The Beauty: View of Mt. Illiampu from Caypayqui

The Saddness: Community Leader pleading for a Health Clinic

The Timusi District  had pleaded with the General Assembly for the IEMB to open a new clinic in Caypayqui, and Dr. David Mamani, Head of Medical Services for the IEMB, Ruben Teran, his boss and head of Services, and I were there to see for ourselves if there really was a need or not. What we saw and heard surprised and shocked even this veteran team.

Leaders from the Methodist Church, community leaders of Caypayqui, and from eight surrounding villages, with a total population of over 1,000 people, were waiting for us. They then began, one after another, to give these heart-felt pleas asking the IEMB to start a Health Clinic there in Caypayqui. The nearest health clinic is 3-4 hours by foot.

As I began to ask about specifics, the sadness was almost palatable. One brother said, “If you are old, and you get sick, you die.” Another brother spoke on behalf of the children: “We can sometimes carry our children to the clinic, but often times they too die along the way”.

The women, as is typical, sat as a group off to the other side of the town center and listened. So I went over to them and asked them some questions. At first, a few men tried to answer for them, but I simply raised my hand in a universal ‘stop sign’; and asked the women to share. The women seemed a little shocked that a male gringo wanted to hear from them.

“Is this health clinic really needed?” “Oh, yes, pastor. Very much so.”

“Why?” “For the children. When they get sick we don’t know what to do. There is no one to help us and no one to tell us what to do to make them well.”

“What about the water, is it good?” “Oh yes. It is clean. You can see that it is. But if we drink a lot of it we get diarrhea ( ).” (I saw a little girl aged 3 or so with bad diarrhea.)

“What about vaccines for the children?” “No pastor.”

“But what about the free government vaccines? Surely you receive them.” “Who can bring them to us? The clinics say they only have enough for the villages close to their clinic.”

Then I asked an important, but some what culturally insensitive question: “What about childbirth? Who helps you with delivering your babies?” There was some embarrassment, and the younger women giggled and were silent. But then an older matriarch said, slowly, and with a deep sadness, “No one, pastor. We give birth alone, with no one in attendance.” “Not even a mid-wife?” “No completely alone.”

And then, and then she said, “Pastor, we had two women die in childbirth this year. Both babies survived. . . . . . . . ”

That did it. Ruben Teran was great. He explained how the ministry of the Methodist Health Clinics was an extension of Christ’s healing ministries; that it was because the Methodist church believes in healing and ministering to the whole person: Spirit and Body.

Ruben said that for the Methodist Church to build a clinic in Caypayqui, the community would have to donate some land and give the church the title to it. They quickly agreed. (We later selected two possible sites and told the community they should decide which would be best.)

I then told them that neither I nor the IEMB had $25,000 – $30,000 to build a new clinic. That we would have to raise the money and it would probably take 3-4 years and the involvement of several teams to get this done. They then pleaded if we could possibly start the clinic right now.

They showed us two small rooms, owned by the community, that we could have immediately. One for a clinic and the other for a nurses to live in. The rooms (15’x10’ & 15’x20’) have dirt floors, cracking old stucco, no windows, and inappropriate ceiling. The existing outhouse was totally unacceptable.

“Please could you send us a nurse?”

We said, “It is possible, but you must first build a new latrine for the nurse. You must put in cement floors for the two rooms, stucco to the one room, cover the ceiling, cut a hole for a window in each room, get new doors, and put in dividing walls in the “clinic” room. We estimate the cost of materials at about $500, and you will have to do the labor.”

There was a disheartened stir among the elders. They huddled and whispered. Finally they said to Ruben, “Brother, we can do the work, and we can buy materials for the ceiling, and the dividing walls. But we cannot afford the stucco, cement, or the doors.

Now it was time for the three of us to huddle. Ruben said that he had enough funds for salary of a nurse until the end of the year; but, of course, will need help for next year. He also thought that the Methodist schools could ‘loan’ the clinic most of the needed furniture. Dr. Mamani estimated that for $2,000 we could buy the remaining materials that are needed; and provide the simplest most basic equipment for the clinic. Ruben said the Church had $1,000 to pay toward that goal. And I said, “I’ll raise the other $1,000, somehow. . .  .”

So, that is what we told the community. The joy was overwhelming: hugs and kisses. The prayers at the end were heartbreaking; begging God to bless the work of each of the three of us.

So, there you go. The community is giving its labor and probably making the biggest financial contribution (% of income wise) of $100 to $200. The IEMB is giving $1,000 and we need to raise $1,000: A $1,000 to bring a health clinic in the next month to 1,000 people.

If you could possibly help with a donation of $20, $50, $100 or more, please go to the “Advance” website for the United Methodist ‘Advance’ for the Bolivian “Health Care Program” by clicking here. You will be able to make a tax deductable donation in which 100% of the funds will go directly to Caypayqui. Please make “In Honor of” “Caypayqui” so that we can keep the funding seperate.

(P.S. – It would be fantastic if I could talk to Ruben Teran, before I left for home on Sept. 6th, and tell him that we had the $1,000 and get that clinic open! Please consider helping.)

Thanks folks.

David

We are looking for 160 persons/couples who are willing to become “Members of the Bolivia/Oklahoma Ayllu”. (You do NOT have to live in Oklahoma to be a member.) These are persons who are willing to receive requests and will prayerfully consider making a minimum donation of $25 upon each “call”. (Of course we will gladly accept larger donations.)

There will be a maximum of 4 calls during each calendar year. And while you will have agreed to seriously and prayerfully consider this donation; you are under no obligation to give to any one particular call.

 The “Calls” to the Ayllu

The Jilakata will choose the purpose and timing for each of the (maximum) four calls each year. Each call will . . . Click for more

Our first call, sent out on March 1, 2011 is for salary support for the Methodist Medical Clinic Nurse salary support.

Can you imagine being a 20 something single woman nurse living in one of these remote villages? Maybe a couple of hundred people live in the town around you. The entire town looks to you for their health, to save their baby, their lives, when an illness hits. You HAVE to be available 24-7 because there is no one else to turn to. You have one small room, AT THE CLINIC, which is yours (except at Marquirivi where Julia doesn’t even have that – she sleeps in the patient reception room). No internet. In most places no cell phone connections. EVERYONE dependent upon you. AND NOW YOU AREN’T EVEN BEING PAID? But you CONTINUE to work and stay there? AMAZING!!!!

If we can get 160 people/couples to give $25 we will be able to pay for the salaries for all 7 Methodist Bolivian Health Clinic nurses for two months! Their salaries range from $310 down to a mere $175/mo.  (For more info on the work of these dedicated nurses CLICK HERE.

Donations go through the General Advance “Health Care Program” #08767A.

You can give directly to the General Board of Global Ministries through the internet by clicking on the Advance logo(You can give your home church credit for this donation if you choose at this website. )

If you wish, you can write the check to your home United Methodist congregation and have the church treasurer forward it to the Conference Treasurer for: Advance Special #08767A “Bolivian Health Care Program” and put ‘nurses salaries’ on the notation line. Please join us in this important cause.

For more information on the Health Clinics, CLICK HERE

Together, we can make a difference!

Rev. David R. Stephenson

Missionary-in Reverse —FROM Bolivia TO  Oklahoma

In a world where people drag a Bible to School Boards and demand that Genesis be taught as science, and people point to obscure passages in Leviticus to condemn other people’s lifestyles; such a world as this begs the question, “What does it mean to take the Bible Literally?

You see, we are worried about the wrong passages. We are worried that others around us don’t take passages literally that talk about events that happened a long time ago, or certain laws. That’s not the issue! That’s not where the spiritual battle is. 

THE question; the ultimate spiritual issue is, “How literal do you take the teachings of Jesus?” “How ‘literally’ do you allow the Gospel of Jesus Christ transform your life, your attitudes, your voting, your business life, your family life and how you spend “your” money?

God doesn’t care whether you take Genesis “literally” or not. But God does care about such things as:

• “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24
• For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
• Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
• Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
• Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
•  Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you.
• preach good news to the poor.
• proclaim freedom for the prisoners
• recovery of sight for the blind,
• to release the oppressed,
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
• When you give to the least of these my brothers, you give to me.
• Give everything you have to the poor and come and follow me.

This is where the battle over the Bible should be fought. These are the words that we should take literally.

Is the Bible a weapon to beat on people, or guide book for your life?

From One Learning to take my faith more literally, to another

David

The IEMB is going through a very difficult time right now. They are in the process of writing a new constitution for the Church. There is a definite need to make some changes from a Constitution that is quite antiquiated. However, the commission that was put together to write this constitution had 160 some members on it, with only 6 pastors! Now I’m all for Lay Empowerment, but not Lay Domination.

I spoke extensively with many different people from all sides to this new constitution. There are many good and deeply needed reforms in it. It addresses the problems of the lack of pastors, lay empowerment, the fair, equitable and non-political distribution of church funds, a more fair and equitable way to appoint pastors to different churches and locations, financial transparency, and decentralizing much of the decision making within the IEMB.

But in places it goes too far. In places its solutions to current problems are worse then the way things are being handled now. Bishops may possibly be called “Presidents”, and there will be no encouragement for him/her to be clergy. (What happens to the spiritual focus of the IEMB?) Lay pastors may be ordained without any seminary education (What happens to its Wesleyan theology?) And there are other issues.

What’s sad is that people are becoming more angry and more entrenched in their positions for or against this new constitution. And old rivalries and old personality conflicts are playing an important part in the conflict.

This is an internal conflict. And outsiders aren’t included. Most leaders of other conferences don’t have a clue how serious it is. One of the gifts for me personally was that all sides seem to include me as ‘one of them’; and wanted me to join “their side”. But both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. And no one seems to be talking to the other side. No one seems to be looking for a compromise and solution to this crisis.

There is hope. Bolivian politics follows a pattern. When their is a serious grivence with the National Government, Bolivians, as we all know, love to march and blockade and hurl epithaphs and heated exaggerated language at each other. Inevitably this escalates to the point that foreign reporters, unconnected to this history, declare that civil war is about to break out and there is no solution.

Then something happens that scares everybody: a demonstrator dies. A police officer is killed. The economy begins to fail. And then, and then finally, the two sides sit down together and talk. And surprisingly quickly, a compromise is found, and the Crisis ends.

Pastor Modesto Mamani, certainly one of the players on one side in this drama, has made an interesting suggestion: a Time of Fasting and Prayer. And he has asked us: THE OKLAHOMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE to join them. I know this is short notice. I know you may have some special meal planned for Thursday; but please find some time to pray, and possibly fast in solidarity with the IEMB.

Pray for the New Constitution. Pray that the IEMB follows God’s Will. Pray that they have the courage to change what needs to be changed; to end some of the political stuff that goes on and create a more inclusive and open church. And pray that they don’t ‘throw out the baby in the bathwater’. That they recognize the historical and special role that God has given to the ordained ministry.

Above all pray for discernement, compromise, insight, mutual understanding, inclusiveness, and negotiations.

Pray!

From One in deep Prayer for the IEMB, to another,

David

Have you ever given away something that was so meaningful to you that it helped to define who you are? I had that experience this week.

 In 1989 my father, without asking anyone else’s opinion, without getting permission, without knowing how it would be done, without even knowing if it COULD be done, announced to the people of Konani Bolivia that he would drill a potable water well in their community. It turns out there were no deep water wells in all of the Altiplano in 1989 (The first one was drilled sometime in 1992.). No Water tanks. No submersible pumps. And most importantly, no drilling rigs for water.

 Four years later, with the help of many people, with an old shallow oil well drilling unit, and with $20,000 of MY INHERITANCE J; we found water. Lots of it. Clean potable water. The second potable water well in all of the altiplano.

 It was such a big deal for our family that Dad, at age 75, took my Mom, myself and my daughter to the grand opening of the well. We flew 3,000 miles to go to a party.

 Some years later my father said it was the most important thing he had ever done in his life.

 And the Konani well has meant a lot to me. That experience is what led to the creation of Engineers In Action. Seeing what potable water could for a village in terms of children’s health, reduction of infant mortality, and even economic development changed my life. And when the opportunity arose, we started EIA to build on what we had learned at Konani.

 I visited the ole girl again this week. 17 years old and still pumping water. Not doing too bad of a job either. 40 some families linked into the main line which runs to the Methodist Health Clinic. To save money on electricity they fill it up in the morning, when everyone uses it, and then turn it off for most of the day when everyone is out working the fields. Then they turn it back on the evening.

 But the old girl is showing her age. The town has grown dramatically. Because of her, the community has felt the need to drill 3 additional wells at about the same depth, all within a mile or so. Each well covers a different part of the city, and the other three are linked to each other.

 But out old well can’t keep up with the population growth in her area. In fact, the Methodist Health Clinic hasn’t been able to receive water from the well for several years because it is all used up and there is not enough pressure by the time it gets across town to the clinic. There are waterlines nearby, but they are the town’s, not ours and the church’s.  To make things worse, the water table in that micro watershed has dropped and none of the wells are doing what they used to do.

 And now the town wants the Church and my family to turn the well over to them. While most church members don’t want to give up this icon of Methodist help to the community, it only makes sense. If all four wells are linked together, and the two water towers, most of the community can be covered by a single system, and all they will need is one good deeper (beyond the current 90 mtrs) well.

 And frankly, I don’t want to give up the well. It has meant so much to dad, to my family and to me. And yet, there is an old saying that ‘nothing reaches its full value, until you give it away.’ So this week I talked to the good Methodist folks of Konani and explained to them the logic of giving up the well. I’m suggesting that the Church and the Stephenson family give the well to the Alcade (mayor) of the Municipality under two conditions: that they get water to the Methodist Health Clinic, and that they drill a deep water well somewhere in the town.

 It was a bit painful to suggest it. It was quite painful for the Church folks to consider it. But it just makes too much sense. So I’m hoping when I return in February to turn it over to the town of Konani.

 Churches and other institutions have a tendency to hold on to things too long. They hold on to them when the need for them has long since gone away. They hold on to institutions whose needs are being filled by government agencies with far greater resources then what the Church has.

 The Church started universal education, Universities, Hospitals, Homes for the Elderly, Homes of the Mentally Disturbed, Homes for the Handicapped and on and on. The Church saw the need. The Church developed institutions which began to fill those needs, and which demonstrated to the world the need for support and working with those folks.

 And finally society caught up. They saw the need, and become willing to put a portion of the entire culture’s resources into filling those needs: Public Schools and Universities, Hospitals, etc. And when they did, they brought greater resources then what the Church had available.

 But the Church, instead of saying, “Yeah, society is taking care of that problem. Let’s move on to the next.” The Church instead desperately clutched the old Church institutions and tried to compete with the government; usually losing. Thus in Oklahoma we have Homes for Orphans, or for troubled girls who are empty and desperately looking for a purpose because, with government resources and help; there are no orphans anymore, etc.

 Well, I’ve decided that I don’t want to be like that. The Konani Water Well has done an incredible job. It has shown the impact of potable water on a community. It has inspired countless other communities to get potable water. It has faithfully served the people of Konani for 17 years. It is now time for her to join the other wells in an integrated coordinated water distribution system and become just another well like all of the rest.

 But I’ll miss talking about the “Stephenson” water well. I’ll miss stopping by and seeing how she is doing. And every now and then, when I’m on the road between Oruro and Konani, I’ll still point out her tiny water tank, that seemed so huge when we first built it; and say “it all began with her”.

 And frankly, I tear up a little thinking about that. It really is true: “You don’t know something’s true value until you give it away”.

 What do you need to give away?

                                    From One learning to Give to another,

David

Sorry I’m behind on my blogs, but a couple of days ago, Dr. Thompson and I visited the El Alto Clinic. The Head of Nursing for the Methodist Medical Clinics, the nurse at the clinic, and the District Coordinator (DS) of that area met for several hours.  We learned about the three ways to healing that the Methodist Church is implementing in all of their clinics.

“The IEMB (Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia) does not see illness as a chemical imbalance only; it is often a spiritual imbalance.” Everyone understands the truth in that. Everyone in the US gives lip service to it. Dr. Thompson said studies have suggested that 52% of the US patients who go to see a doctor are there because of psychosomatic illnesses or spiritual issues.

What is interesting about the IEMB is that they have turned that reality into a “Method(ist)ology for bringing health care to the poor.

The nurses of the IEMB do house calls. In most clinics, the nurse visits in the homes of the members of the Methodist Church and of the community in general. (But because there is only one nurse per clinic, she has to close the clinic when she makes a house call.) On these house calls, in some clinics, they are able to give vaccines to children. In all of the clinics they are not only providing care in the clinic but are carrying that care into their homes.

The nurses have been trained in both Western and traditional medicines at the Methodist Hospital in Anchoraimes.  There they receive training for a one year program to a full 5 year program of nursing training in both approaches.

As they encounter someone who is ill, they spend a significant amount of time examining the patient. With wounds and other injuries, they, of course, utilize Western medicine and use stitches and ointments and other chemical medicines from the Western culture. But particularly where the patient lives and believes in traditional medicines and indigenous values, the nurse will either combine both Western and indigenous medicines to bring healing; or in some cases use only the indigenous ones. But they don’t even stop there.

In some clinics, the nurse works closely with the local pastor. Often the nurse discerns that the illness is spiritual; and the pastor is called in. He will pray, counsel, and bless the person and his/her entire family to help deal with whatever issues they face. With high infant mortality, an average income of less than $700/year, no roads and isolation, there are a lot of issues.

This three-way approach even shows up in the equipment and furniture. At Cholquimaya, when a man or a woman comes to be examined and needs to lie down; they have three choices, first, a Western style examining table; second a bed; and third is a small pad on the floor with sheepskins or llamaskins lying on top. The llamaskin is chosen almost every time.

As we first learned of this approach in El Alto; Dr. Thompson, Surgical Specialist, Children’s Plastic Surgery specialist and retired teacher at George Washington Medical school and at Oral Roberts University Medical School, became overwhelmed with emotion. “This is the way to treat patients. I wholeheartedly agree with this approach!”

So we’ve seen the three Altiplano clinics: El Alto, Konani, and Cholquimaya. Today we begin our descent down the Andes. We will move from the Aymara region of Bolivia to the Quechua region and visit Marquirivi today, Cotani tomorrow and then visit San Julian in the Amazon jungle on Monday.

Thanks to all of you who are watching the blog. I found this approach to medicine fascinating, and hope you do to.

Forgive the pastor in me, but allow me to add one more note. St. Francis of Assisi had a very different approach in his prayers whenever he fell sick or ill. He wouldn’t pray “God please heal me”, automatically assuming it was God’s will for him to get well. Instead he prayed, “God what are you teaching me through this illness.” And he would carefully examine his life.

The next time you are ill, go to a doctor! But also, spend some time in prayer, not only praying for healing, but also praying for discernment about your life and examine what spiritual weaknesses and problems may be contributing to your illness.

From one who brings much illness upon himself, to another,

David

Today, my blog is over on the Engineers In Action website as we had a very exciting development and a connection to Spanish Doubloons, Pirates of the Caribbean, “The Mountain that Eats Men” and you. Go to http://engineersinaction.org/news

From One learning to live as a servant, to another

David