Favor of the Lord Part 2 - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Here is the continuation of the previous blog….

There are disturbing pictures in here, but if you really want to see what it is like… continue on…

Once we arrived in Leyte at 3am, we were still about an hour or two away from our destination Dulag. We packed the jeepney full of the goods and by 4 we were off.

Once we made it to Dulag, it was daylight. Although the roads were clear, the city was so devastated. The first thing we saw when we got there was “HELP” painted in the road.

We hoped we could help. The mass destruction was overwhelming though.

We knew on our own we could do nothing. We just started praying. One thing I have been learning over the past few weeks is how to “ceaselessly pray” as Paul advises so many times in the New Testament.

In situations like this, there is nothing but prayer that comforts.

Once we arrived at Lalyn’s families houses we unloaded boxes of food and medical supplies so we could set up for the feeding program and clinic that day.

We didn’t have time to rest, so we had to depend on the Lord and the white rice we ate for breakfast to give us strength to make it through that first day.

With the help of the Barangay captain, we had a list of families to feed and the news about the clinic was out.

(the family making food bags for all the families in the barangay)

(the lines were long and the families waited patiently to receive food)

The first day over 370 families were handed goods to feed their family.

(the clinic also had a long line)

The makeshift clinic consisted of 4 nurses and no doctors. We were each very nervous about this because first of all, we don’t have the knowledge of doctors and secondly for legal reasons.

We each felt this is what we were called to do though. We agreed to do the clinic and to make sure to pray over each patient individually.

Through prayer, the Lord told many of us individually that He would be our physician. We didn’t need a doctor because He was there. We trusted this and went on with the clinic.

The first day we saw over 60 families. The 2 main issues we saw were upper respiratory infections and open wounds.

Since Kelsey loves wounds (and well I do NOT), she and Mak took the wound patients while Mona and I took most other patients. Many of the kiddos had asthma, possible TB, colds, pneumonia, dehydration and who knows what else.

Many patients I saw were advised to take vitamins (which we provided) and to stay hydrated, but others we emphasized the need for a doctor as soon as possible. I’m not even sure if that is possible, considering we were the FIRST medical people they had seen since the typhoon which was 2 weeks previous.

Many of Kelsey’s patients had really dirty, infected wounds. They needed follow-up treatment.

This meant they showed up at the house where we stayed before 7am and woke Kelsey up for wound care. If they weren’t there in the morning they were sure to show up by 7p for wound care. Either way, although the clinic was not officially open, patients were always visiting.

The hardest part about it was they trusted us more than their local doctors.

The first night, a mom brought her little boy to us. He had a severe burn on his back. Thankfully, while on the race I also experienced a pretty gnarley burn on my leg, so I knew how to care for it.

His mom brought him to us each night for us to change his bandage and make sure it wasn’t getting infected his body temp was regulated and so forth. She refused to take him to the local doctor because she didn’t trust them; we HAD to help. According to the mom, and as we later saw, they perscribed antibiotics like it was candy to any and everyone.

The second day, we ran a similar clinic and feeding program in a nearby barangay. Much like the first barangay we were the first medical help they had seen. The wounds there were a lot worse than the first day.

(the line waiting for medical attention day 2)

We saw around 40ish families that day and fed around 180 families.

Many of the families had the same issues. Like the first day, we did our best to care for them and turned it over to the Lord.

One story that sticks out to me that day, was this little kid named Jefferey. He was REALLY sick. He had dark circles under his eyes and a bad cough. His lungs sounded worse than some of my 80+yr old pneumonia patients and his head and neck were hot and clammy.

I knew realistically I couldn’t care for him. He needed a doc ASAP. I sent the family away emphasizing the urgent need of higher care, but not before covering this little man in prayer.

Later a box of meds showed up and I asked if someone in the community could find him, if he hadn’t already left to go to the doc.

They brought him back and his face had brightened a bit. The circles were fading. I re-listened to his lungs before giving the meds, but the lungs were clear. I asked another nurse to verify this was the same little man and his clear lungs. She verified.

We both smiled from ear to ear as we recognized God’s hand in this little one’s healing.

This was just the beginning. Almost every kid after that who had awful, congested lung sounds was healed and had clear lungs after prayer.

Our faith was increased so much.

By the third day, I would say our faith was so strong from “ceaseless prayer” and watching the Lord heal,it literally just took a touch and many lungs were cleared.

It was amazing to watch kiddo after kiddos lungs clear.

Although that was amazing, the third day was still the hardest.

We were able to see 40 families and feed over 150, but this barangay was in desperate need for help.

There were wounds that had no business being out on the street. Many people needed a hospital, but no medical help had come. They came to us and we did what we could, but knew how pertinent a hospital was. We were able to give them the finances to provide a ride to hospital…

Here are some of the wounds we saw…. (don’t look if you can’t handle.. but this is what it looks like after such disaster like Yolanda)

a 16 yr old boys hand after he cut 2 of his dead fingers off by himself after being smashed in Yolanda

A wound a man came to us with… the doctors had amputated his toe and cut out infected flesh and then sent him home with this…. The doc had wrapped it but gave the patient little instruction as to how he should care for it and then the doctor released this man into an infected city… he came to us….THIS IS NOT OKAY.… No one with a wound like this should be walking in the street on oral antibiotics. The doctor pretty much gave this man his death sentence.

We were able to emphasize the importance of going back to the hospital and staying there. We told him the importance of IV antibiotics for such a wound and sent him to a hospital in Tacloban.

I could write for days on all of the things we saw there that were NOT OKAY. From the idol worship to the corrupt government hoarding relief supplies to doctors sending wounds like this home, but I know no matter what God is sovereign. His name will somehow be glorified through all of these situation.

God is there, very present and moving throughout the whole island of Leyte. Please don’t forget about this event when the next event comes… These people will have years if not decades of recovery from such a trauma. Please continue to pray for them.

Lastly thank you. Thank you all for your support. Whether that was through prayer or financial or both, the Lord used YOU in awesome ways. Please continue to pray for these people.