Friday the team traveled two hours to give a medical camp in Nadhaluru - town of about 50,000. As soon as the team emerged from the van they were met by a drumline who formed a parade to lead them to their camp site. Approximately 60 vaccines were given as well as many people treated by the physicians.
Thom had the following thoughts to share with us:
I open my eyes. Sleep struggles to clear as they crack, squinting. A warm breeze and bright sunlight push through a broken window to my side. I stumble from my rough cot and hard mattress to the second story balcony. I gaze out over used, dusty ground to see a young girl in a bright native dress carrying breakfast in a cylindrical metalic tower toward the Mission building. I am overcome with gratitude.
I open my eyes.
A jolt from the broken road we travel reminds me of where we are. Through the window of the close and rambling van I see a boy at work. A young boy, perhaps 7 or 8, wearing dark pants bunched to his knees and a red-clay covered shirt hauls and tugs. He struggles through the mired clay ground, half dried bricks made of the same piled high upon the cart he leads. A smile breaks his face as he looks to the man who stands a short space away making the bricks. They gesture at each other wildly for a moment, then laugh together before the boy resumes his trek across the clay field. I am bore down by wonder.
I open my eyes.
I sit upon a stage's edge, surrounded by villagers, old and young, finishing a hack-job magic trick that amazed the young and tickles the old. I pass a few small chocolates a I stand and walk, looking over the press of people. Hindu, Christian, and Muslim gather and laugh, shaking hands and clapping backs. My friends and companions upon the stage do the same. They laugh and smile. They comfort and congratulate. They hand out chocolates and vaccines with equal grins.
A sweet to remedy the sour. I see mothers bow and speak with gratitude. I see fathers shaking hands and holding their children with pride. I see elderly, their hands trembling, touch the face of one with hope, a thanks for the small medicines we have come to provide. I am overwhelmed.
I open my eyes.
Giant brown eyes toss me a giggly stare below perfect small pigtails.
She smiles and laughs behind her hand as joy dances along every feature of her tiny round face. A song of hallelujah raises loud through the doorless entryways of the bright white room. Children dressed in every hue sit and sing and laugh and smile. A swirling palatte of still unnamed colors as brilliant as God has ever designed washes across my sight. Shocked by the vision of such vibrance. Awed by the chorus they sing, I am filled by such love.
I open my eyes.
On 1-16-09, the Good Shepherd Mission, along with 6 doctors and the January 2009 mission team delivered 59 vaccinations and aided 542 patients in the village of Nadhaluru. We all thank the readers ofthis blog for their prayers and support.