Dr. Brittany and Nurse Marvin

Yesterday was our first day for day camp in Kona, and wow, saying that it was just "eventful" would be an extremely sad understatement.  We started the day at the Corps teaching the kids the memory verse for the week and a little lesson about Jesus healing the paraplegic man (I encourage you to read it if you have not done so yet, it's found in all the Gospels). After about five or so camp songs it was off to the beach. 

Now, Kona is full of wonderful sandy beaches but, this one particular beach was well.....lets start with the kids having a joyful time in the ocean, playing and prancing like little happy children do. All of the chaperones, including I, were watching the kids playing when one child in particular grabs Marvin's attention with a quiet sob "Mr. Marvin?" (Marvin is one of the young adults at the Kona Corps who is helping us for our 2 weeks here in Kona) Immediately, not knowing how to react, Marvin yells my name. I immediately look to Marvin in shock wondering why he yelped my name. I inspected the crimson water that was ebbing to shore and realized it was coming from one of my kids, that the other children call "Loco". Steven and I rushed to our child's aid and swept him off of the sand to get him out of the water that could potentially do more harm to the deep gash in his toe. Without hesitation Steven offers his towel to stop the bleeding heroically. The blood was all over his leg and staining the sand. Steven went back to patrol the waters while Marvin decided to assist me. Once again Loco was swept up, but this time onto Marvin's back while I remained applying pressure on his toe to hopefully assist to stop the bleeding by forming a clot. Major Flo guided us to her van that was parked about maybe 20 feet away. Marvin had his slippers protecting his feet from the harsh sharp rocks, but I remained barefooted, too consumed over my concern of Loco. We got to the van where Major presented us with the first aid kid which we instantaneously inspected for gauze and ointment for his toe. 

We realized the cut was deeper than we expected. Loco's whole toe was sliced from tip to joint at the bottom of his foot. I applied water to get the sand out and out came the wails of pain from this poor child's mouth, it sent chills up my spine. Marvin quickly searched for the gauze and ointment which he found momentarily and handed them to me. I applied the ointment and gauze to wipe up any remaining blood that was lingering on his toe. Marvin started preparing the gauze to wrap up the wound, as no band-aid would suffice for such an epic cut. We bandaged him up and took him back to the were the kids and the rest of the chaperones were waiting for us. As soon as we got back after the 20 feet of stepping over the sharp rocks and glass we were greeted with yet another wounded child. This continued on for perhaps half an hour or so with more and more children getting cuts left and right. The children started asking Marvin and I if we were doctors, which we replied with "no." One of the children believed to have Vana (sea-urchin) stuck in his foot. This came out to be false as it was just a measly piece of sand that was stuck in his cut. This gave me great relief because the only way of extracting Vana is to expel urine or anything as acidic as urine onto the wound. 

To end such a long day, we realized God was with us, giving us patience and his healing touch to help these young children. I learned that if you are not first-aid certified, that there IS a problem. The situation also taught us to keep a level mind and to not over exaggerate the problem at hand. We as a Service Corps did not come without wounds. Christian ended the day with three cuts on his feet to which Marvin had to tend to without gloves, because there weren't any left,  and he found himself with both of his feet wrapped up in gauze and tape. Hopefully the rest of our time with the kids in Kona will be AS eventful, but not in the same way. Tomorrow we are bringing the kids to Higashihara park and we will see what kind of unexpected curve balls life will bring us. Praising the LORD in everything we DO!

We love being SERVANTS for JESUS!