Bethesda Evangelical Mission

I'm always impressed by the stories when Jesus and His disciples are swarmed by crowds of needy people. Today we experienced a taste of what that must have been like. We held a clinic at Brefette, and it was packed. My name is Tom Walsh and my brother-in-law Jason Jones and I run the pharmacy. We see everybody that comes through. Our nurses are awesome. They fill out patient information including orders for medication which we fill. The best part of our job is teaching the patients how to take their medications and how to get well. The best moment is when I can place my hand on a patient's shoulder and with compassion share healing with them. These are the easiest people to love. They have so little. They are not demanding and always grateful. The most memorable patient today was a 12-year-old girl who is caring for 5 younger children because she has no parents. I didn't have time to listen to her entire story because of the swarming crowd. There are always 5 more patients right behind this one. I handed the case off to Pastor Lubin. I don't think I could I can ever hand off  the look of determination and responsibility in the eyes of that young girl though. Its an honor to be in this swarm and I think they are healing something in me. I'm not even sure what it is, but serving in love changes it.

I've always considered myself an adventurer however having to "water the daisies" on the ground in front of 20 strangers was a bit of a challenge. These are the things we laugh about at the end of a long day. After seeing about 180 patients, our team reflects on the day's work. Although we are a medical team I found that the majority of the problems that Brefette faces are the lack of food, clean drinking water, and a basic knowledge of general health. We not only taught patients but families about the importance of drinking clean water. The things we see the most are parasites and fungal infections. Until there is a source of clean drinking water this situation is not going to change. The solutions are simple and yet unattainable. Tomorrow we start all over again, one person at a time.