It's a team thing

This visit is of course primarily about the current and future work of the CHO team and yes, it is also partly about our supporting role as a 'Connected Church' team from BRBC.  Through the months of preparation though I have found myself questioning whether my own individual 'professional' contribution was to be as relevant this time around as it seemed to have been when I was part of the first BRBC team which visited in 2011.  But, as is so often the case with God's plans, it became clear 'at the right time'.  While our team were making final preparations to travel I learned that a UK GP (Andy) and his physiotherapist wife (Katie) were already here with CHO in Poipet working on a large and long term project identifying the major non-communicable (non-infectious) health concerns in this region, and drawing together strategic tools for CHO equipped staff to identify and set about reducing them, thereby minimising suffering for individuals (for sure) but also saving HUGE capital sums by removing the need for later very costly treatment for completely preventable health issues which could have been avoided or significantly reduced.  They completely lacked the oral health knowledge necessary to support many aspects of this work (e.g. screening and basic advice regarding smoking cessation, substance abuse, cancer detection, HIV support, diabetes issues etc)  and it is this which has become my own particular task integrating into that 'health project team' and is a project which we can all continue to support and update remotely after our return home.  In terms of healthcare this is where my heart has always been i.e.  prevention is always better than cure, though 'cure' of course will always have its place.

I now see how my place in this visit was not only destined to help facilitate the 2014 BRBC team, nor was it only to reinforce work I had done before in terms of equipping local teachers to share preventive oral health advice with local families.  It was part of His wider plan for something much more strategic and long lasting as a small but essential team player in a bigger team and my faith in the 'team manager' has been reinforced yet again.

Sue