One Starfish at a Time

I was blessed over the past week to be a (small) part of a medical mission opthamology team to provide eye surgery to some of the most most poverty stricken people I have ever encountered. I have been in about ten countries in my life, and the living standards of the indigenous peoples we were ministering to are among the worst I've seen anywhere. It was a moving time. To the left, you'll see a picture of three team members giving pre-operative medications to one of the people who came to the campaign. There were over one hundred surgeries completed. Mostly these were cataract surgeries, but there were also some other procedures done to correct strabissmus (cross eye) in some children. Our fellow volunteers included 4 American opthamologists and one Mexican opthamologist. Some of the patients live two hours away in small villages in the mountains of Southern Mexico. They started arriving Thursday evening, the day before surgeries were scheduled. Unfortunately bad weather in Houston delayed all of the physicians from getting there until late Friday, so we got off to a very late start. The patients slept on the ground outside the clinic waiting for the next day to start, some would wait for two days to get their surgeries. While they were waiting, Mexican evangelists would come and preach the gospel. We know of about 20 who were saved.
The Lord had me read Matthew 25:40: And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' I cried as I read that scripture portion. The Lord seemed to be telling me that as I ministered to these poverty sticken people, it was the same as ministering to Him.
We also traveled to visit an orphanage. It was a blessing to see how well the children were cared for in this particular orphanage, especially after hearing some of the stories of how they had been severely abused and abandoned.

The needs in Mexico seem overwhelming to me. Flying over Mexico City reminded me that there are millions of unreached and unsaved in that and other major cities of the world. There are many many orphans and abused children, many many elderly without any rudimentary health care. I was remined of the story of a man walking along the shore tossing starfish back into the ocean that had washed up on the tide. As you've heard, he was approached by a skeptic who chided him that the task was just too great and he couldn't make any difference, to which the man replied, "It made a difference to THAT starfish." We can only do what we are called and can do. I have a few skills and occasionally the means to go to Mexico to help these "Starfish".