Day 145, Bangalore

For those of you who haven't heard, I have been really praying about continuing missions for a few years. My focus would be medical missions and I would leave in the fall for three months of specialized medical training for developing contries followed by three more months of fieldwork where we would focus on dental work, delivering babies, administering medicine, treating wounds and diseases, blood and urine analysis, malnutrition and many other things. I have had this on my heart for a long time now, and the opportunity has opened up in Guatemala. While nothing is set in stone, and the Lord could lead me another direction, this is the direction I am heading.

Yesterday I got my first taste of medical missions. Me and two girls went alone with a medical team here to assist them in the slums. As we carried the backpacks and medical supplies in I began to imagine myself in years to come doing the exact same thing. We sat up the medical supplies and waited for the people to pour in. Soon we were flooded by little children. As we cleaned one of the gashes on a little boy's leg I was amazed at the process. The wound was a few days old and was covered with dirt. Before we could see exactly what was wrong we had to first clean the wound. This is the most painful process of healing. The same thing is true in our lives. Before we can allow Christ to enter into our wounds, we have to acknowledge that they are there and wait patiently as He removes the "dirt" from our lives. The little boy sat there whincing as the last of the dirt was removed from the wound. Then the healing process could begin. We finished up and the boy was happy again. He was so pleased to have his wound taken care of....but I think he was happier that someone had acknowledged the fact that he was hurt and needed help. Amazing how this same process echoes throughout our lives. Dont allow your wounds to stay covered with dirt. Bring them to the surface and allow Christ to enter into them. He never heals the outside first. If we had just cleaned the outside up and sewed it shut with the dirt under the surface, it would never heal properly. No, instead Christ enters INTO our wounds and heals us from the inside out, slowly removing the death and decay, the dirt, from our wounds and restoring us to the way we were created to be. Lets continue to examine our lives, find the wounds, and invite the Physician to do His magic.