The masses

The eye clinics are now well underway, and we have already scheduled 700 patients for surgery.We keep hearing the the numbers will decrease after a little while, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet. We still seem to have between 400 and 600 people turn up every day, and we are able to see only about 175, so we have had many that have had to go home unahppy. I have learned much through the process of beginning to deal with such crowds with such great needs. I have learned that many people just want to be seen, and heard, to be completely content. They don't need a surgery to go away happy. I have learned that the more violence and anger you put into a crowd, the more you get back out of it. I have learned of the destruction that Satan has in mind, in that we have been so frustrated with the unruly, violent crowds, that we have often wanted to just go home and say "forget it, that will teach them", but when I really stop and look at it, we came to serve and want to see the people, and they want to be seen, but somehow in all the desperation, things have become heated, and everyone has been more frustrated. So, now, after several weeks, we are slowly learning, and praying, and beginning to deal with the crowds in a way that honors them, and finds those that are most in need of help. I am so grateful. I wonder how Jesus managed the desperate thousands why followed him relentlessly, and was always so compassionate.
At the end of each day, we return to the ship, to see a handful of patients still on the ship, with their eye patches covering their surgical eyes. Some of them remember us and welcome us with a big grin and a hearty thank-you, while others are also too blind in their other eye to know anything that's going on around them. It is always a good reminder, seeing them, as to why we have gone out and done all this work again, and why we will do it again tomorrow.