Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Today was our last day at the clinic in Pamplona. We have loved getting to meet the people of this area in Lima and we will miss the friends we have made. Today’s patients opened our eyes a little more to the hardships these people are willing to go through in order to get the help their children need. Many of these patients had been waiting for a year just to get a wheelchair to help them get around better. We all found that it became really difficult today as we began to run out of the different sizes of braces and weren’t able to give anything to some of the children. There was also a case where a patient had signed up last year to get a wheelchair, but then when we tried it out the wheelchair wasn’t going to work for them. Now they have to wait for another whole year before we can bring them another wheelchair. In cases like these, it can be difficult to tell these kids and their parents that there is nothing we can give them, but we know that even through all of this, God has a plan. Even amidst these difficult cases, we have been blessed by the joy and laughter of these kids. Sometimes they get frustrated or tired during treatment, but in the end they are so happy with the results. In other cases, the kids are the most joyful, even amidst their struggles. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “and He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness’ most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power Christ may dwell in me” (NASB). These kids may be weak physically, but God’s work is strong in their lives. I think we can all agree that there are lessons to be learned from these kids’ joy. Tomorrow we will be heading to a clinic in Ventanilla where we will have the opportunity to see more patients and hopefully meet their needs. We are sad to leave the clinic we were at today, but we are excited to see what kind of experiences this next clinic will bring us.