September 20,2009 Sunday Clinic at La Roca

Up at 8:00 this morning as we had to be at La Roca at 9:30 to start Clinic at 10. I hadn't seen Sam Wells, the Pastor in 3 years so was anxious to see he and his family again. I had brought him some Starbuck's coffee as that is his favorite and that is one franchise they do not have here yet.
Again we got a taxi driver that was either blind or was trying to set a new record on how close you could get to another car without hitting it. Then he dropped us off at the wrong church. I hadn't seen La Roca in 3 years and knew they had done some upgrading and this one looked like a possibility, but after stepping inside, it was obvious it was a Catholic Church. Oops!! So had to call back the cab, find out exactly where La Roca was and try again.. We had to stop and ask someone on the street as we had an incorrect address, as did Larry and Ghislaine. They also went to the same wrong location. We all arrived at the right place at the same time. God is good.
Our helper had already screened the people that didn't have glasses that needed them from the ones that just wanted a second or free pair. That worked great for us.
There were four of us doing eye tests, Larry Ghislaine, Patricia and myself. It was Patricia's first time to do something like this and she loved it and wants to help next year when we come. You will find that after you do this, it becomes addictive.
We saw 125-130 people approximately, a 3 hour time period. We went to the various classrooms and handed out stuffed animals to the smaller kids, toothbrushes, and toothpaste to the others. To give you an example of how God works, we had 37 toothbrushes w/toothpaste left from our supply we brought and there were exactly that amount of kids there. We ran low on the glasses, especially the +100 strength and had 4 pair left. We had exactly what we needed in all sizes, with the exception of 3 people we had to refer to an eye doctor as we didn't have anything strong enough. It never ceases to maze me how he takes care of our every need if we put our trust in him. I am learning nit to stress over whether we will have enough supplies, as we always do.
I had a great conversation with Sam and learned that they were planting 3 new churches in south Guayaquil, one on the coast and we talked about partnering to enable us to provide needed supplies and services to these needy areas. We are not involved with church planting but it does give us the opportunity to help these motivated people. We are going to keep in communication and plan for next year's trip and include one or two of these locations in our trip. As it turns out Ghislaine's best friend is Sam's secretary, another God thing I'd say. It seems in looking over all the scenarios, that Guayaquil is where we are meant to concentrate our efforts. There are so many places that need our help and this area is better for us to travel and more cost effective for us. We have realized that, with some help there is at least a hope for the future for these kids. They have the motivation to make a better life for their future. When we travel to the remote areas. Even though we know they need help, it never is enough to make a difference. It's just a temporary bandage. It is really a hard decision where to put our resources but we have to be realistic and put our time and resources where it gives people and opportunity to better themselves for the future.
We left around 1:30-2:00 and came back home.
Patricia and I decided to go to the mall and get a few groceries and look around the mall. As it happened we ran into an old friend of Patricia's, Kathya Lara Convantes, who is a past president of our Partners Chapter here. We talked for about 45 minutes and learned that she works in the Guayaquil government office of Culture and Education. She wants to come back to Partners and become active again. She has great energy for Partners and wants to see projects started and continued. Gave her my card and she is going to email me and she and Patricia are going to get together and get her signed up again. Another member, yeah. We proceeded to the check out stand and a lady heard us talking in English and wanted to know where I was from, I told her and told her what I was doing here in Guayaquil. She told me she used to be a member of the Peace Corp and that she and her mom had a house with an extra room that they rented out, and that when I or any of our women members team needed a place to stay that she would donate that room to us to us for the length of our stay. WOW! We talked to he about Partners and she is interested in possibly joining. She also has a sister who has some kind of shop in the front of the mall an she would be interested. I think I need to stay a few more days and do some more recruiting. Patricia is seeing how easy it is, just by talking to people where ever you go.
All in all we had another great and productive day. I am mentally and physically drained so know I will sleep well.
Thank you again for your prayers, obviously they are working.
I am trying to change my flight to Monday but cannot get thru to airlines, maybe I am not suppose to stay.
Good night my friends