Short-Term Volunteers Have Long-Term Impact

Can short-term missions work? Jonathan Flesher firmly believes that the answer to that question is “yes,” after his experiences volunteering with Hospitals of Hope this past summer.

Jonathan was one of over 60 volunteers who passed through the Hospitals of Hope guest house between April and August of this year, working at the hospital and in the community to meet people’s physical and spiritual needs. Many of these volunteers were students or full-fledged medical or dental professionals, but many others had no medical training and served in other ways.

Jonathan felt that the most tangible difference he and his team were able to make was at the Casa de Alegría—the House of Happiness—a home for girls who have been victims of abuse. Over the course of three weeks, these volunteers set out to bless these young women. The volunteers with medical and dental training did checkups on the girls, cleaned their teeth, and performed any necessary extractions. The men in the group replaced broken windows and used pick axes and hoes to break up the hard ground of the orphanage’s garden. The women spent time building relationships with the girls, taking them to church and to lunch, and giving them makeovers. Over the course of the three weeks, the volunteers witnessed a visible change in countenance in the girls, from quiet and withdrawn to joyful and engaged.

Another aspect of his ministry in Bolivia that Jonathan felt was particularly meaningful was outreaches to street children. Again, Hospitals of Hope volunteers provided basic health and dental care for these kids, along with health and hygiene education. While other volunteers worked on meeting these physical needs, Jonathan and Andy Hilton, another Hospitals of Hope volunteer, set up a prayer station where they talked and prayed with these young men and women. While drug abuse is widespread on the street and interfered with some aspects of the volunteer’s ministry, Jonathan and Andy were amazed to see that the drug use stopped while they prayed. This was the only time during their ministry that the kids were not sniffing glue. As Andy wrote, “This was the only time I remember the kids being still and calm, during prayer. It was an amazing and humbling sight to see as some of the kids actually knelt before God, as their Father, asking us to pray for their original families that they left behind to live on the streets.”

One of the things that impressed Jonathan the most during his time in Bolivia was the way Hospitals of Hope partners with other organizations and individual missionaries. These partnerships, he believes, provide an opportunity for God to really work through the Christian community there. We are just one group, but our partnerships allow us to minister to the girls at the Casa de Alegría and to the street children and ensure that this ministry will not end when our short-term volunteers leave.

When many of our volunteers come back, they tell us that their time in Bolivia has changed them, that God has used it to transform their life and their perspective. Jonathan’s experience was no different. In fact, he believes that God used his time with Hospitals of Hope to call him to long-term missions, perhaps in Bolivia.

Can short-term missions work? Jonathan believes that his experience is proof that it can, “if you’re willing to put your heart into a situation.”

Dental Outreaches in Bolivia

This summer, Hospitals of Hope volunteers did a number of dental outreaches in the communities around the hospital. Here's a report from one of the volunteers:

As I was getting ready for dental clinic this morning, Iris told me that we might not be able to have the outreach as our trufi driver (Manuel) was not able to get to us due to the road blockade. [Road blockades are common in Bolivia.] Then half an hour later, we got word that we had patients waiting for us already in Comunidad Oachaca Grande. Monica, a local missionary, volunteered to come to pick us up in groups so we could still have the dental clinic, as patients were already waiting for us to show up. That is exactly what God had in mind as He knew we needed all the volunteers to do the dental clinic. We had planned to have a small dental team go to Comunidad Oachaca Grande, with the rest going to an orphanage to minister through hair cutting and seed planting. The hair cutting and seed planting will have to wait until God opens that door.

We arrived at about 11 am after driving through fields and nowhere. The place where we set up clinic is an actual medical/dental room with a manual dental chair. We set up another 5 stations for the volunteers to do cleanings and fluoride treatment in that small room. When the second team showed up later, they set up clinic in an unfinished room. So we had about 15 chairs going at one time. We did mainly cleaning and fluoride (as all team members are experts at that by now), and extractions when the patients request or agree to the extractions. Almost 90% of the patients we see needed extractions, but most do not want the extractions as their teeth do not hurt them anymore, but the infection is still there.

During lunch time, Jonathan shared the gospel with the patients. Tomas, our house dad, was there to interpret (again God's plan) because he could not go to work due to the road blockade. It is amazing to see how the day unfolds as we commit our days to our Lord. Since this was a last minute change of plan, we were not prepared to pack lunch, so all we had to bring was bread to make PBJ. Again God had better plans, and while we worked in the dental clinic, Monica cooked a delicious Bolivian meal for us. We saw probably about 70 - 80 patients today. We ended our day @ 6.30 pm and Monica drove us back to the guest house. We experienced the perimeter of the road blockade, but were able to turn around and get back to the hospital - Praise God!

After dinner, we had a campfire and everyone shared their experiences, and it was good to hear how each one has grown in the Lord, or learned something about themselves and about living together as a family in such a short time. God's love really binds everyone together.

HOH Team Brings Hope in Liberia

Imagine never having been to the dentist. I, for one, think it sounds great-- or, at least, it would until I needed to have a tooth pulled.

Even worse, imagine having to go to the emergency room, wait in line for hours, and then find that the hospital didn’t have the equipment necessary to treat your illness.

This, unfortunately, is the situation facing many in Liberia, West Africa.

Hospitals of Hope sent a team to Liberia last summer, and now, after much prayer, hard work, and a few unexpected challenges, a Hospitals of Hope team has returned. The team, made up of volunteers from the US and Britain, is treating medical and dental patients—an incredibly important task in this country with only 1 doctor per 28,000 residents and even fewer dentists. Many of those they see will probably never have visited a dentist before, and any doctors’ visits will have been few and far between.

The team is also planning to supervise the installation of the equipment in the container that we shipped to Liberia in May, which is due to be delivered at the hospital either today or tomorrow. This equipment, containing everything from patient monitors to hospital beds, will greatly improve patient care in the ER at John F. Kennedy Medical Center, the referral center for the entire country.

The team has very limited internet access, due to their busy schedule and the unpredictability of the power supply in Liberia, but I will post further news from the trip when it is available. In the meantime, please keep praying with us for the team members and their work in Liberia.

Ways to pray for the Liberia trip:

- that God will use the medical and dental team to meet many needs—both physical and spiritual
- for the quick, safe, and successful unloading and installation of equipment in the hospital
- for encouragement, health, & safety for the team members
- for the continued stabilization and re-development of the country in the wake of its civil war