Making new friends, reacquainting with friends made last year, and serving God by serving others. Those are what comes to mind when I think of my mission trip to Ukraine. We held 5 days of clinics and saw 558 people. The number of people is less than my previous trips this year but the number does not tell the story. The medical clinics in the Roma camps are not like other clinics. The entire family comes and is seen by one provider. If I remember correctly, the largest family for the week was 11 people. And they do not just discuss what their ailment is. A complete history is told, not just health history but life history. What a privilege for the providers to get to sit and listen, showing interest and caring for each individual.
Being in pharmacy, I do not have direct contact with the people but I obtain an overall perspective of the different ailments encountered. We averaged about 4 medications per person. Some only received vitamins and worm medicine while others received 6 or 7 medications, ranging from antacids for stomach pain, antibiotics for infections, and medications for high blood pressure. I had the opportunity to calculate dosing for children for pain medicine as well as antibiotics. That is something that the pharmacist generally does in the states but the pharmacist on our trip allowed me to do it.
I do not have a good understanding of the culture of the Roma. Each trip I have learned a little bit more. This trip, my room mate, who is one of the providers, was sharing about a lady she saw that had given birth to a stillborn baby two weeks ago. The umbilical chord had become wrapped around the baby’s neck. My friend explained that in Roma culture, it is considered the woman’s fault. Initially, I thought she meant any problems in childbirth but she said no, anything is considered the woman’s fault. The doctor and husband were both blaming the mother for the death.
This trip, I had to battle some spiritual warfare. I would like to claim I soundly defeated the enemy but that was not the case. Often we tend to pray a prayer for protection and believe our mission trip is going to be all sunshine and roses. In reality, we are waging war. And warfare can be ugly. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:11-12 to put on the full armor of God so that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. And that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. When we are building God’s kingdom, we are tearing down satan’s kingdom. He can not steal us from God because we are sealed by the spirit. But he can make us ineffective. And he knew just where to hit me – my insecurities. For the most part, I recognized what it was and made some attempts to overcome it. But I should have proclaimed the name of Jesus over the attack and been more resoundingly victorious. Hopefully lesson learned and I will be better prepared next time.
Thank you to my friend Diána, for “the rest of the story” on the Roma lady I mentioned above. I am grateful to her for expounding on this encounter our team had with this lady. Her comments are below:
Dear Susanne, I interpreted for Kathy when we met the mourning woman you mentioned in this post. I feel obliged to add that while sadly it was true that her husband and the doctor were blaming her for her miscarriage, saying she shouldn’t have lifted heavy objects while pregnant, her mom, siblings, and most of the Roma community would keep assuring her about how it wasn’t her fault, and told her that this could have happened to anyone, lifting or not. Kathy did a grand job supporting and praying for her too! 🙂
I just felt it was important to share that most of the people and family did not put the blame on her! 🙂 ❤
Rainbows and Otter Pelt 