The word had gotten out, and lines of people young and old stretched down the street each day three medical teams ministered in some of the very poorest neighborhoods of this steeply-hilled city.
BELO – The word had gotten out, and lines of people young and old stretched down the street each day three medical teams ministered in some of the very poorest neighborhoods of this steeply-hilled city.
Brazil has an “underfunded” national health care system, according to published reports. Most of the poorest people never see a doctor.
They didn’t this July, either. Unlike most years, no physician volunteered this year for the Brazil mission trip. Nurses and pharmacists – with Brazilian interpreters nearby – provided care for everything from a cook’s crushed finger to a middle-aged woman’s suspected breast cancer.
With each medical team, was another physical-care option. One site had an oral surgeon (Bo Worley of Emmanuel Shreveport); one a Lions Club-trained couple from Texas who distributed about 600 pair of glasses; and one a Brazilian woman who closed her shop for three days so she could cut hair for 87 people, with the help of a hair stylist from North Carolina.
Each of the churches took the opportunity of the medical teams’ presence to offer evening worship services led by an American pastor. Those pastors visited in homes during the day with the pastor or another church member.
Milton Wilson, pastor of First Lecompte, visited a man – husband of a church member – who worked as a final inspector of Fiat automobiles before they were exported. He didn’t see the point of religious faith, the inspector told Wilson.
Wilson used the man’s work responsibility to explain to him his need for faith in Jesus Christ.
“I used that one verse – Romans 6:23 – and he was able to see: Your goodness won’t get you into heaven; only faith in Jesus will,” Wilson said. “Jesus is a perfect gentleman; he won’t come in where he’s not invited. After he asked Jesus to live in his heart, I told him, ‘Now you pass God’s final inspection.’”