I. What happened
A. Medical
Members of the Crossroads Community Church Medical Mission team began 2007 by flying to Ecuador for a Medical Mission in the Pacific coastal city of Esmeraldas with E3 Partners. The team departed from Newark on January 2, and returned on January 10.
Dr. Daniel Woo, an Anesthesiologist at Overlook Hospital in Summit, was the Medical Team leader. Dan grew up in Hillsborough (where his parents still live), went from Hillsborough High to Princeton, then to medical school, and now lives with his wife and children in Basking Ridge.
Establishing a medical clinic and a vision testing center in very rustic conditions, Dr. Woo and his team treated over six hundred and sixty patients with various illnesses, and the vision center was able to test and provide glasses for over five hundred and forty people with vision problems. Dr. Hubert Ling, of Bridgewater, said: “What impressed me on this trip was the high percentage of people who had serious medical problems which had not been treated, and that the people were so thankful that we wanted to help.”
Photo above: Team
Photos below:
- Pastor Skeele & Linda preparing medications
- Dan and our pharmacist, Tae Park in the pharmacy
Otto Gonzalez, of Neshanic Station, and Linda Stewart of Hillsborough directed the vision center.
Poor hygiene and lack of clean, running water were the causes of most diseases the team treated. Using antibiotics, pain killers, and vitamins, the team cared for people afflicted with malnutrition, parasites, fungal skin infections, upper respiratory infections, and various intestinal and urinary tract infections.
Photos below:
- At the medical clinic, Dan, Hubert and Ava.
- At the eye clinic, Linda, Otto and happy eyes
Esmeraldas was the site chosen for this trip because there is a large, rural population with minimal or no access to medical care. Through congregational donations and strategic purchases, the Crossroads team was able to take thousands of dollars of drugs and several hundred pairs of glasses. Even after treating so many, the team was able to leave some supplies behind in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito for the next trip.
“It was a blessing to be able to provide the medical care we often take for granted to so many people who otherwise would not get it,” said Dr. Woo.
B. Spiritual
Photos below:
Harry and evangelism group
Ava and children
Although medical efforts took center stage on this trip, there was also a spiritual purpose. Crossroads worked with two established churches in Esmeraldas: Iglesias Cuadrangular and Asambleas de Dios. These churches both wanted to plant a new congregation in a rural area. To assist with this, the Crossroads team established a clinic for several consecutive days in each neighborhood where the new church was going to be. When people turned out for medical help by the hundred, not only were they treated physically, they were invited to be part of a spiritual family in their neighborhood: the new church.
Pastor Harry Skeele of Crossroads, working with the pastor of the Iglesias Cuadrangular of Esmeraldas, directed one church planting team. They visited dozens of homes in the area where the clinic was to come, talking about the gospel of Jesus and inviting people to come to the free clinic if they wanted. In the evenings, the church planting teams worked with Ecuadorian Christians to lead worship and Bible Studies. After all the teams had done their work, five hundred people had prayed to respond to Jesus Christ and expressed interest in learning more about the new churches.
One day, Dr. Woo was treating an elderly man for severe headaches; a man who reeked of alcohol. “Do you drink?” Woo asked. “Oh yes!” the man replied, “I drink all the time!” “Well, it would certainly help you with your headaches if you would stop,” said Woo. “Oh, I’ve tried many times, but I can’t stop,” the man replied. Breathing a prayer, Dr. Woo said, “We all have problems in our lives that are beyond our ability to solve. But Jesus Christ can give you the power you don’t have on your own.” With wonder, the man asked for more information. The next day, with a smile from one ear to the other, the old man returned with three of his friends to talk more with Dr. Woo about his God.
The diversity of the Crossroads team was a little like the fictional Starship Enterprise—they had one collegian, one person approaching retirement, and all ages in between, not to mention different genders and ethnic groups.
Different personalities working in extremely primitive conditions, serving a large number of people who spoke a different language, where hygiene standards are wild by New Jersey standards, in the midst of a hot, equatorial rainy season—all these factors generated significant stress.
But these pressures also brought the team together. “We had to depend on God more,” said Otto Gonzalez. Linda Stewart led the team in a morning prayer time near the end of the trip. In a voice trembling with fatigue and joy, she said, saying: “Before coming to Ecuador my spiritual life was wavering, my view of God had shrunk to merely black and white. But after coming here with all of you, and participating in this amazing work, sharing in His love, my God has become alive in a million colors!” The team worked hard, prayed continually, laughed often, and cried some too.
They were thrilled to return to return to the US, and the pharmacist, Tae Park of New Haven, Connecticut, even kissed the floor of the Miami airport when they landed. But one person had said in Esmeraldas, “If God can’t be as real and as exciting to me in the US as he is in Ecuador, I don’t want to go back!”
II. What’s next?
The team came home exhausted, but with a deep sense of joy and fulfillment. On the last day in Esmeraldas, Otto Gonzalez said: “If Crossroads has ten medical missions in 2007, I will go on every one of them!” During several hours of homebound layover in Miami on January 10, the team began talking and planning about their next trip, currently scheduled for January 11-19, 2008
Dr. Ava Stanley, of Somerset and a medical researcher at Rutgers, spoke about the need for preventive health education in Esmeraldas. “We can treat parasites and infections here, but in the hygienic conditions of the barrios, it’s only a matter of time before those illnesses recur.”
There is certainly more to do, but the team had made a start. People were healed physically, many were drawn to God, and two churches are starting up to conserve these gains. Without the hard work of the Crossroads team and the financial and prayer support of those in the congregation at home, this would simply not have happened.
Photo below:
Last worship service.
In a presentation at Crossroads two weeks ago, Dr. Woo encouraged the congregation to continue to live out their faith, that their support of the Ecuador mission was not in vain, using the words of the Apostle John: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (I John 3:17,18) It really is more blessed to give than to receive, as Jesus said. By giving, even when our resources are modest, we can bring joy to others and experience deep satisfaction ourselves. Talk about a Happy New Year . . . the Crossroads Medical Mission really had one!