Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon!

God continues to bless our team as we all now are enjoying the culture of a new country.  This trip has brought each of us many wonderful blessings as we serve our Lord!  Please continue to pray for us as we will leave tomorrow and head back to the USA.

The days have been long and hard and intense.  We saw 1, 907 patients during the last week and it is good to rest and relax before we head home.

Our team has become a family and as we worked and supported each other through our services to others.

We are looking forward to sharing our experiences with our friends and family on return home. 

Third Clinic Site Prey Veng

Road into Prey Veng Methodist

We have not had internet service for the past few days. The past few days at Prey Veng Methodist have been incredible.  Prey Veng is a much more rural area than any we have worked at so far. The church is actually in a typical Cambodian style home on stilts above the store room.

Devotion time before clinic

When we got there people were already lined up to see us.  We had a devotion time and then went straight to work.  We set up the dental and eye clinic upstairs.  The triage area along with the doctors and nurses was set up in an open space under the house.  The pharmacy was set up on a bedstead.  The prayer area was set up outside under the tent.  This was quite different from our other two churches at which we had previously been.

Congratulations  after conversion to Christ and Baptism

Although in an urban area, the population seemed poorer than at the other two previous sites. We were the first medical team to come to this church.  The church has been there for about 2 years, but they just recently purchased the property.

We saw over five hundred people during the two days we were in Prey Veng. In fact, Bud & Suzanne made a comment on Friday that they were afraid the floor might collapse upstairs because there were so many people waiting to see the dentist and go to the reading vision clinic.

Sylvia treating a pediatric patient

Karen doing exam

Jeanie & Bud cleaning dental instruments

Children watching the dentists at work

Once again the people were so humble and appreciative of all the help we were giving them.  It was so hot, in fact, the hottest we had experienced since we arrived in Cambodia.  However, the team was quite moved by the gentle spirit of the people.



Our team on last clinic day



Wednesday, Last Day at Chambork Korng Methodist Church

 We start every day in a community Prayer Service!  Lucille led today's service.





We are continuing the clinic in Chambork Korng today seeing another 289 people.  It has not been as busy as yesterday, but it is quite a bit hotter today than yesterday.  The heat is taking a toll on all of us, but we are still feeling uplifted by helping all those in need.

A reflection on the day by one of our team workers:

On a typical day in the clinic there is------

Joy in someone seeing clearly for the first time.

Excitement in the eyes of the children in their daily activities.

Smiles as we work and serve.

Understanding given to all by the doctors, nurses & triage staff.

Sharing between two different cultures.

Comfort offered daily in the prayer corner.

Happiness upon receiving colorful meds from the pharmacy.

Restlessness of the patient in the dental clinic.

Investment of our time to serve and be served.

Sweetness at 4:30 for a chance to rest and shower.

Trust daily in Jesus Christ to lead us and care for us.



Jerrice working hard at Triage station



The LA VIM Medical Team of Feb. 2011 is attempting to work daily to reflect what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.



David praying with those in need



As you can see, we are blessed to be God's hands and feet as we serve the people of Cambodia.

Tomorrow we head for Prey Veng Methodist Church.  It is more rural than where we are now so we don't know if we will have any internet connections until we get to Vietnam. We will be there two days.  Please keep our team and the people we will be serving in your prayers.


Bud and Suzanne with Dr. Nee our dentist



Stephanie at triage



Lunch break....a time for rest



Suzanne, Jeanie and George preparing Dental Clinic

Getting ready for Dental Clinic

  

Sylvia hard at work



Vicki with "her" kids!





 

A New Day....another Clinic!

Crowds waiting  for registration

Greetings from Cambodia!  Overwhelmed and fulfilling are the best words I can find to explain the work being done by a great team!  God is truly working through a team of 16 obedient servants.

Your prayers are being felt as our health is great and so many people are being reached.  Continue lifting us up.  We still have several days to go and the temperature is up so please keep us covered.

Praying all is well for each of you.

Jeanie helping with eye exam

Today is Tuesday and we have moved our clinic to Chambork Korng Methodist Church.  It is a very rural area where we are the first medical team to visit this church.  In fact, there is no electricity for this church community.  They brought in a generator for our clinic.

Although a fair number of people came, probably out of curiousity or to see the Americans, we did see a number of patients with more serious illnesses than the previous church.

Lucille praying and providing massage therapy

This brings out mixed feelings.  We are grateful to be able to offer some help, but very aware of our limitations.

The prayer corner had many referrals today and may have been the most valuable service we provided.

Bev, our fearless team leader in the middle of 100 things
Kim & Ashley filling prescriptions

A typical day with the dentist!

Marvin providing patient care

Clinic Has Started!

Headed out from Phnom Penh to Svay Rieng to set up our first clinic.  The first clinic was at Paum Pnoe Methodist Church.  We arrived there around 1:30 and set up our clinic and started seeing patients immediately.  We have a dental clinic, eye clinic, 2 doctors and a Cambodia doctor joined us on Monday.  We also set up a children's area and a prayer corner.

People of all ages were already lining up to see us and we went straight to work.  Day 2 we continued the process of seeing patients.  By end of Monday we had seen over 600 patients.  We were exhausted but also uplifted.

We found the needs enormous with diverse issues which we need to address and regret that we can never meet all the needs. The Cambodian people are so open hearted, warm, friendly, gentle spirited and humble.  It is such a joyous experience helping these people.

The team has become a family.  We all work very well together.  It is amazing how God has brought this group together!

Because of the number of patients and the communication problems, we have a large number of Cambodian team members that have joined us.  They have merged with our team helping not only with communication but with people control and all the other clinics.  What a pleasure it has been to get to know these enthusiastic young Cambodian Christians.

We are having a few technical difficulties, but will upload more pictures as soon as we can.

We ask for your continued prayers for our team and those we will be seeing.

Arrival in Phnom Penh



David, Tola, Tarra, Jeanie, Kim, Lucille, Karen, Stephanie, Suzanne, Myra, Jerrice,
Vickie, Bev, Ashley, Sylvia, Marvin, George, Bud



It was a long trip, but all went well. We connected with part of the team in Atlanta, some in Seoul, S. Korea and the rest met us in Phnom Penh (sixteen in all). We were all tired, but got up early Sat. morning to start the day.

Most of the team went to tour the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh.

Sorting Meds

Seven of us went to GBGM headquarters to finishing sorting and packing meds.

We all met up at lunch and went to the Russian Market afterwards to do a little shopping.

Then back to the GBGM office to finish packing our meds.

We will head out early Sunday morning to drive to Svay Rieng and set up our first clinic. We are all ready to get to work!

  



Russian Market Bargaining!



GBGM Staff At Dinner



Medical Mission Overview

Be a member of our team and join us in prayer.......we are going to southern Cambodia where we will be providing rural medicine health clinics in Prey Vieng and Svey Rieng (close to the Vietnamese border). The Team on the ground has some very seasoned and knowledgeable medical members.  We will be doing three two day clinics at three locations.  We hope to be working with volunteers from the nursing school to help develop better relations and share our skills with the students.  We will depart from various parts of the world meeting in Phnom Penh then off to the rural villages.  Please be in prayer for our team, our schedule is very full as we will be moving the clinic  three times.  We are praying for God's grace for endurance, protection and His Spirit for clarity in doing His work in Cambodia.  We are going knowing He is already there, joining with Him and our Cambodian brothers and sisters in Christ.

Preparing for the Mission
Some of the team gathered for sorting and packing the various medications and other collected items.  We have been blessed by the many contributions and feel we are prepared for the work God would have for us.


Bev and Jerrice sorting med's



Jeanie, Ashley and Ann





 







 









Praying over Med's