We hope you enjoy the second guest blog from our friends at Hispaniola Mountain Ministries. Their work and dedication to the people of Haiti is incomparable.  This pieces is authored by Patrick Singley, DMD, an active member of the HMM Board of Directors who travels with HMM frequently to Haiti and most recently to Santa Elena, Dominican Republic.  ~Michael and Frida Donner

Healing bodies and saving souls have been at the core of medical and dental missions since ancient times. Even as early as the 1800s, Americans traveled around the world trying to help others through providing medical and dental care. However, mission work has always had its limits. Whether it has been treating patients in under-served areas or teaching locals how to administer care for themselves, there has always been a point when mission teams depart and the people of those areas are left to care for themselves.

As someone who has participated in a number of medical and dental missions over the past 10 years, I can relate to the bittersweet feelings mission workers often have when they leave a site. While we are proud of the work we have done, there is always the feeling when leaving of, “I wish we could have done more.”
With that in mind, Hispaniola Mountain Ministries has a new approach to its medical outreach in under-served areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Intentional relationships and sustainable care would define our trip in March to the mountain community of Santa Elena, Dominican Republic. We set our goals going into this trip not worrying about the number of patients we treated, but instead focused on comprehensive quality care along with praying every step of the way.

For me, what set this experience apart from most of the medical missions I’ve been involved with previously was the “Backpack EMR” (electronic medical record software) used to document patient needs, care, medications and prayer requests. The software, designed by Sending70, allows for long-term care of conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, prenatal care and other conditions as well as surgical needs. We also used the prayer request section, which uploaded daily to a website so members of our community in the U.S. could pray for individual prayer requests for the Santa Elena community. We were also able to do a video consult with an orthopedic surgeon back at home pertaining to a 1-year-old child with muscular issues not keeping him from walking. The video was sent to staff at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and since returning home, the patient has been fitted for a pair of orthopedic shoes and given a regimen of physical therapy exercises to help him begin to walk normally.

One common occurrence with medical and dental missions is that we always go into the experience thinking we are going to help others; yet the people we meet and our experiences typically give us more in return. The way I saw the medical missions conducted with Hispaniola Mountain Ministries gave me a glimpse of hope to humbly give those patients back as much as they give us. Essentially, using today’s technology to bridge the gap from short-term care to long-term care, we can bring the quality of care we try to provide at home to those who have never had access to medical or dental care before. Whether it is building water wells, conducting pastor training sessions or preserving the health of the local people, it is clear to see God is using His people to minister to the people of Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Patrick Singley, DMD