So I have lots to catch up on, like a major wedding for example! Yeah, nothing big or anything.

Lance and I were married October 12th, 2013 in Auburn, Washington at 4 in the afternoon. It was a glorious wedding!

What else should I say? It was glorious.

What we looked like the day before.

Lance and I are pretty laid back people so wanted our wedding to feel as calm and relaxed as we can be. We wanted people to sit at tables, we wanted there to be opportunities to chat with those at the tables; we wanted people to enjoy their time together with us. It was to be a party, a big fun ole party.

Two friends

The display

Steppin out

We incorporated little bits of our personalities and what was important to us. We love the outdoors, wood and things that are natural. Lance loves to work with wood, so we had lots of wood and nature in our décor. I love lots of bright colors, so we had bright fun colors everywhere we could add them. We both love games and breakfast, so we had games and breakfast food. We didn’t want to get bogged down in tradition but to simply have what was us in the wedding.

Just the girls

Just the guys

Just taking a walk

We also wanted to incorporate a few other things from Ukraine. In Ukraine, the parents give a blessing to their children before they are given away so we did our version of that. A parent’s blessing is a beautiful and powerful thing and we believe our families play an important role in our lives. This was a time to honor them and make room for them to speak into our lives; both Lance and I were blessed by our parents. Another tradition is to throw candy to your guests as you leave the church, so we did just that. Instead of everyone pelting us with rice, bubbles, or confetti, we bombarded everyone with candy. We thought it was fun.

Father & daughter

Blessing

Blessing

God’s Word is a gift

His vows

Her vows

The Kiss

Mr. & Mrs. Roberts

We loved hearing each toast, we loved giving an understanding of missions to people, and we loved being blessed by friends and family.

Roberts side

Murray side

I don’t know what everyone else thinks of their honeymoon but I’m quite sure Lance and I had the best one ever!  Seriously.

Our first few days were spent in Gig Harbor, very peaceful and quiet, we hardly saw anyone.

Our next 5 days were spent in Port Townsend at one of my neighbor’s cabins. It was right on the water in a quiet neighborhood. It was here that Lance and I discovered how much fun it is to cook together. We loved it. In Port Townsend, we saw a play called “The 6 Rules of Marriage.” How funny that such a play was there while we were in town! We met a great couple that had been married for 50 years, and they gave us their advice for long marriage. We also visited some sites in the area.

After Port Townsend we made our way around the peninsula. We spent a night in Neah Bay where the motel owner’s son was a missionary in Ukraine! Crazy connection! We continued around for a night at a bed and breakfast in Forks. Little did we know that this place was a hotspot for Twilight fans. They served a scrumptious breakfast of stuffed French toast, did I say it was yummy?

Then we drove down to Seabrook near Ocean Shores. Here we had our own little cabin with a kitchen near the beach. We played shuffleboard (I won), horseshoes (Lance dominated) and soaked in a hot tub near the woods. At one point some raccoons popped out from the porch and looked as though they wanted join us in the tub, but luckily the noticed Lance’s massive muscles and thought better of it.

After Seabrook we made a quick stop in Auburn to try and take care of some business i.e. opening gifts, starting to attack the mountain of thank you cards to write and starting to change my name.

Then it was off to Newport, Oregon where Lance’s family has a cabin right on the beach with a gorgeous view of a lighthouse. There was a wood fireplace and our room looked out over the ocean so could we fall asleep to the sound of the waves crashing. It really was bliss. In Newport, we had fun going around to the different beaches and exploring, visiting Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and filling up on fresh seafood. We loved every minute of it!

When our week in Newport was finished, we headed to Culver, Oregon for our stay with Lance’s family. Now we are planted here for the month of November catching up on people’s lives and sharing our own.

In the previous post I explained what went on at the clinics and how they were set up. One station that I did not mention was the photo station. My job at the clinics was to capture the people in a photo. It is a privilege for me to know that I was able to see every person who came through the clinics, maybe I didn’t see them in person or talk to them but I saw their picture.

Majority of the people we saw had never owned a photo of themselves. This is rather mind boggling coming from a culture full of photos and pictures we often just throw away!

Seeing the people

While people were waiting to be seen, we would take their picture and then print it using a mobile printer. We put it in a plastic sleeve and gave it to them when they were finished. So many people broke out into a huge smile or even cried. I received a few kisses from old babushkas. I discovered later that many of the people have no record of their existence. There are no birth certificates, no shot records, nothing. So when someone dies it is often as if they disappear. Families have nothing to remember them by. The missionaries we worked with explained that they have been asked more than once to take a picture of a loved one in a coffin.

Writing Isus te iubește (Jesus loves you) on the back.

So taking photos of the people who came through was not just a fun hobby or a job to keep someone busy, it was a true ministry and blessing to the people. I was blessed to see on a house call, photos from the year before on the wall in the home of a dying man. The family treasured those small pictures.

The people varied from single moms to single dads. There were the young teenagers to 80 year old men with great health. We saw 20 year old moms with 10 year old kids, we saw grandmas taking care of multiple children, we saw singles, widows, couples, and families. Everyone was different in their own way.

I wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the people we saw. I don’t know all their names or their stories, but I love their faces. The people are beautiful and God loves them all.

How in the world do you set up a mobile medical clinic, you might ask. That’s a great question.

We had 8 days of clinics in 6 different villages, there were two villages that we came twice to.

There was one doctor, one nurse acting as a doctor, one pharmacist, three medical students scripting or working in the pharmacy. There was one other American nurse working at triage, one Romanian nurse doing triage and helping translate, 2 translators, one CNA acting as an optometrist, and there were about 8 people that were not medically inclined that were either a) acting as a medical person or b) helping in the logistics and admin of the clinic. There were also other translators that changed each day and people who acted as crowd control, trust me that was an important job!

The Medical Team

It takes a lot of people to help run a successful clinic!

The clinic requires bags and bags and bags of drugs. Lots of drugs, we have a miniature pharmacy station at every clinic. We had lots of supplies that were needed or were there for “just in case” since you just never know what you might see in the villages.

At the start of the clinic, someone goes around the village to announce that the medical team is coming and that they should bring their whole family to such and such place. We pull up in our two vans and a trailer and quickly set up.

A half full trailer

Every location is different, sometimes it was just one giant hall and people rotated around the room to the different stations. Sometimes there were different rooms that they had to float between, it just depends on the place.

They got a pulse!

Checking blood pressure

Waiting to be seen

The different stations start with a waiting area. Every member of a family gets a number. Next is triage. This is where they take blood pressure, pulse, name, age, and write down the major complaints. Then they wait some more for the doctor stations. They take the little slip of paper they got at triage to the doctor, he reads it, asks some more questions, maybe the doctor asks to have an EKG done on their mobile EKG machine. (There’s a separate station for that.) The doctors generally always look into their ears, listen to their hearts and breathing, check throats, maybe freeze a wart and then prescribe some medicine.

The doctor stations

Say “Ahhh”

The major complaints were headaches and back pain. Many of the people we saw were very, very poor. Many of them were gypsies whom are never treated well in the hospitals. There were more than one instance of someone having had a heart attack a week ago and was sent home from the hospital with only a few pills. Nothing else. Most gypsies are afraid of the hospitals because of how they are treated there and therefore have many health problems.

Waiting again

There is also the optometry station. Triage may prescribe them to go and get some glasses. Lots of people needed reading glasses. We had a bunch of glasses donated and so simply needed to find the right fit for each person. I was amazed at how many people desperately needed glasses but did not have them. Quite a few people cried when they could read for the first time.

Reading numbers

Waiting some more

After seeing the doctor, the next station is the pharmacy. Everybody gets vitamins, many people receive Tylenol or something similar, there are many people who received high blood pressure medicine, lots of people had worms and so got medicine for that. We had many instances of scabies and ears that needed to be cleaned out. We actually cleaned out a piece of wood from someones ear and saw a dead fly in someone’s ear. (They didn’t believe us when we said that and didn’t want their ears cleaned.) There were several ulcers that needed to be dressed and other various wounds that needed cleaning. Sometimes we gave out canes to the those that needed it.

All ready to deal drugs!

At the pharmacy

Cleanin those ears out!

The goody bags

We did a few house calls to some that could not come. Once to a man who was dying of cancer and once to a lady with diabetes and was not able to walk very well.

The last official station was a prayer station. There was almost always someone who stopped people on their way out the door to pray for them. There were several people who gave their life to Christ and wanted to know more about God. This is a very important station.