VetMerge

~Merging the love of Christ with Veterinary Medicine~

Dear Family and friends,

It has been about 3 weeks since we returned home from our trip to Reynosa, Mexico with VetMerge. We are so grateful to God for allowing us this amazing opportunity to go to Pilar de Esperanza and serve Him together. Through this trip we are once again reminded of how blessed we are to have all of you in our lives and we wanted take this opportunity and share our trip with you.

We started our week in Reynosa with a veterinary clinic day for the local community and we were able to provide veterinary care for over 100 animals. It was a way for us to partner with the local church and provide an outreach service. Many people in the community who do not usually go to the church came that day and utilized our services.

The rest of our week was spent at the orphanage. We set up a “surgery suite” in one of the spare rooms and did surgeries in the mornings while the children were in school. In the afternoons we spent time playing with the children and got to know them better. Even though many of the children came from a background of neglect and abuse, it was very encouraging to see that through God’s grace and the work of the teachers the children are able to have a better life at the orphanage.

While Jean did surgeries with the rest of the team David got to take school pictures for all of the children. It was one of the few unexpected ways that God used David on this trip. For the children these were their first ever school pictures and through the process David got to connect with them. David was able to see how they are joyful despite their circumstances and he got to capture their smiles and personalities with his camera. In addition to taking the pictures God also used David to provide some technical support to the pastor and the teachers at the orphanage. Last but not least David also worked on their chicken coop.

In the end we truly believe that we were just as blessed by this trip as the people at Pilar de Esperanza. If God is willing we would very much like to return and do more work at Pilar in the future - and hopefully by then we will speak better Spanish! Lastly we ask that you continue to keep the people there in your prayers. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter.

Blessings,
David and Jean Cheng