When my husband proposed he expressed his desire for us to use our gifts together in different parts of the world. Since that time we’ve had the opportunity to twice travel to Puerto Penasco, Mexico and serve with a free medical clinic. The Doctor who began these free clinics doesn’t actually have his own building. He hops around to churches and clinics, setting up wherever he finds availability. I almost wrote that he sets up where there is the greatest need… but the truth is that the need is great everywhere in Puerto Penasco.

-15 thousand+ families living in 50-150 sq ft. shacks, burnt out cars, underneath cardboard and pallets
-No running water or power
-Limited or no access to health care services
-60% of kids don’t advance to high school
-40% of the population is unemployed

D and I always thought that we might travel to Africa or India, in hopes of helping where the need for medical attention was most profound. But if I’m honest with myself I know that I also want to travel to Africa and India for selfish reasons. I’ve been dreaming of Africa for years, not Mexico.

Count the use of “I” in that last paragraph. I though, I know, I want, I dream, I haven’t… I (hah) will be the first to admit that dreams and desires are good things… but they aren’t always the best for what’s right now. There is a need four hours from my home. There are needs on my own street.

 

Several people have asked why now and why Puerto Penasco. The answer really is simple. It’s a need that was specifically presented to us. Someone asked and we said yes. The time reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible and seeing children with toothaches and stomach pain takes a small effort on our part but gives much to the families who walk for hours to give their children medical attention.

Our Pastor, Scott Brown, said in a recent sermon: “God is changing the world through ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.”

I am using my broken Spanish and love for children to do a very ordinary thing. I’m reading and telling stories. My husband is using his profession as he examines children sitting in folding chairs on a dirt floor. We are merely saying yes. We ask each trip that God would do the extraordinary through the ordinary.

The needs are everywhere: on your street, in your school, in your city, in Mexico, in Africa, and all over the globe. Are you ready to say yes?

Following,
Ginger