La Clinica St. Andrews

Posted by Sharon Bahr on April 19, 2008

They smile through their weariness, their despair and their pain. Their eyes sparkle with hope and gratitude, despite their disabilities.

Patients wait outside St. Andrews
Photo by Sharon Bahr
This is St. Andrew's Children's Clinic.

There are no divisions here, no boundaries of color, race, or religion. There are no politics to separate the masses. There is only love, compassion and hope.

Many at St. Andrew's agree that everyone - whether they are doctors, nurses, volunteers, cooks, or drivers - are equals in the effort to help one another. They all have one goal: to help the children.



On the first Thursday of every month, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church transforms into St. Andrew's Children's Clinic. Hundreds of disabled children and their families arrive with the hope of receiving medical attention that is not available for them in Mexico.

Without this medical help, many of the children would otherwise be doomed as outcasts, permanently ostracized with no hope of leading an ordinary life.
Photo by Sharon Bahr
Alverita Egbert, R.N., makes her way into the clinic in the early morning. She is a pediatrics nurse in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and every month for the last 17 years, she has driven to the clinic, in Nogales, Ariz.

What makes her go the distance?

“Just a hug from the kids,” says Egbert. “They have so many problems and they’re so appreciative.”

Everyone at the clinic shares the same sentiment. It is nearly impossible to walk through, see the children and their families, hear their stories, and not leave without a tear in your eye or a lump in your throat.
'Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you' - Matthew 7:7. One of the many beautiful
stained glass windows at St. Andrews Episcopal Church
Photo by Sharon Bahr





For the doctors, staff, and the 250 volunteers, the joy they receive from the kids far outweighs the gifts of medical care, time and talents that they give to the patients.

“They’re all so grateful. It brings tears to your eyes from some of the stuff you see here,” said volunteer Cecelia Laborin. “A lot of them leave in the middle of the night and travel all night long to get here.”

Maybe because it’s a place of refuge, or maybe it because it symbolizes hope after a long journey- a place of rest and renewal, or maybe because it feeds the spirit, as well as the body, that this humble church on the hill seems so fitting a place to help so many.


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