“Straight up — we need you. Like the summer needs the rain. Like lobster needs butter. Like Nicaraguans need rice and beans. We need you.”
That was the pleading message missionary Traci Warner received from a fellow missionary in Nicaragua asking her to help with a medical clinic in the remote village of Pueblo Nuevo.
All travel to and from this hard-to-access region is by boat. And for Traci, the journey would include a rough 11-hour bus ride on a dirt and rock road, followed by a two-hour boat trip across a lake and up a river to the secluded village.
After considerable thought and prayer, Traci finally agreed to join a team of Nicaraguan medical professionals and a small group from Tennessee and Alabama on the trip.
For four nights, Traci and the team slept under mosquito nets on blow-up mattresses on the floor of a school classroom. They bucket-showered behind a black plastic curtain supported by four poles in the ground. But their sacrifices were worth it.
“I want to offer something more than just the physical healing. I want to share the love of Christ. I want to tell them how they can truly be healed.”
Every morning, they were inundated with lines of people who had traveled up to eight hours on foot, by boat and by horse in hopes of being seen at the medical clinic.
“As a nurse practitioner, I love meeting the physical needs of the people of Nicaragua. Jesus met physical needs,” said Traci. “But even with the best medical care, the reality is that 100 percent of my patients will die. Therefore, as Jesus did, I want to offer something more than just the physical healing. I want to share the love of Christ. I want to tell them how they can truly be healed.”