Health Education

Within the last month, I had the privilege of traveling again with HCM. My traveling companions included another nurse, a pharmacist, a clinical psychologist, and an optometrist. We had the privilege of doing health education sessions and providing optical exams and eyeglasses. We were able to teach on a wide variety of subjects, including HIV/AIDS, nutrition, hygiene, first aid, feminine health, prenatal/postnatal care, and mental health. For our sessions, we went to two large public schools and two universities. At the public schools, we primarily taught high school aged students, but we taught a few younger classes as well. At the first university we taught first and second year students who were training to be teachers. At the second university we taught first year medical students (who are the equivalent of college freshmen in America). However, the most fun sessions I taught were with teenage girls about feminine health subjects! They soaked the information up like sponges and I discovered that teenage girls everywhere want to know about how to get rid of acne! If I had a suitcase large enough to take them all home, I would have about 150 teenage girls living in our house right now! If my dad thinks he has it rough with three girls, just imagine what his life could be like . . . *wink*

The main purpose of the trip was to help strengthen the present ministries of those who serve there full time, as well as giving them a foundation to build upon through our outreach to the community. We were so grateful for the opportunity to serve them. Althought most of the time we could not openly share about Christ due to the sensitive nature of the country, the Lord gave us a number of divine appointments where we were able to minister in a more open and spiritual way to a couple women who were undergoing tremendous suffering due to the oppression of women in the community. I love how the sorrows of the most "unnoticed" suffering woman do not escape the eye of our Father!