Mission opportunity

Dr Cindy Hoover, our colleague serving in Mexico, is looking for health care workers who might be willing to help with a project.

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Saludos a todos.

I’d like to let you know about an opportunity for health care professionals to serve their brothers and sisters who pastor in Covenant Churches in Mexico. The Covenant Mission staff in Mexico is organizing a retreat for pastors and spouses for a time of renewal and refreshment. There will be speakers and seminars and fellowship time. Along with this, following the example of what is provided by the Evangelical Covenant Church to its pastors and missionaries during Midwinter Conference, we are organizing a health screening component. The president of the Covenant Church in Mexico is a physician and we are organizing this with him and will be working under his license. We are basically hoping to do basic screening including height, weight, BMI calculation, vision and hearing screening, and physical exams. We are also determining if we will do spot anemia and glucose screening on site or if we will be able to draw blood and send to a local lab for basic screening tests. We hope to also have donated reading glasses to fit and give away. It is expected that there will be 80 to 90 Mexican pastors and spouses participating in this retreat. We are therefore looking for physicians who are comfortable doing good screening exams on adults (including prostate exam on men and breast exam on women), as well as other health professionals to help with the other screening procedures.

This retreat is being held at Metepec, a government sponsored vacation center outside of Puebla, Mexico. The dates of the retreat are Thursday, May 3 through Sunday, May 6. Health workers would fly into Mexico City on Tuesday, May 1 and then go by bus to Puebla, then by mission vehicle to Metepec. This allows a day for organizing and setting up before the pastors and spouses arrive. Since the retreat doesn't end till mid-day Sunday, return to the US would probably be on Monday. Of course, touring around Mexico City and Puebla before or after could be arranged. The exact cost of room, board, local transportation, and project costs is not fully determined yet, but should be around US$55 ­ 60/day. This does not include flights to Mexico City.

Because of government regulations and because we are seeking to build capacity of the existing health care infrastructure, we will be working together with the Mexican system to determine which medicines from their formulary are appropriate to use, and we will be referring back into the Mexican health system for follow up and further treatment. It is not legal to bring medicines into Mexico.

If you’d like more information or would like to chat about this, please email me at: cjhoover@prodigy.net.mx and copy it also to cjhooverlawson@yahoo.com. I will be in Florida till at least the middle of March and can be reached at 954-974-1452 (home) or 954-270-0361 (cell).

I look forward to hearing from those interested in serving the global church in this way. Whether you can participate in Mexico or not, I would also ask your prayers for God’s blessing on this event.

Bendiciones.
Cindy Hoover
aka Oaxacadoc