Day 3

Today we went to a church near San Jose and we were greeted with only 4 patients. Another group today had 75 patients waiting for them when they got there! Although a little disappointing at first, I soon realized this was in fact a blessing because we were able to take better care of our patients and really help them with their oral health and their spiritual health. Many of the kids we saw had pretty bad decay and I was able to talk with the mom about the amount of juice and coca-cola that they drink. I also encouraged all the patients to brush and floss. I was able to triage many patients in the morning and some patients in the afternoon too.

I was able to have some great in-depth conversations today that were awesome. One was with a guy from Spain, just outside of Madrid and he was agnostic. I was able to talk with him about Jesus and share my testimony with him. I asked him what would happen to him if he were to die this afternoon. We ended the conversation well and I told him I was just trying to plant seeds and I just wanted him to think about the things that we talked about (in Spanish). We probably talked for 45 minutes and we wouldn't have been able to if we had been really busy. Later, I was able to talk with a guy who was 18 from Pensacola, FL. His grandfather was the pastor at the church where we were. He shared his story with me and I was able to share mine and encourage him and talk with him. For lunch we went to Pizza Hut, and it was not like those in the states. It was more like Chili's in the US because they had all kinds of food- not just pizza.

After lunch I helped interpret and translate Spanish for Earl at the Evangelism station. We talked with 2 groups of 6 people and were able to encourage them in their walk with Christ. After that, we had a lull and an 18 year old guy came with his friend. When we tried to triage him, he said he didn't need anything, just his friend did. I had some time so I sat down with him. I just asked him how he was doing, how school was, etc. and I found out he was a Christian and was having a difficult time right now. I encouraged him that since Christ has defeated death, and with that sin, and since he has given us his Spirit, we have the same power over sin - and we don't have to give in to temptation any longer. We have been freed from that. He was very encouraged and I could tell he was very receptive and was glad I was talking with him. I prayed with him and then took a look in his mouth. He had two very broken down teeth and I explained to him the importance of having them taken out and he told us he was in fact in pain. We would have just skipped over him if we had seen lots of patients today. So I was glad we were able to help him out.

Additionally, we were able to help out a woman and her daughter with special needs. She needed two teeth removed (one root tip and one lower molar) that were severely decayed and couldn't be restored. We went after the root tip first but it turned out to be difficult to extract. I was able to flap the gingiva and we removed some bone in order to get to the root. I was able to put two stitches in after we got it out of there. She had had enough and so we weren't able to remove the lower molar after all. She was a great patient though, and even started falling asleep at one point.
Finally, we had some time for worship tonight and had our small groups. After small group some of us got together and sang songs on the guitar and I used a cooler as a makeshift drum. We had a great time of fellowship and had a good time getting to know one another. Tomorrow is our free day and we are going to the beach and the rain forest to zipline.

Our prayers are with our small group leader who is having surgery tomorrow. Thanks for reading!