It started in October 2008, when Dr. Kent Copeland and his family were special guests at Christ Community Church's Mission Conference. Kent ran the CTC emergency hospital in Poipet, Cambodia. His wife Chris was a nurse there (besides caring for and educating their 5 children). The CTC provided free health care and Christian love to the poor people of northwest Cambodia. They asked for prayers for direction for this medical mission. We prayed, and God has been working...
Fast forward to November 2010, and God has brought together a team of people from CCC who happen to have just the right skills to take a big step forward in the Copelands' medical ministry.
This is Greg, Rick, and Ronald in July 2010 in Bangkok. Ronald will not be helping with the medical mission.
Fortunately for Greg and Rick though, Greg's wife, Teresa will be accompanying them. Teresa had been to Cambodia on a short term mission trip in 2008, and is anxious to return. Here's a picture of her at the bottom, center of a human pyramid.
The final piece of this puzzle will be Dr. Peter Tebben, an endocrinologist at Mayo, who regularly diagnoses and treats patients with thyroid disease using radioactive iodine. He is planning to make the trip in early 2011, helping Dr. Kent with thyroid patients.
Now for some details...
Greg, Teresa, and Rick will leave Rochester on Thursday, November 18. They will arrive in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday night. In their luggage they will have replacement parts for some laboratory equipment, supplies for laboratory tests (that will be packed in ice because they have to be refrigerated), Bibles, some personal items the Copelands have requested, pictures of 80 families from CCC who have sponsored orphans in Mongkol Borey, lots of care packages for all the Poipet missionaries from the wonderful members of the congregation at CCC, and a can of cranberries. Their first mission is to get themselves and their luggage to Bangkok, where Kent and Chris Copeland will meet them (and they can get those medical supplies into a refrigerator before the ice melts). They will spend a few days in Bangkok catching up with the time zone, shopping for gifts for those of us who are holding down the fort back in Minnesota, and getting permission from the Thai government to take nuclear medical supplies across the border into Poipet. Fortunately Greg worked in Radiation Safety at Mayo, and can accompany Dr. Kent to reassure the Thai government that good care will be taken of the radioactive stuff.
Please pray with us for this trip.
We are so amazed and filled with joy that God has chosen to use us to minister to the people of this poor country. Their history is one of war, genocide, disease, and corruption. God is opening doors for Christians to show mercy and love to the Cambodian people.
cambodia 2010
Check back with the blog for updates, we hope to be updating it daily.
cambodia 2010
Gregg, Teresa, Rick, and Karen (holding down the fort).
cambodia 2010
cambodia 2010
At right is a photo taken in October 2010 on a street in Poipet. Many families lost their rice crop in this flood.
Nice Post. We'll be prayin' for ya.
ReplyDelete