RAM Clinic

A few of us volunteered at the RAM (Remote Area Medical) Clinic today. It's a clinic where people can go to have medical/dental/vision work done for free. We left our house for a 2 hour drive to Tennessee at 4:15 am and were expecting to be there until 5pm. Thankfully, we only ended up having to be there until noon because there weren't as many people there today. The reason I say "thankfully" is that it was one of those things where there were a lot of people who were willing to volunteer, but there wasn't a lot of work for everyone to do. I ended up with Jordan (another CAP volunteer) and we made sure that all of the seats were filled with people who were waiting to have their vision checked (definitely not a 2 person job and they probably didn't need either of us there to figure out where to sit and wait). It was nice to get to talk to Jordan, though, because she lives in a different house and she seems like a great person. We were the first ones done since our jobs were finished once everyone was seated. Jordan and her housemate, Ryan, went home after they were done and I stayed to wait for the rest of my housemates.

Here's why I think I was supposed to go today, even though there wasn't much for us to do... I went to visit Jessica while she was directing people on where to go in the dental line. She said something to one of the men waiting about me being from CA and he said something about his ex-wife being from there. That somehow led to the guy across from him striking up a conversation with me. There was some small talk about teeth since he was waiting in the dental line and had some questions (I decided not to bore him with my wisdom teeth story). Then he said he had moved back from Pennsylvania to Tennessee 2 months ago because his mom was dying from cirrhosis of the liver. He told me about how she had died while he and the rest of his family were there on Wednesday. He also talked about the fact that his great-nephew was born on Thursday, so it was strange for him to witness death and life in the span of 24 hours. This kid was only 18 years old, the youngest of 9 kids, and he's a Hare Krishna. Basically, he's completely lost right now and doesn't really have anyone to take care of him. He said that he wants to travel around the U.S. and visit Hare Krishna places, but it sounded so empty and meaningless. His name is John and I told him that I would be praying for him. I really should have prayed with him there because I felt that nudge from the Holy Spirit and didn't follow through with it :(. Anyway, to those of you who read this, please pray for John that he'll find peace after his mom passing away and that he'll find hope in Jesus instead of through the Hare Krishnas.