KATHMANDU, Nepal – It’s 7 a.m. and the temporary clinic is not yet open, but about 100 people wait in line longing for a cure.
A volunteer nurse irrigates the ear of a young boy complaining of ear pain.Some walked as long as four hours down the steep declines in hopes of gaining relief from their ailments. Mothers with babies bundled in baskets or nestled in slings on their backs endure the sun, and children wearing tattered school uniforms wait to see a doctor before going to class.
All are hoping to obtain medical treatment from the “American doctors” that they likely would not receive otherwise.
Ten volunteers walk up to the two-story building that is housing the medical clinic for the week. Upstairs, team members organize the pharmacy’s donated medications and hygiene bags. Downstairs, three American volunteer nurses, accompanied by Nepali nursing students who will assist and translate, begin to set up their examination rooms.
Using an illustrated poster that depicts the “Creation to Christ” story, Nepali Christians share the gospel with those waiting to see the “American doctors” at the traveling clinic.Two nurses work in one large room. The other works in a small room. It is a tight fit once supplies and patients are inside. The dimly lit rooms require the nurses to wear headlamps to help them see.
Walking sticks in hand, more people approach the line. It grows longer and snakes around the building and into the neighboring field.
Registration opens up, and one by one the Nepalis state their names, villages and symptoms. Their blood pressures and temperatures are recorded, and they then sit in the makeshift waiting room.
A member of Sweetwater Branch Baptist Church in Conway double-checks medication dosage as a Nepali nurse translates instructions for a clinic patient.An elderly man and his wife wait patiently for their turn. The man is wheezing, gasping for his every breath. Sitting on the bed that serves as the exam table, he motions to his chest at every painful, shallow breath.
Nurse Nira Reaback,* a volunteer from South Carolina, suspects chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
A breathing treatment helps ease the man’s respiratory trouble. Reaback then asks for members of the team to come pray for the man. They ask for the Lord to heal him and for his heart to be open to the gospel.
“I don’t think he is going to make it much longer,” Reaback says as tears roll down her face. “I hate this part.”
Sonam,* a Nepali pastor, squats next to the man, tells him his illness is serious and additional medical help is needed, and shares the gospel with him. The old man smiles as his breathing troubles are temporarily relieved, but where his eternity rests is still not settled.
In the field by the house, a crowd hovers over a poster a Nepali Christian holds. It portrays the “Creation to Christ” story and is used to help share the gospel. Other Nepali Christians scattered throughout the line make use of the EvangeCube, a seven-panel cube that tells the gospel of Christ in pictures.
By lunchtime, hundreds of patients have been treated – and hundreds have heard the gospel, many for the first time.
A volunteer nurse, a member of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Nichols, examines a young boy’s gums. Many Nepali children and adults suffer from dental pain, severe dental problems and plaque buildup. Volunteers gave every patient a hygiene kit that included a toothbrush and toothpaste.Shortly after eating lunch, four South Carolina volunteers hike to a school where a teachers’ meeting is taking place. Some 25 schools from surrounding villages are represented at the meeting. The volunteers spend a few hours with the teachers every day, sharing insights on curriculum planning and answering questions.
Invited to speak in the classrooms, volunteer Colette Fielden* shares her testimony and the gospel with the children in the room as well as those who are cramming their faces through the window bars so they can hear.
While half of the team is at the school, the rest continue to work in the clinic. The temperature rises, and the crowd continues to gather. To help maintain order while the people wait, volunteers make balloon animals for the children and demonstrate hand washing and proper tooth brushing to those in line.
Nepali believers pass out Bibles to people in line and share the gospel with them. Addressing those in line, Dorje* holds his Nepali-language Bible in one hand and gestures with the other as he passionately shares his testimony of turning from Buddhism to follow Jesus.
After seeing the last remaining patients and drawing the four-day clinic to a close, the volunteer team receives the final report on the week. They saw 1,111 patients at the clinic.
Sonam thanks the team for coming to help at the medical camp. “We appreciate your hard work. Twenty-five people made decisions,” he says. “There are (Christian) brothers devoted and committed who will follow up.”
*Names changed for security reasons. Fullerton is a Journeyman serving as a writer in South Asia.
Hundreds of people wait in line for the medical clinic. Volunteers gave every patient a hygiene kit that included basic items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and vitamins.