One of our team members this month is a nurse! We are so grateful for the medical personnel who have joined our one week trips; their help is so valuable!
Today I went to the newest squat (formed this week after the Idomeni camp shut down). Shortly after entering, a woman saw the red cross on my bag and came to me for help with her wrist. She had broken it several weeks ago while in the camp, and a doctor had splinted it. When it started to feel better she took the splint off, but soon re-injured it.
While I was splinting it again, another man and woman approached me and showed through gestures that the woman had passed out the day before. They motioned for me and another team member to come with them to their room. There we found the most delightful family! After I checked the woman and attended to her need, her mother and father came to be checked for their health issues, and then her husband motioned for me to check a rash on their baby. By God’s grace, I had almost everything I needed with me, and the things I didn’t have were easy to find at a pharmacy close by.
My team member and I enjoyed laughing with the family over our dramatic gestures as we tried to communicate over the language barrier, and we traded off teaching each other words. One of the girls pulled out a piece of paper to transliterate the English words we taught her– and when we pulled out a piece of paper to do the same they all laughed and clapped their hands in delight, saying, “You. . . Arabic!”
After months of struggling in a world that cannot understand them, they were overjoyed that we would care to learn their language. Such little things done in love mean the world to rejected people. And it all started with a little red cross…
We have teams going throughout the Fall, and we can schedule more trips if you have a group! Please apply HERE!
