This week’s blog I’ll share some of the blessings I witnessed and experienced during last week’s medical mission to North Carolina. First, however, I’ll describe a bit about how it all came about.
When this disaster hit, I had a compelling urge to go help, but I also knew that I needed to first get connected, vetted, and plugged in, in order to be the most effective. I woke up (way too) early Friday 4 October. There was a text from Dr. Mollie James of The James Clinic inviting a few of her colleagues to join her team in North Carolina and there was no hesitation in saying YES! I spent Friday wrapping up the week, working with Susan to clear the schedule, and preparing for whatever. I loaded up my car with medical supplies and a Costco run. I was on the road at 0’dark:thirty on Saturday morning!
The plan was to meet up at a donated Airbnb and along the way we worked our connections and ended up with the assignment to set up a field hospital at Avery County Airport in Spruce Pine. We met with the airport leadership on Sunday afternoon, made a plan, and we started setting up on Monday morning. This is a very concise summary of what happened, but from the time we arrived through the entire week (and still continues), the situation constantly changes, and communication was constantly challenging. All things considered, it went pretty smoothly considering it was a mishmash of various organizations and individuals coming together for a common purpose.
Here are some blessings from the mission that I’d like to share with you. There were far more than these listed, but these are the most profound.
#1 God directed divine appointments to put all kinds of individuals and organizations together fitting each of our skills together to accomplish what we could never have done alone. It was truly a faith-forward and Christ-oriented situation in which we opened the morning and evening meetings with prayer. That is the only way that we got all these people organized and willing to just lay down what they had to offer and willing to do whatever God was directing them to do.
#2 We got an operational field hospital in a matter of days. We could not do everything, but we had enough to stabilize a critical patient, give IV fluids, administer medication, and treat most acute ailments. do whatever in a matter of days. We were two doctors, two nurses, and two admin staff with a couple of trailers full of medical supplies and other donated goods. We also had other volunteers at the airport as well as security staff to help us in the effort. We became a kind of family going through this week together. This leads to…
#3 Was all the local and national resources that were pulled together to magnify our efforts and our resources in terms of personnel. It was definitely a loaves and fishes situation! This is what I was praying on my way down: that everyone chips in what they can, or even a little more and God will turn that into an overabundance! It wasn’t just the physical resources in terms of generators and diapers and blankets and warm weather stuff, but it's also in terms of personnel volunteers and connections and energy. The more we gave, the more we got. Even the King of Jordan sent one of his planes to help fly supplies around.
#4 I really believe that this is a situation in which the enemy meant it for evil, but God turned it for good. I mean absolutely no one wants this to happen to anyone at all. This was such a crazy devastating event, and it will be hard for weeks and months to come. It was also crazy for all these people to come together. It's also crazy to see all the blessings in the midst of utter destruction and lives forever changed. As Pastor Torch (his call sign) said, our life as Christ followers is not just peace with some storms, it's mostly storms where we find peace in the middle of the storms. The testimonies of the local people saying that they were so blessed and that they could not imagine experiencing so much hope in the midst of such devastation.
#5 The final blessing is YOU. You are blessed to be a blessing! Thanks to my patients who generously allowed me to clear my schedule to go down there. Thank you to all of you who have donated to me personally or through the James Clinic or wherever you chose to send some money or resources or time. It’s all really appreciated!
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