Controlled chaos is the phrase for Wednesday. When we arrived at the church building there were already well over 100 people in line. As we found out from two of the earliest patients, they got in line at 4:30 AM to make sue they would be seen today. A lot of other people got in line early, so by 8:00 AM when we arrived...they were just a little bit fired up. We relied heavily on our security guards once they arrived, to explain to the crowd that if they didn't act orderly, we would not even hold the clinic. Needless to say, order was restored and our day began.
To make matters more difficult for us, we were going to close an hour earlier in order to pack up supplies etc. needed for Thursday. So, I originally only gave 220 passes for people to be seen. See, we were going to leave at 7:00 AM on Thursday and travel to a poor village called Corca, and conduct a medical mission clinic there for a few hours then travel back to Cusco. As Wednesday morning progressed, we found out that all of the bus, taxi and public transportation drivers would be going on strike Thursday morning at 6:00 AM until Friday morning. We now had no 'safe' ride to the village and we would have to cancel our plans. At this point, we issued more passes, satisfied a lot more of the crowd, and I am proud to say we saw a total of 275 patients, with 248 either studying the Bible or requesting Bible studies. That is an unbelievable 90%!
I did find out from some of the local people that this church is known throughout the city and community as, The Church that Helps People. What a great reputation to have been developed in just the short 4+ years these missionaries have been here.
Even though we are sad we cannot travel to the village of Corca on Thursday and help them, we will be open for a clinic at the church building. So it will be business as usual until 1:00 PM or so. What a Great day. Actually what a great week, it has been!
.....'til next time.
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