OM Ecuador planned its first medical mission trip to Saraguro, Ecuador and completed it this last week. There are four people missing from this photo to make a total of 29 people who were on our team. 10 people from the USA, 1 Colombian, 1 South African, 2 Dutchies, and 15 lovely Ecuadorians. We worked with a local church in Saraguro and many of them helped us during the clinic as well. Starting April 18th at 3:30pm our clinic officially began. We had two general doctors, an OB/GYN and a vision center. All the meds and glasses that we gave out (including the consulting) was absolutely free to the people that came. The clinic continued for the complete days of Monday-Thursday. We saw 766 people in the medical side of things and 830 eyes in the Vision clinic (ok, ok that would be 415 people..). Everyone worked insanely hard and put everything in their work. I would ask any one of them (and probably will!) to come back on another trip! So here is a thanks to EVERYONE!!!
Our team in Ecuador had been specifically praying for Saraguro for over two months now and specifically asking that God would open doors in Saraguro. This people group has a tiny percentage of Christians and is notorious for being very closed to the gospel. They are strongly catholic but with a mixed animistic beliefs. There is a lot of witchcraft that also goes on there. OM Ecuador has done past campaigns there but with little response from the people. So we knew what we were facing and that is why we all went down on our knees. God is greater than any any evil, He can break any chain and HE can even speak to hearts that have been cold and hard for centuries. That happened this week. Lives changed, people who were hardened and bitter became soft and full of hope. We did a 'normal' evangelistical message for each group of people that came though, asking for a response at the end. To the best of my knowledge there was not one response to these mass messages, not one. Instead people were responding one-on-one, praying with the workers in triage, or Enrique who was sitting in the Pharamacy, or Dr. Eddie who was a general doctor, or Dr. Ana the ob/gyn as she saw through to the pain that was deeper than flesh and blood. God who is so mighty choose to speak to each person through an individual and 205 of the Saraguro people responded to His message of hope!!! I am overwhelmed to share that with you, the HUGE response that we received for the countless prayers for this precious people. We asked God for 200 and He gave five more! I thought it was too much to ask but we asked anyways knowing that the God we serve is bigger than any evil and any plan of the evil one. A people who have been locked in darkness for hundreds of years, opened their hearts to hope, to peace and to real love.
Please join us in praying for these new believers and for the local churches as they will start follow-up this week. We have a responsibility to these people who we now call brothers and sisters and it is not one that we can take lightly. Praise God for His work, stand in awe of it. He is God
