Can you believe that in 6 months we will be ending the year?! 2019 is halfway through and we feel like it’s still January! June has been a busy month for our staff. We’ve had back-to-back teams and will continue this way until the end of August. Lately we’ve seen a few articles about how short-term mission teams do more harm than good. We don’t want to start a debate, but as a ministry who works with many short-term mission teams, we’d have to disagree. We’ve seen the good that comes out these teams. We see the seeds they plant, and we see the harvest. We love seeing the friendships and connections made and how people are never the same after a week here. The blessings, the changes for the better, the benefits are found in both the teams and the locals. Our staff is here when there are no teams and we see the ripple effect from each team that comes; we see how it is far-reaching even after they are long gone. So, thank you. Thank you to all that come and minister and thank you to all those who support in prayer and with finances to make the trips possible. May God bless each of you a million times over. 

Healing Hands

 

Healing Hands is one of the ministries that sometimes breaks our hearts the most. Healing Hands is the medical aspect of Impacto Ministry. Through Healing Hands, we are able to pay a local doctor to come for 1 week every month and perform checkups on the kids and abuelitos. The doctor also will tend to their immediate family as well as any walk-ins there might be. Through medicines left by medical teams, we are able to give medicines to all those in need. When we do not have a doctor available there is a public, government-run, clinic in San Juan. They, however, are not equipped and can’t usually provide people with the medications needed. The clinic will send a lot of their patients, with prescription(s) in hand, to us to provide the medicines. People here live on a tight budget and sometimes medications take the backseat of priorities. It is a relief for them to be able to come to us and receive what they need at no cost. There are times when we do not have the medication needed and we do go to the local pharmacy and buy the prescribed medicine for the person in need.

 

Last month a pastor came to the Pastor’s Seminar; we hadn’t seen him in a few months and asked where he had been. To our surprise he said he had been very sick and didn’t have the money needed for his medicine so he had simply stayed in bed for weeks. We scolded him (lovingly) for not reaching out to us. We did not have the medicine he needed, however, through Healing Hands we were able to buy it for him.

 

A few months ago we were able to help a little baby with a nebulization treatment. He was so congested he was literally dying. The doctor at the public clinic said they didn’t have a nebulizer (we had previously donated one but it broke). He told us that if we hadn’t been able to help that baby right then he thought the baby would not have made it through the night.

 

It is heart-breaking to serve the sick, but it is a great opportunity to be able to share of the Doctor of doctors and One True Healer, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank the Lord we can report that in the last 6 months, 50 people have come to Christ through Healing Hands. To God be the glory!