspect
of the team's work because of the number of teenage mothers who
were seen at the clinic. Many of these mothers lacked basic understandings
about breast feeding and child nutrition. Their own health problems
were often compromising the health of their children.
Along with the medical care, the team also provided
spiritual care for their patients. They prayed with all of the people
who came to the clinic. When patients left the clinic they were
given a hygiene kit which included soap, toothbrushes, tooth paste,
shampoo, socks, and underwear. Materials for these kits were not
only provided by members of St. Matthew, but also through special
collections which were taken at St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic
Church, Palatine,and Peace Lutheran Church, Lake Zurich.
While the medical team was doing its work, two
construction teams from St. Matthew were employed in providing the
most basic of facilities, bathrooms. One team added a bathroom to
a three-room house at Kiloveinte, another shanty town on the outskirts
of Juarez. Because there is no church building in this community,
this home is the site for Sunday worship services and a midweek
Bible study. While the bathroom is a simple concrete block structure,
now facilities will be available when members of the congregation
gather.
Bathroom facilities were also being enlarged at
the dormitory building in El Paso, Texas, which the team called
home during the week. Ysleta Lutheran Mission hosts servant teams
like the one from St. Matthew throughout the year. The mission serves
as a base for ministry work throughout the Juarez area. The second
construction team from St. Matthew helped to pour the floor and
frame the walls for these expanded facilities.
This team of twenty adults was the tenth group
sent by St. Matthew Lutheran Church to work in the Juarez area.
In addition to medical and construction teams, the church sends
a team of youth and adults to teach Vacation Bible School each summer.
Since the program began in 1995, three objectives
have guided these servant teams: 1) to experience the Christian
faith in another culture; 2) to provide ministry help for projects
which could not happen without a team's work and financial resources;
and 3) to live as a Christian community.
Because of the impact this program has had
in the life of the congregation, plans are already underway to return
to Mexico in the summer and fall of 2001. "Once your have given
people a genuine opportunity to serve their Lord and to help people
in need," said the Rev. Gerald Schalk, associate pastor at
St. Matthew and the team's leader, "you can't keep these people
away."
