When Noah Lomax was a young boy, one of his favorite jobs was to organize his father’s surgical instruments before he would drive to the office and have those instruments sterilized to begin his day’s work. Noah respected Eric Lomax and his vocation, but never envisioned a setting in which he would one day work alongside him in the operating room.
Noah joined his father, mother Debbie (a nurse), and others during a medical missions trip to the Dominican Republic Oct. 10-18. The surgical team performed 37 operations for impoverished people in the San Juan area, near the Haiti border.
“By Tuesday, our nurses were just exhausted,” said Lomax, Director of Student Activities for the college and a student at Maranatha Baptist Seminary. “I volunteered myself, and they allowed me to scrub in and assist my dad with the surgery.
“We operated on a 70-year-old man and removed a 40-pound tumor off his leg. I understand he’s doing great now. It was a great experience. Working alongside my dad was something I had thought about all the time growing up.”
In addition to the surgical team, there was also a physical therapy team, a chiropractic team, a respiratory team, a construction team, and a child evangelism team.
The physical therapy team saw 76 patients and taught 30 students. The chiropractic team saw 120 patients. The respiratory team taught 80 students. The construction team laid 750 cinder blocks for a church and painted walls for a Christian school. The child evangelism team taught more than 200 children, and 69 children and adults accepted Christ as savior.
“We went into the neighborhoods, taught the kids a song, played games with them, and gave them the gospel through the Wordless Book,” Lomax said.
Noah Lomax was also able to visit Andy, a child the Lomax family sponsors to allow him to attend Christian school.
“This trip taught me a lot,” Lomax said. “It challenged me about my prayer life. But, more than that, I came back with a more grateful spirit for what I have and a greater burden for those who don’t know about Christ.”
--Posted Nov. 5, 2009