From performing surgeries to staging games for children, a small medical team from Ecuador used various means to show the love of Jesus to Indonesians digging out and rebuilding after a May 27 earthquake that left 6,200 people dead.

Family practice physicians Brad* and Steve from HCJB World Radio in Quito treated up to 200 patients a day for two weeks in early June. Finding a shady spot nearby, Steve's wife, Dorothy, drew in crowds of children for games, drawing, singing and other activities.

"They were so responsive and receptive to music and to games and art," Dorothy said of the children. "We spent a lot of time just walking around and visiting some of the neighbors there."

Four-hour stretches of entertaining up to 100 kids (often with no interpreter) tested Dorothy's ability to adapt to the new culture. But she was up to the challenge. Upon running out of paper for drawing, she seized upon the idea of using pieces of wall from flattened buildings, and had her budding artists go to work on those.

"There's devastation all over the place. Buildings that have toppled over, and homes have been destroyed . . . yet a lot of smiles," Dorothy said on a mid-June afternoon as team members returned to their hotel after working near the quake's epicenter. "It's just been a wonderful day."

Brad told of a medical infrastructure that is severely challenged. "The hospitals are either overwhelmed or not functioning because of the earthquake," he added, "so they (people of the communities) have nowhere to turn with their everyday complaints."

He and Steve treated lacerations and checked healing fractures, but consulted with people on their routine health needs as well. Other quake victims weren't sleeping well, and as Indonesian interpreter Melizza said, "I'm very sad because many people lost their homes and children can't study very well." Estimates of 40,000 people injured and a million homeless have been reported.

Several communities welcomed the team from HCJB World Radio, even as the German surgeon, Eckehart, anesthesiologist Lowell and Indonesian-speaking interpreter Hildegard worked in a government hospital performing surgeries on victims of the 6.3-strength quake that shook the area.

With quake aftershocks and the nearby active volcano, Mount Merapi, at high alert, there was plenty of opportunity for feelings of fear and anxiety. Two men were killed by a Merapi-released gas cloud just days after the team visited a nearby refugee camp. One day Brad looked up from his work to see local authorities approaching his portable medical clinic. "We were very concerned about what the local people were thinking -- both from a religious and a political point of view, considering the state of the situation in the world today," he said.

"It turned out that they were very happy that we were there," he explained, summarizing the ensuing visit by a political leader, the chief of police and a military representative. "They were encouraged by what we were doing and really wanted to encourage us." One was impressed that the Ecuador team's motivations were not financial, and another mentioned that his brother is pastor of an area Christian church.

Elsewhere, a local Muslim leader insisted that physicians not pray with patients. Although Indonesia is a largely Muslim nation, 9 percent of Indonesians are Christians. The medical team worked in an area influenced by the Hindu and Buddhist religions as well.

Pleased with his team's work in the quake zone, Brad said, "It would be very hard for me to say that I have planned all of this. Really, God has brought together many resources."

Responding to an invitation from local partners, the medical team traveled from Hospital Vozandes-Quito on June 5, joined by Hildegard in Amsterdam and linking up with other interpreters and Lowell upon arriving in Indonesia. They worked with local partners, serving jointly at times with a U.S.-based Christian family practice residency program.

"I'm enchanted by the beauty of the country -- the rice paddies, the rolling hills, blue skies, wonderful food and best of all the people," said Dorothy. "We were amazed to see the people working happily at the early tasks of rebuilding -- salvaging roof tiles, cleaning bricks and clearing debris," Steve added.

Steve compared the Indonesia trip with his work among quake victims last November in Pakistan where people, numbed by loss and trauma, waited for others to spearhead rebuilding efforts. He attributes their apparent paralysis of will and spirit to the fact they were displaced. "In Indonesia while their homes were destroyed, they didn't have to move," he explained. "They could stay close by and get to the task of preparing for the future."

Eckehart agreed, saying, "They're all looking to the future. They're reconstructing. They're busy all over. It's incredible."

* Last names omitted for security reasons.

Source: HCJB World Radio