Real Life. Real Hope. Real Love.

This morning, I took a break from worrying about Portland’s Charter, to accompany a group of Wilson High School students to Northwest Medical Team‘s exhibit, Real. Life.

NW Medical Teams was founded by Ron and Jean Post of Salem, Oregon, more than 25 years ago, to help with the Cambodian refugee crisis. Ron Post is a businessman, not a doctor or nurse. The organization now sends almost 200 volunteer teams to more than 35 countries every year, and has shipped almost $1 billion in medical supplies to people in desperate need of them. They also act locally – for example, NW Medical Teams has 10 vans offering mobile dental services to 17,000 residents of Oregon and Washington annually, and distributed over $1m in health and hygiene supplies to over 50 service organizations right here in the Portland area last year.

The Real Life exhibit, located at their headquarters just off I-5 in Tigard, is a series of rooms dedicated to eight disaster areas: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2004 tsunami, child armies in Uganda, refugees in Kosovo, the continuing worldwide AIDs epidemic, life in Mexico City’s garbage dumps, orphanages in Romania, and burn patients in Moldova.

Wow. Talk about a reality check.

Did you know/remember:

* 9.7 million people were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with 80% of New Orleans under water. One million were made homeless, and more than 1,300 people died. It was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Estimated recovery cost: at least $200 billion.

* In Indonesia, the tsunami waves were 75- 90 feet high. In just 7 hours, 230,000 people were killed and 1.8 million people left homeless in 12 countries. NW Medical Teams (NWMT) still has workers helping communities rebuild and recover. Of approximately 10,000 children orphaned by the disaster, all but 60 were adopted by family or friends in their local communities

* In tent cities in Kosovo, there are two toilets for 2,800 people.

* More than 300,000 children around the world are serving in guerilla armies. In the past 10 years, 2 million child soldiers have been killed. Children are given drugs to combat their fears, and are shot by their commanders if they try to escape. In Uganda, captured children are forced to kill the rest of the villagers. “They made us kill our friends,” wrote one child in therapy with NWMT volunteers. In this part of the exhibit, there is a place for viewers to write notes on index cards, to the children depicted. “I just realized how good my life is”, wrote one in youthful handwriting.

* The greatest natural disaster of our generation is the AIDS epidemic, which has killed 30 million people so far. Although the cheapest medications to counter it cost less than $1 a day, people make less than $1 a day in many countries where it is most prevalent.

*Only half the children living in Mexico City’s dumps make it to their 5th birthday. Northwest Medical Teams built a permanent service center there, where families can shower, eat, receive medical attention, and attend school and Bible classes.

* In 2004, Americans spent $61 billion on purchasing carbonated beverages. In that year, only $4.6 billion was given to the US Agency for International Development.

Each area of the exhibit gives information about the horrors, then news of NW Medical Teams’ interventions for relief, recovery, and redevelopment. I strongly urge you to visit the web site and make an appointment to visit the deeply moving Real Life presentation, or attend one of the upcoming Open Houses.

Our guide today decribed the mission as “unabashedly Christian”. Their web site states, “We address the health and wellness of the whole person—a physical, social, mental and spiritual being living in relationship with God, other people and the whole of creation. We serve everyone in need, regardless of race, creed or gender, conducting ourselves with sensitivity and respect when working with people of other faiths.” I think it’s important to recognize that there are many Christians who quietly go about tending the sick, feeding the hungry, and housing the homeless, in contrast to those more frequently in the news whose interpretation of “Love thine enemies” seems to be “and kill them”.

NW Medical Teams is changing its name to Medical Teams International on February 20. While acknowledging the support of donors and volunteers in the Pacific Northwest, their board believes changing the name will help more people understand and participate in their work. As our host pointed out this morning, “when you’re in Uganda and you say you’re with Northwest Medical Teams, people wonder ‘Northwest of what?’“

In many ways, it doesn’t matter, Northwest of what? Real life, real hope, real love, has no boundaries. Go see the exhibit. It helped me put Portland’s problems in perspective, and ended with these words: