Talk 2 Thursdays ago (5/19)

For those of you who unfortunately couldn’t join us two Thursdays ago (5/19), I’m finally posting a summary of the night =) b/c it was definitely a powerful and challenging evening. Dr. Hawkins, a doctor who does diabetes research here at Einstein and has blessed our fellowship (and me) in many different ways, showed us pictures of her medical missions trip to Guatemala a few months ago. She shared about her initial reluctance to go but how God really showed her the great need the people had there for trained physicians of all specialties, diabetes in her case. She provided a few vignettes of the individuals she encountered. One particular humorous story involved a man who had diabetes while his wife had some respiratory problems. It turned out that the culprit for the man’s diabetes was the 5 tortillas he ate with each meal while the culprit behind the wife’s breathing problems came from the fumes she breathed in while cooking her husband’s tortillas! Overall, her medical team was able to see 680 patients that whole week. They were able to pray with each patient which was also quite remarkable. However, she stressed the need for prayer and quiet time with the Lord which, unfortunately, was lacking during part of the trip which led to some feelings of tension and burn-out.

 

We also had some surprise visitors show up. They were part of the Einstein adult fellowship consisting of Einstein faculty which we, the ignorant students, had not known to exist (but now we do!). Two of them, Juan and Miguel, had gone on a different missions trip to Guatemala also. We were encouraged by how dedicated they were to the mission the Lord had sent them on. In preparation, they had prayed and fasted, essentially gearing up for battle. While there, they saw God’s miracles and wonders overcome a lot of spiritual darkness, especially since many in the rural areas of Guatemala still practice witchcraft. God was able to use them mightily to heal and serve people-physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Overall, Juan and Miguel saw the Holy Spirit do a lot of amazing things there that you rarely hear about here in the States but more out of Acts. They left us with the impression that indeed the “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” and encouraged us to consider organizing a medical mission trip to the places they visited, many in the rural areas that lacked even basic knowledge of hygiene. At the end, they left us with a great opportunity to serve the people in Guatemala. The contacts they have there would be able to organize food, shelter, and transportation. All we would need to figure out would be a time to go and the only thing we would have to pay for is our plane ticket there. All of us were excited about the opportunity, especially Dr. Hawkins, so keep posted on future updates! On another note, while missions trips are great and all, I feel God is challenging us (especially me) to be spiritually prepared now while on this campus b/c our mission field is wherever we are at.

 

-Tina =) (Feel free to send me corrections, inquiries, comments to anything I’ve said.)