October 2005-Adult Servant Trip
ST. MATTHEW SPONSORS MISSION TRIP TO MEXICO
For the twentieth time in the past eleven years
St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Barrington, sent a mission team to
Mexico. The team of 26 left Barrington on Saturday, October 8, for
the week-long mission.
This mission team was composed of four medical teams and a construction
team. Twelve of the team members were not members of St. Matthew.
Several of them came to join the mission team through Lutherans
in Medical Missions, an agency based in Concordia, Missouri, which
brings together medical personnel and groups which sponsor mission
trips. Team members came from places like Ft. Lewis, Washington,
Cleveland, Ohio, Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Mountain, Wisconsin.
During the week the four medical teams saw 505
patients. Hypertension and diabetes were two of the most common
problems addressed at the clinics, but the medical staff also dealt
with migraines, respiratory distress, urinary infections, and a
host of pre-natal and post-natal problems.
Two medical teams worked at Santisima Trinidad, the Lutheran church
in Zaragosa, Mexico, a community on the eastern edge of Cuidad Juarez.
Another medical team traveled to San Francisco, a shanty town east
of Zaragosa. Here the team set up a clinic in the home and yard
of a family. St. Matthew has sponsored clinics in this community
for several years.
The fourth team worked in a new site, Polo Gamboa, a community south
of Zaragosa. This area has no water service or sewers. This brought
a large number of people to the clinic with digestive problems,
especially intestinal parasites. Once again the clinic operated
in the yard and one-room home of a family.
Through the generosity of many doctors and others, the team was
well-supplied with prescription and OTC medicines.
The construction team remodeled portions of the
bathroom facilities in the dormitory at Ysleta Lutheran Mission,
El Paso, Texas. The dormitory was the team's home during the mission
trip.
