THUNDER BAY – Special to NNL) Where to begin and even more important where to end? We (Dave and Arlene March,Fran Friesen and myself) spent 4 days visiting our new ministry partners in El Salvador. The Shalom primary care community clinic run by Harvesting in Spanish Mission, is waiting to be furnished and medically equiped to get it’s license to operate.
MEMO CAN DO THAT!
This clinic will provide free care to poor people in the community for Paediatrics, Ophthalmology, Gynaecology, Emergency room, general medicine, day surgery, diagnostics (lab and x-ray), nutritional counselling, and spiritual counselling and social work.
There will be health fairs held regularly in the community for preventative medicine. Staffing will come from the El Salvador Evangelical University Medical school as part of their training
This Christian Medical School has 1600 under graduate and graduate students! They are planning a large community clinic in the capital city,San Salvador, to be followed by a 50 bed hospital for medical training. The 250 student Amilat Christian School also run by Harvesting in Spanish is needing computers for training, and some new desks and chairs.
The large empty home across the road donated to the Shalom children’s home for use as a residence for 18 year old graduates of the children’s home going on to College and University needs furnishing . (Beds, couches, chairs, tables etc).
When told about the Mammography machine and the mobile breast screening clinic sitting in our warehouse, both the Shalom Clinic and
Christian Medical School eagerly said they will collaberate in running the program. Teri Benner the director of the medical clinic has already selected the room for the fixed mammography machine and adjacent dark room. MEMO WILL SEND THEM THAT.
The computer teacher in the Christian School, when he heard of all the computer equipment we can supply, said “I am going to faint!!”
The school doctor from the medical school said something we have often heard in Cuba “We have enough doctors and nurses but not enough equipment”.
So the needs of these folks in El Salvador fits perfectly with what God has called MEMO to do.
Sooo there is a huge amount of work ahead of us. We have to continue collecting medical equipment and inventoring it for customs. We have to collect money for shipping. We will have many days of packing ocean containers for El Salvador.
In El Salvador we do not need government permission for shipping things. We only need our partners to tell us what they need. That is such a blessing. Please pray for our first container that arrived yesterday, that it will not be selected for inspection as we learned on this trip many things we need to do to meet customs regulations which we did not do this time, such as detailed listing of contents and exact numbers of items in each box.
So to put our words into action: This Saturday June 22nd 9 a.m. at 600 Simpson St, we pack the second container of equipment so the Shalom Clinic can begin operating.
Mid morning we will move to the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital to finish filling the container with hospital furniture stored there.
If you can come later in the morning or for the afternoon please call me to find out where we are at that time. (807) 627-6360. Coffee and doughnuts will be served but bring a lunch.
We praise God for all he is doing
Jerome
