New Wine

God has opened so many doors for me the past couple of months and I couldn't be more thankful.

First things first, I'm happy to share that I'm done with my 3rd semester of nursing school and ready for the next one. I'm not going to lie, as I mentioned in my last post this semester was harder and I'm sure the following semesters aren't going to be an exception. Thanks to God and to your prayers I was able to finish with good grades once again. One of the bible verses that helped me through this semester was taken from Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". It's a powerful verse and one of my favorites. It reminds me that we can find refuge and strength in the Lord every second of our lives.

 Each day we fight a new battle, some of them harder than others (loss of a loved one, family problems, financial problems, terminal disease, depression, etc) and it doesn't matter what the problem, because the Lord promises that he will give strength to our spirits during those difficult times, we just have to seek for him every morning and dwell in Him.

HAITI

 I never would have believed that I would get an opportunity to serve in Haiti with a medical mission team from South Carolina. Ever since I started nursing school I haven’t stopped thinking about missions and when I’m finally going to use my nursing skills to help people. It is so rare to see people from South America doing mission work. 

Have you ever wondered why? Well, we are so used to being the ones that receive the help from people of the United States that we stop thinking about people from a different countries with bigger needs and problems. We see ourselves only as the receivers and not as the givers.

We often think what can I give if I don't have money? I'm poor, there's nothing I can give, I could never become a missionary. Missionaries travel a lot and help people providing them with a lot of stuff, I could never do that.

People here in Ecuador and in other developing countries need to stop believing that we are only here to receive from others but start thinking of how we can help others less fortunate than us with what we have. It may not be that much, but it can make a huge difference. It doesn’t necessarily have to be money or material stuff. I could be our time or talent. What’s better than show someone love and respect, treat them with kindness and dignity ?

Having the opportunity to serve in Haiti opened my eyes to a different reality. it was hard to face it but I needed to. I got to travel with Sebastian, one of the leaders of my church. 

He helps to oversee the scholarship program in the church. We both have been very involved in the church, helping with different activities and programs. 

We love to serve and help in our community. I’m sure you would like to know what we did in Haiti so I’m going to share a little bit of each day. 

Here it goes:

We traveled on the 17th of January, Thursday, and we flew from Quito to Panama and from Panama to Port au Prince. Two of my dearest friends Lillian and Malachi were waiting for us outside of the airport. Lillian is a Clemson student. She has been serving as an intern in Haiti, working on the water system that helps provide clean water for the village of Cange. Malachi is a medical student. I got to meet him in Oklahoma in the summer of 2017 during EYE (Episcopal Youth Event). We waited a couple of hours for the medical team from SC to arrive. When they arrived we drove from Port au Prince to Cange, it was a 2:30 min drive. 

During this season in Haiti the sun comes up at 5:45am and it gets dark at 5:45pm. It got dark in our way to Cange so we didn’t get to see that much the first day. We arrived to Zanmi Lasante, a beautiful and giant compound that operates out of Cange in the central plateau of Haiti. Zanmi Lasante mean partners in health in Haitian Creole. It was built in 1985 to treat patients that couldn't pay for a hospital treatment. We had a delicious dinner that day and then started packing the medicine we were going to take the next day.

Every day we had breakfast around 6:30am, leave the compound at 7:30am and go to different villages near Cange. What we were doing was medical checkups to treat hypertension patients. We set up different stations to treat patients, we had a triage station, nurse station, doctor’s station and the pharmacy. 

Doctor's station

The patient will go to the triage station to get their blood pressure taken, if it was high he will go to the nurse station, the nurse will take personal information such as name, date of birth, family history and will ask some questions: has the patient been diagnosed with hypertension? Is he on meds? Has he had a stroke? Etc… and will register on the medical history. 

After seeing the nurse he will go to see the doctor, the doctor will evaluate him and prescribe some medicine. He will go to the pharmacy to pick up the medicine and then go home. I was helping in the nurse station and triage station.

The first village we visited was Tierra Muscady. It was a 30 min drive to get there. The second village was Bel- Air, we got to see some awesome views with 4 hours of hiking included. It was so worthy!

On Sunday we attend church. It was a beautiful well organized church and the choir was amazing. I could have sat there for hours just listening to those angelic voices. The service was 3 hour long and it was in French. 

Father Furman one of the team members preached that day, he shared a wonderful message about the love of God and how important is to take care of our bodies and spirits. In the afternoon             

 Dr. Morse showed us around Zanmi Lasante, Some of us did home visits and some went to see the water system project that Clemson has in Cange.

 

On Monday we went to Bois Joly, we hiked for about 5 hours. It was very challenging to be honest. I thought I was not going to make it, it was really hot, not a lot of shade, there was a moment when I thought I made it to the top but I didn’t. I looked up and there were more hills, oh boy! I was so tired and frustrated, I found myself alone for a moment, just me and God’s creation, I prayed to the Lord for strength, a song came to my mind in that moment (New wine from Hilsong ) it reminded me of the reason I was there, I gave up my old life to a new life in the Lord. A life full of commitment and challenges, a life that promises nothing but love.

“In the crashing, in the pressing you are making new wine” this is definitely one of my favorite verses in that song because is in the crashing and the pressing where God transforms us. It’s like if we are the grapes and he is the winemaker, he just wants to bring out the best in us in order to produce the finest wine. It’s going to hurt but it’s necessary.

 Being up in that mountain in Haiti all by myself  made me realize one again that Gods love goes beyond our understanding, it has not end. We may don’t understand a lot of things and when we finally think we know what he is doing and why he is doing it, something changes and we don’t anymore, it’s even harder to understand when it hurts because we think it hurts for a bad reason when the truth is He is just bringing up the best in us.

The last two villages we visited were Anana and Peligre. At the end of the week we treated almost 500 patients. Can you believe that?? 500 patients, wow it still amazes me. What a blessing it was to help in those villages, people were so loving and caring, always welcoming you with a big smile. It was hard not being able to communicate with them as I wanted to. I did learn some Creole during that week though, I just wish it could have been enough to have a conversation.

At the end of the mission experience I had a lot of feelings, sadness, happiness, thankfulness, and others. I didn’t want to leave, I thought my job was not done yet, it felt so right to be there, like if it was meant to be. God made it happen for a reason, that’s for sure. I know that I’ll go back at some point. I don’t know when, it could be next year or in 5 years or more. Mission experiences aren’t cheap but the Lord is Faithful and he always provides to His people so I trust that He will provide for me to go back one day.

I’m so thankful for Mother Susan Hardaway, she was the one who came up with the idea of having people from Ecuador joining the medical team From SC. She has been coming to Ecuador for the past 6 years. She has made a huge impact in our community, the love she has for people of Ecuador and missions is unbelievable. I’m so thankful to have her in my life. She is a blessing! 

I’m also grateful with all the people that donated to make it possible for me and Sebastian to go, if you are reading this, thank you! Thank you for being part of my life, trust in me and invest in my education and future.

I encourage you this week to seek for God’s guidance, to recognize that he is at work in those difficult times. Remember that he is making new wine out of you through the crashing and pressing. Trust in him in him with all your heart and mind.

 Couple more pics

Please keep me in your prayers as I go back to classes this Monday. I’m starting a new semester. Thanks to your help and support. Pray that I can find balance between my studies, my job in the church, family, and personal relationship with God. That I can bear fruit throughout this amazing experience, not forgetting my responsibilities and compromise with the Lord.

SOMETHING YOU CAN PRAY FOR:

* for finding more sponsors that will like to commit to a monthly donation in order to help me continue my education in nursing school.

* for my personal relationship with God

* for the people in Haiti that are in a lot of need

* for the medical team members that helped in all those villages so that they can bear fruit and keep helping others

* for all the missionaries around the world sharing the gospel

* for my next visit to the USA, that I can raise more money to make it happen

If you want to contribute to my education you can click the link below and make a donation or you can also contact me on Facebook or email.

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https://educationequalshope.giv.sh/25b3