We have how many patients?!?

This morning we drove about 45 minutes to a village way out in the mountains. They have very little access to medical help. Ruth started taking down names for the clinic before we even made it to our clinic location (which turned out to be a small wooden shed). Total number of patients seen for the day was somewhere around 100.While Dr. Rivas and the team saw patients, Nathan and Steven installed water filters and I kept busy as the "receptionist" for the medical clinic. This is sooo different than running front office for a surgeon in CA! To understand this one, first get rid of all computers, desks, and most of the equipment. Replace scrupulously clean offices with a dirt floor, a table, and a couple of chairs in a shed. Replace English with Spanish and Tojolobal. Add in hot sun (and a tan or sunburn) for part of the day and pouring rain for the other half (that includes rain coming inside the shed). Imagine the pharmacy packed in two coolers, a dog under the table, and people in traditional Indian garb waiting to see the doctor and you might have a pretty good picture of the scene. Oh... and biting ants. That was the part I didn't like. The rest of it was great.The sad part of the day, for me, was visiting an old, old man at his house. He was too old and sick to make it to the clinic, so Nathan and I went and visited him at his house to see if there was anything we could do for him. He's was so frail that medication probably would have done more harm than good, especially since most of his complaints were the irreversible effects of a long life of hard work. He was blind and mostly deaf, and hardly spoke any Spanish anyway. What broke my heart, though, was seeing the Catholic shrine in the corner and realizing that he probably didn't know the Savior. This man will be in eternity soon and, between physical inabilities and language barriers, there was no way I could communicate the Gospel to him. It was so sad... but at the same time it increased my desire to share the Gospel with those who CAN hear and CAN understand... before it's too late for them.- Elizabeth, for the medical team