Mission Medical - Wash Hands

July 18, 2013

Sometimes Michael stays at the villa while he is reading letters from the missionaries.  Every Wednesday the missionaries are required to send him an e-mail and tell him how their week has gone, what they have accomplished, and if there is anything else he should know.  He gets at least 175 of those letters each week.

While he reads letters, I spend the day taking phone calls from missionaries who have are having health problems.  If I don't know the answer to their questions, I call the medical doctor in Germany who is assigned to our area and he answers my questions.  If it is serious problem, he calls the missionary and talks to them personally.  The church is very concerned about the health of it's missionaries.  I am constantly amazed at the resources we have available to make certain they are safe and healthy.  Each time I get a phone call from a missionary with a medical concern, I enter it into a log on my computer.  The doctor can immediately read what I have written.  The program is set up in such a way that if we are having several problems of the same sort, they know about it and can help us find a way to alleviate the source.  This week the main concern has been pink eye.  It is so hot outside and with the heat, bacteria spreads rapidly.  If a missionary touches a doorknob or something else that a contaminated hand has touched, the contamination spreads quickly.  It's important for the missionaries to wash their hands frequently.

Before we ever came to Italy, Michael kept having these feelings that we needed to tell the missionaries to wash their hands.  Three weeks into the mission and already that revelation is valid.