Clean Water

Our mobile clinics go to some of the most remote places on the planet and serve the poorest people in these secluded mountain regions and isolated islands. I have personally been on several of their mobile clinics and I am amazed at, and blessed by, the devotion of these mobile team members. Sometimes the teams are greeted with dancers and music and there is usually food served to the team members. These teams stay in the villages for as long as three months or just for the day. The lines of patients can be long as they wait to be seen by the medical staff.

These villages do not always have clean water available. I recently met an amazing man, Jon, who is an inventor and specializes in clean water systems. Jon donated one of his smallest units—only 21 pounds—which are very portable but very efficient. You can literally pump out of any river and have drinkable water. The fact we can have good water at any place makes our medical care that much better. This clean water hand pump system is just what we need to improve our treatment. If it saves a life or reduces suffering it will be worth every mile it travels to these remote places.

Staying In Touch

When I was a child we used to take two opened tin cans, punch a hole in the bottom of the cans and put a string in the holes. We would stretch the string out until it was tight then we would talk into one can and the other end was placed on the ear. This was a lot of fun as we would play for hours with our home-made phones. It hardly seemed possible that within my lifetime we would be able to not only talk to people anywhere in the world but now we can even see them as we are talking. Staying in touch has reached new heights. I am sure all of you know what skyping means. I am still astonished at the technology that is available to the average person at a reasonable cost.

The importance of staying connected with our work in Indonesia is a high priority. We are in a remote area of the planet but in a few moments and a couple clicks I can be talking live with one of our staff. It is also a challenge keeping every system operating. The next step for us is to get a “tele-medicine” system operating. This will require a very fast internet connection. Once this system is up we will be able to get the advice of medical professionals from all over the world. They will be able to see the patient live and consult our medical staff as far as the best care for the patients. It is amazing that we can go from cans and string to satellites and C-bands.