Ever since my first mission trip to Honduras eight years ago exactly, I have fallen in love with missions. The Great Commission was the last command Jesus gave before ascending into heaven, so it must be very important to Him too. The fact that there are people all over the world who haven’t heard the gospel should motivate Christians to want to do something about it. We can pray for missionaries; we can give to missions; or we can physically go onto the field: each one is needed! But in many cases, people need to see that you care before they will listen to what you have to say. And that’s why I love medical missions specifically. God calls many to be long-term missionaries and start churches around the globe, but sometimes there needs to be something different that can attract locals to a certain ministry so they can form relationships with those that normally wouldn’t listen. Medical missions is all about providing quality medical care, something so basic yet necessary that many around the world don’t have easy access to, in order to help a partnering church build friendships with those that are lost in the community. And it’s so effective! I’ve seen God do some amazing things, just on the three medical trips I’ve been a part of. And you don’t have to be a medical professional in order to participate! Non-medical volunteers are necessary for the clinic to run smoothly too. I’ll never be a medical professional, but I have been able to help out in a different way on each trip I’ve taken. Below, I’ll share three stories that I experienced personally while participating on a medical mission trip.
1. The Flooded village
For my first medical mission trip, I joined Medical Missions Outreach in Nyahururu, Kenya, a mountainous area almost right on top of the equator. We were working with a local church, holding the clinic in the front yard. And I was expecting it to be really hot in Africa on the equator, but when you throw in mountains and the fact that it was winter, it actually got kinda cold. Another factor in that was the thunder storms. We had a strong thunder storm come through just about every day we held the clinic and had to shove everyone as tight as possible under these flimsy tents in order to stay dry. Well, our original plan was to spend most of the week there in Nyahururu and then go into a rural village on the last day. The village we were planning to visit was very poor and undeveloped where people live in mud houses. We were looking forward to being able to get in and provide free medical care to these people that desperately needed it. But plans changed when we had the worst thunder storm yet come through on our last clinic day in Nyahururu. I was working as a patient director, and one of my jobs was to bring the patients’ papers from the providers to the pharmacy, and I remember being afraid to run through the storm to deliver the papers because of the thick hail from that storm. Unfortunately, another result from that storm was the flooding. And that village we were planning to visit had been completely flooded. In fact, we couldn’t even get out there because the roads leading to it had been washed out. This completely shut down our plans and affected everyone emotionally.
We took this as a sign from God that we needed to operate the clinic one last day in Nyahururu instead of visiting that village. So, we set everything back up and held the clinic one last time for whoever would show up. And toward the end of the day, a man showed up that had been traveling from across the country to see us. He did have some medical issues that we could’ve helped him with, but that’s not why he came: he showed up and one of the first things he told us was “I need Jesus.” When he heard that an American mission team was at this church in Nyahururu, he knew that he needed to speak to us and came from across the country to see us. If we would’ve been in that village, there would’nt have been anyone at the church for him to talk to, as even the church members would’ve been in the village with us helping translate. But God knew that there was a man searching for Him and allowed a village to flood in order for us to be there for this man. He got saved, and we got him a Bible, and I have never looked at changed plans the same way again. This was an incredible story to be a part of and witness firsthand, but that’s only the first of many.
2. San Francisco Amazonas
After initially wanting to travel with Medical Missions Outreach again, God directed me toward a different ministry for my second medical trip. I ended up traveling to the Amazon with a team from BIMI. Here, we were traveling up the Amazon River by boat, visiting different villages along the way and setting up mobile medical clinics in each. This was the toughest trip physically I had ever been a part of, because at the beginning and end of each day, we would have to travel with heavy bins of medical equipment up and down steep cliffs to and from the river, through thick mud, all while sweating to death and covered in gnats. It was brutal! But to this day it is my favorite trip to look back on and was the most rewarding for me. On this trip, I worked in triage, helping take temperatures, record weights, and find out what symptoms they’re dealing with to determine who they should talk to about their problems. I started to pick up on a lot of words and got to where I could communicate with them about the more common issues. After an exhausting week and a half, it was time for us to visit our last village. And the story behind this one is incredible!
There’s a remote village up the tributary from Puerto Nariño on the Colombian side of the river called San Francisco. This particular village was very private and had never allowed outsiders to enter before. Pastor Marcos, who we were working with had been trying to get into that village for years, but the chief never would give him permission to enter. All of that changed, however, when the chief heard that an American team would be in the area with some doctors. And for the first time, he told Pastor Marcos he could come if he brought doctors with him. This was so exciting for Pastor Marcos because he had been pushing for years to come into this village, and he had a smile from ear to ear knowing he would finally get in. The village is somewhat hidden from the river because it’s set back in the forest a good distance from the river. We of course had to walk all the way there, carrying all of our equipment, all the way to a school in the center of the village that was hosting our clinic. The locals stood in their doorways and watched us as we walked through for the first time. We had an amazing turnout in this clinic, and every single person that came through heard the gospel for the first time. It was a huge success, and the chief was so impressed that he told Pastor Marcos he could return whenever he wanted to. We ended up leaving with over 60 people receiving Christ, and that was already a great story to tell. But it got much better after that. A year later, a different team came in to do another clinic, and a missionary that traveled with my team the year prior was finally able to lead that chief to the Lord. There is a new village open to the gospel now, with a Christian chief, all because God sent a medical mission team that came through a year before. That’s awesome!
3. Vision Clinic
For my most recent mission trip, I traveled again with Medical Missions Outreach to Moldova, considered the poorest country in Europe. This is an ex-Soviet state that is almost 100% Eastern Orthodox and very closed to the gospel. We partnered with a church in Hîncești, an area of the country that sees very few outsiders. In fact, I later told a couple that lives in the capital that I had been in Hîncești, and they told me they didn’t even know where that was. (It could’ve been because I butchered the name, now that I’m thinking about it). But either way, it’s an area that hadn’t had much exposure to Americans. Many people there live in old Soviet-era apartment buildings where power outages are common and there is often no running water. And this is Europe! The government often shuts down due to clashes between pro-European and pro-Russian political parties, and the current leader is a Socialist. Across the clinic, one trend we saw a lot of is that patients would tell us that they can afford medical or optical tests, but they couldn’t afford prescriptions, and so we were able to provide that to them. One difficulty with these clinics is that some speak Romanian and others speak Russian, and they would constantly switch between the two, so our translators had to know at least 3 different languages. And while I don’t necessarily have some major story to tell from this trip like I do my other trips, what made this one special is that it was really uplifting for me personally to be a part of it.
In the past, I had always worked in the background on these trips but never really got to work with the patients directly. And I was fine with that- I don’t have medical experience, so I shouldn’t be doing anything I’m not qualified for. But on this trip, I got to work in the vision clinic. The first day had me pointing to letters on a sign all day doing initial vision screenings, but then the next day I was asked to help out in the fitting area of the clinic, and this was really the first time I got to work directly with patients. This was very special for me personally to be able to help these people directly! I would look at their results from the area I had worked in the previous day and then search through hundreds of donated glasses for a prescription that fits their needs, and it was an amazing feeling everytime I saw someone’s face light up because they were able to see for the first time in a long time! I know I was there to help them, but this helped me more than I ever thought it could! Every “mulțumesc” (thank you) I got was more and more special. And if you’ve never experienced something like that, I would encourage you to seriously consider it. We saw 1500 patients come through that vision clinic, and the church started building a relationship with each one of them, hoping it would eventually lead to their realization that they need a Savior. This is an area that is closed to the gospel where many would never consider visiting a non-Orthodox church, but because of this clinic, 1500 came, which was far more than we ever expected from Hîncești, Moldova!
Why You Should Join
After taking three medical mission trips, I’m convinced that this is one of the best ways to visit the mission field and really help make a difference around the world for Christ! I can’t wait for my next one! It was supposed to be this September, but because of Covid-19 it will be next year instead. But I’m trusting that God has a plan in all of this. If you’re interested in signing up for something like this, I encourage you to check out Medical Missions Outreach’s website tomorrow (June 1, 2020) at 3 pm EST when their new calendar for next year is released. I’m excited to be able to participate with this ministry and couldn’t recommend it more. God is doing great things through them! If you’re not sure you could really help out, look at me: I’m a guy that gets nauseous at the sight of blood and struggles even walking into a hospital. I can’t stand next to someone in a hospital bed because the IV next to them makes my knees weak. If I can be involved with a medical team, then literally anyone can! Also, if you’re more interested in working with the Amazon team, that trip will probably become available later in the year, usually around September, on the BIMI Connect website. Either of these organizations is a great option, and I’d recommend checking them out, especially if you’ve never been on a mission trip before. Hope you at least consider it, and maybe I’ll see you on my next trip!
Tyler's Travels 