Here is an amazing story of God's timing, written by Hilario Pardo, Global Missions Pastor of Northshore Baptist Church, here in Bothell, Washington:
It is hard to know if writing will do justice to our experience. Photos help, but there is a great mountain of feelings that can hardly be expressed- at least with my limited literary gifting.
Northshore people responded to the January earthquake that devastated Haiti with an offering and a commitment to make sure that the money would be well-spent on the people of that country. To follow up on that commitment, a team of workers left in July under World Concern’s umbrella and direction.
Later that summer, Jeff and Terry Clark, members of our congregation, felt a calling from the Lord to be involved further in the country and to take a medical team to hold clinics for people still affected by the damage of the quake and in great need of medical attention.
I, as a Global Mission Pastor, signed up to go with them for two important reasons: one, to support the calling and efforts of these two emerging leaders and two, on a more personal level, to offer my help and expertise as a Registered Nurse to the people in Haiti.
Eleven people- seven from our congregation and the rest, friends and a contact from Medical Teams International, formed this team. We completed our short-term mission training, meetings, and devotionals and all embraced our philosophy of serving the world and being representatives of Christ.
One of the essential goals for every team that goes is to listen to the voice of God, remain flexible for changed direction, and to obey Him.
The evening before our departure, Thursday, October 21st, we received an email and phone call with breaking news from Haiti. A cholera outbreak was in full force in a town north of Port au Prince. It was the first cholera outbreak in the Western hemisphere in 100 years. Cholera is a bacterial disease that spreads via polluted waters and produces such violent vomiting and diarrhea that, if not treated with IV fluids, people die within hours. Reports from the internet talked about 190 people already dead by Thursday night; other reports were more graphic and tragic.
When the question, “Will you come help with the cholera outbreak?” was presented to the team, the teaching on flexibility and trust in God paid its dividends. Every single one on the team said, “Yes” to respond to the crisis; not without some trepidation or fear, but with trust that God would lead us to literally save some lives.
The trip to Haiti was a step of trusting in God. We had a lot of questions; we studied and talked about the reality of dealing with death and a very contagious disease, and we gave our lives and our knowledge to the One that can keep us safe.
Flexibility is one thing; what God allowed us to be part of and experience is another. More than being flexible, we were “stretched.” From our original plan of holding medical clinics in the city, our team was used by Medical Teams International Haiti as a first response team- we became a medical crisis team. The idea excited most of us and placed our emotions and our dependence on God to a level I never had experienced before.
We created a base camp near Saint Marc, the small city that was receiving all these dying patients from other parts of the country. The team was split to tackle two areas with very serious cases.
On Sunday, October 24, we committed ourselves to the Lord, embraced each other as we separated, and walked into the most devastating place I have ever seen.
Children, mothers, fathers, and teenagers all lay on the floors of the hospital rooms; some of the rooms were never even used for patients before. IV fluids were hanging by nails on the wall, in open windows, and on door frames. A mother with a dying child laying on a piece of cardboard on the floor, since no beds were available, held my leg to get my attention- her eyes telling us, “help my baby.” There was nothing we could do but change the empty IV fluids.
On the faces of our team members was despair and disbelief. I encouraged our team and said, “Do the best you can” not even believing what I was saying. The “best we could do” was not enough to save so many lives.
And we did the best we could- and even in doing that, felt totally worthless. Lots of IVs, prayers, and smiles were given to people whose faces reflected the fear of a disease unknown to them.
I have to confess that the hardest part for me was caring for the young men. They looked strong and full of youth, muscles well-formed and skin, black and shining. Each time I saw one of them, it reminded me my own son, Roberto. Lying on the floor or on the stretchers there, in a few hours, their bodies would start to deteriorate. The panic in their faces will haunt me for long time . . . and the look of despair on the faces of mothers and fathers just like me, not understanding what was happening to their child.
Oh, God really stretched us and took us to places we did not want to go. In His wisdom we trust.
A mix of emotions that ranged from feeling useful and privileged to be there to wondering, “Are we doing anything for these people?” went through our minds each day. In the end, the phrase that consoled our hearts was, “for such a day as this the Lord has brought us here.”
I am proud of our team- simple people that embraced terror and danger, not without fear, but with trust in God’s direction and compassion. I am so proud we were able to saves lives- to pray with fervor for a child as we transported him in our arms and risked our safety to save his life. I am so proud of each of the team members that did much more than what he or she was trained and called to do.
I am so proud to be their pastor, friend, and their colleague in this situation.
Today, we are going back to Seattle. As I was boarding the airplane, I overheard a conversation of someone in the line asking one of our team members, “So you were in Haiti on vacation?” “No,” Terry said, “we were part of a medical team, helping people with cholera.” The man responded, “Cholera? What is that?” After her explanation, the man jokingly said, “Yes, I was rehydrating people as well- after they had lots to drink on our yacht!!”
And I lost it…I started to cry without consolation. I think I will cry for a long time, not only for the people in Haiti, but for me and the people around us- for our inability to feel, to understand, and to respond to what is going on around us. Oh God, touch our hearts, Oh Lord have mercy on us.
Hilario Pardo
Global Missions Pastor
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