Final Day/Departure

Sorry for the dealy in getting things posted, but thought it was necessary to wrap up the Condevilla 2009 trip.

Following the great party Wednesday night, we went into clinic refreshed and running toward our finish line on Thursday. Thursday turned out be the hottest day of the week and was quite busy given the shortened hours. The sickness on the team was subsiding, with most teammates recovering in nothing short of miraculous timeframe. We started the day at 9:30 with the last patients coming be admitted at 1:30. By 10 am we had an accurate temperature reading of 123. By noon, accurate temps were hard to come by but suffice it say we had thermometers in the shade at 110 and in the direct sun at 129. Somewhere in between was probabaly accurate and the wind was almost non existent. The guys in pharmacy tried to rig up a system to boil water and while they got close, didn't quite make it. We exhausted ALL of the sunglasses we brought, the vast majority of reading glasses (including the additional 140 pairs bought there), most of the medications and most importantly we gave all of the love we could muster to the people of Condevilla. The final total will show we saw 1372 patients in 4 days of clinic and care for the physical and more importantly the spiritual needs of this beautiful people.

Equally important was the transformation we saw in our team. I think most of the team would agree that the tears, laughs, hugs and love notes to each other were something that most have never experienced before. We saw an openness to share feelings of joy, shame, praise and disappointments. Team members shared their confusions, frustrations and love for each other. As one team member said, "This is the best small group experience I have ever had!" God's fingerprints are all over this team and I am sure more evidence of his presence will be revealed in the weeks and months ahead.

Having said all of this, the work in Condevilla is no where near finished. Our role, for the immediate time being, is complete. However, we learned that after the clinic closed Thursday evening, a significant fight broke out at our clinic site where several people were injured by flying glass bottles and fists, we learned of a woman from the church being struck by a man and the signage at the church was damaged by vandals. You see, Condevilla needs our prayers and our committment. There are many there who are lost and only waiting for the next wave of disappointment to come there way. This creates desperation and way of living that offers little hope. We want those in Condevilla to have the same hope some on our team have known for a long time and others on our team are just starting to see through the work we did there. It is our prayer that those in Condevilla that don't already know, will see this hope through Christ demonstrated by our love and committment to them. Please join us in prayer:

1. Pray for Pastor Lucho, Victor and the believers at La Iglesia Esperanza Viva in Condevilla. Pray that their faith would be strengthened and their message would be clear.

2. Pray for Jim and Kay Panaggio as they continue to labor in Lima. Their work is difficult and they need our prayers for perseverance and courage to continue to lift up the churches they work with in the city of Lima.

3. Pray that God would do miraculous things in Condevilla and transform the culture there. Pray he would raise up men to lead this transformation out of the darkness there today.

Thanks for Following!

Team Condevilla 2009