October 2004-Adult Servant Trip
The overnight rains had turned the streets of San
Francisco into muddy lakes. The medical team from St. Matthew Lutheran
Church, Barrington, tried their best to avoid the water as they
set up their clinic in the yard and house lent to them for the day.
Even as they were setting up, the first patients began to arrive.
San Francisco is a shanty town on the eastern outskirts of Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico. It was one of three sites served by medical teams
from St. Matthew during the week of October 10-16. By week's end
369 people would receive medical help at the clinics.Diabetes, high
blood pressure, and malnutrition are among the common health problems
the team encountered.
In San Francisco a small yard became the team's
waiting room and a narrow passageway was used to check blood pressures
and blood glucose levels as well as take medical histories. A bedroom
was converted into an examination room. The bedroom had a curtain
for a door, no glass in the two windows, and a floor which was part
concrete and part dirt.
After two days at San Francisco the team moved
on to Kilometro Viente, a community south of Juarez. Here they set
up their clinic in a small, one-room building. Patients were waiting
in the morning cold as the team arrived and during two days more
than 100 people were helped.
A second medical team conducted a clinic at the
Lutheran church, Santisima Trinidad, in Zaragosa. This is a more
established community on the eastern edge of Juarez. In addition
to providing medical care, team members prayed with all the people
who visited the clinics. This year a local doctor, Rafael Rodriguez,
worked with the medical teams from St. Matthew. This has greatly
improved the level of care which can be provided.
In addition to the two medical teams, a construction
team from St. Matthew worked on the roof and floor of the pastor's
home from Satisima Trinidad. Since 1995, St. Matthew Lutheran Church
has sponsored 18 mission trips to Mexico. Each summer a team of
youth and adults teach Bible school at Santisima Trinidad. Each
fall an adult team provides medical care and works on construction
projects.
