January 2nd, 2018
Same people and same clinic, different day.
Day 2 was a little bit busier and we might have seen more patients, but the days still fly by. Us PT students are getting more comfortable treating patients on our own, but our lead therapists, Hannah and Lorenzo are always in arms reach to guide us and think through things with us. They’ve been awesome to work with! We learn a lot and have so much fun at the same time.
I saw another lady with an amputation today. She was having shoulder pain because her crutches were too tall and not adjustable. We prescribed her crutches and told her to come back to the church on Friday to pick them up. And luckily all of our crutches and walkers got to us today so we’ll be able to start fitting them to people!
The medications still unfortunately are not in our hands. Someone contacted Jimmy and we’re reallllly hoping we get them tomorrow. We promised people they could pick up their meds that we prescribed them on Thursday or Friday, so getting them tomorrow is our last chance so we can sort them out for each patient. Please pray!
Nothing super extraordinary has necessarily happened on the trip so far, but I don’t think that’s for lack of God being present. If anything, I think the Lord has proven faithful in His promises – you just have to keep your eyes open to see that.
Obviously with a medical team we treat a lot of people that have some sort of discomfort. We try to ease their discomfort and either provide them with something to relieve that, or simply comfort them in their suffering. I think this is a huge part of our lives as believers as well.
I read this today: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:2-5)
I love that it uses the word abundantly, and that, in Christ, we will live abundantly – but that includes both the highs and the lows. Jesus suffered immensely so He could be in relationship with us again, and He was blessed abundantly for it. God came through with His promise to raise Jesus from the grave.
I hope how we handle suffering can paint of picture of what Jesus’ sacrifice meant. Through some hurt, my life has been filled with compassion for those hurting, and even though it may be different it still can allow me to be able to stand by their side through the pain. The Lord has given me His perfect comfort through times of trouble. His promises may not be fulfilled instantaneously, but His promises are still true. Through PT and other relationships in my life, I hope to spread that comfort He’s given me to those I come in contact with. Seeing the smiling faces of patients leaving the clinic and hearing them say they feel better is a pretty good start.
-Nicole
(PS you might see some of our awesome interpreters in pictures! We couldn’t do it without them and we love spending time with them!)
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