Another Medical Tour to Remote Villages
Also: Crisis Situation Needs Prayer
March 1 to 6, 2007

By Corrie Sample

Hi Everyone!

Wow, life has thrown some interesting curves at us here in the last couple of weeks. Actually, I think something more than life has thrown those curves. The enemy does not want us here and it is becoming obvious. But first, more stories of village adventure.

Wednesday evening: "Corrie, you and Aaron are going to be in the first flight out to Parkupik tomorrow with me." Dr. Michael was the one doing the talking. "We have to be to the plane by 6:15 am and you know how well Bob likes it when we are late." Joy. That means breakfast by 5:30 and everything packed tonight. But no complaining on my part. Being in the first group is fun, especially since I know I'm needed. Aaron and I are the ones that speak Spanish in the group going out.

Thursday morning (March 1): Wow, its only 7:30 am and we are already in the village. But we have to wait for the next plane load to arrive before we can get clinic started. In the meantime, the village Captain comes to me in order to communicate. He tells us that his wife is preparing breakfast for us, and at 9:00 he comes to take us to where the food. And what good food! Dumplings! I LOVE dumplings! These are not the kind you think of in the states in soup. No, these are delicious deep-fried bread, maybe not the healthiest but definitely the tastiest. More of our group arrive and clinic begins. I stay busy translating, like usual. We find out later that the main translator cannot come until tomorrow. So we make do with what we have.

Friday: Two more plane loads have to come in. I have to tell Bob by Radio to bring dental equipment and satellite phone. I also have to talk to someone by radio to figure out if the gas for going upriver by canoe has oil mixed in it. As I'm talking on the radio, others from the village are coming to me to let me know that they need 3 people down at the river to go in the first canoe load to the next village. Ten minutes later, they come back and tell me they need 2 more to go. Then 15 minutes pass, and they come tap me on the shoulder again to let me know that the boat is still a little empty and can fit 2 more people.

In essence, I am running around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off. But I'm having fun. :)

When things calm down a bit, and the first group of 7 have left in the canoe I actually get to do some clinic stuff. In fact, Dr. Michael wants me to cut a cancerous wart of some guy's nose and then stitch it up. Very fun. :) Dr. Michael helped a lot, but I got to do a good portion of it.

Sabbath - Sunday: Seemingly endless hours in canoes in the hot sun, bringing back memories of my childhood in Papua New Guinea. For most everyone else, its their first time in a canoe for more than a couple of hours at a time. The river is small and very shallow and the boat constantly scrapes bottom. By Sunday we had traveled about 10 hours upriver from the first village and had held 4 clinics.

Monday morning we did one more clinic while groups were flown back to Maurak. This time, I was not in the first group to leave. I was in the last group.

But now on to the crazy events:
My plane got back to Maurak at about 5:00 pm. At 6:00 a new Military Commander arrived along with the Medical Director for the Gran Savana and a representative of the Government office for the state of Bolivar (the Gran Savana is a sector of this state). It took 3 hours for the Commander to tell us that we must suspend all medical work until permission is granted from three different government agencies.

The people at the meeting started getting that permission the very next day and now our group has the attention of the very highest government people possible. Members of the [Venezuelan] President's Cabinet have given orders to the local Commander to research us: who we are, what we are doing here, who SDA's are, why we believe what we do, are we linked in any way with New Tribes, and tons of other things.

Monday, the 19th of March, there will be a big meeting at 10:00 am to make the final decision as to whether or not we will be allowed to work. Very high Government and Military people will be present. The village Captains of Maurak are so excited because they have had opportunities to witness to the bigwigs of the country. We are praying that we have a chance to witness to [President Hugo] Chavez himself. Please pray with us that God will work everything out according to His good pleasure.

Also, the assistant captain of Maurak, Donald by name, has cancer and probably only has about 6 months to live unless God intervenes. Please pray that God will place His healing hand on him. Donald has been a powerful witnessing tool for God because he has no fear and will talk about God to anyone and everyone.

 

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Our group is turning more and more to prayer in this situation, and I ask that you do as well. I know that you are all praying for us anyway, but if you would, on March 19 especially, make a point to pray for us at around 9:00 am Central time, which is 10:00 am our time. Thank you so much. God bless!

 

In His service,